Relatively new Steemian @slobberchops and I have bonded over a love of music that might be labelled 'alternative', especially progressive rock, AKA prog. He recently reviewed the [latest Steven Wilson album](/music/@slobberchops/alternative-album-review-steven-wilson-to-the-bone-e21a055fff196est) in detail under the #AlternativeReview tag. I've got a few albums I could review and I thought I'd start with an old one.

![CD](https://img.esteem.ws/3y6bv6kwjh.png)

The early 1970s were a very experimental time in music. The Beatles had done some 'way out' work on their later albums and various other psychedelic bands had sprung up. Pink Floyd were part of this. Founder member Syd Barrett's drug issues had driven him away from the band. Guitarist David Gilmour brought in some new sounds such as pedal steel guitar and bassist Roger Waters took over a lot of the lyric writing. This album was recorded between tours with no main concept. The songs emerged from experiments in the studio using state of the art 16 track tapes.

You tend to hear much more about albums like Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, but I think this is a real gem. Some of the information here was extracted from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meddle). I'm not going to give scores for the songs as it's all a matter of personal taste. See if you like it.

# One of These Days

This opens very quietly with just the sound of the wind before the driving bass line builds with lots of delay. There are actually two bass guitars being used. It's an instrumental piece and sounds like it may have been initially improvised. There's some early synthesiser using an EMS VCS3 and Nick Mason's voice is distorted to shout a single line "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces".

![VCS3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/EMS_VCS_3.jpg)
Image from Wikimedia

https://youtu.be/48PJGVf4xqk

# A Pillow of Winds

The previous track goes back to the sound of wind and smoothly segues into this very different acoustic song with some slide guitar. Real chill-out music. Gilmour's voice is sounding good on this. I'm not such a fan of his solo work and I think his best was in collaboration with Waters. He may disagree :) 

https://youtu.be/uThZ1uuLLWM

# Fearless

This is more of a regular rock band song, but with the addition of recordings of Liverpool FC fans singing You'll Never Walk Alone. Lots of interesting guitar lines going on that may include some open tunings and more slide or pedal steel. Some very tasteful drumming.

https://youtu.be/t3J_2R9rAp8

# San Tropez

This is more of a Roger Waters solo effort as he wrote it alone and sings it with the band backing him.  Another tasteful slide solo from Gilmour. He was obviously having fun with that style at the time. Also has a piano solo from Richard Wright. It's a slightly jazzy song with solid 4/4 chords going through it.

https://youtu.be/Cv5uuhkS4j8

# Seamus

Another change of pace with some country blues. It features a dog belonging to Steve Marriott howling through it. It seems a lot of people don't like this song as it's considered a bit of a joke, but I've always liked it. At least it's short.

https://youtu.be/k3u5E8XKPjg

# Echoes

And so we come to the epic that took up all of side 2. It starts with a piano processed through a rotating Leslie speaker. I'm using the video from the live performance at Pompeii. Note that this is not the whole song. I notice the 'pings' are using a different note. This is one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs. It's long without being too indulgent (in my opinion). It does show off the young Gilmour's guitar skills.He had mastered bending notes already. I love the Hammond organ too. I'm sure this song has been a big influence on other prog bands. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmlZLnkF0aU

I've enjoyed re-visiting this album. I listened to it a lot in the past, but I'm not finding as much time for just listening to music these days. I'm sure many a joint has been smoked by others to this album. I can get high on just the music.

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