Best track on Obscured By Clouds

Two words, thorin: Barrett Fan.

Okay, I have been wrestling with this idea ever since rediscovering OBC to write up a non-musician's perspective of the album. I can only review any music from the position of listener. My partner, a musician, wastes much time analysing and criticising music from a musician's standpoint and, I feel, misses a lot of the sense and feeling the music is able to convey.

So with that, my first foray (all of course, IMHO):

Obscured By Clouds / When you're in

I've again combined the first two instrumental tracks for reasons already stated, but they are both very respectable openers for this SOUNDTRACK album, a fact often misinterpreted when considering OBC amongst the rest of the Pink Floyd catalogue.

Perhaps, if anyone has bought MORE previously and didn't much care for it at first (Radiochair ), they might not have risked getting OBC for fear of repeat disappointment. What gems they would have deprived themselves of.

These two instrumentals are suitably "Floydian", containing enough of their trademark talents - Roger's lumbering plodding bass, Nick's inventive and crisp percussion, Rick's ethereal organs and piano, and must I mention Davids guitar?: wailing and plaintive one minute, raucous and decidely heavy metal the next - to be both instantly familiar and yet refreshingly different from their earlier "experimental" and psychedelic fare.

I think I'll search for La Valleé because I am sure the music would make this film enjoyable...unlike reviews of More which thus far advise me to run, screaming pulling out my hair, from any idea of seeing it, let alone owning a copy.

The CD booklet contains a brief description of the film heroine's goals and motivations and should be remembered when listening to the music, but especially the pertinent lyrics:

For those without this album, the sleeve note summary follows:

…Viviane enjoys a comfortable life as the wife of a French consul until she visits New Guinea in search of curiosities for her Paris boutique
…There she meets Olivier and is tempted to join his expedition to the interior, lured by the prospect of rare feathers found only in such remote areas
…Led by Gaëten they travel in search of a secret valley, marked simply ‘obscured by clouds’ on the map, that is held in reverential esteem by the local people as the home of their Gods
…The journey is long and arduous – only Gaëten’s mystical obsession with the valley keeps them pushing on through increasingly hostile conditions
…Along the way, they encounter the mudmen and are invited to join a Papuan ceremony
…Eventually Viviane’s ‘civilised’ persona is shed little by little with each new experience until there can be no going back…

Enchanting premise.

I'm surprised no one voted for nor has mentioned "Free Four". It was one of my top considerations for best of album. It's a catchy little ditty that keeps going thru my head. Besides, lyrically it had great significance because it is Rog's first mention of dead dad. It foreshadows DSOTM, The Wall and TFC with a theme of ageing and death, with lines like..... "You are the Angel of Death, and I am the dead man's son. And he died like a mole in a foxhole, and everyone is still on the run......who calls the tune in the courtroom? .......who beats the funeral drum?".......any of this sound familiar?

oh yeah. that was interesting.

Yeah...but I always thought the creepiest bit of foreshadowing on the album is where he predicted his own coming "breakdown" regarding stardom...and the breakup of the Floyd. WHY didn't he listen to his own warnings and get out before doing so much damage?

"So all aboard for the American tour
And maybe you'll make it to the top
But mind how you go, and I can tell you 'cos I know
You may find it hard to get off."

Portentious indeed, but like the rest of us, he may have been much too close to the problem - himself being part of the problem - to do much about it.

Good observation, FW. I never thought of it quite that way before. I looked at those lines like a warning from Roger to the others that if they "make it to the top", CBS would own/control their lives, ala "Have A Cigar".

We wouldn't have had The Final Cut, which is one of your favorites.

He shoots... he SCORES!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps not. But I can't help wondering. Something even greater could've happened...who knows?

But I still find it the darkest irony of all that "Free Four" had portents of what occurred starting with the very next album. Maybe he WAS too close to the problem--but apparently he wasn't so close that he couldn't see it at all.

I think we're giving Roger too much credit for being a Prophet. After all, he's just a songwriter.

Anyway, Free Four is a great song, and I hope someone votes for it before this thread expires.

"Prophet" is not a word I would have used on him.

Perceptive and intelligent WOULD be. But he also ignored his intuition on this matter. Seems to me that his writing is a form of self-exploration. Too bad he didn't pay attention to the fact that stardom would cause so much discomfort.

Well, I would guess we fans are the better off because Roger failed to heed his intuition. Had he walked away from the others at that time, DSOTM would likely have sounded like Pros & Cons and probably sold all of 150,000 copies. WYWH, Animals, The Wall; All unknown except to hardcore fans. But, he surely would have avoided the sufferings of stardom.....just my Opinion, of course.

What kind of band would floyd be if Waters quit in '72? None of you would be on this forum right now. What damage?? You mean Darkside of the moon, wywh and the Wall? Yeah, he really caused alot of damage masterminding the floyds classics.


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And when the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the darkside of the moon

...now that is prophetic.

I've got a great idea , why don't we just proclaim Roger Waters to be the undisputed ruler of the Universe ??

that would make his dreams come true. but only if dave would be his slave.