Obscured by Clouds
Pink Floyd, 1972

Discuss · Lyrics · Tablature · Discover · Reviews & Purchase Release date: June 3rd, 1972
Recorded at: Chateau d'Herouville, France (February 23 - 29, 1972)
Like "More" three years earlier,
Obscured By Clouds was a
Barbet Schroeder's film soundtrack which saw the group eschewing their usual approach.
Gilmour's grinding "Childhood's End" and Waters' deliciously cynical "Free Four" are worthy of real attention.
The cover of Obscured By Clouds was designed by
Hipgnosis and pictures an out-of-focus film still of a man in a tree.
Nick Mason: "After the success of More, we had agreed to do another sound track for Barbet Schroeder. His new film was called La Vallée and we travelled over to France to record the music in the last week of February... We did the recording with the same method we had employed for More, following a rough cut of the film, using stopwatches for specific cues and creating interlinking musical moods that would be cross-faded to suit the final version... The recording time was extremely tight. We only had two weeks to record the soundtrack with a short amount of time afterwards to turn it into an album." (from
Inside Out: A personal History of Pink Floyd)
Obscured by Clouds was the first Pink Floyd album to feature the
VCS 3 synthesiser.
Tracks:- Obscured by Clouds (Waters, Gilmour)
- [03:05] Instrumental.
- When You're In (Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Mason)
- [02:23] Instrumental.
- Burning Bridges (Wright, Waters)
- [03:24] Vocals by Gilmour and Wright.
- The Gold It's In The ... (Waters, Gilmour)
- [03:03] Vocals by Gilmour.
- Wot's... Uh The Deal (Waters, Gilmour)
- [05:05] Vocals by Gilmour (and maybe Wright).
- Mudmen (Wright, Gilmour)
- [04:17] Instrumental.
- Childhood's End (Gilmour)
- [04:30] Vocals by Gilmour.
- Free Four (Waters)
- [04:11] Vocals by Waters.
- Stay (Wright, Waters)
- [04:02] Vocals by Wright and Waters.
- Absolutely Curtains (Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Mason)
- [05:51] Instrumental (Movie-sounds).
Total Playing Time: 40'30
Musicians Featured:- David Gilmour: Vocals, Guitars
- Nick Mason: Drums
- Roger Waters: Bass Guitar, Vocals
- Rick Wright: Keyboards, Vocals
Obscured by Clouds catalog numbers:- LP: Harvest SHSP 4020
- CD: EMI CDP 7 46385 2