Meaning behind ECHOES?

greetings all. i've been coming to this site since 99 but i never registered. now i did... ANYWAYS.

one of my fav songs by the all mighty Pink Floyd is Echoes.
i've always tried to understand the meaning behind all their songs. BUT i cant seem to understand Echoes. i know it has something to do with the ocean..... but thats all i can come up with... what do u think?!

by the way i play bass in a band and i'm following roger waters (who i met when he came to perform here in Lebanon back in April) style.... i'm writing the lyrics and i'm also on vocals. anyways enough boring u guys.

C ya!

I think the song is about life.

Bride of a Bull should be here soon to give you the official welcome.

First of all: welcome!

Agree with sarah goode. Echoes is mainly a song about the beautiful details of a life which we don't even notice sometimes.

No need for my welcome, and hardly official, since both yours fit the bill quite nicely.

And as Dr_Floydian said, he's/she's been visiting this site since 1999, so knows well enough how things work.

anyway.

Oh yeah, The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia says about Echoes:

About origin, self, and identity.

wow.... i already feel like i'm home!

i got to get my hands on that Pink Floyd Encylopeadia...

well i can understand that the song has something to do with identity... but what about all the refrences to the sea? (coral caves, albattrosses, sumbarine, green, rolling waves)

if i combine the idea of identity and the sea... we get this:

it's something (i dunno... a creature or whatever, just work with me here) thats trapped underwater... and tries to break out... u know... like no one showed it to the land (never got out of the ocean?) no one knows the wheres or whys (again "it" never got out) but they try to get out... by starting to climb (swim?) towards the light....

ok this is pretty deep but is there a connection?!

Yeah, how about the point at which our marine ancestors decided, enough with the bloody sharks and other assorted predators - but mainly the sharks - let's get onto some dry ground and try out this air breathing malarky.

Lungfish.

I just always thought it was about a dream. The "jamming" part is the nice part of the dream and then the part with all those squealing guitars is the nightmarish part, and then he wakes up with the last verse.

But I'm just an idiot. Isn't that a funny little smiley? It has nothing to do with anything... But look at 'im go!

Hello, and welcome just from the south of you (Lancaster--hmm one from Lanc, Leb and York, quite odd). But anyway, I always thought the lyrics meant nothing, just something to add to the music, but not really making sense.

Return to the sun of NOTHING?

It's about evolution and meaning of life. The first verse is about past, origin of humans. The second is about present and the third verse is about future, when mankind finds out the the meaning of life. Best lyrics ever

this reply goes to Not Now John. well i'm not from Lebanon, PA...
i'm from Lebanon ... the country above israel. i'm from the Middle east... that means i'm arab.

Well now, that's not necessarily true is it, Dr_Floydian?

My apologies.

The original/early lyrics for "Echoes" were pretty different than the final version, and might clarify things a bit. Here are a few versions of it:Things in between {} are pretty garbled in the original recordings...