What does 'Echoes' mean to you? interpretations?

Botley · #46 06-08-2005, 12:37 PM

Repetitive, sure, but the parts that are repeated are good. Repetition is the essence of pop music anyway. The middle bit is most certainly not useless, it serves its purpose and can sound really awesome in the right hands. Attempts to muck with this song (ie the 16-minute edited version) end up being disastrous, so there must be something RIGHT about the way it's arranged.

Sydney · #47 06-12-2005, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elerion

Certainly one of Floyd's most misterious songs....also one of the greatest!!!

It seems that there are a lot of interpretations, most of them quite impressive and good...
Mine's altough may not be as complex, but still, here it is

I think it describes a place, as someone said a beach, maybe on the Pacific Ocean(because of the Corals ), but a place far away from civilization And I don't know why, but I don't "see" a paradisean(is it a word??if not, it is now:P) beach, but a place where moutains joins the sea, and it is very cloudy, and yet not raining, like maybe some european beaches around Scotland or so...wth white sand, blue sea, not so warm climate maybe and of course it is at dawn or dusk, depends on what part of the planet it is...(in fact, when I go on holidays to som beach near Buenos Aires, i always listen to echoes looking at Dusk...just beautiful...maybe the most beautiful Floyd experience.
Another good place for this song is Pompeii...just fits very nice in the concert...

and it is also about going to that place with your lover, maybe some stranger pasing in the street, where "we" (me and my lover<---wish I had one

) cn be quite that no one will ever ask us to do anything, so that we can just be in that isolated and yet beautiful place doing nothing but "loving"....

It is something maybe not so out of the blue, since Waters did "create" another isolated place where you can go to get rid off the every-day life's madness...(of course I mean The Dark Side of The Moon).

Well, just my point of view, not the best, hope not the worst...

Shine On To All of You!

You know, that post right there has prompted me to add Argentina to my Central/South America tour.. nice one

cheers

Josh Coleman · #48 06-13-2005, 09:04 AM

I agree with different pieces and points that each person has made, but I still don't think any one person nailed it.

I know I can't though, 'Echoes' could and does mean so much. I don't think anyone aside from the original members of Pink Floyd can truly know exactly what it means.

Musically however, before the second string of verses when the guitar really gets into it again has to be the single most uplifting and building moment in a song ever. Every single time I am pumped. I used to be a wrestler (Olympic, not professional =P) and I would listen to it before a match.

Sydney · #49 06-17-2005, 06:31 AM

[QUOTE=Josh Coleman]I agree with different pieces and points that each person has made, but I still don't think any one person nailed it.

I know I can't though, 'Echoes' could and does mean so much. I don't think anyone aside from the original members of Pink Floyd can truly know exactly what it means.
[QUOTE]

I don't wanna sound rude, but that's stating the obvious. Also note that the title of the thread is "What does Echoes mean to YOU"
I personally love these sorts of threads, it's what really drew me to a band called The Mars Volta, the open interpretation of the lyrics. They mean VERY specific things to the band, but it's difficult for the casual listener to discern what the hell they're on about. Same goes for a lot of PF lyrics, that's what makes the music so wonderful, is that every person takes away something for themselves.

cheers

JTAmp33 · #50 06-25-2005, 12:45 PM

I agree with almost everything said above. Music, like any form of art, can be interpreted many ways and is all dependent on the person and their point of view. All I can say is there is no definitive meaning and I feel confident that Gilmour and Waters would agree. They wrote all of their songs with a myriad of emotions and feelings in mind. All of Pink Floyd's work is filled with deep philosophical intentions.

gdubl · #51 06-25-2005, 01:46 PM

Ever since I heard Echoes for the first time back in 1976, when I was 15, I decided then and there that I wanted it to be the song played at my funeral. I can see exactly what the originator of this thread means, when he describes it as a spiritual conversion piece. however, the song ends with the returning chaos he describes as being the pit. That is why I made it my funeral dirge, as I see my world going through the cyclic turns from innocence to chaos, to reconstruction, then back to chaos. That, my friends, is the song of life.

Sydney · #52 07-06-2005, 08:10 PM

actually when you put it like that.. it would make a good requiem wouldn't it? heh.. I still want my funeral to be a party, so I don't think Echoes is the right song for me.

Almost a joker · #53 07-28-2005, 11:53 PM

To me, the song is about introspection. And how chance meetings in life somehow end up meaning something.

floydgunner · #54 08-26-2005, 09:58 PM

I think it has to do with love. I don't know how echoes ties into it. Maybe because love has happened so many times before?

It tells of a beach (possibly where he has gone to reflect upon life's great questions?) And he starts to realize he is missing something in his life:

("but something stirs and something tries. And starts to climb towards the sky")

The he meets a girl and wants to be with her forever (I am you and what I see is me) And he has never felt love before ("and help me understand the best I can")

And then they are happy together (the whole next verse seems to be about how nobody can make them unhappy when they are together)

But then one morning as he is waking, she leaves him, (inviting and insighting me to rise) I think has to do with him wanting to get her back.

And the next verse is about how lonely he is without her, and he can't take it and goes to his window and cries her name in vain.

....and that's my interpretation........and it is a truly great song.

facetoface · #55 08-26-2005, 11:42 PM

Echoes is masterpiece, thats a given. insturmentally, A Saucerful of Secrets is a more telling experince, but I digress. To me, Echoes is a journey of an entity(not neccesarily a human)through a surreal dreamlike world.

The original lyrics painted a slightly diffrent picture, i.e. 'Planets meeting face to face" changed to "Over head the albatross" changing the background of the first verse from the cold void of space to the cold depths of the sea.

the location of the entity changes, from the see to a crowded city block, to a vast wind swept landscape, etc. before finally reach the end of the journey, and perhaps existance, the song fades to a drone, leaving the ultimate fate of the entity up to the listener.

Similar Threads for What does 'Echoes' mean to you? interpretations?
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Echoes, Echoes, Echoes!!!!	echoes69	After Syd Barrett	73	04-15-2009 11:44 PM
Across the universe - The Beatles / Echoes - Pink Floyd	Dazed&Confused	General Pink Floyd Chat	25	09-25-2005 11:25 AM
Echoes: Best Of Product Solicitation	The Piper	Misc.	0	06-06-2002 10:09 PM
Contact Echoes	The Piper	Pink Floyd Synchronicities	0	06-04-2002 10:44 PM
Jupiter and Beyond Echoes	The Piper	Pink Floyd Synchronicities	0	06-04-2002 10:40 PM

What does 'Echoes' mean to you? interpretations?

After Syd Barrett