“The way forward”: Nick Mason on the Pink Floyd album with only one real song
When putting together any album of material, the name of the game is always to have some sort of diversity. Although many bands have crafted their best material centred around one concept, it’s important to make sure that every song doesn’t sound the same so that the audience actually gets to hear a lot more than the same predictable tune whenever they turn to the next song. Pink Floyd may have had a storied history of taking the listener on a journey with their music, but Nick Mason had a different definition of what constituted a real tune from a mindless jam.
Then again, the band’s definition of a rock and roll song was bound to change the minute that Roger Waters left the group. He may not have been the most musically gifted member by any stretch, but he was the grand visionary behind everything, and his conceptual ideas for Animals and The Wall were what gave them an overlapping theme, even if it meant David Gilmour having to take a back seat a few times.
When Gilmour began work with Waters, though, it would take a while before he found his footing again. A Momentary Lapse of Reason would have been a fine album if any other 1980s band had made it, but since it was coming from the same person who made Dark Side of the Moon, most prog fans knew to expect something a little better. Even if fans were sceptical at this point, The Division Bell at least put them on an even keel again.
While it’s far from the best Pink Floyd album, it was the band’s excuse to go back to the same kind of jams they had made during the days of recording ‘Echoes’, only this time with an entire album in mind. ‘High Hopes’ and ‘Coming Back to Life’ did have that same Floydian spirit, but after years away from the limelight, the band’s label got a bit more antsy for material after Richard Wright’s death.
“Initially, we hadn’t made a decision about that at all.”
nick mason
Since Wright was essentially the spirit of Floyd whenever they played live, The Endless River was the kind of send-off that Gilmour wanted to put together in his honour. If this was Wright’s equivalent to Wish You Were Here, though, Mason thought they could have done with adding a few more actual songs to the mix.
Most of the material was sculpted from jams that they had shelved during The Division Bell with very little singing, and outside of ‘Louder Than Words’, Mason didn’t feel like there was much material to make full songs out of, saying, “Initially, we hadn’t made a decision about that at all. If some of the material had been more suited to vocals, that might have been the way forward. Once we worked out there was really only one real song on it, I quite liked the idea.”
Although it does make for some interesting jamming moments, the fact that it doesn’t have that much vocal presence does make it a bit of a chore to sit through. Despite Pink Floyd being one of the few bands who are able to get away with making an entirely instrumental album, most of the tunes sound like the band is easing you into another epic tune, but since every track has that build-up, the payoff never really comes.
However, being the grand follow-up to The Division Bell was never the plan, either. It was their chance to pay homage to their dear friend and bandmate, and while it did make for some dreary moments, they were only going to work with what they had rather than passing any track off as Pink Floyd.
