The people behind the Pink Floyd song ‘Echoes’
For most Pink Floyd fans, ‘Echoes’ marks a major turning point in the band’s career. Throughout the years of playing nothing but psychedelic-tinged rock music with Syd Barrett, one of their first success stories after their frontman’s departure was a sprawling epic, taking up half of their album Meddle and sending the listening on an audible journey through the depths of the Earth and the human condition.
After going through the hell of having to lose Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd was at an impasse on whether to press on with the same style that they were known for or to fracture into their own creative entities playing whatever they felt like. They chose neither option, electing to make something more bombast than most artists could dream of.
Spanning 23 minutes, there isn’t a second of time wasted throughout the piece, as Waters subtle references to the human condition to the strange sounds that feel like they are bubbling up from the depths of the Earth. Whereas most artists were trying to jam every one of their thoughts into a piece like this, Floyd made one of their first masterpieces purely through the emotional weight of the music.
Outside of the outstanding music, it takes more than just one brain to create a track of this scope, and every band member deserves some hand in making the project something greater than the sum of its parts. From the musicians to the producers working that day to some of their clearest influences, each of these artists had a hand in making Pink Floyd’s pivot from space-rock wonders to prog-rock superhumans.
The people behind the Pink Floyd song ‘Echoes’
Terry Riley
One of the biggest trademarks of ‘Echoes’ is its practice of minimalism. Outside the main song, the most interesting moments come when there’s hardly any music, instead mixed with different sounds made with various effects. Outside of their muse, Floyd used these sections as a homage to minimalist composer Teddy Riley.
Known for his barebones approach to composing his pieces, Riley’s influence is evident when Floyd breaks the tune down to the most elemental sounds, including David Gilmour using his slide to create sonar noises that feel like they’re coming from the bottom of the ocean. As much as the band could have played a sprawling epic across the runtime, it’s more important about the notes that aren’t being played rather than the ones that are.
David Gilmour
Meddle marked another change in scenery by giving David Gilmour a greater voice behind the compositions. Along with his work on the experiment tracks on Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother, Gilmour’s contributions to this song are the first instances of his mystical touch on the guitar, giving way to a 12/8 shuffle with some of the fiercest riffs that he’s ever created, slowly pulling the listener down with every strike.
Gilmour also shines as a vocalist when he harmonises with Richard Wright throughout the song, interpreting Roger Waters’s words with some of the softest vocals to ever grace a Floyd record at the time. The world’s end might have been playing out before the listener’s ears, but Gilmour’s fills and vocals are enough to cushion the blow.
Richard Wright
The opening sounds of ‘Echoes’ feel like they could have been played on the other side of consciousness. As the song starts, that artificial tack sound feels like a sonar, gently lulling the listener into a sedated state before throwing them back into rock and roll chaos. The sonar sound could have easily been studio trickery, but the whole thing began in the mind of Richard Wright.
As the band were workshopping ideas, Wright became enamoured with one of the effects of his organ and hit upon the iconic opening keyboard lines of the song, using a Leslie speaker to make the otherworldly sounds of the record. Seeing how the band were leaving the first part of their career behind, this provides a unique sendoff for the Syd Barrett era.
Roger Waters
After Syd Barrett lost his mind to the rock and roll lifestyle, it was up to Roger Waters to pick up the pieces of the band. Though he may have steered them through some of the more eclectic albums of their career, ‘Echoes’ was the first time he put his heart on display for his audience.
Bringing to mind images of Greek mythology, Waters’s words tap into something instinctive about the human spirit, telling Rolling Stone that the song was about “the potential that human beings have for recognizing each other’s humanity and responding to it, with empathy rather than antipathy”. Seeing how Waters would sink further as the years went on, this became a teaser for what was to come on The Dark Side of the Moon.
Despite ‘Echoes’ remaining a foundational part of Pink Floyd’s development, the song also has an overreaching appeal, with Andrew Lloyd Webber copying the descending bass figure for Phantom of the Opera. Although any other rock band would label this as one of their finest works, Floyd was still determined to move ahead, using the next albums to further dissect what makes listeners human.
John Leckie
Outside of Pink Floyd’s traditional instrumentals, they always prided themselves on creating some of the most orgasmic musical peaks the rock world had ever heard. Aside from their own instrumental capabilities, one of the foundations of ‘Echoes’ came from producer John Leckie.
When mic-ing the piano, Leckie made something otherworldly, telling Mojo: “Rick Wright said, ‘Oh, can we put the piano through the Leslie?’ So we miked the piano, but maybe it was too close to that one piano string, because every time he hit that note, it would go into the point of feedback. Everyone went, ‘Ooh wow, listen to that’”. Leckie’s knack for production sounds came in handy in the years down the road, making albums for Radiohead and The Sex Pistols.
