Understanding Pink Floyd's "Money"

[@12tone]

On the riff, some people are commenting that there's no A before the D, so I figured I should clarify: I'm fairly certain there is, but the MIDI example _does_ overemphasize it. It's a ghost note, created through a muted pull-off from the B to an open-string A, and it fluctuates in presence so it's not always there, but I'd say most statements of the riff include it to some degree, and to my ears it feels incomplete without it. (If you're curious what it sounds like, I isolated an example of it over on twitter: twitter.com/12tonevideos/status/1092833670199631873 ) It's hard to do really subtle notes in MIDI, though, so the version I played makes it sound like a full note and that's not entirely accurate either. Sorry about that!

[@ethank2500]

12tone no yeah that note is definitely supposed to be there. It just sounds weird like slurs in Sibelius.

[@danpreston564]

For me the extra A is not supposed to be there all the time, and when you do hear it it’s possible that it’s a different guitar, or the bass drum or something else fooling your ears to hear the A. The first riff in the song, when the bass is alone, is very clearly not played with the A, and the B is muted to leave you in no doubt that the next note is the D. That’s what my ears are telling me.

[@Ian-nl9yd]

i think that what's going on is that when the bassist stops the vibration of the a string with his picking hand to stop the b from being a half-note he occasionally does it too vigorously and what we're hearing is the vibrations that causes. the faint tapping frequently heard after the low f# i think is evidence that waters is probably in that sort of overzealous mood

[@patfloyd]

The A before the D is wrong. Watch a video of either Gilmour or Waters playing it on guitar or bass - it's not part of the riff.

[@Quackadalias]

There is actually no A before the D. If you listen to the early tracks, demo mixes, and their multitrack breakdown, it's very clear no A is meant to be there. Also, if you watch Waters or Gilmour play this line, that A is also missing. Those A's you're hearing are mostly likely extra filler notes from the doubling guitar and not the bass.

[@austinkistler8924]

First song I learned to play on the cash register

[@JaYf7709]

I like you

[@austinkistler8924]

JaYf7709 thank you

[@xaustralis]

Austin Kistler I played it on a cash register... I got fired from my job.

[@sepehrshakeribaviloliyaie2440]

you're a genius

[@rosgill6]

yeah my fender registraster got worn out with this one

[@thebeingdestroyerofworlds8690]

One of these days Ima gonna undersrand what you are sayin

[@jman9030]

Was that pun intended

[@thebeingdestroyerofworlds8690]

@@jman9030 yep

[@Kirbyisdagoat]

That's exactly what I'm thinking too lmao

[@zackmayguitar6820]

i hope that was intended

[@adudefromde8671]

Yo dawg it’s understand.

[@elaine_pratt]

Love this. The only song that both my mom and my kid said to me, 30 years apart, at the beginning with the cash register and coins "Turn down that noise!" :)

[@montag4516]

Maybe you should've responded to your kid with... "Yeah? Well I'm about ready to turn down your allowance, young'n!" 🙉

[@SpaceCattttt]

Well, that's depressing.

[@patrickmcpheeters289]

Montag Alexis imagine getting an allowance

[@Jaspertine]

(edit, when I posted this, I got the order of things slightly backwards, the first part is double tracked and the third part is ADTd.) Another interesting detail about the solo: The first section uses an auto-doubling effect to make it sound like the guitar was double tracked, which contributes to it sounding so big, and also gives a mono-recorded guitar a stereo sound. The auto-doubling is taken away during the second section, making the guitar sound small, and more notably, you only hear it coming from the left speaker. Then, for the third part of the solo, instead of bringing back the auto-doubling, the guitar is actually double tracked for real. So, it goes back to being in stereo, but now there's tiny discrepancies between the two performances. So even though the dynamic is loud-quiet-loud, there's still a different feel to the first and third sections of the solo.

[@jesusm7728]

This is really really great Genius production

[@mattgilbert7347]

They also pulled out the wet effects for the second section. The solo was played on a custom-made 24-fret guitar, a Lewis.

[@mattgilbert7347]

It was manually double-tracked, btw. Gilmourish.com is the source. Solo # 3 did use ADT (echo, which is what gives it the stereo effect), but #1 was manual.

[@mattgilbert7347]

Here's the breakdown: Stratocaster, bridge pickup Bill Lewis Custom 24-frets guitar (third solo*) - rhythm 1/melody; Colorsound Powerboost - rhythm 2/fills; Colorsound Powerboost - tremolo guitar; clean signal with Kepex tremolo (rate 80%) - solo 1; Fuzz Face and echo (manually double tracked) - solo 2/mid-section; Fuzz Face - solo 3*; Fuzz Face with echo (ADT Automatic Double Track) www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=46

[@Paisley194]

I might be wrong here, but I don't believe they used an auto-doubling effect on the first solo. Those two guitar tracks are very close, but you can hear some subtle differences. The obvious one being the last bend of the first solo with the two guitars bending different notes. Please correct me, if I'm wrong. edit: Actually the other guitar doesn't even have any bending at the end.

[@basedbattledroid3507]

*"I'M ALRIGHT JACK KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OF MY STACK!!!"*

[@gabrielbennett9376]

*"I'M ALRIGHT JACK KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OF MY SACK!!!"*

[@rasmusthunberg8967]

If remembered correctly, this line is also present in “The Wall”...

[@ErikaBracamonte]

@@rasmusthunberg8967 yup when the teacher reads the poems at loud

[@Exploshi]

Kappa

[@playertube6490]

The teacher: Poems everybody! Money get back I'm alright Jack Keep your hands off of my stack New car, caviar, four star daydream Think I'll buy me a football team This is just rubbish ! (Everybody laughs )

[@DiceFX]

Understanding Pink Floyd's "Echoes" ? ^^

[@SteveGouldinSpain]

and Atom Heart Mother!

[@steelbladesproduction9867]

the video will be like 3 hours long lmao but it is a tune love it

[@TheDutchCreeperTDC]

And Shine On You Crazy Diamond while he's at it...

[@SpaceCattttt]

What key is the submarine radar "ping" in?

[@vel0city96]

I wholeheartedly support this recommendation.

[@areminderofwhatweare]

Holy crap that six beat version of the bass line just made me SO UNCOMFORTABLE. I feel like I need to go take a prog shower.

[@nadjalagercrantz1781]

LMAO

[@jjhassy]

whats a prog shower

[@schall3603]

One thing you didn't mention is that the use of 7/4 is kinda feels like a reference to how weeks have 7 days, and for someone who is working relentlessly, that... never really feels long enough.

[@saam6768]

surprisingly, this is the first time I have ever heard that. That's some great insight.

[@renzo3939]

It´s probably not a reference to that though

[@AlBert-ow7xi]

I think not.

[@montag4516]

Nope, you're searching for a connection that was never part of it. 7/4 was just how the time signature fell out when Roger wrote the riff. I've never heard or read him or anyone involved with recording the song ever breathe a word about the seven days a week thing.

[@beefymcskillet5601]

S C Hall also to add on to what everyone else said , a work week would typically be 5 days not 7

[@Benji2N]

My favorite song by this band, and I've got a theory on the placement of the "turnaround." As you mentioned the bassline is in constant falling motion, but it also RISES as you go up to the F# (and walk/fall back down) and up to the E (and walk/fall back down) so it almost gives a feeling like Sisyphus, rolling the boulder up the hill over and over again only to have it fall back down every time. At the very highest point (the measure of E toward the end) they walk alllll the wayyyyy back down. That makes the last 2 measures of B feel almost like a pickup into the next section (and if you listen to the drums they do a huge extended fill over these 2 measures back into the "crashy" section). To me it feels like we're seeing someone progress through futile attempts at chasing money, you can get close, even achieve the apex, but it all comes falling back down and you get ready to start the humble blues progression all over again.

[@12tone]

That's a pretty good explanation! I hadn't really clocked the rising roots part of it, that's a good catch.

[@djsmeguk]

Yeah, the first section seems to be "we're loud and full of money", then the turnaround (which sounds like all the money just disappearing), then a subdued section "we've got no money, we can't be big and splashy", then the second turnaround, which sounds like another money windfall, followed by "we're loud and we're full of money" again. A musical rendition of the rollercoaster of highs and lows that is money.

[@carlosdelcastillo1378]

this shit just blew my fucking mind. music can be so powerful man.

[@CineSoar]

I don't know if I've heard this somewhere, of if it is my own thought, but... I've always called this sort of descending turnaround a "Falling Leaf" turnaround. In fact, I think someone in one of the 90's concert videos (Rachel Fury, in DSOT perhaps?) does a hand gesture that looks like the swinging, 'scalloped' descent of a falling leaf, at one point. In the end, all the money in the world amounts to a carpet of dead, dry, leaves at the feet of the dying oak.

[@pigeon_9161]

And it also ties in with a common critic of capitalism that says the proletariat is constantly fighting the odds to achieve an imaginary and always shifting satisfaction point. You work the whole day, week, year thinking "after that I'll be able to rest/enjoy myself" but that moment never truly comes bc you're tied back to the authoritarian production structure in a constant battle against precarity. The only relief is consumerism that reinforces the machine (reference intended hehe) I know it's best to not go too much into politics in yt comments but given the band in question and what the song is about it felt relevant

[@betwandet41]

Another tide bit about the money loop in the beginning. Roger Waters created the tape loop for the intro in his wife’s pottery studio using a Revox A77 Tape Recorder. He recorded various samples, including coins clinking, paper tearing and a ringing cash register, then cut up the tape into seven sections of equal length. By hand cutting and splicing these pieces together then wrapping the loop around the room, Waters created the infamous metronomic sequence that introduces the track and is known as one of the most innovative uses of tape loops.

[@InvestingBookSummaries]

I listen to this song on repeat in the car some days.

[@carlosdumbratzen6332]

While you get to a Job? ;^)

[@lindseycassella3015]

I listened to this song at work where I get paid and make MONEY

[@bigfootpegrande]

The internet has the ability to bring to the surface some great teachers... Thanks for the lesson.

[@cloud2976]

Since I haven't seen anyone else mention it.......... The earliest example of what I think fits your criteria for an organic loop has got to be Manfred Mann's song "Machines" from 1966. It's structured much like Money, with industrial sounds being looped in a rhythm before a bassline (and bit of organ) come in to match that rhythm, though it's in 4/4. It's really quite a brilliant song and way ahead of its time in that regard.

[@theranchbandit6548]

I got a record player for christmas and pilfered my dad’s copy of Dark Side. Can I just say, holy f**k! Money is one of the first Floyd songs I remember hearing. I love your videos, please don’t ever stop making them.

[@Kirbyisdagoat]

I can't the only one who thinks this is one of the greatest songs of all time, its so badass

[@brandonmiles8174]

Sick video. This is the first one I've seen, and it's always been a favorite of mine, as a bass player and a Floyd head. Keep up the great work, it is great for people like me just coming into proper 'music theory' to get cool little lessons like this and see how everything fits together after I've just been playing by ear for two decades

[@1987joey1987]

that format is amazingly entertaining an informing. i'm happy to have found you

[@KujoA2]

Regarding the early turnaround riff that you ask about at 6:57, on the third repetition of the 24-bar 4/4 form over the guitar solo, the turnaround leads right back to the opening 7/4 riff. This is repeated for two 7/4 bars, but counted in 3/4 and 4/4, this completes the 24 measure form. Like you said at 6:32, this emphasizes a return to the beginning. They just get sneaky and use the intro phrase to close out the blues form. It fits so well because just like the into sets us up for the bass line, we already expect this bit of cool-down after the turnaround because that's exactly how they end the blues form of 12 7/4 bars during the verse--with two bars of the intro riff over the i chord. (love this song. thanks for pointing out the variation in production during the guitar solo, I've never noticed what an impact that makes before.)

[@CristiNeagu]

The turnaround is where it is so that the remaining bars in the 12x2 bar blues line can provide a sort of intro-transition between the solos. Build up and release, maybe?

[@diamondflaw]

This is the one I've been waiting for since finding your channel. THANK YOU!

[@kevinrotunda2]

"I'M ALRIGHT JACK KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OF MY STACK!!!" Love to see you analyzing a song built around the bassline for a change.

[@VinceMarques]

this is absolutely amazing...congrats and thank you!

[@milescorporosus4058]

0:24 "... sarcastic sendup of materialism, Money." Whenever I hear this song I can't help wondering how many people genuinely think it's some kind of aspirational ode to the supposed joys of capitalism.

[@kellingc]

I heard Gilmore say that thank god Waters chaned it to 4/4 for the solo. And, I love the trasition with Mason banging out the string of 1/8 notes to resync the time. "Dark Side of the Moon" is my favorite albulm, with Moody Blues "Days of Future Past" a close second. I miss the days of albulms, instead of single song releases.

[@jonarktic]

Every time I watch these videos I go back and listen to the song with all this in mind and its always a good experience.

[@jimcrozier6307]

Thank you!! - I had just done a transcription for a bass student and was looking all over to verify what I was hearing on the 5 chord and 4 chord and sure 'nuff, you nailed it the way I was hearing it. I just subscribed and will be checking out some more of your stuff.

[@oldvlognewtricks]

The theme to Are You Being Served? starts with cash register percussion and was first aired in September 1972, the year before Money was released. Always assumed one copied the other, but didn’t realise they came out so close together.

[@sweetsounds152]

The only song I've heard that managed to make common time just sound weird/different

[@legoharry100]

Analyze Napalm Death’s “You Suffer"

[@tomlewis5105]

Yes

[@Kylora2112]

The greatest 1.5 seconds in punk/metal.

[@yeldarb2022]

Watch that video actually be 20 minutes

[@martinmaguire-music6692]

but why?

[@gardenhead92]

Wish You Were Here next, please!

[@hatim9687]

well poor you , i cant get enough of pink floyd , and especially that i just learned wish you were here on guitar

[@michagranat6797]

@@guitaristssuck8979 What music would you recommend?

[@tnsvictory]

@@guitaristssuck8979 Personal preference my friend.

[@MuzikBike]

One of the six pieces I'm currently doing on drums for SQA Advanced Higher Music. How about understanding Toto - Hold The Line, another piece I'm doing?

[@elwayfan01]

If you're doing advanced higher music, then Rosanna should be the pick ;) Seriously though, I love how this song (Money) sounds so simple on the drums, but there's a lot of nuance.

[@Quackadalias]

6:55 That turnaround coming in early is actually not that uncommon. Jazz really likes its turnarounds (take this with a grain of salt as not all jazz is the same). In some blues forms, they like to throw in turnarounds whenever they enter a tonal shift for emphasis, like a turnaround in bar 4 into bar 5 to the IV chord, or a turnaround in bar 8 into bar 9 to the V chord for examples. That early turnaround is probably meant for emphasis back to the I chord in bar 11 of the form.

[@saam6768]

I read in some magazine or maybe heard in the "making of..." dvd that the only reason there are common time parts in that song is because Gilmore couldn't solo in 7/8. Either way, great analysis of a great song.

[@diigdugg]

Must be pretty hard to make a cohesive solo in 7/4. Makes sense.

[@zozzy4630]

Hadn't heard that one, but I know they had to get session drummers on "Mother" and "Two Suns in the Sunset" because Nick Mason couldn't handle the rhythmic complexities.

[@vkolpdj]

You are right, I watched the documentary on Dark Side and to quote David Gilmour himself, it made it significantly easier for him to solo in 4/4 so they made that acoomodation

[@saam6768]

@@vkolpdj there you go. good to know I'm not just imagining memories at this point in my life lol cheers.

[@drjohnleewilliamsiii]

I appreciate the subtle inclusion of the Ferengi emblem when you mentioned profit. Well done.

[@DGramusset]

Love to see you analyzing a song built around the bassline for a change.

[@ex-muslimlibertarianatheis9008]

I'm mainly an Edm listener. But I do love classic rock. And this is exactly why I consider pink floyd to be pure genius in their art.

[@eoghan.5003]

As statistics wouldn't have it, I've not seen the comfortably numb video. I'll watch it next though

[@GrooveHillStudio]

HAHA! The square and compass doodle as you are mentioning "... A point through association" at the 7:15 mark is brilliant! ;)

[@Pheonix8877]

Maybe to some it takes some of the romanticism out of music, but analysis like this is what I love about music. It shows there is a technical/mathematical side and seeing the sheet music/midi is like taking a look under the hood of a car or looking at the “code” to a song. I write music and constantly feel like I’m making all the same decisions, and then I look at another song and realize how many simple decisions I’m overlooking in trying to create something complex. It seems like song writing is more like building a house, you have to start with a simple foundation and accept that it isn’t going to be complex right away.

[@williambejar5874]

The best Pink Floyd tune, hard to find the guys to play it!!! This for the video!!!

[@Sierrahtl]

I swear this channel and video nails it. The D versus E on Okay matters.. even a tone deaf singer “feels” it..

[@perfectwhine742]

No musician thinks out their music like this. It just appears to them in their head or comes from a moment of inspiration

[@gabrielbennett9376]

The members of Pink Floyd were classically trained. Classically trained musicians commonly make conscious decisions using music theory. Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean professional musicians don't.

[@perfectwhine742]

@@gabrielbennett9376 You act like I'm dissing Pink Floyd. Sure, maybe that training helps a LITTLE. But if that's what it took to make great music, then bands like Pink Floyd would be everywhere. They have a special, unique talent, and that's being able to hear music and the experience to play what they hear, which is something I understand very well.

[@gabrielbennett9376]

@@perfectwhine742 It's not just about knowing how music theory works, it's about being able to use music theory to create music such as the type that Pink Floyd made. Just because you read a book on aerodynamics doesn't mean you'll automatically be able to design a top of the line jet plane. And simply making complex and interesting music isn't a free pass to fame, especially today. There are many bands with just as much technical ability and creativity as Pink Floyd, who range from completely unknown to famous.

[@jessehawkes1298]

This song really made me fall in love with Pink Floyd’s music. And it’s still the best

[@gotta56forme]

I think the song speaks to materialism, capitalism, etc... so my take on your philosophy behind the song and particularly the break/pause at the end of the 4/4 guitar solo that you invited comment: in the spending of money from an emotion-based perspective by people, there can be a pleasure, joy, satisfaction from acquiring something, but after act of spending/acquiring is completed, the hole being filled may re-emerge; or maybe buyer's remorse may set-in... so that pause/break may be in deference to those types of outcomes where money or the spending of it is only temporarily satisfying an emotional need. I'm not a doctor, nor a musicologist, so take it with a grain of salt...

[@valzugg]

I'm surprised you didn't interpret the bass riff as 3/4 + 4/4, thats how i've always felt it

[@bigcheese3972]

This man really loves drawing elaphants

[@TheophanyComedyGuru]

You're right. I did watch your Comfortably Numb video :D loving the Floyd vids!

[@LetoTheTyrant]

7:07 Nice sneaky Star Trek reference, and quite appropriate for what's being discussed

[@marko511d]

You have an amazing grasp of musical knowledge. Thank you for the incredible videos. You have helped my understanding of music and also my playing. Thank you so much.

[@TheMadalucard]

Fantastic analysis as always, I'd probably die of joy if you did one of these for a Godspeed You! Black Emperor song.

[@Ricocossa1]

5:50 actually the sax solo too is built on a blues progression. If you listen carefully to any of these old pink floyd songs they used and abused off this progression, often stretching it out to fill 24 or even 48 bars, and changing the turn-around to something that fits the song. Shine on you Crazy Diamond for example is essentially a blues, with just the 2 verses jammed in. If you listen carefully, they never get out of the blues progression except for playing the verse or changing the turnaround a bit.

[@spielersubliminals8025]

The turnaround during the guitar solo is played four bars early, and the pattern is continued for 4 more bars before moving into the quieter part of the solo before it explodes again.

[@texholliday]

Intelligent summary/ great job of articulating a classic !! Thank you

[@uritaanach1377]

my fav band, i didnt know u exsisted, ty for making my day

[@CineSoar]

One thing that has always intrigued me, as a bass player, and I'm a bit surprised it wasn't mentioned. The 'organic loop' (after a brief intro, involving what sounds like the bell of an opening change drawer and the sound of change being scooped from one of the 'pockets' inside) is in 7/4, setting up the meter of the bass intro. But, the bass enters on beat 3 of that 7/4 pattern (or alternatively, the loop starts on 6)... any thoughts as to why?

[@RudyAyoub]

Tabs?

[@internetexplorerchan2697]

Bro

[@verdatum]

This channel is AMAZING.

[@deltanine6497]

Thanks very much! Nearly every time I plug in my bass and tune it up, I warm up with this song. Jen

[@andywright8803]

Are you being served has a theme tune also starting out with an organic loop based on cash register etc but came out the year before dark side of the moon was released

[@caladan4405]

I think the effect on the guitar in the beginning is tremolo. But it doesn't change the analysis.

[@Jack-xm2wn]

Awesome video. I hope I'm not so far behind that you never see this. I think you were so close to drawing the interpretation I've come to on the reasoning for this time signature. At the beginning of the video, you talk about "if this riff was only six beats long" and that it feels like they add a seventh. To me, it feels like it should be eight beats and they remove a second B from the bassline. The feeling that this 7/8 groove gives me is that the note I was expecting to be the end (the last note in the second of two 4/4 bars) is actually the beginning of a longer cycle. One I assumed I understood, but don't. This gives me the same feeling as when one thinks "all I need is ____ and I'll be happy," but not realizing that by the time you are where you wanted to be, it isn't enough and you've already set your sights on something beyond this. Eventually a billion dollars just isn't quite enough. I think this interpretation aligns with a few other parts of the song. One is the lyrics, of course. Another is the blues portion you point out during the guitar solo. You accurately pointed out that it feels like you're constantly falling (it always reminded me of the Penrose Stairs drawing). The guitar and the sudden 4/4 give the feeling of finally being on top, some sort of high. But if you listen closely, underneath the whole time is that feeling of falling, unseen by the narrator, until it eventually leads to the clearly-falling-sounding turnaround at 6:12, back into the same inescapable cycle.

[@andrelousada]

dude!!! this was awesome!!! I need to do videos like these... you do them very well!

[@sdownin72]

I find the set up of the the three guitar solos interesting as well. There are two different guitars playing the solos. One with the “wet” heavily reverbed tone and one that is bone dry. The first solo section is played in unison by both guitars (or almost unison, there’s one high note they don’t quite hit together). For the second section the wet guitar drops out completely allowing the dry guitar to do a rather sparse solo with the keyboards. Then for the third it has a much harder “drive it home” feel where the wet guitar comes back in full and in your face while the dry guitar drops down to play a funky syncopated rhythm part to drive the sections forward, and then ends the 24-bar formula that they’d been using early by stopping at the end of the walkdown turnaround to take it back to the verse.

[@emesehorti1526]

woah thank you so much! I'm choreographing to this and I was having such a hard time countin and defining the structure and everything.

[@Ighorkeyboard]

Later in that year, Gentle Giant used a similar idea of organic loop on the opening track from In a Glass House (The Runaway)

[@eaglescout1984]

I actually picked this song as a vernacular song to analyze in my college music appreciation course. I definitely didn't analyze it to this detail but the whole starting in 7/4 time was a big point just because you almost never hear anything besides 2, 3 and 4 time with the occasional 5/4 even in art music, let alone vernacular.

[@TaxPayingContributor]

Meters of actual analog tape sections taped together and running outside the reel machine across the room and around a mic stand and back to the machine.

[@metaltom2003]

One thing to mention (that really has nothing to do with theory) is the reason for the guitar solo being in 4/4 time. Oddly enough it's because David Gilmour couldn't play a solo in 7/4 time. I don't remember where I saw it, but there was an interview (documentary maybe?) and he just came right out and said it.

[@AngelRiveroMusic]

I would like to know how you understand Little Wing by Jimmy Hendrix

[@toasterboy708]

Fuck me. I would love to have been a fly on the wall (no puns) when the lads put this together. I doubt they would have gone in to things as deep as this video did while crafting the song , but that would just be a testament to Waters and Gilmore ability to tune in to the feel and structure of what was required at the time and obviously nutting out what sounded good. 'Good' being an understatement there. Kudos to 12tone for going deep on this one. You have just unzipped one of my all time faves.

[@wdwnutjm]

SO COOL!! Thanks for putting into words what I could never explain.

[@DeirdreCeridwen]

OHMYGOD when you did the "Prisoner" bike in reference to "6" I lost it!! XD Well done, sir! :D

[@BoomChockolaca]

Amazing explanation. I never thought about the song this deep. Now I gotta replay and relisten in :))))

[@nathannorvell2768]

It would be awesome if you broke down Steve Miller Band's "Serenade". No worries though. KZbinrs are super busy so just keep doing what you do and keep that one in your bag of possibilities for the future at least.

[@zibbybone]

0:56, not sure about your term "organic loop", but The Beatles used a tape loop in "Tomorrow Never Knows".

[@tonymcawesome]

I love your videos and I always wonder if some of these bands actually put this much intentional thought into these songs or if they were just rolling with something that sounded cool?

[@briancherry8088]

The intro is very reminiscent of the theme to Are you Being Served, which broadcast in September '72, just before Dark Side was released. The two being so similar and released so close together seems like it would be hard for it to be a coincidence.

[@matthieujoly424]

As always.. informative AND entertaining! Keep'on rock'in' !

[@Luca-ue2hd]

These Videos are a blessing.

[@MrEst97]

It's interesting that you talk about the 7/4 being like 6 beats with an extra note on the end instead of 8 beats where the last note is cut off, live how people hear things differently!

[@TheBigDean18]

Do a video on The Rain Song - Led Zeppelin. Such an awesome guitar arrangement.

[@JoeMode213]

Looking forward to those guest videos.

[@gemeindeniedernberg7171]

Hey 12tone! This Video just got shared by a famous Pink Floyd Coverband in Germany called "Echoes"! Keep it up :)

[@jamescastelli]

Interesting that you notated the bass line with a pair of 8th notes on beat six because if Roger plays that, it is the exception rather than the rule from what I hear. The "turnaround" I always counted as 8/4 +6/4 which, as you point out, equals 14 which is twice seven, but what makes it unusual is that it divides it differently so one measure is beat longer and the next a beat shorter. What about the guitar chords and keyboard parts?

[@Terminus_El_Camino]

And the sax solo!!

[@Razz415]

This song is why I played saxophone for 12 years. And got a Stratocaster in high school. Floyd for life!

[@ravimusicuk]

Me and a drummer friend of mine constantly have arguments as to whether Pink Floyd actually knew they wrote this in 7/8 time or whether they were all too high and just going along with whatever came out. I'd like to think that they knew.

[@nexos361]

In the Republic by Plato, Book III (398-403), they talk about music in a way I haven't heard yet. They throw around some phrases that seam interesting like 'panharmonic scale' etc. Do you have insight into the conversation they are had?

[@EricJEarley]

Great video! And, perhaps unsurprising, on the first song to get me into Prog Rock! I actually get a slightly different feeling from the 7/4 time signature. I find that it makes the song feel a little faster, in that you're subconsciously listening for that 8th beat, but it never comes. To me, it feels almost like the song is skipping ahead a bit each time, giving it that uneven feeling.

[@rattusprat]

Haven't seen anyone mention any of this.... You mentioned the blues influences throughout the video but didn't make it clear of the swing tempo for both the 7/4 and guitar solo parts of the song. Hopefully everyone is keeping up with your videos and is therefore familiar with swing tempo as common to blues. However, I have always wondered whether the guitar solo section is better read as 12/8 rather than swung 4/4. I get this mainly listening to the drums which play a fairly constant 12 hi-hats per bar through the second "subdued" part of the solo. Any thoughts?

[@nadjalagercrantz1781]

I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS OMG!

[@dixondiaz8958]

The time signature of this song grabbed and fascinated me from the first time I heard it in 1973.

[@scarl2t]

Been waiting 15 years for this

[@scarl2t]

Pretty good since I’m only 15

[@daynakindermann141]

The great gig in the sky is a really interesting song musically, it'd be cool to see a video on it!

[@realmz]

THANK YOU for doing this.

[@room34]

Great analysis of a song I've heard and informally analyzed countless times myself. But you didn't address the one thing that I am always fixated on with this song: the tempo. They're not playing to a click, and over the course of the song it gets faster… and faster… and faster… so gradually that you scarcely even notice it. I've never quite been able to reconcile whether that was just the nature of playing live in-studio, or whether it was deliberate. (Given the symbolic implications of the many aspects of the song you analyzed here, I can easily see it being intentional… but my gut tells me it just happened.)

[@crimfan]

I play this tune as an acoustic guitar-vocal piece. It works surprisingly well though it took a lot of practice to get the riff down while singing. I skip the guitar solo, obviously, as that really requires a band to pull off, or at least accompaniment. One thing I noticed is that the tempo shifts during the solo and never returns to its original. Most of the song is in 120 to 124 bpm and then after the gear shift, it goes up to 128.

[@Ian-pg4rz]

Can u do black dog next

[@Florentguitarenomade]

Hello ! on the solo, bars 19 and 20, if you play a Em over the 'ealry turnaround' as you call it, it's fits perfect. the bass line makes believe you are in B- but actually it fits on a E- ( the 3thd note of the bass at the 19th bar is a G, insisting as the minor third note of the Em. And so, you have to consider the B bass note of the phrase as the 5th of the Em . Rock and roll way...). the 4 last bars are killing the traditional turnaround in blues, in a very resting way (B- tonic chord), like in old traditional blues. --- Bravo 12tone love your channel. (sorry for my bad english I'm french)

[@joelmarksbury4376]

The "3rd solo" is only 20 bars long and resolves back to main riff at 7/4. May explain the "short" turnaround for the other two solos.