NPR’s Rob Schmitz speaks with Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason in regards to the band’s epic album “Want You Have been Right here” because it’s reissued 50 years after its launch.
(SOUNDBITE OF PINK FLOYD SONG, “WISH YOU WERE HERE”)
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
For 50 years, that lo-fi guitar riff has been the preamble to one of the crucial recognizable rock songs of all time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WISH YOU WERE HERE”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) So, so that you assume you’ll be able to inform heaven from hell, blue skies from ache.
SCHMITZ: It is the title monitor of Pink Floyd’s 1975 album “Want You Have been Right here,” an album that is develop into the common soundtrack of loss and longing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WISH YOU WERE HERE”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) A smile from a veil?
SCHMITZ: And drumming like that is its beating coronary heart.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WISH YOU WERE HERE”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) Do you assume you’ll be able to inform? Did they get you to commerce your heroes for ghosts, sizzling ashes for timber?
SCHMITZ: Pink Floyd drummer and founding member Nick Mason is liable for a lot of the band’s improvisational and experimental percussion. Heading into the studio, Pink Floyd seemed prefer it was driving excessive, coming off a profitable tour and gross sales data with their earlier album, “The Darkish Facet Of The Moon.” However Mason says issues weren’t as nice for the band as they appeared.
NICK MASON: We had been fairly not on the prime of our recreation by the point we went again into Abbey Street. And actually, after all, we ended up spending an terrible lot of studio time doing nothing or engaged on a undertaking referred to as “Family Objects.”
SCHMITZ: “Family Objects.” What was – inform me about that.
MASON: Nicely, the thought was to make a file utilizing family objects fairly than musical devices.
(SOUNDBITE OF PINK FLOYD’S, “THE HARD WAY (FROM ‘HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS’)”)
MASON: The one factor I keep in mind taking part in was as a substitute of utilizing a bass drum, I had an ax and a big log of wooden.
(SOUNDBITE OF PINK FLOYD’S, “THE HARD WAY (FROM ‘HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS’)”)
MASON: It was a form of helpful train, from our viewpoint as a result of I believe if we might caught with it, we might nonetheless be in Abbey Street now making an attempt to complete. And I believe, in a method, we had been, you already know, being clever after the occasion, we must always have carried on touring “Darkish Facet” for an additional yr. However we did not. We thought we might form of needed to get on, I suppose.
SCHMITZ: Fascinating. So the sensation was extra of, what are we doing?
MASON: Yeah. And the reply is just not very a lot (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF PINK FLOYD’S, “THE HARD WAY (FROM ‘HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS’)”)
MASON: The one factor we actually took out of the “Family Object” recording periods was some – the stroked glasses, which reappeared.
SCHMITZ: I imagine it was “Shine On You Loopy Diamond.”
MASON: Yeah.
SCHMITZ: That is the opening monitor to the album. It form of units the tone of the album. It is a 13 1/2-minute music. The primary 9 minutes are purely instrumental. You’ll by no means get away with that at the moment.
MASON: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF PINK FLOYD SONG, “SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND (PTS. 1-5)”)
SCHMITZ: After we hear the vocals, lastly, it is clear that that is about former band member Syd Barrett, who had a psychological breakdown by this level and had left the band.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND (PTS. 1-5)”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) Keep in mind once you had been younger, you shone just like the solar. Shine on, you loopy diamond.
SCHMITZ: And in some methods, you already know, his absence appears to have had simply as massive an influence on Pink Floyd’s music as his presence had had. Inform me a bit of bit about that.
MASON: I do not assume we began recording on “I Want You Have been Right here” with the concept it was associated to Syd. I believe it was a way more basic absence. After which there was this outstanding visitation from Syd. I hadn’t seen him, I might say, for 5 years, one thing like that. And, I imply, for me, it was significantly alarming ‘trigger I believe I used to be placing a drum monitor down that got here again into the management room. And there was this man there who was chubby, balding. And so I did not acknowledge him as being Syd in any respect.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND (PTS. 1-5)”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) Nicely, you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the metal breeze. Come on, you raver, you seer of visions. Come on, you painter, you piper, you prisoner and shine.
SCHMITZ: Now, I needed to briefly discuss to you about the remainder of the band. You realize, Pink Floyd is a band of massive personalities, and at instances it has been fairly contentious among the many surviving members, and this continues to at the present time. I imply, do you may have any regrets about how issues have turned out between the members of the band?
MASON: Yeah. I believe when – most of us would fairly have a quiet life, whereby we simply get on with no matter we wish to do, and that advantages no matter you are doing, though there’s a counter to that, which is that you simply want that form of pressure with a view to obtain a number of the ends of regardless of the undertaking is you are engaged on.
SCHMITZ: So in some methods, it truly – the strain type of fueled the creativity.
MASON: Nicely, it may be that. The issue with it’s you waste a number of time.
SCHMITZ: Clearly, a number of these tensions boiled up between Roger Waters and David Gilmore. What was your function in all of this?
MASON: Put the tin helmet on and get down within the bunker.
SCHMITZ: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF PINK FLOYD SONG, “HAVE A CIGAR”)
SCHMITZ: You made this album at a time when album art work was crucial. And, you already know, “Want You Have been Here is” album cowl depicts two businessmen shaking palms. One among them is on hearth. It is fairly placing. And it speaks to one of many themes of the album itself – company greed. We hear that on “Have A Cigar.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HAVE A CIGAR”)
PINK FLOYD: (Singing) And did we inform you the secret, boy? We name it driving the gravy prepare.
SCHMITZ: How has the music business modified? And I am curious to know your ideas on that.
MASON: Ah, I believe it is a lot more durable now than it ever was, significantly for youthful bands. Principally, within the ’70s, you wanted an agent, a supervisor and a file firm. However now, the file firms is not going to decide up a starter band. They’re going to wait till that band is displaying – you already know, it is bought 100 thousand followers. I imply, some issues are quite a bit simpler. I imply, clearly, you can also make any file you want and make it accessible, however that is not essentially a lot assist once you’re beginning out.
SCHMITZ: So I grew up within the Eighties, and I do not forget that one of many greatest issues round at the moment – I grew up within the Midwest – was out in a number of North American cities – was the Pink Floyd laser gentle present on the native planetarium. And I am simply curious. You realize, I am positive you already know this entire phenomenon. You realize, once you made these albums, did you think about that this may be how your music would attain generations of youngsters to come back?
MASON: Principally, in case you’re within the music business and in case you’re making data, you are still believing that pop music is ephemeral and that any day now they’ll ship you again to the employee – workhouse. Yeah. I imply, it is very curious, this enterprise of reviewing a file that was made 50 years in the past. I left school to spend a yr in a band. How was I to know 50 years later, I would nonetheless be in that band?
(SOUNDBITE OF PINK FLOYD SONG, “SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND (PTS. 6-9)”)
SCHMITZ: That is Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. The reissue of a deluxe fiftieth anniversary of “Want You Have been Right here” is out now. Thanks a lot for talking with us at the moment, Nick.
MASON: You are very welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF PINK FLOYD SONG, “SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND (PTS. 6-9)”)
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