Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
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Free Music Notes for Ummagumma
Free Music Review: Underrated Gem
Hit: 4 Stars
In 1969, Pink Floyd released this monstrosity. Half live and half studio, it is really two albums, and it seems to fall into a "love it or hate it" kind of place with their fans.
STUDIO
Each member got half a side for their studio time. The result is a long instrumental that is more or less hookless, disparate mess of psychedelic noise, an 8-minute drum solo, and two bonafide songs establishing Waters and Gilmour as the songwriters in the band.
LIVE
Here is the real gem. We get four of their early classics played live, extended and more vibrant than their studio incarnations, and they leave their studio versions far behind in the dust.
Despite its faults, it grows on you if you have an open mind. If you like self-indulgant avant-garde noise rock, you'll be right at home on the studio disc, and if you like spacey trad jazz, the live disc is fine.
It is a pity that "Embryo" and "Interstellar Overdrive" were taken off of this album to make room for the studio parts. Perhaps since 2009 is the 30th anniversary, Gilmour, Waters, Wright, Mason, and EMI might get together and release a special anniversary edition CD with the two omitted live tracks included. "Embryo" live, for those who have only heard the version on "Works", is simply AMAZING, easily as good as "Echoes" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".
Highlights: all four of the live songs, "Grantchester Meadows", "Several Species..." and "The Narrow Way".
Free Music Review: Awesome!
Hit: 5 Stars
Definitely the best album of Floyd's "transitional" period - that is, those few years after Syd left and before they really became Pink Floyd. This is also their first, and in my opinion best double-album. The first LP is live, and it's fantastic. "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" is one of Floyd's best songs ever, a haunting, psychologically manipulative masterpiece that slowly, carefully builds its way to a blood-curdling peak. It'll make you feel that nine minutes is the perfect song length. This version of "Astronomy Domine" is good too, though the group sounds kind of bored singing it. Still, when they get to the jamming... whoa. Minds get blown. I'm pretty sure a lot of people baked pot brownies, cookies, and cakes and ate them while listening to these instrumental bits. And you know what? I've never so much as taken a bong hit in my life, but it's pretty clear to me that Dave and Rick especially had taken several before playing this song. Fans of the trippy will also appreciate the awesome synth noises found on this version of "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun". While the studio version of that song was, without question, the best song on A Saucerful of Secrets, I like this take more myself. It plays up on the Far East elements found in the original, and really gets intense as it goes along. And they turn "A Saurcerful of Secrets" itself fantastic, upping the emotional ante astronomically so it really does sound like a battle being fought and the aftermath of said battle. Best example of live Floyd in a second! The studio stuff isn't anywhere near as good, but it's still interesting. Basically, the group decided they'd give every group member half a side of material to do their thing. These sides are controversial, but I find them at times captivating. Gilmour's avant-garde keyboard solo "Sisyphus" is great, and the majestic, all-acoustic "Grantchester Meadows" blows me away. Its lyrics are simple, but laden with evocative imagery of a meadow by Cambridge University. And "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered In a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" is funny! Yes, it is pretty avant-garde. Meanwhile, Gilmour plays some solo acoustic that could put Steve Howe to shame on the first part of "The Narrow Way", though the weird noises are rather distracting. They hadn't quite gotten good with weird noises yet, see. That would come later. The second part is an interesting proto-industrial guitar solo, and the trippy third has odd lyrics. As for Mason, he contributes the unique percussion showcase "Grand Vizier's Garden Party", and like the rest of the album it's unlike anything else you'll ever hear in your life. This is a fantastic album. Not recommended for starting fans, that's for sure, but it definitely is worthy of investigation. By the way, "ummagumma" is supposedly Cambridge slang for "sex". Why didn't that term catch on? Free Music Review: Ummagumma
Hit: 4 Stars
This is great early Pink Floyd including Astronome Dominie and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. The set includes both a studio and live discs including Syd Barrett compositions. After listening to these works I understand why Stanley Kubrick originally wanted Pink Floyd to score 2001: A space Odyssey.Free Music Review: A Mixed Bag
Hit: 3 Stars
Ummagumma is a two part album. The first half, a set of new studio recordings, is among the oddest recordings Pink Floyd have ever done. The second half, their first live release, is magnificent. It gets points for the great live material. The studio stuff is forgettable.Free Music Review: Floyd's half and half double album is still a prog rock gem today
Hit: 5 Stars
Pink Floyd's fourth album Ummagumma was released in November of 1969.
Ummagumma was Pink Floyd's first double album.
The two disc set is basically two albums in one package. The title of the album is an old Cambridgeshire slang term for a word I cannot use.
I first got this album as a Christmas present from my paternal grandmother whom unfortunately passed away on Valentine's Day 2004 on cassette (which was missing three live tracks) in 1987. Then, I acquired on CD in August, 1991 with the full album. The remaster however, released in June of 1995 in the US, is the definitive version. When I listen to it now, I think back to my grandmother whom I loved dearly and will miss (and smile instead of cry to mourn with the music on this album).
Back to Ummagumma, the first disc is a live album that the band recorded at a club called Mother's in Birmingham, England and the Manchester College of Commerce in Manchester, England in April and June of 1969 respectively.
The first track is a wonderful, extended reading of "Astronomy Domine" this time featuring keyboard player Rick Wright singing the lower parts Syd originally sang and guitarist/singer David Gilmour singing the higher harmonies. The song is a great showpiece for David's excellent guitar work and Rick's fantastic keyboard work. Next is "Careful With That Axe Eugene" (deleted from the original cassette issue) which is more sinister and longer than the hurried studio version with bass player/vocalist Roger Waters' demonic screaming and excellent drumming from drummer Nick Mason and excellent playing by Wright and Gilmour as well. "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun" (deleted from the original cassette issue) follows and buries the studio version once again featuring extra keyboard work by Rick whom may be one of the best keyboardists in rock history (although unjustly overlooked) and Roger sang this track with more passion. The first disc ends with "A Saucerful of Secrets" (deleted from the original cassette issue) which surpasses the studio version although I love the version from Pompeii too. The ending section of Saucerful is way different than the studio as Rick's organ is this time joined by bass guitar, drums and then guitar making it more of a jam than a funeral hymn like on the original album.
Disc two consists of a solo piece or two by the four band members and came about because of Rick's frustrations with doing just rock music.
Rick's solo piece was the four-part "Sysyphus" which features Rick's jazz and classical influences and his keyboard work on the mellotron and piano and organ gives me a shiver down the spine. Roger had two solo pieces. First, the folk-tinged acoustic number "Grantchester Meadows" which was his song about his childhood in Cambridge. Next, was the avant-garde tape effect with Scottish dialect rant laden "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict". David Gilmour for his solo piece combined his rock, blues and folk influences in the three part "The Narrow Way". Although he hates the song and refused to have the lyrics to part 3 printed on the remaster, it's my favorite on the disc. The solo disc ends with Nick Mason's "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" which is a Nick Mason drum solo and shows that he is a great drummer and Nick's then wife Lindy did the flute solos.
Don't be fooled by the review's title, this is a great album.
Ummagumma was the band's first album to crack in the U.S. Top 100 on Billboard peaking at #74 in early 1970 and eventually went Gold in early 1974 (after the success of Dark Side) and eventually Platinum (in March, 1994).
If you like the Floyd from 1973 forward then you may be turned off by some of the pieces but if you are a hardcore Floyd fan and/or have an open ear like myself, I highly recommend this album.