Roger Waters' bassline, described by Adrian Ashton as "one of the most memorable classic bass riffs ever recorded."
"Money" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd from their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. Written by Roger Waters, it opened side two of the original album. Released as a single, it became the band's first hit in the United States, reaching number 10 in Cash Box magazine and number 13 on the BillboardHot 100.
Distinctive elements of the song include its unusual 7 4time signature, and the tape loop of money-related sound effects (such as a ringing cash register and a jingle of coins). These effects are timed right on the beats, and act as a count-in at the beginning to set the tempo and are heard periodically throughout the song.
The song was regularly performed by Pink Floyd and played on most tours since 1972, and has since been performed by David Gilmour and Waters on their respective solo tours. Gilmour re-recorded the song in 1981, while Waters released a re-recording of the song in 2023.
Composition
"Money" has been described as a progressive rock,[3]blues rock,[4] and hard rock song.[5] Much of the song has an unusual time signature, 7 4.[6][a] Waters wrote the central riff on an acoustic guitar, and chose the time signature as it fitted the "bluesy feel" of the song.[11]
The form and chord progression are based on the standard twelve-bar blues in the key of B minor, with the vocal melody and nearly all of Gilmour's soloing based on the pentatonic and blues scales.[12] Two twelve-bar verses are followed by a twenty-bar instrumental section that features a blues-style tenor saxophone solo played by Dick Parry, along with keyboard, bass and drums and a further two-bar intro in 4 4 leading to the guitar solo, which is structured like a twelve-bar blues, but doubled to a twenty-four-bar length.[13]
Waters wrote the lyrics to demonstrate irony and criticising the power of money and the capitalism system generally.[14] "Money interested me enormously," Waters remarked on the twentieth anniversary of Dark Side. "I remember thinking, 'Well, this is it and I have to decide whether I'm really a socialist or not.' I'm still keen on a general welfare society, but I became a capitalist. You have to accept it. I remember coveting a Bentley like crazy. The only way to get something like that was through rock or the football pools. I very much wanted all that material stuff."[15] In another interview, he said he was "sure that the free market isn't the whole answer ... my hope is that mankind will evolve into a more co-operative and less competitive beast.[14]
Recording
String of coins (one-third of original length), including pre-decimal 1d and 3d denominations, used for the sound effects on Money. Made by Nick Mason in 1972 and retained by his then-wife Lindy Mason. Displayed at the exhibition Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains.
"Money" begins with the rhythmic sequence of sound effects that is heard throughout the first several bars. This was created by splicing together recordings Waters had made of clinking coins, a ringing cash register, tearing paper, a clicking counting machine and other items to construct a seven-beat effects loop.[16][17] The original loop was used for early live performances, but had to be re-recorded onto multi track tape for the album.[18] It was later adapted to four tracks in order to create a "walk around the room" effect in the quadraphonic mix of The Dark Side of the Moon.[7]
The demo tracks for the song, including some of the sound effects, were recorded in a makeshift recording studio Roger Waters had in his garden shed.[17] As recorded by the band, the song has a "bluesy, transatlantic feel", unlike Waters' original demo version, which he later described as "prissy and very English". As heard on Classic Albums: Pink Floyd – The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon, the demo is in the key of G-sharp minor, as opposed to the B minor of the final version.[7]
Recording of Pink Floyd's version began on 6 June 1972 at Abbey Road Studios with a new recording of the sound effects. Some effects such as the cash register were taken from existing sound libraries. The one inch tape with the effects was then transferred onto a quarter inch tape that could be overdubbed.[16] After this, the band performed a run-through of the backing track live the following day.[19]Richard Wright played a Wurlitzer electronic piano through a wah wah pedal, while Gilmour played a straightforward rhythm part. Waters later remarked the live-run through meant the group gradually sped up through the recording.[16] Engineer Alan Parsons gradually faded out the loop before the vocals started. As the song progressed, the band gradually sped up, yet later, between the first and second verses, Parsons briefly raised up the volume of the effects loop, and just by coincidence, it turned out to fit the beat. After this point, the loop is not heard again.
After the backing track was completed, Nick Mason overdubbed some drums, and Wright recorded a new electric piano part on 8 June.[1] Gilmour then recorded three individual guitar solos.[16] The first was played using a fuzz face and a Binson Echorec, giving it a strongly reverberated sound. It was then double tracked.[1] The second solo was recorded "dry" without any reverb and delay effects, while the third was recorded with similar settings to the first, but using a customised Lewis guitar with twenty-four frets, allowing a full four-octave range. This solo was doubled using automatic double tracking.[20]
According to mix supervisor Chris Thomas, Gilmour wanted to record guitar tracks live, and not add effects later. Thomas also asked Gilmour to double the descending riff at the end of the solo, so it would sound "really big" leading into the last verse, and to double the bass riff on guitar so it could stand out more.[20][21]
Dick Parry added his saxophone solo on 27 October. The group didn't know many other musicians and asked Parry as he was an old friend of Gilmour.[20] Gilmour sang the lead vocal, which was also double tracked, including scat singing in response to some improvised guitar lines during the outro.[20]
Various voices can be heard talking as the track fades out into the next song, "Us and Them". Roger Waters asked people who were present in the studio at the time random questions, and recorded their responses to add to the song.[22]Paul McCartney, who happened to be in the studio at the time of the recording, was questioned as well but his answer never made the final cut.[23] However, Wings' guitarist Henry McCullough did contribute the line "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time". Other lines included roadie Peter Watts's wife Patricia: "I was definitely in the right. That geezer was cruising for a bruising" and roadie Chris Adamson: "So after, I was yelling and screaming and telling him why it wasn't coming up on fader eleven. It came to a heavy blow, which sorted the matter out."[24]
Release
The single was released in the US on 7 May 1973 in a shorter version, with most of the saxophone and guitar solos edited out.[25][11] A special promotional single was released for radio stations containing a stereo and mono mix on, with the word "bullshit" intended to be censored. However, the stereo mix accidentally contained the uncensored version, so a new pressing had to be issued.[25]
"Money" was Pink Floyd's first major hit in the US, reaching a peak of No. 13 in the Billboard Hot 100.[25] It also topped the charts in France and was a top ten hit in Austria.[22]
Re-recording
The song was re-recorded for the 1981 Pink Floyd album, A Collection of Great Dance Songs, because Capitol Records refused to licence the track to Columbia Records in the United States.[26] With the help of co-producer James Guthrie, David Gilmour re-recorded the song, providing the vocals and playing all the instruments except saxophone, where Parry reprised his role. [27] This recording was released as a single.[25]
"Money" has been regularly performed by Pink Floyd throughout their career.[22] The first performance was at The Dome, Brighton on 20 January 1972 as part of the "Dark Side of the Moon" suite, but this was abandoned after a few bars due to problems with the taped sound effects. After a delay, the group decided to play "Atom Heart Mother" instead.[28] The first complete performance was the following day at the Guildhall, Portsmouth.[29] It was performed regularly along with the rest of "Dark Side of the Moon" up until the concert at Knebworth Park on 5 July 1975.[30] It was then performed as an encore on the 1977 "In The Flesh" tour.[31] These later performances would typically last as long as twelve minutes, with the song's solo being elongated with multiple additional sections.[citation needed]
When this song was performed in Montreal on 6 July 1977, a disruptive fan angered Waters by throwing a beer bottle onto the stage. While the band played during the jam section, Waters called the fan onto the stage, then spat in his face after pretending to help him up. This concert, of which bootleg recordings exist, has been cited as a catalyst for Pink Floyd's next album, The Wall.[32]
Gilmour played the song regularly during his 1984 US tour in support of the solo album About Face and the song would be expanded up to 12 minutes.[34] He also played the song regularly during his Rattle That Lock Tour in 2015 and 2016 and again was expanded.
"Money" was performed during Pink Floyd's reunion show, for which Waters rejoined the band (after more than two decades), at the Live 8 concert in London in 2005, along with "Breathe" (including the reprise that follows "Time"), "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb".[37] Unusually for a live Pink Floyd performance, at Live 8 the band kept the song's solo to three choruses, as it is on the album.
Reception
"Money" is the only song from The Dark Side of the Moon to make its appearance on the Billboard Top 100 list of 1973,[38] where it was ranked 92.[38] In 2008, Guitar World magazine listed David Gilmour's solo on "Money" as No. 62 among readers' votes for "The Greatest 100 Guitar Solos."[39] The song was also ranked No. 69 on the list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" of Rolling Stone.[40] This song avoids more typical Pink Floyd themes such as paranoia, insanity, the meaning of life, and the passage of time. Instead, the lyrics criticise crass materialism.[41]
The commercial success of "Money" as a single changed Pink Floyd's career, moving them from a cult band to major stars. This caused problems at gigs, as audiences wanted to hear the song and not lengthy instrumental passages that had been a key part of concerts to that point.[22]
Video
The music video for "Money" features scenes of various ways of making and spending money, and includes brief close-ups of a coin spinning, coins flowing in a mint, gold ingots in a bank, and a record copy of The Dark Side of the Moon on a turntable. In addition, the video also includes shots of the album making its way down a conveyor belt in a factory/distribution plant. It also has shots of people living in apparent poverty, as well as shots of gramophone records and audio equipment being destroyed by explosives during the song's bridge.[42]
In early 2023, Waters announced that for the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, he would be doing a full re-recording of the record without the rest of Pink Floyd that would re-address the political and emotional statements on that record.[57] The record's name, cover, and lead single, the re-recording of "Money" was released on 21 July 2023.[58] The track also had a lyric video released alongside it.[59]
Unlike the original track, the new version of "Money" has been described as being "eerie" and having ominous, near-whispering and crooning vocals from Waters. Furthermore, it is also notably slower than the original[60] and features a spoken word segment in the middle, which "only adds to the surrealism".[61] The track overall has also been described as being more bluesy than rock and drawn comparisons to Leonard Cohen.[62][63]
Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It was released by Harvest on 2 October 1970 in the United Kingdom, and on 10 October 1970 in the United States. It was recorded at EMI Studios in London, and was the band's first album to reach number 1 in the UK, while it reached number 55 in the US, eventually going gold there.
Meddle is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released by Harvest Records on 5 November 1971 in the United Kingdom. The album was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971 at a series of locations around London, including EMI Studios and Morgan Studios.
Ummagumma is the fourth album by English rock band Pink Floyd. It is a double album and was released on 7 November 1969 by Harvest Records. The first disc consists of live recordings from concerts at Mothers Club in Birmingham and the College of Commerce in Manchester that contained part of their normal set list of the time, while the second contains solo compositions by each member of the band recorded at EMI Studios. The artwork was designed by regular Pink Floyd collaborators Hipgnosis and features a number of pictures of the band combined to give a Droste effect. It was the last album cover to feature the band.
Obscured by Clouds is the seventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 2 June 1972 by Harvest and Capitol Records. It serves as the soundtrack for the French film La Vallée, by Barbet Schroeder. It was recorded in two sessions in France, while Pink Floyd were in the midst of touring, and produced by the band.
"Echoes" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, and the sixth and last track on their 1971 album Meddle. It is 23+1⁄2 minutes long, the second longest of their discography, eight seconds shorter than Atom Heart Mother Suite, and takes up the entire second side of the original LP. The track evolved from a variety of different musical themes and ideas, including instrumental passages and studio effects, resulting in the side-long piece. The music, credited to all the band, was mainly written by Richard Wright and David Gilmour, while Roger Waters' lyrics addressed themes of human communication and empathy, to which he returned in later work.
More is the third studio album and first soundtrack album by English rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on 13 June 1969 in the United Kingdom by EMI Columbia and on 9 August 1969 in the United States by Tower Records. The soundtrack is for the film of the same name, which was primarily filmed on location on Ibiza and was the directorial debut of Barbet Schroeder. It was the band's first album without former leader Syd Barrett.
"The Great Gig in the Sky" is the fifth track on The Dark Side of the Moon, a 1973 album by English rock band Pink Floyd. The song features music by keyboard player Richard Wright and improvised, wordless vocals by session singer Clare Torry. It is one of only three Pink Floyd songs to feature lead vocals from an outside artist. The Great Gig in the Sky was released as a digital single in February 10, 2023 to promote The Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary box set.
"Time" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd. It is included as the fourth track on their eighth album The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and was released as a single in the United States. With lyrics written by bassist Roger Waters, guitarist David Gilmour shares lead vocals with keyboardist Richard Wright.
"Careful with That Axe, Eugene" is an instrumental piece by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It was recorded in November 1968 and released as the B-side to the single "Point Me at the Sky", and featured on the 1971 compilation album Relics. It was re-recorded for the 1970 film Zabriskie Point, retitled as "Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up".
"Us and Them" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd, from their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. The music was written by Richard Wright with lyrics by Roger Waters. It is sung by David Gilmour, with harmonies by Wright. The song is 7minutes and 49 seconds, the longest on the album.
"Brain Damage" is the ninth track from English rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. It was sung on record by Roger Waters, who would continue to sing it on his solo tours. Gilmour sang the lead vocal when Pink Floyd performed it live on their 1994 tour. The band originally called this track "Lunatic" during live performances and recording sessions. "Brain Damage" was released as a digital single on 19 January 2023 to promote The Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary box set.
"Eclipse" is the tenth and final track from English rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. It was written and sung by Roger Waters, with harmonies by David Gilmour and Rick Wright. After Waters left the band, Gilmour sang the lead vocal when performing live.
"Breathe" (sometimes called "Breathe (In the Air)") is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd. It appears on their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon.
"Speak to Me" is the first track on English rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon, on which it forms an overture. Nick Mason receives a rare solo writing credit for the track, though recollections differ as to the reasons for this. Mason states that he created the track himself, whereas Richard Wright and Roger Waters stated the credit was a "gift" to Mason to give him some publishing income. Live versions are included on Pulse (1995) and The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley 1974 (2023).
"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, appearing on their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets (1968). It was written by Roger Waters, taking lyrics from a Chinese poetry book, and features a drum part by Nick Mason played with timpani mallets. It is the only song recorded by Pink Floyd to feature material from all five band members, as there are several different guitar parts recorded by both David Gilmour and Syd Barrett, although the guitar parts are buried in the mix.
"Astronomy Domine" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd. The song, written and composed by the original vocalist/guitarist Syd Barrett, is the opening track on their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). The lead vocal was sung by Barrett and the keyboard player Richard Wright. Its working title was "Astronomy Dominé ". Domine is a word frequently used in Gregorian chants.
"Embryo" is a song by Pink Floyd. It was recorded in 1968 and regularly performed live in 1970–71, but never released on any regular Pink Floyd studio album.
Richard William Wright was an English keyboardist and songwriter who co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He appeared on almost every Pink Floyd album and performed on all their tours. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of Pink Floyd.
The Dark Side of the Moon Tour was a concert tour by English rock band Pink Floyd in 1972 and 1973 in support of their album The Dark Side of the Moon, covering the UK, US, Europe and Japan. There were two separate legs promoting the album, one in 1972 before the album's release and another in 1973 afterwards, together covering 128 shows.
References
Notes
↑ Waters and Gilmour originally stated that the song was composed primarily in 7 8 time,[7] although Gilmour said later, in a 1993 interview with Guitar World magazine, that the time signature was 7 4. Rick Wright confirmed in a US radio interview in 2000 that "Money" was composed in 7 4.[8][9][10]
↑ "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2011. "David Gilmour hangs back for the first three minutes of this definitive Floyd rocker, which started as an acoustic blues song in rehearsals. Then the song shifts from a 7/4 stomp into straight time, and he delivers a rampaging freakout, ending up on notes so high most guitars don't even reach them."
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