Pink Floyd mandolin covers, and general musings

[Jim MacDaniel]

I was wandering around youtube when I found this interesting cover of Breathe featuring mandolin. This stood out to me since it is one of the few mando-centric covers of a Floyd song other than Wish You Were Here (which BTW Jim Richter covers quite well on OM, also on youtube) and thought I would post it for your listening pleasure. Has anyone out there played around with other Floyd tunes with your bands or on solo mandolin?



This vid then got me thinking about what other Pink Floyd songs might make for a nice mando tune, which got me thinking about their discography in general. What I kept looping back to is how incredible David Gilmour's many outstanding guitar solos still sound today. I know there are many Syd Barrett and Roger Waters fans out there, but to me, when I think of Pink Floyd, more often than not I think of the tunes with my favorite Gilmour solos in them. For that matter, when I build a list of my favorite rock guitar solos, Gilmour also shows up on those lists several time.

Which leads me to ask, what was the force behind your favorite Pink Floyd memories and albums; Syd Barrett's writing and guitar; Roger Water's writing, vocals, and amazing vision; or Gilmour's always guitar work and memorable solos?

[Santiago]

Gilmore's guitar redefined the instrument as capable of a soaring melody. I am always surprised at what notes he chooses to play in any situation, electric or acoustic, that takes the music a step further than you may have anticipated.

[JimRichter]

Well, this thread got me inspired to arrange one of my favorite Floyd numbers to octave (will work on mando too). I think it makes a very good mandolin piece. If there's the interest, I'll tab it out in the future.

[mandopete]

Has anyone out there played around with other Floyd tunes with your bands or on solo mandolin?

This vid then got me thinking about what other Pink Floyd songs might make for a nice mando tune

A couple of years ago at a bluegrass festival a couple of friends of mine pulled out San Tropez which has a really nice feel to it. Seems like it would be a good choice for mando.

Jim Richter - Excellent as always man!

[Jim MacDaniel]

Jim - Very nice, and I for one would enjoy getting the tab or notation for that on mando. :mandosmiley:

Pete - that's a good one. Coincidentally, when I saw Spinal Plug Live, Unwigged and Unplugged earlier this year here in Oakland, I thought they would have a blast covering that tune as well.

[mandopete]

Which leads me to ask, what was the force behind your favorite Pink Floyd memories and albums; Syd Barrett's writing and guitar; Roger Water's writing, vocals, and amazing vision; or Gilmour's always guitar work and memorable solos?

Yes, David Gilmour is probably the most melodic guitar in rock music to be sure. But my favorite memory is not really music or performances, but an album cover (shows my age).

As a kid in a rock band I was always obsessed with equipment and I used to stare at the cover of Umma Gumma and think how cool it was to have all of that suff.

Wierd, huh?

[JimRichter]

Actually, one that would make a great mandolin piece would be Echoes. I started on this once and shelved it. I used to play it in a trio with my brother (me on guitar).

And, Fearless is a great one for mandolin. I did this as the opening to my version of Wish You Were Here.

Of course, I'm waiting for someone to do "Careful with that Mandolin, Eugene"

JR

[JimRichter]

I was in the mood. Now, eat your pudding.

[mandocrucian]

Since the late 70's.....
"Granchester Meadows" which I still like to play
"Arnold Layne" (Barrett era Floyd)
"The Gnome" (Barrett era Floyd)
"Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun"

messed with the guitar lead (on mando) for "Echoes"

My younger brother sang a bunch of Syd Barrett/early Floyd things: "The Scarecrow", "Rats", "Gigolo Aunt", "Octopus Ride", "Bike", "Flaming" etc. This was back in the early 80's; we had a pretty bizarre repertoire mix: lots of Dan Hicks ("Laughing Song", "O'Reilly At The Bar", "Crazy Cos He Is", "Milk Shakin' Mama", "News From Up The Street", "Jukie's Ball"..... the Dawg music followers really resented our assertions that Dan 'got there 10 years sooner'), some Nick Drake, Bonzos, Slim Gaillard, early Kinks ("Summer Afternoon", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "Dead End Street", 'Death Of A Clown"...). Never did "Vegetable Man" though - the ultimate Syd Barrett number.

[Santiago]

Fantastic version of GBBS Jim. (would love those tabs too!)
I love that the kids in Another Brick never got paid and wound up suing. I guess they got an education afterall.

[Howard33]

Count me in for tabs Jim. I'm pick'en up whatever your laying down brother.:grin:

[Jim MacDaniel]

Wooo hooo! Me too please!

[Jim MacDaniel]

Since the late 70's.....
"Granchester Meadows" which I still like to play...

Good one Niles -- I like it...

[mandopete]

Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict?

Anyone?

[journeybear]

There seem to be a few bands fooling around in this way. Here's Greensky Bluegrass: (http://www.greenskybluegrass.com/)




Then there's Poor Man's Whiskey (http://www.poormanswhiskey.com/). Looks like these guys do the entire DSOTM in Wizard Of Oz costume (http://www.youtube.com/user/joecefis8) ...



Once upon a time I used to do "See Emily Play" solo, but not bluegrass style ... :mandosmiley:

[JimRichter]

I'm not a fan of doing rock covers in bluegrass style. Sometimes they work out (like Fox on the Run or when NGR did L. Russell's Prince of Peace), but other times they sound hokey. Frankly, I think the Time cover sounds novel, rather than bona fide. Part of the flavor of the original tune was the rhythm, which is lost in the bluegrass straight beat. I'm not knocking the guys cause they're sound like a talented band, but it's just my personal taste. I like rock rhythms and try to see that they're preserved.

[Santiago]

I do without Dorothy in the dress too. :-)

[journeybear]

I wasn't saying either of these bands was any good, just sayin', here 'tis. ;) There are more PF renditions by them, as well as others; I just picked a couple at random. These were pretty easy search results. Personally, I'd like to see this treatment applied to material other than DSOTM. I don't know why people keep going to that. Dig a little deeper, I always say. Y'all are on your own with this stuff! :whistling:

[Jim MacDaniel]

JB's Time vid reminded me of my favorite Floyd tribute/cover ever, The Easy Star All Stars' Dub Side of the Moon, which is an all Dub/Reggae version of Dark Side. It is very well done, and retains the mood and feel of the original, but puts a unique twist/beat to it -- yet it still tracks to the Wizard of Oz. ;)

Here is their version of Time, live...

(If you dig this, this a many other tracks from Dub Side are on youtube, both studio and live versions.)

[JEStanek]

The Dub Side of the Moon is a highly recommended CD by me. It's in regular summer rotation for my commute to work.

Jamie

[Dan Hoover]

once again mr.richter...wowzer's!! that blew me away...very cool..how do you do this???
i agree..david gilmour one of the most outstanding guitarist in rock,totally defined the floyd sound,maybe mostly in the later years??love to hear what he can do on a mando???
years ago,when i was a pup, i use too to stare at the ummagumma LP sleeve..sometimes too long,i probably use to stare at a lot of their records too long??? along w/darkside and the beatles white album and abbey road,i've had them on every format...lp,cassette,8-track,reel-reel..and lastly cd...actually,other than a nina simone song,pink floyd is the only thing on my ipod too...
floyd song i'd like to hear a mando version of??? "Remember a Day"...one of my fav's...
great thread jim mac...thank's...cheers me up...i'll have to look up the dub side....i think it's going to be one of those weekends again...:grin:

[Dan Hoover]

If you dig this, this a many other tracks from Dub Side are on youtube, both studio and live versions.

just watched 3 you tube vids...The Dub Side....wow...i need this...why haven't i heard this before??? thanks ..

[journeybear]

... years ago,when i was a pup, i use too to stare at the ummagumma LP sleeve..sometimes too long,i probably use to stare at a lot of their records too long??? along w/darkside and the beatles white album and abbey road,i've had them on every format...lp,cassette,8-track,reel-reel..and lastly cd...actually,other than a nina simone song,pink floyd is the only thing on my ipod too...

This explains so much ... :))

[journeybear]

The Dub Side of the Moon is a highly recommended CD by me. It's in regular summer rotation for my commute to work.Good call! The videos from PlanetOfTokerz are a trip too. He has the whole album up ...

NO MC, BTW ... :whistling:

[journeybear]

Off on a slight tangent (bound to happen), Easy Star All-Stars has a new album out now called "Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band." :disbelief: dubl0 (http://www.youtube.com/user/dubl0)has the whole album up on youtube but no groovy videos. Yet. ;)

So far this isn't grooving for me like the Dub Side.

[mandopete]

I'm not a fan of doing rock covers in bluegrass style. Sometimes they work out (like Fox on the Run or when NGR did L. Russell's Prince of Peace), but other times they sound hokey.

Jim - I tend to agree with you on this point. One of things you've managed to capture in all of the cover work you've posted is that original flavor of tunes you've arranged (hence this thread being in the "rock" section).

In my mind this is no easy task on the mandolin and why I have always been so impressed with your work. From time to time I think about doing similar things in a band setting, but we lean so much towards bluegrass we run into the problem you describe above.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Off on a slight tangent (bound to happen), Easy Star All-Stars has a new album out now called "Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band." :disbelief: dubl0 (http://www.youtube.com/user/dubl0)has the whole album up on youtube but no groovy videos. Yet. ;)

So far this isn't grooving for me like the Dub Side.

I haven't heard it yet, but brother said the same thing -- but I think they did a good job covering this track:

It catches the original feel of Ringo's original version, and while not as soulful as Joe Cocker's cover, it is definitely more intelligible than the latter. ;)

[fishdawg40]

I wasn't saying either of these bands was any good, just sayin', here 'tis. ;)

That's a great young bluegrass band out of Michigan. They won the Telluride band competition a couple years back. Gonna see them next week.

Jim I see what your saying about the "straight" bluegrass rhythm and they way Floyd did it was the way, but man those words are too cool. Could be one of my favorite Floyd songs.

[mandotopia]

Younder Mountian String band does a great version of Good Bye Blue Sky on Mountian Tracks Vol. 2 It is at the end of the CD but not listed on the jacket.

[m@ roe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZykncZ-zlA

Rumpke Mountain Boys doing Pigs (three different ones). If you've not heard of these guys and like pink floyd or dead bluegrass covers you've gotta check em out! :mandosmiley:

[jsphrdvs]

I can't remember how I came across this, but Luther Wright and the Wrongs made an album called "Rebuild the Wall", which they recreate each song from The Wall in a country/bluegrass style. I haven't played it in a long time, but I recall it was entertaining. Some may like, some not, but I wanted to put it out there.

http://www.lutherwright.com/thewall.php

:mandosmiley:

[bagpipe]

Wow, that is fantastic. Someone needs to show the banjo player how to tone it down a little though: it's not cool to drown out the singer.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZykncZ-zlA

Rumpke Mountain Boys doing Pigs (three different ones). If you've not heard of these guys and like pink floyd or dead bluegrass covers you've gotta check em out! :mandosmiley:

[jasona]

And, Fearless is a great one for mandolin.


That would sound incredible on a bouzouki

[JimRichter]

That would sound incredible on a bouzouki

That's what is at the beginning of my Fearless video, though technically on octave mandolin (though with octave courses on the bottom)

[JimRichter]

Another Floyd cover

[JimRichter]

One more

[Ben Milne]

Poor Man's Whisky (http://www.myspace.com/pmwmusic) are renowned doing Pink floyd stuff... (Their 2009 album is named Dark side of the moonshine)

I had heard of them during the first part of the year and was devistated when I found out 2 days after easter that they had actually been out and played at the ECBR festival in Byron Bay I would have usually been there working but had taken some other work prior to easter and decided not to try to get a hold of some tix.
Oh wells.

[Darren Bailey]

I messed around with some Pink Floyd inspired music:

[Santiago]

I've seen many concerts to be sure, but probably the best concert I ever saw was Pink Floyd live at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. I once wrote an article about how they produced their live show at Madison Square Garden, and their management invited my wife and I -- and four friends -- to see the stadium version of the tour so I could see them blow up the giant pig. As an encore, they did the entire Dark Side of the Moon album. When I was in high school I would put the headphones on with that album on my turntable (like a CD player, but analog) and I would fall asleep to the album. Every note of that album was pretty well etched into my brain. The performance was so spot-on to the studio recording that I was/am still amazed.

[journeybear]

I saw them in Milwaukee on the "Wish You Were Here" tour (1975?). If I recall correctly (bet against it) they did that entire album and then all of "Dark Side." I can't say whether they did it all just like the records, but I would hope not. When I go to a concert I want something that I can't get at home with the stereo up and the lava light going. I saw The Cars open for The Beach Boys in 1980 and they sounded just like their record. It seemed pointless to me. I'm all for having a vision of your band's sound and songs and wanting to realize that, but if you end up recreating the album in concert rather than making it special, unique, and (hopefully) transcendant, it seems inert. I'm not saying that's what you experienced, but there is a danger of being overly controlled that works to defeat the purpose of live performance. I don't want to hear sloppy playing or mindless jamming either, but something more towards exploration. That's one thing I liked about the pink Floyd movie when David Gilmour has all his gear set up in some Roman ruins and creates some otherworldly sounds. That's what I liked about them at their best - that sense of experimentation and discovery.

Hmmm ... I guess this falls into the second category - general musings. ;)

[Ed Goist]

Pink Floyd - The Animals Tour
25th June 1977
Municipal Stadium
Cleveland,Ohio
(I was given these tickets as a high school graduation present from my uncle Danny - Not a bad gift, eh?)

Setlist:
Sheep
Pigs On The Wing Part 1
Dogs
Pigs On The Wing Part 2
Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5
Welcome To The Machine
Have A Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9
Us And Them
Money

This is one of the top three concerts I have seen in my life. (The other two being Rory Gallagher & Muddy Waters, and both of those were in a small, hometown venue).

[Jim MacDaniel]

Pink Floyd - The Animals Tour
25th June 1977
Municipal Stadium
Cleveland,Ohio...
This is one of the top three concerts I have seen in my life. (The other two being Rory Gallagher & Muddy Waters, and both of those were in a small, hometown venue).

I saw them on that same tour a few days earlier (or later, I forget which) in Cincinatti -- a very memorable experience, both visually and musically -- and is also among my top favorite concerts. (Others include Zep in Cinci that same year, ZZ Top in Lakeland Florida in 1979, all three days of the first US Festival, Peter Gabriel's Us tour at the Oakland Coliseum, Jimmy Buffet's first show at the Bay Area's Shoreline Ampitheater back in the late 90's, Soul Coughing's last show in San Francisco, and more recently, Jack Johnson and G.Love at Berkeley's Greek Theatre.)

[TonyEarth]

here's my thoughts: as with hendrix, i'm way too young to have seen them live, but i think they're pretty cool. there are some things which are a little weird for me, it takes some getting used to, but in general they are good. i have one or two albums :)

[journeybear]

The US Festival (or whatever video they made of it) was shown on VH1 Classics early in the year. I'd never heard of it before. As a lot of these things go, it was hit or miss, and they only ever show just one or two songs per band. But it makes it more fun to know someone I know was there.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Here is the line-up for the first US Festival in 1982. My favorite day by far was Day 1, the inaccurately labelled "New Wave Day", with Gang of Four as the only downer; but Day 3 was also a blast, kicking off with "Breakfast with The Dead", and didn't let up until Fleetwood Mac's final encore.

Friday, September 3
Gang of Four
The Ramones
The English Beat
Oingo Boingo
The B-52's
Talking Heads
The Police

Saturday, September 4
The Joe Sharino Band
Dave Edmunds
Eddie Money
Santana
The Cars
The Kinks
Pat Benatar
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Sunday, September 5
The Grateful Dead
Jerry Jeff Walker
Jimmy Buffett
Jackson Browne
Fleetwood Mac

[jasona]

That's what is at the beginning of my Fearless video, though technically on octave mandolin (though with octave courses on the bottom)



I was right, it does sound fantastic! Thanks for that Jim!

[LukeSwanson]

I saw the Roger Waters Wall Tour last night in Chicago. It was my first concert, and it was mind-numbingly awesome. I noticed that they played Outside The Wall with a mandolin in it. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen, and I would like to know how one would go about making that song mandolin friendly.

[Ed Goist]

I'm listening to 'Pulse' tonight, and as always, I find Pink Floyd's music the music that most directly speaks to me emotionally, intellectually, and artistically. It just seems to 'nourish' me more than any other music.
As I sat here contentedly listening to this great music, I composed this "mando-inspired" Haiku, and thought it most appropriately posted to this thread.

Big Mon, Jethro, Dawg?
Who is your inspiration?
Me? David Gilmour.