PINK FLOYD - UMMAGUMMA @ 55

 

Released 55 years ago today, on November 7th, 1969, it's Pink Floyd's fourth album, Ummagumma, perhaps the strangest release in their entire catalogue. The album was one of their more unusual conceptual concoctions, being composed of a live album, and a studio LP that was split four ways for solo works by each band member.

The original idea behind the live album was to feature fan favourites that would subsequently be dropped from the set. Although the sleeve notes say that the live material was recorded in June 1969, the live album of Ummagumma was recorded at Mothers Club in Birmingham on April 27, 1969, and the following week at Manchester College of Commerce on May 2 as part of The Man and The Journey Tour. Keyboardist, Richard Wright, later said the recording of "A Saucerful of Secrets" was a composite from both gigs. A show at Bromley Technical College on April 26 was also recorded but not used.

The studio album was something of an experiment to allow each member to explore their own musical muse, unfettered by any collaborative concerns. Each member was given half a side of the LP to do whatever they wanted. While the initial concept was met with enthusiasm by the band, once they got into the recording process, their focus became considerably less assured, resulting in a fair bit of studio noodling, with little sense of intent or direction behind it all. The results were some of the most experimental compositions of the group's career, although it all felt a bit too self-indulgent, and even pretentiously contrived in its avant-garde awkwardness.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the album was the cover design by Hipgnosis, who were responsible for most of the band's LP covers over their career. The cover artwork shows a Droste effect, the effect of a picture recursively appearing within itself, featuring the group, with a picture hanging on the wall showing the same scene, except that the band members have switched positions, and this is then repeated two more times. The British version has the Gigi soundtrack album leaning against the wall immediately above the "Pink Floyd" letters. Storm Thorgerson explained that the LP was included as a red herring to provoke debate, and that it has no intended meaning. On the rear cover, roadies Alan Styles (who also appears in "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast") and Peter Watts are shown with the band's equipment laid out on a taxiway at London Biggin Hill Airport. This concept was proposed by Nick Mason, with the intention of replicating the "exploded" drawings of military aircraft and their payloads, which were popular at the time. The album's title supposedly comes from Cambridge slang for sex, commonly used by Pink Floyd friend and occasional roadie Iain "Emo" Moore, who would say, "I'm going back to the house for some ummagumma". According to Moore, he made up the term himself.

When the album was released, it performed well commercially, breaking into the lower reaches of the top 100 in the US and Canada, while peaking at #5 in the UK. Its critical response was also, initially, quite positive, though as time has passed and it has been contextualized by the group's subsequent output, it is now generally considered one of their lesser releases. Even the band themselves dismiss it as a failed experiment. Yet, personally, it was the album that got me interested in the band. As a teen who came of age during the dawn of "punk", I had disparaged Pink Floyd as one of the "dinosaurs" of '70s excess, a perspective that lingered until the late 1980s, when a friend played me the studio LP from Ummagumma. At the time, I was very much into the more abstract music of the day, so I was rather pleasantly surprised by the strangeness of the album. After that point, my attitude changed towards the band and I began to warm to their music in a much bigger way than was possible for me beforehand. In that sense, I will always have a certain fascination with the album.

QUEEN - SHEER HEART ATTACK @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee, with half a century on the shelves, it's the third LP from Queen, Sheer Heart Attack, which was released on November 8th, 1974. It's the album that would break the band internationally, giving them their first view from the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

After the release of Queen II in March 1974, the band struck up a partnership with Mott the Hoople, with whom they toured throughout the UK. The pairing proved to be such a success that Queen were asked to accompany them on their US tour, a situation that afforded the group the opportunity to perform at much larger venues, with more sophisticated sound and lighting systems, while also giving them the freedom to try out different songs onstage. Even though the situation solidified a friendship between the two bands that would endure throughout their respective careers, Freddie Mercury remarked that having to be an opening act was still "traumatic" for him, as he bristled with the desire to take the headlining slot, but his frustration was nothing compared to what poor Brian May was about to suffer as a result of Queen's first visit to the US.

At the climax of the tour in Boston, Brian May was discovered to have contracted hepatitis, likely from the use of a contaminated needle during vaccinations the group received before travelling. The remainder of the tour was subsequently cancelled and Queen flew back home, where May was immediately hospitalized. This wasn't the only medical emergency to befall the unfortunate guitarist that year either. After having begun to recover by the start of August, the band were in Wessex Sound Studios. Work there would not last long, however, as May, who was starting to feel uneasy, went to a specialist clinic on August 2nd. He collapsed at the clinic due to a duodenal ulcer, and would be operated on the following day. He was discharged from the hospital soon after so he could recover at home. The upshot of these bouts of illness meant that the rest of the band had to function as a trio through much of the initial recording sessions for their new album. It was a situation that put the other members on the spot to pick up the slack.

Recording of the album was somewhat fragmented due to Brian's medical situation, with recording split between four different studios: Trident and Air studios in London, Rockfield in Monmouthshire, and Wessex Sound in Highbury New Park. As the album developed, the music was moving away from the grandiose mythological subject matter of their previous albums, and into more grounded themes and subjects. Brighton Rock dealt with a love affair during a seaside vacation, Killer Queen was about a high-end prostitute, Now I'm Here was about the band's experiences touring with Mott the Hoople. All rather less fantastical than battling ogres or other such mythical fairy-tale fodder.

The band were still delivering some blistering hard rock, but there was also a lightness and playful dalliance with more diverse styles. Bring Back That Leroy Brown was a tribute to the recently deceased Jim Croce, featuring a jazzy, honky-tonk musical style, with Brian playing ukulele-banjo, and Deacon on the double bass. She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes) offered up a dreamy acoustic guitar driven dirge, with Brian and John doubling up on the guitars. On the other end of the spectrum, Stone Cold Crazy can only be described as photo-thrash-metal, what with its scorching tempo being enough to one day inspire Metallica to cover the song. It was one of the group's oldest compositions, dating back to their early days and being of enough antiquity that they'd forgotten who actually wrote it, thus necessitating its credit to the entire band, their first song to do so. The album also includes the first original song composition from John Deacon, Misfire.

For the cover of the album, legendary photographer, Mick Rock, was brought in again after delivering his iconic images for Queen II. Once more he managed to capture the band in a unique state. However, rather than presenting them as austere and remote god-heads, like on the previous LP, Sheer Heart Attack showed them all crumpled up on the floor like so much dishevelled dirty laundry, all sweaty and spent looking. It was as though he'd caught them just as they collapsed after a particularly rousing live gig.

The release of the album, bolstered by the single Killer Queen, sent both records roaring up the UK charts, with both the LP and single hitting #2, while in the US, they both peaked at #12. Critics were mostly favourable in their reviews as well, with the album's hard rock & glam aesthetics finding favour with the zeitgeist of the times. If there was any question that Queen had arrived, Sheer Heart Attack put those doubts to rest.

The success of the album should have put the band in a sweet spot for their career, but there was something amiss. They were somehow piss-poor and strapped for cash, thanks to mismanagement from their agents, a situation that would have to be sorted and would put them in a make-or-break position for their next album, but that's a story for another day.