''More'' is the third studio album and first
soundtrack album by English
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
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
Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Recor ...
. The soundtrack is for the
film of the same name, which was primarily filmed on location on
Ibiza and was the
directorial debut
This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...
of
Barbet Schroeder. It was the band's first album without former leader
Syd Barrett.
The album was a top ten hit in the UK, but received mixed reviews. Several songs became live favourites over the following years. Like other Pink Floyd albums, it has been reissued on CD with additional material and outtakes.
Background
Pink Floyd recorded several pieces of film music before this album. In December 1967, they were featured on the BBC's ''
Tomorrow's World
''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...
'', playing along to a light show, and the following year recorded some instrumental music for the film ''
The Committee''.
The film ''More'' featured a young hitchhiker in
Ibiza who had succumbed to
heroin abuse with party scenes and drug taking. Director
Barbet Schroeder was a fan of Pink Floyd, and brought a rough cut of the film to London for them to work with. Instead of typical background music, Schroeder wanted the songs to feature in the film, such as a record playing at a party. The group also speculated they could branch out into a career as film composers if their recording and touring career did not work out. Drummer
Nick Mason later said the film was "ideally suited to some of the rumblings, squeaks and sound textures we produced on a regular basis".
Recording and songs
The album was recorded at
Pye Studios
Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhoo ...
in London, in late January and early February 1969 with engineer Brian Humphries. The album was the first to be produced by Pink Floyd without assistance from
Norman Smith, who retained an executive producer credit, and the first full album without
Syd Barrett, who had been ousted from the group in 1968, during the recording of their second album, ''
A Saucerful of Secrets''.
Pink Floyd worked out most of the music in two weeks, with material put together quickly and semi-improvised. They did not use a dubbing studio due to budget constraints, and simply timed sequences in the film with a stopwatch so they knew how long the music had to be. Bassist
Roger Waters wrote most of the lyrics during breaks between recording backing tracks. Schroeder was impressed by how quickly the group created and recorded the material. Mason and keyboardist
Richard Wright co-wrote the instrumental "Up The Khyber", the only time the pair were credited as sole co-composers. Barrett's replacement
David Gilmour handled all lead vocals on the album.
''More'' features a mixture of styles. Songs such as "Green is the Colour" were acoustic folk ballads, a genre not often explored by the group. Mason's wife Lindy played
penny whistle on the track. The album also contains
hard rock, such as "
The Nile Song" and "Ibiza Bar", as well as several instrumental tracks such as "Quicksilver" and "Main Theme", featuring their experimental and
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
approach. "
Cymbaline" criticised the music industry, with lines such as "your manager and agent are both busy on the phone". The version on the album is different from that in the film. Gilmour sings lead on both versions, though Waters is sometimes wrongly credited as singing lead for the film version.
"Green is the Colour" was played live frequently after release, as a medley with "
Careful With That Axe, Eugene", as part of a live suite called "The Journey". It was a regular feature in the set for two years afterwards. "Quicksilver" was played under the title "Sleeping" as part of the 1969 live show called "The Man", while "Cymbaline" was entitled "Nightmare". The latter remained part of the group's repertoire until the end of 1971. In live performances, the group left the stage partway through the song while the audience listened to a tape of
quadraphonic sound effects including footsteps travelling round the venue, and doors opening. "Main Theme" was briefly played live in 1970.
Two songs can be heard in the film which were not included on the album: "Hollywood" and "Seabirds". The latter was published in 1976's ''The Pink Floyd Songbook''. Both songs, as well as two other songs from those sessions, "Theme (Beat Version)" and "More Blues (Alternative Version)", were released on the 2016 box set, ''
The Early Years 1965–1972
''The Early Years 1965–1972'' is a box set that details the early work of the English rock band Pink Floyd released on 11 November 2016. It was released by Pink Floyd Records with distribution held by Warner Music for the UK and Europe and So ...
''. The set in which these tracks appear, ''1969: Dramatis/ation'' was made available as a standalone release in 2017. The track called "Seabirds" in the box set is not the original song, but an alternative take of "Quicksilver".
Cover
The album cover was, like ''A Saucerful of Secrets'', designed by
Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis were an English art design group based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black Sabbath, UFO, 10c ...
. It uses a shot from the film of two characters playing around a windmill in Ibiza, processed in a
dark room
A darkroom is used to process photographic film, to make prints and to carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of the light-sensitive photographic materials, including film and pho ...
to make it look like a
psychedelic trip.
Release and reception
''More'' reached number 9 in the UK
and, upon re-release in 1973, number 153 in the US. This was the last of three Pink Floyd albums to be released in the United States by the
Tower Records
Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Recor ...
division of
Capitol Records. "The Nile Song" was released as a single in France, Japan and New Zealand around the same time. The track, along with "Cirrus Minor" appeared on the 1971 compilation ''
Relics
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tang ...
''.
A 1973 US reissue was released on
Harvest Records
Harvest Records is a British-American record label belonging to Capitol Music Group, originally created by EMI in 1969.
History
Harvest Records was created by EMI in 1969 to market progressive rock music, and to compete with Philips' Vertigo ...
. It was certified gold in the US on 11 March 1994. The album was reissued on CD in 1985, with a digitally remastered version following in 1995. In 2016, it was reissued on
Pink Floyd Records.
''More'' received mixed reviews from critics. ''Record Song Book'' said the album was "always extremely interesting ... quite weird in parts too". ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' was favourable, describing it as starting to "define experimental instrumental identity."
[ '']MusicHound
MusicHound (sometimes stylized as musicHound) was a compiler of genre-specific music guides published in the United States by Visible Ink Press between 1996 and 2002. After publishing eleven album guides, the MusicHound series was sold to London-b ...
'' and ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' were less positive with the former giving the album a rating of one out of five and the latter calling it a "dull film soundtrack".
Legacy
Richie Unterberger of AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
gives a mixed overview, saying key tracks such as "Green Is The Colour" and "Cymbaline" developed into stronger pieces when played live.[
]
Track listing
Personnel
* Roger Waters – bass guitar;
* Richard Wright – keyboards, vocals;
* David Gilmour – guitar, vocals;
* Nick Mason – drums, percussion;
;Additional personnel
*Lindy Mason – tin whistle
*Brian Humphries – engineering
*Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis were an English art design group based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black Sabbath, UFO, 10c ...
– sleeve design
* James Guthrie – re-mastering supervision
*Doug Sax – re-mastering
Charts
Certifications
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
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{{Authority control
1969 albums
1969 soundtrack albums
Albums produced by David Gilmour
Albums produced by Nick Mason
Albums produced by Richard Wright (musician)
Albums produced by Roger Waters
Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis
Albums with cover art by Storm Thorgerson
Capitol Records albums
Capitol Records soundtracks
EMI Columbia Records albums
EMI Columbia Records soundtracks
Harvest Records albums
Harvest Records soundtracks
Pink Floyd albums
Pink Floyd soundtracks
Progressive rock soundtracks
Tower Records albums
Tower Records soundtracks
Drama film soundtracks