"Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" is a track written and performed by

Roger Waters George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Waters initially served as the bassist, but following the departure of singer-so ...

from the 1969

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

double album, ''

Ummagumma ''Ummagumma'' is the fourth album by English rock band Pink Floyd. It is a double album and it 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 C ...

''. It holds the distinction of having the longest title of any of the band's songs.

Sounds and recording

The track consists of several minutes of noises resembling rodents and birds simulated by Waters' voice and other techniques, such as tapping the microphone played at different speeds, followed by Waters providing a few

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...

s of spoken word in an exaggerated Scottish burr.Povey, Glen: ''The Complete Pink Floyd - The Ultimate Reference'', p. 133, 2016, Carlton The

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ea ...

were the indigenous people of what is now Scotland who merged with the Scots. There is a hidden message in the song at about 4:32. If played at half speed, Waters can be heard to say, "That was pretty

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 ...

, wasn't it?"From Abracadabra to Zombies

The Skeptic's Dictionary
'. Also, at the very end of the rant, Waters is heard to say, "Thank you." A small sample of these effects can also be heard at about 4:48 on Waters' other track on ''Ummagumma'', " Grantchester Meadows".

In popular culture

The title of the

Man or Astro-man? Man or Astro-man? is an American surf rock group that formed in Auburn, Alabama in the early 1990s and came to prominence over the following decade. Primarily instrumental, Man or Astro-man? blended the surf rock style of the early 1960s like ...

song "Many Pieces of Large Fuzzy Mammals Gathered Together at a Rave and Schmoozing with a Brick" is based on this song. A quotation in the

Karl Edward Wagner Karl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 14 October 1994) was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. He w ...

novel ''Bloodstone'' (1975) pays tribute to the song: "several species of small furry animals gathered together in cave and grooving with a pict."

Personnel

– vocalisations and tape effects

References

External links

{{Authority control 1969 songs 1960s instrumentals Pink Floyd songs Songs written by Roger Waters Experimental music compositions