"The Narrow Way" is the third suite on the studio half of

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 ...

's fourth 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 is a three-part song written and performed entirely by

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...

, using multiple

overdubs Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...

to play all the instruments himself.

Different parts

Part One (3:27) Part one of the song was called "Baby Blue Shuffle in D Major" when played by the band in a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

broadcast on 2 December 1968; it also strongly resembles the tracks "Rain in the Country (take 1)" and "

Unknown Song "Unknown Song" is an instrumental track written and recorded by the Great Britain, British progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It has been released only on a bonus disc included in the 1997 re-release of the Zabriskie Point (album), soundtrack to M ...

" recorded (but eventually not used) for the soundtrack of

Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...

's film ''

Zabriskie Point Zabriskie Point is a part of the Amargosa Range located east of Death Valley in Death Valley National Park in California, United States, noted for its erosional landscape. It is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 mil ...

'' in November/December 1969. This portion features layered acoustic guitar with some spacey effects overtop. Part Two (2:53) Part two features an electric guitar and percussion which modulate heavily at the end, forming a drone that leads into part three. Part Three (5:57) Part three of the song features Gilmour's only vocal contribution to the studio part of the album. This final part was incorporated into ''

The Man and the Journey ''The Man and The Journey'' is a suite of music performed in concert by Pink Floyd during their 1969 tour. It consisted of several of their early songs, some unreleased songs, and material later included on ''More'' and ''Ummagumma''. The concerts ...

'' by the full band on their 1969 tour.

Personnel

– guitars, vocals, bass, piano, organ, mellotron, drums, percussion

References

1969 songs Pink Floyd songs Songs written by David Gilmour {{1960s-rock-song-stub he:The Narrow Way