''Works'' is a compilation album of songs by British

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band Pink Floyd, released in 1983. It features a variety of material, including two of the band's early singles, "

Arnold Layne "Arnold Layne" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd. Released on 10 March 1967, it was the band's first single release. It was written by Syd Barrett. Lyrics The song's title character is a transvestite whose strange hobby is stealing wo ...

" and "

See Emily Play "See Emily Play" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd, released as their second single in June 1967. Written by original frontman Syd Barrett, it was released as a non-album single, but appeared as the opening track of the U.S. edition of ...

," alternative mixes of tracks from ''

The Dark Side of the Moon ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973 by Harvest Records. The album was primarily developed during live performances, and the band premiered an early version of ...

'' and the studio outtake "

Embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

Release and contents

The album was released by Pink Floyd's former American label, Capitol Records, to compete with their then-current studio album '' The Final Cut''. The album is particularly notable for including the track "Embryo," an outtake from the ''

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 Co ...

'' album that later became a concert staple in a greatly elongated form. Previously, the track had only appeared on a scarce various artists compilation album promoting Pink Floyd's UK label

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 ...

entitled ''

Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air ''Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air'' is a sampler issued by the Harvest Records label, originally released in 1970 and notable for including the previously unreleased Pink Floyd song, "Embryo". The similarly-entitled ''A Breath of Fresh Air – ...

'' in January 1970. Also unique to ''Works'' are the tracks "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse," which are alternative stereo mixes, rumored to be "fold-down" mixes from the

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

edition of ''Dark Side of the Moon''. Additionally, some tracks are crossfaded into one another, such as "See Emily Play" into "Several Species..." and "Fearless" into "Brain Damage." The album also opens with a heartbeat similar to the opening of ''Dark Side of the Moon'' that fades into the wind intro of "One of These Days." This creates a bookend effect on side 1, which ends with the heartbeat fadeout of "Eclipse."

Cover

The cover art, illustrated by Ron Larson, was inspired by the c. 1948 poster "Nederland industrialiseert" ("The Netherlands industrialise"), designed by Dutch graphic artist Wladimir Flem.

Track listing

;Side one #" One of These Days" – 5:50 (re-mix of the ''

Meddle ''Meddle'' is the sixth studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released by Harvest Records. The album was produced between the band's touring commitments, from January to August 1971 at a series of locations around London, including EM ...

'' version, interpolates part of "

Speak to Me "Speak to Me" is the first track on British progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, ''The Dark Side of the Moon'', on which it forms an overture. Nick Mason receives a rare solo writing credit for the track, though recollections differ a ...

" from ''

'') #"

" – 2:52 (single,

Duophonic Duophonic sound was a trade name for a type of audio signal processing used by Capitol Records on certain releases and re-releases of mono recordings issued during the 1960s and 1970s. In this process monaural recordings were reprocessed into a ...

Stereo) #"

Fearless Fearless or The Fearless may refer to: Psychology * Lack of fear * Courage or bravery Film, television and audio Film * ''Fearless'' (1978 film), an Italian film directed by Stelvio Massi * ''Fearless'' (1993 film), an American drama directed ...

" – 6:08 (from ''Meddle'') #" Brain Damage" – 3:50 (from ''The Dark Side of the Moon'', alternate mix) #" Eclipse" – 1:45 (from ''The Dark Side of the Moon'', alternate mix) ;Side two #

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, appearing on their second album, '' A Saucerful of Secrets'' (1968). It was written by Roger Waters, taking lyrics from a Chinese poetry book, and featu ...

" – 5:23 (from '' A Saucerful of Secrets'') #"

" – 2:54 (single, Duophonic Stereo) #" Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" – 4:47 (from ''

'') #"

Free Four "Free Four" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, written by Roger Waters and released on the band's 1972 album ''Obscured by Clouds''. Recording and lyrics The song begins with a rock and roll count-in, but in this case Pink Floy ...

" – 4:07 (from ''

Obscured by Clouds ''Obscured by Clouds'' is the seventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 2 June 1972 by Harvest and Capitol Records. It serves as the soundtrack for the French film '' La Vallée'', by Barbet Schroeder. I ...

'') #"

" – 4:39 (from the various artists compilation ''

'')

Personnel

* Syd Barrett —

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

("Arnold Layne", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", "See Emily Play"),

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

("Arnold Layne", "See Emily Play") * David Gilmour — guitar (all but "Arnold Layne", "See Emily Play", "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict"),

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

("One of These Days"), lead vocals ("Fearless", "Embryo"),

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

* Nick Mason — drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, tape effects, vocalisations ("One of These Days") * Roger Waters — bass guitar, tape effects, lead vocals ("Brain Damage", "Eclipse", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", "Free Four"), vocalisations ("Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict"), backing vocals * Richard Wright —

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

synthesisers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, backing vocals

Charts

References

{{Authority control Albums produced by David Gilmour Albums produced by Joe Boyd Albums produced by Nick Mason Albums produced by Norman Smith (record producer) Albums produced by Richard Wright (musician) Albums produced by Roger Waters Pink Floyd compilation albums 1983 compilation albums Capitol Records compilation albums