{"id":24406,"date":"2023-01-05T05:30:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T10:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24406"},"modified":"2025-01-20T15:01:57","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T20:01:57","slug":"nick-mason-demystifying-pink-floyds-animals-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/05\/nick-mason-demystifying-pink-floyds-animals-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Mason: Demystifying Pink Floyd\u2019s \u2018Animals\u2019 (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"On the occasion of Animals<\/i>\u2019 remix\/reissue, I took the opportunity to chat with drummer Nick Mason \u2013 the only musician to have played on every single Pink Floyd release since its founding in the mid 1960s \u2013 about the band\u2019s 1977 album. Mason fielded a wide variety of questions, and in the process helped debunk some long-held misconceptions about the band\u2019s 10th<\/sup> studio release.<\/p>\n

Thematic Unity<\/b>
\nTwo songs that would serve as centerpieces of Animals<\/i> were existing works that Pink Floyd had been playing live for some time. \u201cRaving and Drooling\u201d and \u201cYou Gotta Be Crazy\u201d both figured into the band\u2019s set list on their tours in support of 1975\u2019s Wish You Were Here<\/i>. And by the time Animals<\/i> was completed, those lengthy tracks had been refashioned into \u201cSheep\u201d and \u201cDogs\u201d respectively. Joined by a new tune, \u201cPigs (Three Different Ones),\u201d they would function as the narrative core of Roger Waters\u2019 Animal Farm<\/i>-inspired conceptual work. But as Mason explains, when sessions for the album first got underway, there was not yet an underlying theme to the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no sense of trying to assemble an album so much as collecting songs or ideas for songs that would work in their own right,\u201d he recalls. The band was halfway through the project before a concept came about (or was shared by lyricist Roger Waters). \u201cOnce there were two or three songs, then Roger particularly would look at a way of working them together and perhaps bring in an extra song to complete the set, almost,\u201d Mason says. \u201cIn that respect it was not like The Wall<\/i> at all, which really came as a complete package.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Shift in Balance<\/b>
\nWhen founder and band leader Syd Barrett drifted off into the ether in 1968, guitarist David Gilmour took his place. From that point onward through the making of The Dark Side of the Moon<\/i> (and to a lesser extent, its follow-up Wish You Were Here<\/i>), Pink Floyd functioned as something of a democracy. Each of the four members \u2013 Gilmour, bassist Roger Waters, keyboardist Richard Wright and drummer Mason \u2013 held their own, all contributing creatively to the band\u2019s music.<\/p>\n

By the time of The Wall<\/i> in 1979, the balance had shifted radically. Waters was in full command; Wright would be fired from the group (he was a hired musician on the live dates in support of The Wall<\/i>), and while both Gilmour and Mason contributed in significant ways, both internally and outwardly Pink Floyd was now Roger Waters\u2019 creative vehicle.<\/p>\n

The accepted thinking is that Waters had in fact assumed command as early as the sessions for Animals<\/i>. (In a blog post ahead of Animals<\/i>\u2019 reissue, Waters refers to that time as \u201cWhen I was still in charge.\u201d) But although the events transpired more than 45 years ago, Mason takes issue with that characterization.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThat’s not really how I review it now,\u201d he says. \u201cI think in hindsight, one could say, yeah, that was starting to happen. But I think at the time we probably were [still] at the stage of working together.\u201d In fact Mason characterizes the Animals<\/i> sessions at Britannia Row as largely free from internal tension.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunnily enough, I think it was all a rather sort of cheerful period,\u201d he says. \u201cWe’re always seen as being at war with each other permanently, but actually, it was great.\u201d Part of that came from the fact that the group was working on its own turf, in its own studio. \u201cWe were surrounded by friends and family, almost,\u201d he explains. \u201cRoger’s house was walking distance from it, and I’d have been a bike ride away from it if I rode a bike, but I don’t.\u201d
\nMason recalls the Animals<\/i> sessions as having \u201ca great atmosphere.\u201d The focus was on creating a leisurely vibe. \u201cIt really was a situation where you could go off and play snooker,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cRoger had not spent that much time specifying the tape recorders, but he did<\/i> spend time on getting a snooker table.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Legend of Snowy White<\/b>
\nWhen Animals<\/i> was released in 1977, it would be available in three formats: vinyl LP, cassette and 8-track tape. On the 8-track release, the two versions of \u201cPigs on the Wing\u201d \u2013 a plaintive ballad featuring Roger Waters on voice and acoustic guitar \u2013 were combined into a single track. On the standard LP and cassette (and on all subsequent CD and digital releases) the separate tracks book-end the album. Odder still is that on the 8-track version, the segments are joined together by an elsewhere-unheard linking passage, featuring an electric guitar solo. And for the only time on a Pink Floyd recording up to that point, the solo wasn\u2019t performed by a group member. Instead it featured the guitar work of Terence \u201cSnowy\u201d White, formerly with Thin Lizzy and soon to serve as second guitarist on Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cIn the Flesh\u201d tour in support of Animals<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Any hope of solving the mystery of how that all happened won\u2019t find resolution with Nick Mason. He wracks his brain when the subject is raised. \u201cI can’t remember!\u201d Mason says with a laugh. \u201cThat’s a really difficult one.\u201d He is confident, though, when he explains how it did not<\/i> happen. \u201cI don’t remember Dave having a sulk and saying, \u2018Well, I’m not doing it!\u2019\u201d he asserts. \u201cThat would have been one thing, but I don’t think it was that. It was almost certainly [that] it seemed like a nice idea to get Snowy involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the occasion of Animals\u2019 remix\/reissue, I took the opportunity to chat with drummer Nick Mason \u2013 the only musician to have played on every single Pink Floyd release since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,56,62,64,73],"tags":[1587,1705],"class_list":["post-24406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-prog","category-rawk","category-reissue","category-vinyl","tag-nick-mason","tag-pink-floyd","cat-41-id","cat-56-id","cat-62-id","cat-64-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24406"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28944,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24406\/revisions\/28944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}