{"id":24407,"date":"2023-01-06T05:30:37","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T10:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24407"},"modified":"2022-12-08T08:59:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T13:59:45","slug":"nick-mason-demystifying-pink-floyds-animals-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/06\/nick-mason-demystifying-pink-floyds-animals-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Mason: Demystifying Pink Floyd\u2019s \u2018Animals\u2019 (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

An Alleged Answer to Punk<\/b>
\nIf only because it was released in 1977, Pink Floyd\u2019s Animals<\/i> is often hailed as the group\u2019s answer (or reaction) to the burgeoning punk rock scene. Though he doesn\u2019t dismiss the notion out of hand, Mason isn\u2019t so sure about all that.<\/p>\n

He allows that there\u2019s some validity to the idea, but suggests that any connection to punk wouldn\u2019t have been deliberate on the part of Pink Floyd. \u201cWe probably would be affected by the punk issue,\u201d he concedes, \u201ceven though we never discussed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mason admits that progressive rock \u2013 a movement of which his band is often considered a part \u2013 tended toward pretentiousness in the middle to late 1970s. \u201cI think that Carl [Palmer, drummer for ELP] had a special Indian rug made that was full of spells,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cEverything had become more and more sort of pompous and extreme.\u201d Mason adds that in light of rockers taking themselves too seriously, \u201chopefully [punk] did have some effect from that point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Producing the Damned<\/b>
\nBut there really is a connection between Pink Floyd circa 1977 and the punk scene. The Damned \u2013 early heroes of the punk movement \u2013 enlisted Mason to produce Music for Pleasure<\/i>, their second LP. With a bemused chuckle, Pink Floyd\u2019s drummer explains how that came about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what actually happened is they went to our music publisher and said what they wanted was Syd Barrett!\u201d he recalls. Pink Floyd\u2019s publisher responded to the request, essentially telling The Damned, \u201cWell honestly, Syd isn’t in a state to do it; what about one of the other guys?\u201d Mason says that since he had some experience producing other artists, he volunteered. \u201cAnd I have to say: I really enjoyed working with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mason recalls that the punk group was dealing with some internal tension. \u201cIt was a real split between Captain [Sensible] and Rat [Scabies] and the others,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThey were in the middle of having musical differences. So it was all a bit half-baked at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

But working with The Damned at Britannia Row, Mason came away from the experience with a new, punk-influenced attitude about how to make records. He was impressed with \u201cthe whole thing of making a record in about 10 days rather than 10 months.\u201d Mason recounts a memorable exchange: \u201cI will always remember me saying to the Captain after a take, \u2018Yeah, well, that was good, but let’s run it again.\u2019 He just went, \u2018Why!?<\/i> No!!\u2019 And I had to say, \u2018No, you\u2019re right. It\u2019s fine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

David Gilmour, Bassist<\/b>
\nAmong some hardcore Pink Floyd fans, there\u2019s a persistent rumor that when it came time to record bass guitar parts in the studio, it was guitarist David Gilmour \u2013 not<\/i> bassist Waters \u2013 who often laid down the distinctive bass lines onto magnetic tape. The jury\u2019s still out on that one, and the ever-diplomatic Mason isn\u2019t going to settle it for the fanatic fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not my recollection,\u201d he says. \u201cIt may<\/i> be true, but not that I remember, no. I don’t know where that [rumor] came from; it could be that Dave spent some time working out the parts and then Roger played it, or Roger worked out the parts and Dave played it.\u201d Nick Mason sports a wry smile as he sums up his response to that provocative question. \u201cI don’t remember. And if I did<\/i> remember, I probably wouldn’t tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pink Floyd\u2019s <\/i>Animals: 2018 Remix was released in multiple formats on September 16.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One\u2026 An Alleged Answer to Punk If only because it was released in 1977, Pink Floyd\u2019s Animals is often hailed as the group\u2019s answer (or reaction) to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24417,"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-24407","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\/24407","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=24407"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24420,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24407\/revisions\/24420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}