Soundtrack to Movie More by Pink Floyd - review

The Soundtrack to the Movie More

Music and Lyrics by The Pink Floyd

Essay by Thane Zander, August 2008

Introduction

In researching this album, I had flashbacks to the day I actually originally purchased the album. In the early to mid nineties my collection of my favourite band consisted of a few well known Floyd classics, but that was it. So I made a determined effort to buy their entire catalogue.

I made a good start, by replacing Animals (which I gave to my brother after buying thinking it was rubbish), Saucerful of Secrets, Meddle, and More. Regrettably I loaned More out to my brother in law as soon as I got it without one listen, and he promptly lost it. In 1999, I joined the Roger Waters BBS online and in the course of two years learnt a heck of a lot about the Floyd, the individuals, and the albums. I don’t recall once More being mentioned.

Skip forward to 2008, and the Massey course on Pink Floyd. In the past weeks I have been able to source all my missing albums through the Massey Distance Learning Library, and the Palmerston North Library. Books I have read include Schnaffers’ A Saucerful of Secrets – The Pink Floyd Odyssey, and Nick Masons’ Inside Out. Albums that I have immersed myself in have been Piper at the Gates of Dawn, More, Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Division Bell

Why More? I could have easily subjected myself to the first two albums and the Syd angle, but that’s been done to death. Ummagumma, AHM, or Meddle might have been more interesting, but there was something enticing about the simplicity of More. Both Schnaffer and Mason gloss over the album and workings at the time, so information is scant on the album as such. I think too it would have been more beneficial to see the movie to gauge what Pink Floyd had to deal with in writing the music/lyrics. (A little aside, on Saucerful of Secrets the band name is Pink Floyd, on the album More the band name is Pink Floyd, however on the Movie Credits {courtesy of the opening movie clip on YouTube} the band is called by their old name The Pink Floyd)

More is about discovery for the Floyd. I liken it this way, Piper at the Gates of Dawn was the party (Syd), Saucerful of Secrets the hangover, and More the new morning with a slight pain killer to ease the day. It’s really the first time Pink Floyd had away from London and their fan base, and dabbled in an area most thought they wouldn’t do. Their reason for doing the movie is not explained by anyone, except one must assume they were following their roots and diversifying as they went. I think too it gave them the opportunity to shake the Syd mantle by getting them to start flexing their dynamic muscle, i.e. stronger song writing skills.

Argument

Ok, first and foremost, I’m not a musician. I can’t read music, I have a little grasp of melodies and harmonies, and I can’t play any musical instrument except maybe a blues harp or drums (badly). I am however a keen listener to music and can tell what works and what doesn’t, for my ear. I’m also a writer and poet, so the lyrics to me are very important. If lyrics are weak, the song is weak, unless it’s a killer song, music wise (instrumental). My intention in this section is to break down the album into its parts and deal with what does and doesn’t work for me.

There are three categories of song on this album, Heavy Rock, Folk rock, and Instrumentals.

The Heavy Rock songs are The Nile Song and Ibiza Bar. Both songs surprised me when I first heard the album as I didn’t (until that stage) realise Pink Floyd had it in them. Sure, One of these Days, Money and Run Like Hell, to name a few, may be considered heavy rock standards, but all are well and truly dwarfed by these two songs, especially The Nile Song.

It seems to me there must have been a lot of angst in the band at that point of their career, for them (actually Waters) to write such a grunty song, so it serves a wonderful purpose in reminding us that even then, Pink Floyd were a little ahead of the likes of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Slade, and Queen.

Ibiza Bar sounds like a rerun of the Nile Song (courtesy of internet blogs) and shares a lot of the same guitar riffs and chord progressions. It doesn’t have the punch of The Nile Song, but works as well as it. The real surprise for me is the strong voice of David in the Nile Song. I’m not sure that he uses the same force ever again in the various Pink Floyd line-ups.

The Folk songs are exactly that and don’t really rock my boat so to speak. I suppose they were dictated to by the movie (insomuch as The Nile Song and Ibiza Bar). Cirrus Minor,, Crying Song, and Green is the Colour (all Waters) are soft folk songs and largely unspectacular.

One song I feel could have been a hit at the time was Cymbaline. Catchy tune, catchy lyrics and well played by the band. Take for instance these atypical Waters lyrics:

Apprehension creeping
Like a tube-train up your spine

A clear indication of where Roger was going with his song writing. I see these lyrics and I’m transported ahead four years to the wonderful writing on The Dark Side of the Moon.

The Instrumentals. Ok this is where Pink Floyd started flexing their experimentalism muscle. Sure A Saucerful of Secrets, Astronomy Domine, Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun, and Interstellar Overdrive had proved they could do it, but a lot of that material was largely improv around the central theme. In More, each band member was allowed to create something to the greater whole, obviously tied into the theme on the movie at that point. During my studies, I was acutely made aware as to how much impetus and skill Nick Mason gave to his job as drummer. I managed to see on YouTube a segment from the Pompeii tapes several times Nick Highlighted. But when I got to More, there on track four Up The Khyber, was Nick and Rick stretching their skills and making somewhat of a fist of what they were doing.

There is not a lot wrong with any of the songs or music per se, but one has to remember Pink Floyd music is measured against the highly popular albums on the repertoire and that leaves More near the bottom of the composition chart. Sadly it is left languishing when in fact it should be counted as a productive album.

Conclusion

The album is both a delight and a let down. A delight in that I like the songs by and large, especially The Nile Song, (and Dave’s Spanish Piece with flamenco guitar) and the direction the Pink Floyd are taking on their soon to be long journey. It’s more pleasant to the ear than some of the later stuff, but I’m sure it would be even better a listen seeing the film and the soundtrack in one sitting. There is enough material on the internet to see some snippets (I saw the opening credits- Cirrus Minor - and Cymbaline on YouTube) and I’m sure there are plenty of others around.

It should be noted that all early Pink Floyd music is a progression. They really didn’t come onto the music scene until Dark Side, but up till then there was enough material to suggest Dark Side would happen. More is a part of that progression, an ends to a means. It allowed Pink Floyd to try another genre (Film scores) and allowed them to tailor their music to what they felt worked. I think that overall the songwriting skills were reflective of that time in their development, poor poetry, equally bad lyrics, except on one song, but you’d expect that from a group that was finding its way after Syd.