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"Matilda Mother" is a song by British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, and is featured on their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Written by Syd Barrett from a surrealistic perspective closely resembling a fairy tale, the song is sung mostly by Richard Wright with Barrett joining in on the last verse.
The song begins with an unusual bass and organ interlude. Roger Waters repeatedly plays the B on the 16th fret of the G-string by varying the lower note from D to F sharp on the D string. Unlike many older beat and pop songs, the guitar rarely plays chords, and most unusually for Western music, Rick Wright provides an organ solo in the F# Phrygian dominant scale with a natural sixth instead of its typical flatted counterpart. The song ends with a simple E mixolydian-based waltz with wordless vocal harmonies of Rick Wright and Syd Barrett.
Barrett originally wrote the song around verses from Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales, in which a series of naughty children, including Matilda, receive their (often gruesome) comeuppance. He was forced to rewrite and re-record the track when Belloc's estate unexpectedly denied permission to use these lyrics.[1]
[edit] Alternative and Live versions
- A slightly shorter version can be found on the Masters of Rock Pink Floyd compilation album released in 1974.
- Like many tracks from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Matilda Mother was not performed live by the band after 1967. A partial live recording using the original Belloc lyrics survives from January 1967; it is only available on bootleg.
- A previously unheard rendition has been released in a 40th anniversary reissue of Piper at the Gates of Dawn; parts of this version's lyrics are also from Belloc's Cautionary Tales, i.e. Jim and Henry King , whereas the chorus is the same as in the standard version.
[edit] Personnel
[edit] References
