Us and Them

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“Us and Them”
“Us and Them” cover
Single by Pink Floyd
from the album The Dark Side of the Moon
A-side "Time (edited version)"
Released 1973
Format 7"
Recorded Abbey Road
June 1972-January 1973
Genre Progressive rock
Length 7:51
3:15 (single edit)
Label Harvest, EMI (UK)
Harvest, Capitol (US)
Writer(s) Roger Waters/Richard Wright
Producer Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd singles chronology
"Money"
(1973)		 "Us and Them"/"Time"
(1973)		 "Have a Cigar"
(1975)
The Dark Side of the Moon
Tracks
  1. "Speak to Me" (1:08)
  2. "Breathe" (2:48)
  3. "On the Run" (3:31)
  4. "Time" / "Breathe (Reprise)" (7:04)
  5. "The Great Gig in the Sky" (4:47)
  6. "Money" (6:23)
  7. "Us and Them" (7:51)
  8. "Any Colour You Like" (3:25)
  9. "Brain Damage" (3:50)
  10. "Eclipse" (2:06)
For the Godflesh album, see Us and Them (Godflesh album).
For the Shinedown album, see Us and Them (album).

"Us and Them" is the seventh track[1] from English progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. It was written by Richard Wright and Roger Waters and sung by David Gilmour (harmonies by Wright). It is 7 minutes, 51 seconds in length, making it the longest song on the album. When performed live throughout the 70s, it was even slightly longer, though in later tours, as evidenced in bootlegs and the releases P•U•L•S•E and Delicate Sound of Thunder, it was sometimes up to a minute shorter.

Contents

[edit] Composition

"Us and Them" is rather quiet in tone and dynamics. It has two saxophone solos in it, one at the beginning and another towards the end of the song. Rick Wright introduces the song with harmonies on his Hammond organ and put a piano chordal backing and short piano solo afterwards on the arrangement. The verses have a unique almost jazzy chord sequence: D sus 2, D 6, D minor major 7 and G (with D in the bass sustained as a pedal point throughout) Especially the D minor chord with a major 7 is a rarity in 1970s pop music. In the middle, there is a break during which several characters including Pink Floyd roadie "Roger the Hat" speak (during the recording of this a number of interviews were laid down, including with Paul and Linda McCartney who were recording in the same studio). Before its release, the song was known as "The Violent Sequence" which is available on bootlegs.

The tune was originally written on the piano by Rick for the movie Zabriskie Point in 1969; this is where the "Violent Sequence" title came from. Director Michelangelo Antonioni rejected it on the grounds that it was too unlike their "Careful with That Axe, Eugene"-esque work; as Waters recalls it in impersonation, Antonioni's response was, "It's beautiful, but too sad, you know? It makes me think of church." [2]. The song was shelved until Dark Side of the Moon.

It was also re-released on the 2001 greatest hits album, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, where it is the seventh track of the second disc.

[edit] Echoes segue

On Echoes the song has a different ending: instead of segueing into what would be the next track on Dark Side of the Moon ("Any Colour You Like"), engineer and Floyd collaborator James Guthrie gave the song a cold ending, before adding a backwards piano note that would lead into the collection's next track, "Learning to Fly".[3]

[edit] Cover versions

The song has been covered by Between the Buried and Me on the album The Anatomy Of. This song was covered on the Echoes of Pink tribute album in 2002 by Brielle Morgan. This song was covered by Easy Dub All-Stars in 2003. This reggae group reproduced the entire Dark Side of the Moon album in their own style, calling it "Dub Side of the Moon".

[edit] Alternative and Live versions

  • 1972 versions did not include any saxophone and the lead vocals were performed by Roger Waters and Rick Wright, with David Gilmour providing backing vocals. The vocals by Gilmour sounded like those found on the celestial voices section of A Saucerful of Secrets.
  • It occasionally featured as an encore during the band's 1977 "In The Flesh" tour (this was performed at most shows on the band's 1977 US tours during the encore). It was often used to intentionally calm the often rowdy stadium audiences.
  • The P*U*L*S*E and Delicate Sound Of Thunder CD and videos feature this track. Both versions are shorter than the original studio recording, and the latter features a slightly altered saxophone solo.
  • Roger Waters included the song in his recent 2006/2007 The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour, with Jon Carin replacing Gilmour on lead vocals.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The track number depends upon the edition of the album; some releases merge the two tracks "Speak to Me" and "Breathe", for instance.
  2. ^ "The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon" Pt. 5 (Us and Them)
  3. ^ Floydian Slip(tm) : The Pink Floyd Experience

[edit] External links