The Division Bell is the 14th album by the progressive British rock band Pink Floyd, released on March 28, 1994 by EMI Records in the UK and on April 4 by Columbia Records in the United States.
The second recorded Pink Floyd album without founding member Roger Waters, The Division Bell was mostly written by guitarist and singer David Gilmour and keyboardist Rick Wright; he featured Wright's lead vocals on the Pink Floyd album since Dark Side of the Moon (1973). Gilmour's fiancé, novelist Polly Samson, co-wrote many lyrics, relating to the themes of communication.
Recordings taking place in locations include Britannia Row Studios and Gilmour's flagship home, Astoria . Production teams include longtime Pink Floyd collaborators such as producer Bob Ezrin, Andy Jackson engineer, saxophonist Dick Parry, and bassist Guy Pratt.
Bell Division received mixed reviews, but reached number one in the United Kingdom and the United States; it was certified double platinum in the US released years, and triple platinum in 1999. This was followed by a US and European tour. Unused material from the Division Bell session became part of Pink Floyd's next album, The Endless River (2014).
Video The Division Bell
Drafts
The Division Bell deals with communication themes and ideas that speak can solve many problems. In studio host radio Redbeard suggested that this album offers "a real possibility to surpass everything, through moments of joyful grace". Songs such as "Poles Apart" and "Lost for Words" have been interpreted as references to the rift between Pink Floyd and former band member Roger Waters, who left in 1985; However, Gilmour denied this, and said: "People can find and relate to the song in their personal way, but it's a bit late at this point for us to trap Roger." The title refers to a division that rang the bell in the British parliament to announce a vote. Drummer Nick Mason said: "It does have meaning, it's about people making choices, yeas or nays."
Produced several years after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, "Great Day for Freedom" juxtaposes the general euphoria, for example, the fall of the Berlin Wall, with subsequent war and ethnic cleansing, particularly in Yugoslavia. Audio samples of Stephen Hawking, originally recorded for BT television commercials, are used in "Keep Talking"; Gilmour was so touched by Hawking's sentiments in advertising that he contacted the advertising company for permission to use the recording on the album. Mason said it felt "politically incorrect to take the idea of ​​advertising, but that seems a very relevant part." At the end of the album, Gilmour's stepchild, Charlie sounds hanging up to Pink Floyd's manager Steve O'Rourke, who begs to be allowed to appear on Pink Floyd's album.
Maps The Division Bell
Recording
In January 1993, Gilmour, Mason, and Wright began improvising new material in sessions at the renovated Britannia Row Studios. They recruited bassist Guy Pratt; according to Mason, "an interesting phenomenon occurs, which Pratt's game tends to change the atmosphere of music we make ourselves." Without the legal problems experienced during the production of their 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason , Gilmour was comfortable; if he feels the band "gets somewhere", he will record it on a two-track DAT recorder. At one point, Gilmour secretly recorded Wright's game, capturing the material that formed the basis for three pieces of music.
After about two weeks the band has about 65 pieces of music. With engineer Andy Jackson and co-producer Bob Ezrin, the production was transferred to the houseboat and the Gilmour recording studio, Astoria . The band listens and selects on every song, and underestimates the material to about 27 pieces of music. Eliminating some songs, and combining the others, they arrive at about eleven songs. The selection of a song is based on a points system, where all three members will give a mark of ten for each candidate song, a system tilted by Wright's decision to give ten songs each, and other songs no points. Wright did not contractually become a full band member, a situation that upset him. Wright reflects: "It came very close to the point where I would not be doing an album, because I did not feel that what we had agreed was fair." Wright received his first song credit on Pink Floyd's album since 1975's Wish You Were Here.
Gilmour's fiancé, author Polly Samson, also received a song credit. Initially, her role was limited to encouraging her husband, but she helped Gilmour write "High Hopes", a song about Gilmour's childhood and early life at Cambridge. His role was expanded to write a further six songs, which did not fit Ezrin. In an interview for Mojo magazine, Gilmour said that Samson's contribution had "ruffled the fur [management]", but Ezrin later reflected that his presence had inspired Gilmour, and that he "pulled the whole album together ". He also helped Gilmour, who, after his divorce, has developed a cocaine addiction.
Keyboardist Jon Carin and drummer/percussionist Gary Wallis were brought in to complete the band before the recording began. Five supporting vocalists were also hired, including Sam Brown, and Durga McBroom singer Durga McBroom. The band then moved to Olympic Studios, recording most of the 'winning' tracks for a week. After the summer holidays, they return to Astoria to record more supporting tracks. Ezrin worked on various drum sounds, and previous collaborators and orchestra composer Michael Kamen provided the album string arrangement recorded at Abbey Road Studio Two by Steve McLaughlin. Dick Parry played the saxophone on his first Pink Floyd album for nearly 20 years, in "Wearing the Inside Out", and Chris Thomas was booked to do the final mix. Between September and December recording and mixing sessions are held at Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, and Creek Recording Studios in London. In September, the band performed at a celebrity charity concert at Cowdray House, in Midhurst. The album was mastered at the Mastering Lab in Los Angeles, by Doug Sax and James Guthrie.
Jackson edited unused material from the Division Bell session, described by Mason as ambient music, into a one-hour temporary composition titled The Big Spliff but Pink Floyd decided to not releasing me t. Some The Big Spliff were used to make the next band album, The Endless River (2014).
Instrumentation
With the help of guitar technician Gilmour, Phil Taylor, Carin found some of the older Pink Floyd keyboards from the warehouse where they were stored, including the Farfisa organs. Some of the sounds taken from this instrument are used in the song "Take It Back", and "Marooned". Carin joins on the keyboard by Ezrin. Durga McBroom provides backing vocals with Sam Brown, Carol Kenyan, Jackie Sheridan, and Rebecca Leigh-White.
"What Do You Want from Me" is influenced by Chicago blues, and "Poles Apart" contains a simple tone. Sero Gilmour improvis guitar on "Marooned" using DigiTech Whammy pedal to pitch-shift guitar notes over a full octave. On "Take It Back", he uses EBow, an electronic device that simulates the arc sound on his strings, on the Gibson J-200 guitar through the Zoom effect unit.
Packaging and title
To avoid competing with other album releases, as happened with A Momentary Lapse, Pink Floyd set a April 1994 deadline, at which point they will embark on a new tour. In January of that year, however, the band still has not decided on the album title. Titles considered include Pow Wow and Down to Earth . At dinner, writer Douglas Adams, prompted by a promise of payment to his favorite charity, the Environmental Investigation Agency, suggested The Division Bell, a term that appears in "High Hopes".
Floyd's longtime collaborator, Storm Thorgerson, provided the cover of his album. He set up two large metal heads, each as high as a level bus, in a field near Ely. The statues are positioned together and photographed in the profile, and can be viewed as two faces talking to each other or as a single, third face. Thorgerson says the "third absentee" is a reference to Syd Barrett. The statues were designed by Keith Breeden, and built by John Robertson. The Ely Cathedral is visible on the horizon. The photos were taken in February for optimal lighting conditions. Since 2001, sculpture has been in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. An alternative version of the cover photo, featuring two stone statues of 7.5 meters (25 feet) by Aden Hynes, is featured in a brief cassette release and a tour brochure.
The Division Bell was released in the UK and US on CDs, vinyls, cassettes and mini-discs, each with its own format and design. The work of art in liner CD records uses the same theme, with images of two heads shaped by various other objects, such as the newspaper ("A Great Day for Freedom"), colored glass ("Poles Apart"), and boxing gloves ("Lost Words"). Pages two and three depict images from the Cerro Tololo Chile Inter-American Observatory. The CD tray has a "Pink Floyd" printed in Braille on the left front.
Release and acceptance
On January 10, 1994, a press conference to announce The Division Bell and a world tour was held at the former US Naval Air Station in North Carolina, in the United States. The specially made Skyship 600 aircraft, produced in the UK, toured the US back to Weeksville, and was destroyed by a thunderstorm on 27 June. Pieces of the plane were sold as souvenirs. The band held another reception, in England, on 21 March. This time they were using an A60 plane, translucent, and painted to look like a fish, carrying a tour journalist to London. The plane, which was lit internally so it shone in the night sky, was also flown in northern Europe.
The Division Bell was released in the UK by EMI Records on March 28, 1994, and in the US on April 4th, and went straight to # 1 in both countries. The Division Bell was certified silver and gold in the United Kingdom on April 1, 1994, platinum a month later and 2x platinum on 1 October. In the US, it was certified gold and double platinum on June 6, 1994, and triple platinum on January 29, 1999.
In the United States the album debuted at number one on Billboard during the week of April 23, 1994, selling more than 460,000 units, at that time it was the 12th largest total week since Billboard began using SoundScan data in May 1991 and also became the number of the fifth largest first-week sales of the time. The next week remained at the top of the chart which sold slightly less than half the first week's number, it moved 226,000 units during the second week on the chart. Sales the following week fell 30% from last week's number of 157,000 units sold, although the sales dropped, the album remained at number one. The following week, on May 14, 1994 Bell Division remained at number one on Billboard 200 and sales fell 17%. In the fifth week on the chart it fell to fourth place on the chart. It was present at Billboard 200 for 53 weeks. It was certified three times platinum by the RIAA on 29 January 1999 for delivery of three million units.
Despite decent sales, The Division Bell received mixed reviews. Tom Sinclair from Entertainment Weekly gave it "D", writing that "avarice is the only plausible explanation for this glib, the empty cipher of an album, which is notable primarily for its progressive gastric incorporation, laziness - rock and New Age noodling ". Tom Graves criticized Gilmour's performance, stating that his guitar solos have "turned into long-winded, obscure songs that can be forgotten because they can not be removed... just on 'What Do You Want from Me' does Gilmour sound like he cares. "Nevertheless, the album was nominated in the 1995 Brit award for" Best Album by British Artist ", but lost to Blur's Parklife . In March of the same year the band was awarded the Grammy for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" on "Marooned".
In Pink Floyd's Uncut '2011 Pink Floyd: The Ultimate Music Guide , Graeme Thomson writes that The Division Bell "might be a black horse from Floyd canon. The opening gossip is a very impressive comeback for something very close to the timeless essence of Pink Floyd, and most of the rest retain a calm power and meditative quality that betrays a genuine sense of unity. "
Uncut reviewed the album once again in 2014 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, and in the reviews they praised the album for its production, quoting that the album sounded much "more like a classic Pink Floyd album than 1983 The Final Cut
The album was re-published again with the label Pink Floyd Records on August 26, 2016.
Tour
Two days after the album's release, the band's Bell Tour Division began at Joe Robbie Stadium, in a suburb of Miami. The set list began with 1967's "Astronomy Domine", before moving to a track from 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason , and The Division Bell . Songs from Wish You Were Here and The Dark Side of the Moon are displayed, as well as The Wall . Supporting musicians include Sam Brown, Jon Carin, Claudia Fontaine, Durga McBroom, Dick Parry, Guy Pratt, Tim Renwick, and Gary Wallis. The tour continued in the US until April, May and mid-June, before moving to Canada, and then returning to the US in July. When the tour reached Europe in late July, Waters declined an invitation to join the band, and later expressed his irritation that Pink Floyd songs were being performed again in large venues. On the first night of the UK tour on 12 October, 1,200 capacity collapsed, but without serious injury; the show rescheduled.
During the tour, an unnamed person named Publius posted a message on an internet newsgroup inviting fans to solve the puzzle that should have been hidden in the new album. The message was verified during the show at East Rutherford, where the white lights in front of the stage were "Enigma Publius". During a television concert at Earls Court in October 1994, the word "enigma" was projected in large letters to the stage background. Mason later admitted that Publius Enigma did exist, but had been instigated by the record company rather than the band. In 2014, the puzzle is still unsolved.
The tour ended at Earls Court on October 29, 1994, and was the group's last concert show until Live 8. The estimate puts the total number of tickets sold over 5.3 million, and gross revenues of about $ 100 million. A live album from the tour, called Pulse, and a concert video, also called Pulse, (shot on October 20, 1994) was released in June 1995.
Track list
All lead vocals are performed by David Gilmour, except where recorded.
Original release
LP
double-LP's 20th anniversary edition
Reissues
Since its release in 1994, The Division Bell has been re-published twice. The first is part of the 2011 campaign Why Pink Floyd...? which saw remaster by Andy Jackson and released as a stand-alone CD and as part of the Discovery box set that collects all of the 14 studio albums together for the first time. The second issuance occurred on June 30, 2014, which saw the album released as a "deluxe edition 20th edition" box and the 20th anniversary of the 20th LP reprint. The box set contains a remaster of 2011 from the album; 5.1 surround sound remix by Andy Jackson; 2-LP record on 180g vinyl; red 7 "" Take It Back "single, a clear 7" "High Hopes/Keep Talking" single; blue-and-blue graphics card, laser-engraved 12 "" High Hope ", and various art cards.Remember 2014 anniversary saw the first release of the full album on vinyl as the 1994 vinyl release only saw an edited version of the song to save it to a single LP.
Personnel
Graphics and certification
References
Note
Footer
Bibliography
External links
- Bell Division 20 sites
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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