Grantchester Meadows by Pink Floyd

Today’s piece diverges a bit from my original intentions for starting this blog–to showcase my favorite works of classical music and where I was when I first heard them. Today’s piece is Grantchester Meadow by Pink Floyd (written by Roger Waters.) Floyd was really “pyschadelic” back then and created pieces using “found” sounds, tape loops, overdubs, synthesizers (new things back then), screams, etc.

Grantchester Meadows was the first song accoustic song I heard by them, and it instantly grabbed me. The lyrics about lying in a green meadows hearing about the splashing of kingfishers and the dark fox gone to ground, painted vivid images in my mind. It’s one of my favorite songs. It appears on the album, Ummagumma, and it ends with some interesting stereo effects of a fly buzzing around your head, a man walking down a flight of stairs, and a fly-swatter smashing the fly to bits.

I first heard the album at in a little bungalow along the railroad tracks in Mishawaka, Indiana, that my friend, Kerry Wade took me to where there were some psychotropic herbs ingested. The auditory and visual experience I had is something I still experience when I listen to certain pieces of music. Hmm. I wonder if that is technically a type of synesthesia.

Wikipedia entry for this song