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Welcome to the Machine

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"Welcome to the Machine"
Song

"Welcome to the Machine" is the second song on Pink Floyd's 1975 album Wish You Were Here.[1][2] It is notable for its use of heavily processed synthesizers and guitars, as well as a wide and varied range of tape effects.[citation needed]

Theme

The song explores the band's negativity towards the music industry and the whole of industrialized society. The song centers around an aspiring musician who is getting signed by a seedy executive to the music industry, "The Machine". The voice predicts all the boy's seemingly rebellious ideas ("You bought a guitar to punish your ma, you didn't like school, and you know you're nobody's fool"). The boy's illusions of personal identity are further crushed with lines such as, "What did you dream, it's alright we told you what to dream". The lyrics also allude to the band's disillusionment with the music industry as a money-making machine rather than a forum of artistic expression.

Recording

The track was built upon a basic throbbing sound made by an EMS VCS 3 followed by a one-repeat echo. On the original LP, the song segued from the first 5 parts of the suite "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and closed the first side. On the CD pressings, especially the 1997 and 2000 remastered issues, it segues (although very faintly) to "Have a Cigar". This segueing is a few seconds longer on the US version than the UK version. David Gilmour admitted that he had trouble singing one line of the song; saying, "It was a line I just couldn't reach, so we dropped the tape down half a semitone."[3] He sang the part, then the pitch of the vocals were raised to meet the rest of the song.

Time signature

This song is yet another Pink Floyd song with unconventional time signatures. The intro of the song is done in 6/8 time signature, that changes to 4/4 in the first verse. However, the line "It's alright we know where you've been" is in 7/8. The chord change for the line starting with "so, welcome to the machine... " is done at 2/4, not 4/4. The second verse keeps the regular 4/4 time signature.

Music video

Gerald Scarfe created a music video, initially a backdrop film for when the band played the track on its 1977 In the Flesh tour. The fanciful video begins with a giant mechanical beast; a cross between a Triceratops and an armadillo (similar to the creature on the cover of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Tarkus). The creature slowly lumbers across an apocalyptic cityscape. The scene then shifts to show emaciated rats leaping around corpse-laden steel girders. Gleaming industrial smokestacks soon fade in, and disturbingly crack and ooze blood. A view of a barren desert is then immediately shown. In the background a small tower grows out of this desert, but then transforms into a screaming monster, which stops to pant for a few seconds before viciously decapitating an unsuspecting man in the foreground. His head then very slowly decays to a damaged skull as the sun sets. Finally, an ocean of blood washes away this scene, and the waves turn into thousands of hands waving in rhythm to the music (much like people at a rock concert). All of the surrounding buildings are swept away; except one. Despite being pulled at by the bloody masses, it survives and, synchronising with the sound effects at the end of the track, flies up and away, high above the clouds to where it fits snugly into a hole inside a gargantuan floating ovoid structure.

Personnel

Music and lyrics by Roger Waters.

Recorded January to July 1975 at Abbey Road Studios, London.

Live performances

The song was performed for the first time live on Pink Floyd's 1977 "In the Flesh" tour. Gilmour and Waters shared lead vocals, although in initial performances, Gilmour sang on his own with some backing vocals by Waters. Also for the 1977 live performances, David Gilmour played his acoustic guitar parts on his Fender Stratocaster while Waters played an Ovation acoustic guitar and Snowy White played bass guitar. The live renditions of the song were complex because music had to be synchronized with the backdrop film and its sound effects. As a result, the band had to wear headphones and listen to a click-track which, in turn, meant that there was very little room left for jamming and improvisation. Pink Floyd would play the track again on its 1987/88/89 Momentary Lapse tours when Tim Renwick played lead guitar, while Gilmour played a 12-string acoustic guitar. These renditions were not synchronized to the film, which is why David Gilmour keeps looking at the screen on videos. The song was performed by Roger Waters during his Pros and Cons 1984/1985 tour, on the 1987 Radio K.A.O.S. tour, with Mel Collins as saxophone soloist. All of these performances were perfectly synchronized to the film. These live versions deviated significantly from the album version. It was also played on the 1999–2002 "In the Flesh" tour (only stills from the animation were used) and appears on the In the Flesh concert DVD and CD.

Influence

  • The song has been covered by metal band Shadows Fall on their album The Art of Balance.
  • The song has been covered by Progressive metal band Queensrÿche on their album Take Cover.
  • The song has been covered by the progressive rock band The Rocket Scientists on their first album Earthbound in 1993.
  • The Pink Floyd tribute band The Machine are named after this song and they often use it as their opening number.
  • Tim Footman used the title for his book, Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album (2007, ISBN 1-84240-388-5). The Radiohead album from 1997 shares many musical and thematic elements with Pink Floyd's mid-70s oeuvre, although members of Radiohead have resisted the comparison.

Quotes

The only time we've ever used tape speed to help us with vocals was on one line of the Machine song. It was a line I just couldn't reach so we dropped the tape down half a semitone and then dropped the line in on the track.

— David Gilmour, 1975, WYWH Songbook

It's very much a made-up-in-the-studio thing which was all built up from a basic throbbing made on a VCS 3, with a one repeat echo used so that each 'boom' is followed by an echo repeat to give the throb. With a number like that, you don't start off with a regular concept of group structure or anything, and there's no backing track either. Really it is just a studio proposition where we're using tape for its own ends -- a form of collage using sound.

— David Gilmour, 1975, WYWH Songbook

It's very hard to get a full synthesiser tone down on tape. If you listen to them before and after they've been recorded, you'll notice that you've lost a lot. And although I like the sound of a synthesiser through an amp, you still lose something that way as well. Eventually what we decided to do was to use D.I. on synthesiser because that way you don't increase your losses and the final result sounds very much like a synthesiser through a stage amp.

— David Gilmour, 1975, WYWH Songbook

References

  1. ^ Strong, Martin C. (2004). The Great Rock Discography (7th ed.). Edinburgh: Canongate Books. p. 1177. ISBN 1-84195-551-5.
  2. ^ Mabbett, Andy (1995). The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-4301-X.
  3. ^ Gary Cooper, Wish You Were Here songbook — 1975, The Pink Floyd Fan Club.
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