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"Something
is killing the land before your eyes ..."
Released in
November 1970, "Music from The Body" holds the distinction
of being the first solo album from a member of Pink Floyd. (Syd
Barrett's "The Madcap Laughs"
actually beat "The Body" by 11 months, but, then again,
Barrett was no longer a member of the band when he released the
album.)
"The
Body" was actually, perhaps, more of a Ron Geesin album. It
was Geesin who landed the job of putting music to a film version
of Anthony Smith's book The Body, written in 1968. When Geesin discovered
director Roy Battersby wanted actual songs in addition to background
music, he called in Waters to help out.
Clocking in
at just more than 41 minutes, the resulting soundtrack album consisted
of 22 tracks a strange collection of short cuts of sound
effects and musique concrúte with even stranger titles, like "Bridge
Passage for Three Plastic Teeth" and "Mrs. Throat Goes
Walking."
Most of the
original tracks were recorded in early 1970 by each artist on his
own. Later, when the duo discovered that the film maker intended
to release a soundtrack album, Geesin and Waters worked as a team
September and October 1970 to rerecorded the entire work in stereo
to make it more palatable as an album.
Geesin would
be called in to help shape up the Floyd's "The Amazing Pudding"
soon thereafter. The piece would be renamed "Atom Heart Mother,"
and become the title track to the group's 1970 album.
If "Give
Birth to a Smile" stands out as sounding a little more
substantial than many of the other tracks on "The Body,"
it might be because the rest of Pink Floyd
joined Waters in making the song. While the band members received
the standard session fees, they went uncredited on the sleeve. "Give
Birth to a Smile" and "Breathe,"
are practically the only two real "songs" on the soundtrack.
Written
by Craig Bailey
©1995-2007 Random Precision
Media. All rights reserved.
Updated:
Nov. 30, 2002
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