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Music from The Body (1970)

Roger Waters

"Something is killing the land before your eyes ..."

music from the body album cover click to enlarge

Release date

Nov 28, 1970 (UK)

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Songs

  1. Our Song
    01:28 (Waters/Geesin)
  2. Sea Shell and Stone
    02:15 (Waters)
  3. Red Stuff Writhe
    01:15 (Geesin)
  4. A Gentle Breeze Blew Through Life
    01:16 (Geesin)
  5. Lick Your Partners
    00:36 (Geesin)
  6. Bridge Passage for Three Plastic Teeth
    00:35 (Geesin)
  7. Chain of Life
    04:05 (Waters)
  8. The Womb Bit
    02:07 (Waters/Geesin)
  9. Embryo Thought
    00:34 (Geesin)
  10. March Past of the Embryos
    01:09 (Geesin)
  11. More Than Seven Dwarfs in Penis-Land
    02:07 (Geesin)
  12. Dance of the Red Corpuscles
    02:01 (Geesin)
  13. Body Transport
    03:15 (Waters/Geesin)
  14. Hand Dance-Full Evening Dress
    01:05 (Geesin)
  15. Breathe
    02:49 (Waters)
  16. Old Folks Ascension
    03:47 (Geesin)
  17. Bed Time Dream Clime
    02:04 (Geesin)
  18. Piddle in Perspex
    00:57 (Geesin)
  19. Embryonic Womb Walk
    01:19 (Geesin)
  20. Mrs. Throat Goes Walking
    02:10 (Geesin)
  21. Sea Shell and Soft Stone
    01:56 (Waters/Geesin)
  22. Give Birth to a Smile
    02:49 (Waters)
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 concréte 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.

The rest of the band


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.

All Roger Waters albums