GUIA DE MANTENIMIENTO
TABLA 3 – PARTES MECÁNICAS
Obscured by Clouds is the seventh studioalbumby En-
glish progressive rockbandPink Floyd, based on their soundtrack for the French film La Vallée, by Barbet Schroeder. Some copies of the album refer to the film by its English title, The Valley. The cover of Obscured by Clouds is an out-of-focus film still of a man in a tree. The lyrics and music tell the story of one's journeys. The al- bum was released in the United Kingdom on 2 June 1972, and a few weeks later in the United States, byHarvest, reaching number 6 and number 46 respectively. A sin- gle, "Free Four", was issued in the US only.
6.7.1 Overview
By 1972,Pink Floydhad supplied the soundtracks to the filmsThe Committee (1968) andMore (1969),*[3] and to part ofZabriskie Point(1970). Consequently,Barbet Schroederasked the band to create the soundtrack forLa Vallée, which they had agreed to do after More had be- come a success.*[4]The group had already started work- ing onThe Dark Side of the Moonat this point, having done some basic recording and performed the piece live several times, but work was interrupted when the band travelled to France on two separate trips, either side of a Japanese tour, to write and record music for the film.*[5] The album was then mixed from 4–6 April atMorgan Sound Studiosin London.*[2]
As they had done on More, the band saw a rough cut of the film, and noted down certain timings for cues with a stopwatch. From this, they created a number of pieces that they felt could be cross-faded at various points in the final cut of the film. They weren't too worried about creating complete songs, feeling that any musical piece would be workable without the need for any solos, but
nevertheless, under pressure to produce enough material, they managed to create a whole series of well-structured songs.*[3]DrummerNick Masonrecalls that the sessions were very hurried, and the band spent most of the time in Paris locked away in the studio.*[4]
"Free Four" was the first Pink Floyd song since "See Emily Play" to attract significant airplay in the US,*[6] and the second (after "Corporal Clegg" fromA Saucer- ful of Secrets)*[7]to deal with the death of Eric Fletcher Waters,Roger Waters' father.*[6]*[8]"Childhood's End" was the last song Pink Floyd released to have lyrics writ- ten byDavid Gilmour, the band's guitarist. "Absolutely Curtains", the closing instrumental on the album, ends with a recording of the Mapuga tribe, as seen in the film.*[5]
During the first recording session in February 1972, the French television stationORTFfilmed a short segment of the band recording the album, including interviews with Waters and Gilmour.*[2]In a snippet of interview footage that appeared in the 1974 theatrical version (later released onVHSandLaserdisc) and subsequent “Director's Cut DVD”versions ofPink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, Waters stated that early UK pressings of the album contained ex- cessivesibilance(a loud high-frequency sound most ap- parent on “s”, “sh”, and “t”sounds which often causes distortion). As Waters says in the film during a conversation withGeorge Martin, the sibilant distortion was caused by “a bad cut”, meaning it came from a poor quality tape-to-disk transfer duringmastering. The sibilance problem was corrected in later pressings. Obscured by Clouds was the second Pink Floyd album to feature the VCS 3 synthesizer as stated by EMS Archives.*[9]Mason also plays electronic drums on this track.*[4]
After recording had finished, the band fell out with the film company, prompting them to release the soundtrack album as Obscured by Clouds, rather than La Vallée. In response, the film was retitled La Vallée (Obscured by Clouds) on its release.*[4]
6.7.2
Release and reception
The album's cover was, like several other Pink Floyd al- bums, designed byHipgnosis. It consists of a photograph of a man sitting in a tree which has been taken out of focus to the point of complete distortion. Obscured by Clouds was released in the UK on 2 June 1972 and then in the United States on 15 June 1972, both onHarvest. The album reached number one in France,*[15]number six on the UK Albums Chart,*[16]and number 46*[17] on the US albums chart (where it was certified Gold by theRIAAin 1997).*[18]In 1986, the album was released onCD. A digitally remastered CD was released in March 1996 in the UK and August 1996 in the US.
6.7.3 Live performances
Pink Floyd opened some shows in 1973 with an extended jam based on the pairing of “Obscured by Clouds”and “When You're In”, accompanied by smoke and a light
show.
“Childhood's End”is the only other song from the sound- track to find its way to the stage. It made several appear- ances in Europe starting on 1 December 1972 and at the start of the band's March 1973 tour of North America, usually with an extended instrumental passage.
“Wot's... Uh, the Deal?" saw revival as part of Gilmour's set list during his 2006 solo tour. One of these perfor- mances features on Gilmour's 2007 DVDRemember That Nightand also the vinyl version of his 2008 live album, Live in Gdańsk.
6.7.4 Track listing
6.7.5 Personnel
Pink Floyd
• David Gilmour–guitars,vocals,pedal steel guitar, VCS3
• Nick Mason–drums,percussion, tape effects • Roger Waters–bass guitar, vocals, VCS3, tape ef-
fects
• Richard Wright–keyboards, vocals,VCS3 Additional personnel
• Hipgnosis– album cover
6.7.6 Sales chart performance
6.7.7 References
Footnotes Citations
[1] Povey, Glenn (2006). “Playing Different Tunes 1972– 1973”. Echoes : The Complete History of Pink Floyd
(New ed.). Mind Head Publishing. p. 168.ISBN 978-0- 9554624-0-5. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
[2] Povey, Glenn (2006). “Playing Different Tunes 1972– 1973”. Echoes : The Complete History of Pink Floyd
(New ed.). Mind Head Publishing. p. 166.ISBN 978-0- 9554624-0-5. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
[3] Manning, Toby (2006). “The Albums”. The Rough
Guide to Pink Floyd (1st ed.). London: Rough Guides. p.
[4] Mason, Nick (2004). “There Is No Dark Side”. Inside
Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd (New ed.). Widen-
feld & Nicolson. p. 164.ISBN 0-297-84387-7. [5] Povey, Glenn (2006). “Playing Different Tunes 1972–
1973”. Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd
(New ed.). Mind Head Publishing. p. 155.ISBN 978-0- 9554624-0-5. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
[6] Manning, Toby (2006). “The Albums”. The Rough
Guide to Pink Floyd (1st ed.). London: Rough Guides. p.
165.ISBN 1-84353-575-0.
[7] Mabbett, Andy (1995). The Complete Guide to the Music
of Pink Floyd. London: Omnibus.ISBN 0-7119-4301-X. [8] Mason, Stewart. Song reviewatAllMusic. Retrieved 4
July 2011.
[9] Hinton, Graham.“EMS: The Inside Story – The Users”
. Electronic Music Studios. Retrieved 4 July 2011. [10] Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. Album reviewatAllMusic.
Retrieved 4 July 2011.
[11] Christgau, Robert. “Album: Pink Floyd: Obscured by Clouds”. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
[12] McCormick, Neil (20 May 2014).“Pink Floyd's 14 stu- dio albums rated”. The Daily Telegraph(London). Re- trieved 27 December 2014.
[13] Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). Musi- cHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington
Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 872.ISBN 1-57859-061- 2.
[14] Sheffield, Rob(2 November 2004). “Pink Floyd: Al- bum Guide”. Rolling Stone. Wenner Media, Fireside Books. Archived fromthe originalon 17 February 2011. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
[15] “Infodisc – Pink Floyd – Obscured By Clouds”. www. infodisc.fr. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
[16] “Pink Floyd UK Chart History”.Official Charts Com- pany. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
[17] Billboard chart peak positionatAllMusic. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
[18] Record Research (advertisement). Billboard magazine. 15 March 1997. Retrieved 6 September 2012.