Us and Them
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from the album The Dark Side of the Moon
June 1972-January 1973
3:15 (single edit)
(1973) "Us and Them"/"Time"
(1973) "Have a Cigar"
(1975)
"Us and Them" is the sixth (on the 1994 CD version) or seventh track[1] from English progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. It was written by Richard Wright and Roger Waters and sung by David Gilmour (harmonies by Wright). It is 7 minutes, 51 seconds in length, making it the longest song on the album. When performed live throughout the 70s, it was even slightly longer, though in later tours, as evidenced in bootlegs and the releases P•U•L•S•E and Delicate Sound of Thunder, it was sometimes up to a minute shorter.
Contents
[edit] Composition
"Us and Them" is rather quiet in tone and dynamics. It has two saxophone solos in it, one at the beginning and another towards the end of the song. Rick Wright introduces the song with harmonies on his Hammond organ, and put a piano chordal backing and short piano solo afterwards on the arrangement. The verses have a unique, jazz-influenced chord progression: Dsus2, D6(add9), Dminor major7 and G (with D in the bass, sustained as a pedal point throughout). The D6 with an added 9th is not unlike an Esus2 with a D in the bass, but because the bass line also provides the fifth, it is more accurately described as a kind of D chord. The D minor chord with a major seventh is a rarity in 1970s rock music.[2]
In the middle, there is a break during which roadie "Roger the Hat" speaks (during the recording of the album a number of interviews were laid down, including with Paul and Linda McCartney who were recording in the same studio). Before its release, the song was known as "The Violent Sequence" which is available on bootlegs.
The tune was originally written on the piano by Rick for the movie Zabriskie Point in 1969; this is where the "Violent Sequence" title came from. Director Michelangelo Antonioni rejected it on the grounds that it was too unlike their "Careful with That Axe, Eugene"-esque work, which was the style of music he wanted to use. As Waters recalls it in impersonation, Antonioni's response was, "It's beautiful, but too sad, you know? It makes me think of church." [3]. The song was shelved until Dark Side of the Moon.
It was also re-released on the 2001 greatest hits album, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, where it is the seventh track of the second disc.
[edit] Spoken parts
[edit] Echoes segue
On Echoes the song has a different ending: instead of segueing into what would be the next track on Dark Side of the Moon ("Any Colour You Like"), engineer and Floyd collaborator James Guthrie gave the song a cold ending, before adding a backwards piano note that would lead into the collection's next track, "Learning to Fly".[4]
[edit] Cover versions
The song has been covered by Between the Buried and Me on the album The Anatomy Of. This song was covered on the Echoes of Pink tribute album in 2002 by Brielle Morgan. This song was covered by Easy Dub All-Stars in 2003. This reggae group reproduced the entire Dark Side of the Moon album in their own style, calling it "Dub Side of the Moon". The song has also been covered by experimental group Donny Who Loved Bowling.
Also recorded by Nena on her 2007 album Cover Me.
