Pink Floyd On Concertina?

[Theodore Kloba]

I just learned of Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett's passing. He was definitely an important early influence on my musical development.

 

Although the Pink Floyd song catalog isn't part of the typical concertina repertoire, I think of them as a quintessentially English band; I wonder: Has anybody here ever attempted any Pink Floyd tunes on their concertina?

[m3838]

I think the problem of playing Rock on Concertina is a subtle termperament of the instrument. Concertina is not powerful, not bassy, it's moody and delicate. Loud noise and sheer power of Rock-n-Roll, essential for the style, is a bit foreign for Concertina. A Chemnitzer or Bandoneon is another matter, they have the roar.

My daughter tried to figure out Bohemian Rapsody by Queen, rather successfully. I too, tried to accompany her on my Anglo. The tune is easy to get, but the feel is lacking completely.

It's the same as with any instruments, My teacher had difficult time transposing piano music for Chromatic Accordion.

Not to brag, but to illustrate the butchering, here's my playing of Chopin's Mazurka. Not too good, but not bad either. Pretty generic even for a beginner, but sweating and shaking, I made it through, not a small feat!

In Windows Media, for compression sake:

 

http://www.streamload.com/Mberenstein/Chopin.wmv

 

And to illustrate how such an instrument is supposed to be handled, here's another link:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGJRTpgE0dY...earch=balalaika

 

My condolencies to family and friends of Syd Barrett. Hope he had a good bright life.

Edited July 12, 2006 by m3838

[AnnC]

I've never tried any Pink Floyd but years ago I used to mangle my way through the Animals 'House of the Rising Sun'

[Mark Evans]

You never cease to amaze me Michael.

[Theodore Kloba]

I think the problem of playing Rock on Concertina is a subtle termperament of the instrument.

Although some Pink Floyd is rock, a good deal of it is not, especially from the Syd Barrett era. After my original post, I went back to my collection; it looks like some of the solo Syd Barrett may be even more suited.

It's the same as with any instruments, My teacher had difficult time transposing piano music for Chromatic Accordion.

At least (s)he didn't try Debussy!

Not to brag, but to illustrate the butchering, here's my playing of Chopin's Mazurka. Not too good, but not bad either. Pretty generic even for a beginner, but sweating and shaking, I made it through, not a small feat!

That works out nicely. Very different from Chopin on piano, which gives us all those sympathetic vibrations, but still nice.

And to illustrate how such an instrument is supposed to be handled, here's another link:

Apparently there are other ideas of how to handle it:

.

Seriously though, here's an interview with Lidia Kaminska that includes some performance.

My condolencies to family and friends of Syd Barrett. Hope he had a good bright life.

Sadly, drugs and (suspected) mental illness led him to drop from the public eye in the early 1970s. Any guess about his life after that is only a guess. Of course the music always remains.

I've never tried any Pink Floyd but years ago I used to mangle my way through the Animals 'House of the Rising Sun'

On Chemnitzer, that's one of my standards. It's actually quite easy, although it comes out more like a Tarantella in my rendition.

[Chris Timson]

After my original post, I went back to my collection; it looks like some of the solo Syd Barrett may be even more suited.

This is a story 'bout a girl that I knew

She didn't like my songs and that made me feel blue

She said, "A big band's much better than you".

Now you come to mention it, I could imagine myself doing that song. Thanks for the thought.

 

Chris

[Theodore Kloba]

This is a story 'bout a girl that I knew

She didn't like my songs and that made me feel blue

She said, "A big band's much better than you".

I was already playing along with that one two days ago! The main chord progression (A - A#dim - Bm7 - E7, A - A7 - D - Dm) is very easy on a Chemnitzer. Edited July 14, 2006 by Theodore Kloba

[bellowbelle]

http://www.streamload.com/Mberenstein/Chopin.wmv

 

And to illustrate how such an instrument is supposed to be handled, here's another link:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGJRTpgE0dY...earch=balalaika

 

I'll try to download these tomorrow, my dialup is tired tonight and won't do much.

 

I've never worked out any Pink Floyd on the concertina, but with my accordion I had some fun bashing out the Foo Fighters' 'Learn To Fly.' I may try to transfer that to my concertina.

 

Then, while playing it, maybe I should try to fly off the stage with my concertina....hehehe...

 

Hmm. Time to go to bed.

[stuart estell]

I'm a huge Barrett devotee and was deeply saddened by his death; although as I read in one obituary, really it was Roger Keith Barrett that died last week. Syd, as he was in the late 60s/early 70s, hadn't been around for an awful long time.

 

Anyway, I quite often wheel out early Floyd or solo Syd songs... on concertina (mostly Maccann) I've found these all work pretty well:

 

Golden Hair

Dark Globe (aka Wouldn't You Miss Me) - both from The Madcap Laughs LP

 

Effervescing Elephant

Wined and Dined

Love Song (all from Barrett LP)

 

Jugband Blues - from Pink Floyd's "Saucerful of Secrets" LP

Bike

The Scarecrow - both from Piper At the Gates Of Dawn

 

Vegetable Man

Scream Thy Last Scream - both unreleased (ahem) but probably two of the best songs from the 1967 Pink Floyd line-up

 

I've heard Syd described as one of the greatest English songwriters ever - he's certainly utterly unique. And Theodore's right - his work barely qualifies as "rock". Many of the songs are folk-influenced (e.g. The Scarecrow in particular) and there's a strong streak of Music Hall in there too. And he's very funny: most of the obituaries have been concentrating on the mental collapse etc. without making any real reference to the songs themselves - I challenge anyone to listen to the wonderfully absurd Apples And Oranges without laughing ("THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW.... I'm a lorry driver-man").

 

Anyway... later Floyd works OK too. Wish You Were Here and Shine On You Crazy Diamond seem to suit the instrument. From even later in the Floyd canon, I once spent a happy evening in the company of Jadwiga Billewicz and Steve Bradley, who those of you who come to Swaledale etc. will know, bluffing our way through the whole of the "Final Cut" LP on concertinas - The Fletcher Memorial Home and The Gunner's Dream come to mind as songs that seemed to work moderately successfully . The Floyd have a really rich legacy, I think (well, up until Roger Waters left, anyway), well worth mining for material.

 

Quite enough rambling from me... Estell out...

Edited July 17, 2006 by stuart estell

[stuart estell]

This is a story 'bout a girl that I knew

She didn't like my songs and that made me feel blue

She said, "A big band's much better than you".

I was already playing along with that one two days ago! The main chord progression (A - A#dim - Bm7 - E7, A - A7 - D - Dm) is very easy on a Chemnitzer.

 

By the way Theodore, I don't know if this helps or hinders, but the second chord in the verse pattern for "Here I Go" isn't really an A#dim. It's a single finger across all the strings at the sixth fret on guitar (Syd wasn't the most technical of guitarists ), so the notes are - A#-D#-G#-C#-E#-A# - (or, enharmonically: Bb-Eb-Ab-Db-F-Bb) which I suppose makes it some kind of A#sus or Bbsus chord.