Seamus (song)
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| “Seamus” | |||||
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| Single by Pink Floyd from the album Meddle |
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| A-side | One of These Days (Japanese single) | ||||
| Released | October 30, 1971 (US) November 5, 1971 (UK) November 29, 1971 (US single) 1971 (Italian single) 1971 (Japanese single) |
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| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | Morgan Studios, London May 28, 1971 AIR Studios, London August 1971 AIR Studios, London |
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| Genre | Blues | ||||
| Length | 2:16 | ||||
| Label | Harvest (UK) Capitol (US) |
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| Writer(s) | David Gilmour Roger Waters Rick Wright Nick Mason |
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| Producer | Pink Floyd | ||||
| Pink Floyd singles chronology | |||||
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| Meddle track listing | |||||
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"Seamus" is the fifth song on Pink Floyd's 1971 album Meddle. Years later, the song appeared in the film version of Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.
[edit] Meddle
The song was written by Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright one day in 1971 when they found that Seamus could bark in tune with music. They quickly recorded a twelve-bar blues backing track for the dog to 'sing' over, and David Gilmour later overdubbed extra instrumentation as well as lead vocals. Pink Floyd added this novelty song to round out the first side of their new LP, and hastily composed a few lines of lyrics to enhance its brief appearance on the album. Also, some stray speech leaked into the final mix. Some say that about a minute through the recording, one of the band members can be heard saying something akin to "it's better than last time" or "very theatrical". According to Vernon Fitch's "The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia," the words are "Here is the real dog." It sounds more like "Where is the actual dog".
Some fans who enjoy the rest of Meddle deride "Seamus" for being an anomalous case of sloppy songwriting. However, the band's blues roots are rarely this exposed on official recordings, and the track provides a light-hearted acknowledgment of the genre's influence on their music. Additionally, the track is more of a novelty than a serious piece.
[edit] Live at Pompeii: "Mademoiselle Nobs"
Film director Adrian Maben captured Pink Floyd's only live performance of "Seamus" (in a greatly altered form, excluding lyrics, changing the key from D-Major to C-Major, and retitled "Mademoiselle Nobs") in his film Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii. To re-create the song, David Gilmour played harmonica instead of singing and (unusually) Roger Waters played one of Gilmour's Stratocaster guitars. The band members were keen to include this track in the film, and gave Maben the task of finding a dog that could duplicate Seamus's performance when they re-made it in front his cameras at les Studios de Boulogne in the Spring of 1972. A female Russian Wolfhound named Nobs, which belonged to Madonna Bouglione (the daughter of circus director Joseph Bouglione), was brought to the studio and Wright gently coaxed her to provide howling accompaniment as Seamus did in the album version. There is also an audible bass guitar in this recording, likely overdubbed during mixing of the film soundtrack at another studio, but, as with many Pink Floyd songs, it is difficult to tell who is playing it.
[edit] Personnel
- David Gilmour - Guitar, Harmonica, and Vocals
- Roger Waters - Guitar, Bass
- Richard Wright - Piano
- Seamus (Meddle) - Barking
- Mademoiselle Nobs (Live at Pompeii) - Barking
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