2nd commentary page of Pink Floyd Webmaster / Author Sohnosuke Imai.


Please click Sohnosuke's banner and visit his website....and please do him the courtesy of signing his guestbook.
Thank You Again Sohnosuke... for sharing your thoughts!


Sohnosuke is Japanese and not comfortable with The English Language....you may find small errors in syntax. Mr Imai is co-author of
" PINK FLOYD: THE LABYRINTH THROUGH THE FANCYSCOPE "
....a published book that seriously explores the music of Pink Floyd. Information on the book is available at his website.





fancyscope banner




Sohnosuke Imai Commentaries






LYRICS AND SOUNDS IN THE WORLD OF ECHOES :  When, where, why or who...all is nothing




When or Where?

Early " Echoes " in progress was called as " Return of the Son of Nothing " and was performed, and the lyrics in the opening was very different from regular " Echoes ". As for those change, people say " Echoes " changed an imagery from space to the ocean depths. There wasn't anything to change, I think.



Mental Picture of Something

" Echoes " is a mental picture. Both space and the ocean depths are a mental picture. Everything at a mental picture in emotional depths, just like dream, comes in sight as symbolic image into mind. You never know the where and the why of the echo, and you don't know the distant time is from either the past or the future though you know that it comes from the distant when. Phrase ' wheres and whys ' means it has no law of causality and doesn't establish own identity. The phrase of " no-one " going on side by side is a mental picture of undifferentiated mind between oneself and others.



Dream Analysis of Something

People say this is a science fiction, but in such an undifferentiated state why is this a science fiction? Nicholas Schaffner wrote " a change from outer space to underwater ", but an overhead space where albatross hangs is upon the sky. You may think " Echoes " is like a landscape painting, but it is an inner space's landscape, not an outer space's, and it is just your inner space. I think we should interpret " Echoes " just as if dream analysis.



Echoes is Sonic Language

" Echoes " is the ultimate that is made free use of sonic language, and " Dark Side of the Moon " is the dawn harmonized with sonic language and spoken language. I suppose, because of a coined word by me, a word of " sonic language " maybe sounds unfamiliar to you. If I give a good illustration for sonic language, it is " ping " in " Echoes " and four tones in " Shine on You Crazy Diamond's " intro. Those tones sound like to be about to speak something to us, but no one can translate them. So, it is just sonic language. Look, I suppose that Roger Waters used sonic language " ping " in other songs, so that you can regard these as quotations from " Echoes ".



Beyond Secular Society

Karl Dallas wrote in his book, ' PINK FLOYD: Bricks In The Wall ', that " Echoes " is a love song for Roger Waters' darling woman, but I think he gets the wrong end of the stick. As far as Waters gives an account, it is universal others. I cannot see why such bloodcurdling song suggests a love song to people. " Echoes " isn't such secular society, the workaday world like " Dark Side of the Moon ", is it? Did you notice critics tend to keep reference to " Echoes " at a distance ( or is this a tendency in my country only )? It, anyway, seems " Echoes " is too troublesome to people to put their deep impression into words. So, this is just my cherished opinion; " Echoes " is sonic language and is the other world's or psychic world's language. Impossible to translate, for beyond secular society.



Sohnosuke Imai
fancysc@avis.ne.jp





Where You Came From

Commentaries Index Page