Classical Composer Reacts to Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pink Floyd) | The Daily Doug (Episode 284)

it's the daily dog hey y'all welcome back to the daily doug i am thankful that you're with me today as we conclude a very fun week here at the daily doug with a masterpiece friday edition and y'all do we have a masterpiece to listen to today i have been uh waiting to give a proper listen to this piece for several months it has finally appeared on the channel and i am glad you are here the song my friends is shine on you crazy diamond by pink floyd there have been many many people that have suggested this song i have heard i think parts of it there are like the main vocal theme that uh you know shine on you crazy diamond that sounds familiar to me but the rest of the piece the context of it is something that i have not in the past paid attention to uh this song is a nine part composition written by david gilmour roger waters and richard wright it is from their 1975 concept album wish you were here and as i look into the track listing i believe that wish you were here is the only song on that album that i know with any uh familiarity uh so i am really eager to get into this one today uh as i read in uh this song is written about and dedicated to sid barrett who left the ban in 1968 due to his deteriorating mental health sid i don't know much about sid y'all just what i've read today and what some of our patrons have have discussed with me in the past sid was a founding member of pink floyd who struggled with uh drug use and with mental health and could no longer be counted on i guess by the band so he was dismissed and i think it was david gilmour that replaced him so uh it's gonna be interesting to see uh uh how this works with uh how the band has put together this very long piece a nine part suite uh dedicated to their friend the entire song is split on the album which i also find intriguing parts one through five open the album and parts six through nine uh conclude the album so what i have today is the original studio recording my friends and we are going to listen to uh parts one through five and then there will be a break and then we'll listen to uh the last bit but um i have a feeling we're gonna go just right in from one to the other so who do we have performing for us today uh roger waters on bass and vocals and glass harp sounds interesting david gilmour on guitars vocals and the lap steel guitar richard wright on many different kinds of keyboards looks like a hammond a mini moog uh some synthesizers a clavinet a grand piano and he is also uh on vocals nick mason on drums and percussion they have uh dick bear uh perry sorry dick perry uh uh on the baritone and tender saxophones and then a couple of other backing vocalists carlina williams and vanetta fields so uh uh it's a long piece my friends let's jump right into it shall we um as far as a cocktail today i have decided not to have an alcoholic beverage but i do have a little bit of uh our herbal friend with us if we decide uh that the uh the feeling is right along this song so uh let's dive in shall we this is shine on you crazy diamond by pink floyd here we go soft opening they're in g that's what that suspended note is sounds like g minor getting louder [Music] big fat bass sound could almost be an orchestral opening you know with the strings and the bass and all that sort of stuff [Music] too i'm not sure what that instrument is [Music] is that one of the synthesizers early synthesizers the lead instrument [Music] i keep going back to that uh faw the fourth note of the scale before it resolves [Music] i mean he hasn't even hardly played yet and already it sounds like yep that's david gilmour that's a cool chord that they went to minor five minor four [Music] back to one sets up kind of a bluesy sound by the way that uh david is playing but also by the chord progression that kind of underpinned that it's a long intro y'all back to that minor five [Music] down to the four this is a heavy heavy sound just kind of grounds you right like up to five i'm the one getting louder still [Music] [Applause] [Music] fading out a bit this is the end of part one [Music] still in i'm edge still on that g minor chord but the note that that ends on is an e natural that's law in that key which makes it to me sound like like it's from dorian mode that that that's like a g minor add six but natural six [Music] whoa [Music] so that sets up the major iv chord [Music] nice flat seven to one [Music] and there's the flat in six the e flat down to the five which makes it sound more minor and then [Music] it's a neat sound [Music] the classical person in me would want to categorize that potentially as e half diminished making the e uh the root of the chord if you arrange them all in thirds but it really is functioning as an added six over the g [Applause] and then it stays in for the major four chord [Music] [Applause] you sydney base all the way down to law [Applause] [Music] why have i not ever listened to this what the hell is wrong with me just a slow compound meter there's the minor four as compared to the major four that we were hearing before back to the minor one it's got to be one of the synthesizers right unless it's an interesting guitar sound latest soul back to doe five seven right true five seven with the leading tone [Music] there's anguish in that sound there's true grief it's like hearing psychedelic blues [Music] y'all are lucky that i'm not at the keyboard on this because i would be playing all over the top of this latest soul go back to it flat six resolution [Music] the first vocals [Music] [Applause] that sounds familiar to me but nothing else [Music] down a half step [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] it's an ascending line now that's cool [Music] [Applause] it's like for a second they get to the relative major but then they use the soul the fifth of the key to go back up by step to the natural to the relative minor goes down by half step to g flat and i think that's the b flat chord [Music] [Applause] shine on you crazy [Music] threatened by shadows at night and exposed [Music] is [Applause] [Music] baseline [Music] sounds like a berry first [Music] [Music] g minor is a somber key at least for me it is [Music] okay [Music] go faster [Music] it almost makes a slow six [Applause] [Music] [Music] back chord that's an e flat dominant seventh chord to a d chord which is five in this key [Music] it's like an underbase underneath that sounds like my neighbor is trying to start his boat you know [Music] almost like it's like a machine what is that oh it's gonna segue into the next piece so this is how they stop parts one through five with the segway that just comes sort of sort of floats away and that's gonna segue to the next piece wow y'all i am enjoying myself so far i hope you are as well let me t before we play parts uh six through nine that uh let's see it was part four where the vocals come in and it's it's really fascinating musically how this sets up because they had this they're in g minor they had this chromatically descending bass line it starts on the g it goes down to f sharp it goes through f it goes through e natural it goes through e flat all the way down to d the fifth of that key to set up dominant to reset it and go back to g minor and that is a classic lament baseline that gradually chromatically descending baseline it's used all over every type of music that i've ever heard as an expression an outward expression of grief or sadness however uh you know they turn that around and start ascending the bass i think they started on the e flat when up through e went to f went up to f sharp and then they all went all the way back up to g that way and stepping that way is almost an encouraging or optimistic uh sort of sound and that matches the lyrics uh exactly y'all so um part of the lyrics are uh remembering uh or like lamenting grief uh remember when you were young you shone like the sun now there's a look in your eyes like black holes in the sky you were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom blown on the steel breeze and then they say then they change from looking into the past and they start encouraging they say come on you target for far away laughter come on you stranger you legend you martyr and shine later on they say come on you raver you seer of visions come on you painter you piper your prisoner and shine they are encouraging him to be better uh to to get back to his to sid you know to get back to his uh the best version of himself and the music turns optimistic at least in the way that the chords work that's really cool to me y'all uh so let's go right into uh parts uh six through nine let me get my notes back uh where we are so uh let's dive in here we go [Applause] and that sounds like the wind at the end of wish you were here because that one i've heard i don't know why i've never listened to it go on i just don't i don't have the album so i've only heard the track and they're back in g [Music] so [Music] sounds like a slow six again right one two three four five six two three five six [Music] going back to some of these classic 70s recordings it's amazing to me the sound because modern music for the most part the way that they just over process it doesn't sound nearly as good as this and this isn't even lp right it's just digital but holy crap it sounds wonderful [Music] oh they went to like the flat five [Music] again just grief right [Music] one six five [Applause] [Music] so a faster tempo but still in the compound two [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] she's so boozy [Applause] i forgot to talk about that they're doing it again [Music] okay y'all i had to stop it just for a second what they're doing when i hear this sound they're in g minor when they go down to an e flat in the bass and the chord that i hear is an e flat dominant seventh sound that's the chord that i hear and the notes in that chord are an e flat a g and a b flat and a d flat right so in the key of g minor we've got the g we've got the b flat that's the minor third we've got the e flat we've which is the flat six right so the note that's chromatic in that is the seventh of the chord the d flat right which in the key of g is a you know a tritone a lowered fifth so what does that do that e flat uh so you get the e flat down here and you get the d flat up here and they both resolve outward by step to a d and a d forming the basis of a d chord which is the five of the key that goes back home so what that ends up being what we would call that in the classical uh sort of milieu that e flat chord is not an e flat seven chord but an augmented six chord specifically a german augmented sixth chord it works as a like a leading tone chord a double leading tone chord to the fifth of the key uh we're going if we have d down here we have d up here we're going to approach them both from their half steps the e flat above by a step in the c sharp uh below by a step and then resolve to that and then that d then can get us back to g minor uh it's something that is used all over classical music i don't think in all the time that i've been doing these reactions i've ever heard it in a um in a rock piece uh so let it be known there's no there's a german augmented sixth chord uh several of them hanging out and shine on you crazy diamond very cool we're gonna keep rolling [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i really enjoy gilmore's soloing wow [Applause] see sorry [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] this goes back to the main progression [Music] [Applause] [Music] right in the relative major then back up to the relative minor [Music] is [Music] then turn it around [Music] shine [Music] one two three four it's the first time they've really been in like a standard four groove the whole piece i think i love that electric keyboard sound i've gotten to play offender rhodes a few times friend had one i haven't played one in a long time [Music] now [Music] screws really nice [Music] [Applause] [Music] it started out as kind of a keyboard focused section and all this stuff that's coming over the top of it i think is [Applause] fascinating but i wish i heard more of the keyboard because i haven't really heard it much [Music] what kind of instrument is that it's almost like a theremin maybe that's the glass harp or just a slide guitar [Music] the way that they're portamentoing between notes that slide between notes is really interesting a new section [Music] new chord progression [Music] that's back to the so we didn't modulate keys yeah they're still in g [Music] that's a minor chord on the three which is b flat minor that goes down to f minor [Music] sounds foreign because that brings in the a flat which is flat two and the key that we're currently in [Music] also just an exude sadness doesn't it and it just exudes grief but in a way that's i don't know approachable enough that we it's not overwhelming to me it's not reminding me of my own grief it's just that i can let it live a little bit [Music] and not overwhelm me and kind of feel it with them and almost be lifted because you've processed a little bit by the time we get to the end of this [Music] they get back to that functional little fashion five seven port [Music] accept it yeah it's going to stay there it is major it lands on g major i don't know if we've heard it be natural in the whole damn song just makes it brighten up doesn't it [Music] it's gleaming right hmm it's a lovely piece of music it's really effective y'all it really is there's not much lyrics in that you know there's enough lyrics on that to uh perfectly be at home in a two-minute piece in the middle of a vocal set but they've turned it into a nine-part suite to honor and grieve for and [Music] hope for betterment of their very good friend who helped form the band and it becomes universal then for all of us as we process the uh grief of our own in whatever context it really does capture these feelings of uh grief or i don't know if guilt uh is the right word for uh ousting said from the band um but boy it they do voice their appreciation admiration for uh his legacy you know uh for his creativity and for his songwriting i read that that sid was one of the main songwriters at the beginning of pink floyd's um tenure right as an ensemble uh and the lyrics the lyrics are wonderful they've got these great metaphors we hear these um like the metaphor of the sun to describe like the potential of sid and the largeness of sid but we also hear the metaphor of the black hole to maybe signify the the light leaving the creativity so i don't know the loss of his identity this one really struck me my friends uh i think it's a lovely way to to to kind of cap out the week it's been a fascinating week of music we've had quite a carpool uh of of pieces this week and by the time i get to the end of every week it's it's almost like processing like when i get to this point the wrap up uh of the last video of the week and it's like i'm thinking of all of these different themes and ideas that uh going through the music in this way has affected uh my own sense and my own uh emotions uh and understanding of the human condition throughout the week and that's what i think is so um rewarding about um listening to music in this intentional way of course listening to music for pure enjoyment is something i do all the time and uh when i do i'm not analyzing it y'all i'm just listening to it that's the beauty of not having true like perfect pitch is it's not the pitches aren't banging over me over the head when i'm listening for for pleasure uh i have to really concentrate uh and i'm using my um my training and my relative pitch uh to uh to try to follow uh what's going on and um it's um it's something i have a lot of experience at but uh it's it's an interesting way i love doing it because it it it gets me into not just how the music sounds but why it sounds that way and that's where the meaning of the underlying music i think can be at its most revealing uh to us so i hope that you enjoyed these little jaunts with me through these classic pieces and wow what a masterpiece shine on you crazy diamond is i cannot believe that i haven't really processed that whole piece before in my life it will become one of my favorites uh i am i am sure of that so from pink floyd all the way back in 1975 this has been all nine parts of shine on you crazy diamond thank you all for being with me today we'll see you next time on another edition of the daily doug

Channel: Doug Helvering

Views: 654,092

Keywords: The Daily Doug, Daily Doug, R. Douglas Helvering, Doug Helvering, Doug, Doug Reaction, musical analysis, reaction video, reaction vid, music analysis, analysis, Pink Floyd Reaction, Pink Floyd, Reacting to Pink Floyd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Shine On You Crazy Diamond Reaction, reacting to Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Pink Floyd Shine On You Crazy Diamond reaction, classical composer reacts, music, Wish You Were Here, prog, blues, rock, psychadelic

Id: 1bmBbKFVRz4

Length: 38min 47sec (2327 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Peeterwetwipe]

Doug is brilliant. He has done a follow up with the rest of the album as well.

Also worth looking up his videos on Genesis, he does some with the score on display too.

[u/toughturtle]

I really do not like reaction videos… and never watch them. But I watched this one in its entirety. This dude is awesome!

[u/toughturtle]

He also does a video for Atom Heart Mother and Echoes.

[u/walker20022017]

He also did the rest of the album in another vid, which is pretty cool, and atom heart mother. If you guys like metal, specifically iron maiden, he's done a ton of vids on them, he's a super fan by this point.

[u/OmatoYT]

I’ve seen that guy’s face like twenty times already

[u/Dr-McLuvin]

I actually really enjoy most reaction videos. As long as the people like the stuff I like haha.