Seamus (song)

"Seamus"
Song by Pink Floyd
from the album Meddle
Released 5 November 1971
Format LP record
Recorded May & August 1971
Studio Morgan Studios, AIR Studios, London
Genre Country blues, novelty song
Length 2:15
Label Harvest
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Pink Floyd

"Seamus" is the fifth song on Pink Floyd's 1971 album Meddle. The group performs it in the style of a country blues, with vocals, an acoustic slide guitar in an open D tuning, and piano.[1][2] The song is named after the Collie dog (belonging to Humble Pie leader Steve Marriott) who howls throughout the 2:15 piece.[3] Group biographer Nicholas Schaffner calls the tune "dispensable"; David Gilmour added "I guess it wasn't really as funny to everyone else [as] it was to us".[4]

Mademoiselle Nobs

Film director Adrian Maben captured Pink Floyd's only live performance of "Seamus" (in a greatly altered form, excluding lyrics, and retitled "Mademoiselle Nobs") in his film Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii. To recreate the song, David Gilmour played harmonica instead of singing and Roger Waters played one of Gilmour's Stratocaster guitars. A female Borzoi (Russian Wolfhound) named Nobs, which belonged to Madonna Bouglione (the daughter of circus director Joseph Bouglione), was brought to the studio 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.[5] Some sources believe that "Seamus" was also performed on the Charlotte Park Center as an encore, 23 March 1973 during the Dark Side of the Moon Tour, but this is false.

Reception

In a review for the Meddle album, Jean-Charles Costa of Rolling Stone described "Seamus" as "a great pseudo-spoof blues tune with David Gilmour's dog Seamus taking over the lead "howl" duties."[6] In a more negative review, Classic Rock Review described "Seamus" a "throwaway" that's "meant to be a humorous filler with an annoying, howling dog throughout."[7] Classic Rock Review further said Pink Floyd fans have ranked "Seamus" as one of their worst songs.[7]

Personnel

with:

  • Seamus (Meddle) – howling
  • Nobs (Live at Pompeii) – howling

An instrumental version of the song is used in the opening scene of the 1990 film Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (film).[8]

References

  1. ↑ Strong, Martin C. (2004). The Great Rock Discography (7th ed.). Edinburgh: Canongate Books. p. 1177. ISBN 1-84195-551-5.
  2. ↑ Mabbett, Andy (1995). The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-4301-X.
  3. ↑ Blake, Mark (2008). Comfortably Numb–The Inside Story of Pink Floyd. Da Capo Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-306-81752-6.
  4. ↑ Schaffner, Nicholas (1991). Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey. New York City: Dell Publishing. p. 165. ISBN 0-385-30684-9.
  5. ↑ Adrian Maben (2003). Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii: Director's Cut (DVD). Universal Music & Video Distribution.
  6. ↑ Costa, Jean-Charles (6 January 1972). "Meddle". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  7. 1 2 "Meddle by Pink Floyd | Classic Rock Review". 27 January 2011. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  8. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100519/trivia
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