# Music by Genre > Rock, Folk Rock, Roots Rock, Rockabilly >  Pink Floyd mandolin covers, and general musings

## Jim MacDaniel

I was wandering around youtube when I found this interesting cover of _Breathe_ featuring mandolin. This stood out to me since it is one of the few mando-centric covers of a Floyd song other than Wish You Were Here (which BTW Jim Richter covers quite well on OM, also on youtube) and thought I would post it for your listening pleasure. Has anyone out there played around with other Floyd tunes with your bands or on solo mandolin?



This vid then got me thinking about what other Pink Floyd songs might make for a nice mando tune, which got me thinking about their discography in general. What I kept looping back to is how incredible David Gilmour's many outstanding guitar solos still sound today. I know there are many Syd Barrett and Roger Waters fans out there, but to me, when I think of Pink Floyd, more often than not I think of the tunes with my favorite Gilmour solos in them. For that matter, when I build a list of my favorite rock guitar solos, Gilmour also shows up on those lists several time.

Which leads me to ask, what was the force behind your favorite Pink Floyd memories and albums; Syd Barrett's writing and guitar; Roger Water's writing, vocals, and amazing vision; or Gilmour's always guitar work and memorable solos?

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## Elliot Luber

Gilmore's guitar redefined the instrument as capable of a soaring melody. I am always surprised at what notes he chooses to play in any situation, electric or acoustic, that takes the music a step further than you may have anticipated.

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Ben Cooper

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## JimRichter

Well, this thread got me inspired to arrange one of my favorite Floyd numbers to octave (will work on mando too).  I think it makes a very good mandolin piece.  If there's the interest, I'll tab it out in the future.

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## mandopete

> Has anyone out there played around with other Floyd tunes with your bands or on solo mandolin?
> 
> This vid then got me thinking about what other Pink Floyd songs might make for a nice mando tune


A couple of years ago at a bluegrass festival a couple of friends of mine pulled out *San Tropez* which has a really nice feel to it.  Seems like it would be a good choice for mando.

Jim Richter - Excellent as always man!

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## Jim MacDaniel

Jim - Very nice, and I for one would enjoy getting the tab or notation for that on mando.  :Mandosmiley: 

Pete - that's a good one. Coincidentally, when I saw _Spinal Plug Live, Unwigged and Unplugged_ earlier this year here in Oakland, I thought they would have a blast covering that tune as well.

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## mandopete

> Which leads me to ask, what was the force behind your favorite Pink Floyd memories and albums; Syd Barrett's writing and guitar; Roger Water's writing, vocals, and amazing vision; or Gilmour's always guitar work and memorable solos?


Yes, David Gilmour is probably the most melodic guitar in rock music to be sure.  But my favorite memory is not really music or performances, but an album cover (shows my age).

As a kid in a rock band I was always obsessed with equipment and I used to stare at the cover of Umma Gumma and think how cool it was to have all of that suff.

Wierd, huh?

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## JimRichter

Actually, one that would make a great mandolin piece would be Echoes.  I started on this once and shelved it.  I used to play it in a trio with my brother (me on guitar).

And, Fearless is a great one for mandolin.  I did this as the opening to my version of Wish You Were Here.  

Of course, I'm waiting for someone to do "Careful with that Mandolin, Eugene"

JR

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## JimRichter

I was in the mood.  Now, eat your pudding.

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## mandocrucian

Since the late 70's.....
_"Granchester Meadows"_ which I still like to play
_"Arnold Layne"_ (Barrett era Floyd)
_"The Gnome"_  (Barrett era Floyd)
_"Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun"_

messed with the guitar lead (on mando) for "Echoes"

My younger brother sang a bunch of Syd Barrett/early Floyd things: _"The Scarecrow", "Rats", "Gigolo Aunt", "Octopus Ride", "Bike", "Flaming"_ etc.  This was back in the early 80's; we had a pretty bizarre repertoire mix: lots of Dan Hicks _("Laughing Song", "O'Reilly At The Bar", "Crazy Cos He Is", "Milk Shakin' Mama", "News From Up The Street", "Jukie's Ball"....._ the Dawg music followers really resented our assertions that Dan 'got there 10 years sooner'), some Nick Drake, Bonzos, Slim Gaillard, early Kinks _("Summer Afternoon", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "Dead End Street", 'Death Of A Clown"..._).  Never did "Vegetable Man" though - the ultimate Syd Barrett number.

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## Elliot Luber

Fantastic version of GBBS Jim. (would love those tabs too!)
I love that the kids in Another Brick never got paid and wound up suing. I guess they got an education afterall.

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## Howard33

Count me in for tabs Jim. I'm pick'en up whatever your laying down brother. :Grin:

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## Jim MacDaniel

Wooo hooo! Me too please!

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## Jim MacDaniel

> Since the late 70's.....
> _"Granchester Meadows"_ which I still like to play...


Good one Niles -- I like it...

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## mandopete

Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict?

Anyone?

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## journeybear

There seem to be a few bands fooling around in this way. Here's Greensky Bluegrass:




Then there's Poor Man's Whiskey. Looks like these guys do the entire DSOTM in Wizard Of Oz costume ...



Once upon a time I used to do "See Emily Play" solo, but not bluegrass style ...  :Mandosmiley:

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## JimRichter

I'm not a fan of doing rock covers in bluegrass style.  Sometimes they work out (like Fox on the Run or when NGR did L. Russell's Prince of Peace), but other times they sound hokey.  Frankly, I think the Time cover sounds novel, rather than bona fide.  Part of the flavor of the original tune was the rhythm, which is lost in the bluegrass straight beat.  I'm not knocking the guys cause they're sound like a talented band, but it's just my personal taste.  I like rock rhythms and try to see that they're preserved.

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## Elliot Luber

I do without Dorothy in the dress too. :-)

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## journeybear

I wasn't saying either of these bands was any good, just sayin', here 'tis.  :Wink:  There are more PF renditions by them, as well as others; I just picked a couple at random. These were pretty easy search results. Personally, I'd like to see this treatment applied to material other than DSOTM. I don't know why people keep going to that. Dig a little deeper, I always say. Y'all are on your own with this stuff!  :Whistling:

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## Jim MacDaniel

JB's Time vid reminded me of my favorite Floyd tribute/cover ever, The Easy Star All Stars' _Dub Side of the Moon_, which is an all Dub/Reggae version of Dark Side. It is very well done, and retains the mood and feel of the original, but puts a unique twist/beat to it -- yet it still tracks to the Wizard of Oz.  :Wink: 

Here is _their_ version of Time, live...

(If you dig this, this a many other tracks from Dub Side are on youtube, both studio and live versions.)

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## JEStanek

The Dub Side of the Moon is a highly recommended CD by me.  It's in regular summer rotation for my commute to work.

Jamie

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## Dan Hoover

once again mr.richter...wowzer's!! that blew me away...very cool..how do you do this???
  i agree..david gilmour one of the most outstanding guitarist in rock,totally defined the floyd sound,maybe mostly in the later years??love to hear what he can do on a mando???
 years ago,when i was a pup, i use too to stare at the ummagumma LP sleeve..sometimes too long,i probably use to stare at a lot of their records too long??? along w/darkside and the beatles white album and abbey road,i've had them on every format...lp,cassette,8-track,reel-reel..and lastly cd...actually,other than a nina simone song,pink floyd is the only thing on my ipod too...
  floyd song i'd like to hear a mando version of???  "Remember a Day"...one of my fav's...
  great thread jim mac...thank's...cheers me up...i'll have to look up the dub side....i think it's going to be one of those weekends again... :Grin:

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## Dan Hoover

> If you dig this, this a many other tracks from Dub Side are on youtube, both studio and live versions.


just watched 3 you tube vids...The Dub Side....wow...i need this...why haven't i heard this before???  thanks ..

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## journeybear

> ... years ago,when i was a pup, i use too to stare at the ummagumma LP sleeve..sometimes too long,i probably use to stare at a lot of their records too long??? along w/darkside and the beatles white album and abbey road,i've had them on every format...lp,cassette,8-track,reel-reel..and lastly cd...actually,other than a nina simone song,pink floyd is the only thing on my ipod too...


This explains _so_ much ...  :Laughing:

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## journeybear

> The Dub Side of the Moon is a highly recommended CD by me.  It's in regular summer rotation for my commute to work.


Good call! The videos from PlanetOfTokerz are a trip too. He has the whole album up  ...

NO MC, BTW ...  :Whistling:

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## journeybear

Off on a slight tangent (bound to happen), Easy Star All-Stars has a new album out now called "Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band."  :Disbelief:  dubl0 has the whole album up on youtube but no groovy videos. Yet.  :Wink: 

So far this isn't grooving for me like the Dub Side.

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## mandopete

> I'm not a fan of doing rock covers in bluegrass style.  Sometimes they work out (like Fox on the Run or when NGR did L. Russell's Prince of Peace), but other times they sound hokey.


Jim - I tend to agree with you on this point.  One of things you've managed to capture in all of the cover work you've posted is that original flavor of tunes you've arranged (hence this thread being in the "rock" section).

In my mind this is no easy task on the mandolin and why I have always been so impressed with your work.  From time to time I think about doing similar things in a band setting, but we lean so much towards bluegrass we run into the problem you describe above.

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## Jim MacDaniel

> Off on a slight tangent (bound to happen), Easy Star All-Stars has a new album out now called "Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band."  dubl0 has the whole album up on youtube but no groovy videos. Yet. 
> 
> So far this isn't grooving for me like the Dub Side.


I haven't heard it yet, but brother said the same thing -- but I think they did a good job covering _this_ track:

It catches the original feel of Ringo's original version, and while not as soulful as Joe Cocker's cover, it is definitely more intelligible than the latter.  :Wink:

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## fishdawg40

> I wasn't saying either of these bands was any good, just sayin', here 'tis.


That's a great young bluegrass band out of Michigan.  They won the Telluride band competition a couple years back.  Gonna see them next week.  

Jim I see what your saying about the "straight" bluegrass rhythm and they way Floyd did it was the way, but man those words are too cool.  Could be one of my favorite Floyd songs.

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## mandotopia

Younder Mountian String band does a great version of Good Bye Blue Sky on Mountian Tracks Vol. 2 It is at the end of the CD but not listed on the jacket.

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## m@ roe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZykncZ-zlA

Rumpke Mountain Boys doing Pigs (three different ones). If you've not heard of these guys and like pink floyd or dead bluegrass covers you've gotta check em out!   :Mandosmiley:

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Ben Cooper

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## jsphrdvs

I can't remember how I came across this, but Luther Wright and the Wrongs made an album called "Rebuild the Wall", which they recreate each song from The Wall in a country/bluegrass style.  I haven't played it in a long time, but I recall it was entertaining.  Some may like, some not, but I wanted to put it out there.

http://www.lutherwright.com/thewall.php

 :Mandosmiley:

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## bagpipe

Wow, that is fantastic. Someone needs to show the banjo player how to tone it down a little though: it's not cool to drown out the singer.




> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZykncZ-zlA
> 
> Rumpke Mountain Boys doing Pigs (three different ones). If you've not heard of these guys and like pink floyd or dead bluegrass covers you've gotta check em out!

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## jasona

> And, Fearless is a great one for mandolin.


That would sound incredible on a bouzouki

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## JimRichter

> That would sound incredible on a bouzouki


That's what is at the beginning of my Fearless video, though technically on octave mandolin (though with octave courses on the bottom)

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## JimRichter

Another Floyd cover

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## JimRichter

One more

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## Ben Milne

Poor Man's Whisky are renowned doing Pink floyd stuff... (Their 2009 album is named Dark side of the moonshine)

  I had heard of them during the first part of the year  and was devistated when I found out 2 days after easter that they had actually been out and played at the ECBR festival in Byron Bay  I would have usually been there working but had taken some other work prior to easter and decided not to try to get a hold of some tix.  
Oh wells.

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## Darren Bailey

I messed around with some Pink Floyd inspired music:

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## Elliot Luber

I've seen many concerts to be sure, but probably the best concert I ever saw was Pink Floyd live at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. I once wrote an article about how they produced their live show at Madison Square Garden, and their management invited my wife and I -- and four friends -- to see the stadium version of the tour so I could see them blow up the giant pig. As an encore, they did the entire Dark Side of the Moon album. When I was in high school I would put the headphones on with that album on my turntable (like a CD player, but analog) and I would fall asleep to the album. Every note of that album was pretty well etched into my brain. The performance was so spot-on to the studio recording that I was/am still amazed.

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## journeybear

I saw them in Milwaukee on the "Wish You Were Here" tour (1975?). If I recall correctly (bet against it) they did that entire album and then all of "Dark Side." I can't say whether they did it all just like the records, but I would hope not. When I go to a concert I want something that I can't get at home with the stereo up and the lava light going. I saw The Cars open for The Beach Boys in 1980 and they sounded just like their record. It seemed pointless to me. I'm all for having a vision of your band's sound and songs and wanting to realize that, but if you end up recreating the album in concert rather than making it special, unique, and (hopefully) transcendant, it seems inert. I'm not saying that's what you experienced, but there is a danger of being overly controlled that works to defeat the purpose of live performance. I don't want to hear sloppy playing or mindless jamming either, but something more towards exploration. That's one thing I liked about the pink Floyd movie when David Gilmour has all his gear set up in some Roman ruins and creates some otherworldly sounds. That's what I liked about them at their best - that sense of experimentation and discovery.

Hmmm ... I guess this falls into the second category - general musings.  :Wink:

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## Ed Goist

Pink Floyd - The Animals Tour
25th June 1977 
Municipal Stadium
Cleveland,Ohio
_(I was given these tickets as a high school graduation present from my uncle Danny - Not a bad gift, eh?)_

Setlist:
_Sheep
Pigs On The Wing Part 1 
Dogs 
Pigs On The Wing Part 2 
Pigs (Three Different Ones) 
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5 
Welcome To The Machine 
Have A Cigar 
Wish You Were Here 
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9 
Us And Them 
Money_ 

This is one of the top three concerts I have seen in my life. (The other two being Rory Gallagher & Muddy Waters, and both of those were in a small, hometown venue).

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## Jim MacDaniel

> Pink Floyd - The Animals Tour
> 25th June 1977 
> Municipal Stadium
> Cleveland,Ohio...
> This is one of the top three concerts I have seen in my life. (The other two being Rory Gallagher & Muddy Waters, and both of those were in a small, hometown venue).


I saw them on that same tour a few days earlier (or later, I forget which) in Cincinatti -- a very memorable experience, both visually and musically -- and is also among my top favorite concerts. (Others include Zep in Cinci that same year, ZZ Top in Lakeland Florida in 1979, all three days of the first US Festival, Peter Gabriel's Us tour at the Oakland Coliseum, Jimmy Buffet's first show at the Bay Area's Shoreline Ampitheater back in the late 90's, Soul Coughing's last show in San Francisco, and more recently, Jack Johnson and G.Love at Berkeley's Greek Theatre.)

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## TonyEarth

here's my thoughts: as with hendrix, i'm way too young to have seen them live, but i think they're pretty cool. there are some things which are a little weird for me, it takes some getting used to, but in general they are good. i have one or two albums  :Smile:

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## journeybear

The US Festival (or whatever video they made of it) was shown on VH1 Classics early in the year. I'd never heard of it before. As a lot of these things go, it was hit or miss, and they only ever show just one or two songs per band. But it makes it more fun to know someone I know was there.

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## Jim MacDaniel

Here is the line-up for the first US Festival in 1982. My favorite day by far was Day 1, the inaccurately labelled "New Wave Day", with Gang of Four as the only downer; but Day 3 was also a blast, kicking off with "Breakfast with The Dead", and didn't let up until Fleetwood Mac's final encore.

*Friday, September 3*
Gang of Four 
The Ramones 
The English Beat 
Oingo Boingo 
The B-52's 
Talking Heads 
The Police 

*Saturday, September 4*
The Joe Sharino Band 
Dave Edmunds 
Eddie Money 
Santana 
The Cars 
The Kinks 
Pat Benatar 
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers 

*Sunday, September 5*
The Grateful Dead 
Jerry Jeff Walker 
Jimmy Buffett 
Jackson Browne 
Fleetwood Mac

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## jasona

> That's what is at the beginning of my Fearless video, though technically on octave mandolin (though with octave courses on the bottom)


I was right, it does sound fantastic! Thanks for that Jim!

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## LukeSwanson

I saw the Roger Waters Wall Tour last night in Chicago. It was my first concert, and it was mind-numbingly awesome. I noticed that they played Outside The Wall with a mandolin in it. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen, and I would like to know how one would go about making that song mandolin friendly.

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## Ed Goist

I'm listening to _'Pulse'_ tonight, and as always, I find Pink Floyd's music the music that most directly speaks to me emotionally, intellectually, and artistically. It just seems to 'nourish' me more than any other music.
As I sat here contentedly listening to this great music, I composed this "mando-inspired" Haiku, and thought it most appropriately posted to this thread.

Big Mon, Jethro, Dawg?
Who is your inspiration?
Me? David Gilmour.

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## jose malvarez

any tab?

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## Ed Goist

Hi Jose;
Jim Richter's tabs for _Good Bye Blue Sky_ & _Wish You Were Here_ can be found here.
Once you get to the site, click on the 'Tablature' folder, and then the song name. 
(As you'll see, Jim has tabs to several other great songs in the folder too!)

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## Barry Wilson

I like to play have a cigar on mando. Pink Floyd is definately one of my fav bands. I have every album they ever put out, including some abstract stuff... they sounded like the clash in 1964 stuff.

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## Pierpaolo S.

on facebook/neptunepinkfloyd there is a little video about pink floyd reunion with david gilmour on mando.
ciao

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## whyner

> Hi Jose;
> Jim Richter's tabs for _Good Bye Blue Sky_ & _Wish You Were Here_ can be found here.
> Once you get to the site, click on the 'Tablature' folder, and then the song name. 
> (As you'll see, Jim has tabs to several other great songs in the folder too!)


They're gone.   :Frown:

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## JimRichter

Thanks for reminding me about that.  MobileMe closed its doors last month.  I'll need to post these on my server.

Jim

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## Elliot Luber

Hey, I really enjoyed learning Good Bye Blue Sky. I'd love to come to your camp one year. I hope I can work it out.

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