Yeah, let's just generate new stuff from old stuff. Recycled art would surely save us. Only we're not sure from what. This is like a monument to mourn all dead NFTs.
> Another piece that worked better than expected was the telephone operator. Roger was keen to illustrate the personal disconnect of being on the road. We were in L.A. at Producer’s Workshop so I phoned my neighbour, Chris Fitzmorris in London. He had the keys to my flat and I asked him to go there and said that I would call him through an operator. “No matter how many times I call”, I said, “just pick up the phone, say ‘Hello’, let the operator speak and then hang up”. I placed a telephone in a soundproof area, got on to an extension phone and started recording to ¼” tape. It took a couple of operators – the first 2 were a bit abrupt, but the 3rd was perfect. I told her that I wanted to make a collect call to Mrs. Floyd. “Who’s calling?” she asked. “Mr. Floyd”, I replied. Chris’s timing was terrific, over and over he would hang up just at the right moment and she became genuinely concerned. “Is there supposed to be someone there besides your wife?” I was playing her along saying things like “No! I don’t know who that is!” “What’s going on?” and she would try the call again. Unwittingly, she was helping to tell the story. Afterwards I went through the ¼” and edited my voice out, just leaving her and Chris. I sometimes wonder if she ever heard herself on the record.
> Initially, I was shocked at how slowly everything moved! I was used to working really quickly when producing and engineering albums. Suddenly it was like the brakes were on and often it was difficult to get the momentum going. Eventually, I adapted to the Floyd pace. One of the great things about working with this band is that you are allowed time to be creative, to pursue an idea even if it takes some time. The Floyd had a production deal to make their records and the record label never heard anything until it was done. The record was made purely and only by the people in the studio.
The creative freedom without commercial intervention - this is very cool. I can almost hear it in The Wall - how grand and elongated the songs are.
Sorry, I don't see the irony. Anyway, having ''The'' as an honourific for band names was commonplace in the UK prior to the '70s, even if the band's name had not been stylized with "The".
Again, for people of a certain age or generation it was commonplace to prepend it. I find it endearing in a nostalgic way. I can infer from that person's use of it that he is of that age or generation.
Ever see someone mention "The Donald"? It's the same thing.
It's when something or someone gets so recognizable that they can be referred to in a singular sense. There are lots of instances of this throughout pop culture.
In the context of the interview, it's someone who was part of the "Floyd-verse" (this word is a mashup of Floyd and Universe, another common affectation). Pink Floyd was a remarkably famous band, and they still are. Someone that was part of the "Floyd-verse" naturally would have felt the band as all encompassing. It wasn't just a band, it was tour after tour, hit song after hit song, millions and millions of fans - and getting caught up in that made "Pink Floyd" seem far bigger than the sum of its parts. Calling that phenomenon "The Floyd" is actually very succinct, and portrays how large a cultural phenomenon Pink Floyd was and still is, 60 years later.
I have to wonder why you can't/won't understand this.
It's cool to hear how that came together as an improvisation. It recalls a simpler time when a major album (or movie, TV show, etc) could just feature your neighbor and a random telephone operator without signing releases and clearing rights.
It also gave Chris Fitzmorris (the neighbor) one of the greatest "random cool thing that happened to me" stories ever.
Yes, I'm aware. Although a major mega band doing so on a wide release album these days would be taking a significant legal risk - which is why it's now fairly rare. But back in 1979 it wasn't uncommon, to the extent that one of the then-biggest bands in the world could do so on their biggest album project yet.
It might be a notorious example but artists do take those risks https://www.billboard.com/lists/kanye-west-ye-sampling-lawsu... (not to mention the many artists that release music without licensing from the beat producers, which still happens regularly)
“Grant Upright Music vs. Warner Bros” almost completely killed any creative use of sampling on official releases, which is why the only place you still see it consistently is mixtapes. Think 50 Cent’s “The Undertaker”.
I mean... I'm not troubled by it, but as a person who has worked in a job where I received direct calls from the public that I had no choice but to deal with it, I am definitely annoyed on behalf of the operator. It's not the worst thing in the world, but... wow, what an annoying day.
Can you imagine six months later, you hear your most annoying day at work played on an album?!
As a former telephone operator from this era who spent most shifts frantically bubbling scantrons as business men rattled off their calling card numbers and call numbers at lighting speed, I would have been delighted by this break in routine.
It was a paper record of every (paid) phone call. This was in the 80s before the switch to digital. The front side had the origin and destination numbers, the back side had the calling card number.
Also--we didn't use a 10-key! Our keypad was 2x5 rather than 3x3, and inverted (low numbers at the top).
I was wondering if they ever figured out who the operator was? I couldn’t find anything about her through my Googling. Seems like she should have some credit in the album for her brilliant contribution
The session singer who did "The Great Gig in the Sky" vocals on The Dark Side of the Moon famously got £30. She later sued and got an undisclosed settlement.
Also on that album of course "There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark". Wasn't that just some random studio guy, on the spur of the moment, too? Simpler times, more creativity.
Pink Floyd wrote some questions down on note cards and asked random people in the studio, recording their answer. The Beatles were part of this, but their answers were too guarded and weren't used.
I believe (unable to fully verify) she got a credit in the 2017 album “Is This The Life We Really Want? — Almost 40 years after the release of The Wall”.
1. The recording engineer dialled the operator. Could have been pulse dialling, could have been DTMF, doesn't matter.
2. Operator answered and the engineer said "I'd like to call London, collect, number 01xxx831".
3. Operator entered 044 1 xxx 831, and this was transmitted to another exchange in SS5 tones.
I didn't grow up in the USA, but a couple of people who did have said that, yes, they think that at least some of the time, you could hear the SS5 tones and also the initial conversation between the operator and whoever answered the phone. It may be that it depended on the operator, since they probably had a mute button, and maybe on the particular exchange the operator was in.
40th Anniversary to the Story of Mel – On this day, four decades ago (May 21st 1983) "The Story of Mel" was published on Usenet by its author.
For years, "Mel" was considered to be a fictional character. Though some details about him were found, still there was not much known about the life and works for Mel Kaye. Until today, when Mel's identity is finally revealed.
After years of researching, digging into public archives, and searching for actual proofs, Mel’s Loop project publishes a new biographical article – "Mel Kaye – CV", and unfolds the true identity of Mel Kaye (born Melvin Kornitsky, 1931), a child to a family of Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn from Poland and Russia, that grew up in Los Angeles, and became a hacking legend.
Finally, an answer to the question that has plagued me for decades: On what ship did Mel's grandmother sail from Russia to New York?
(yes, the CV actually drills down to this level. Uncanny)
killall passwords! –- Descope is now launching on Product Hunt – an authentication and user management platform built for all types of developers, to create frictionless and secure login experiences using our no-code workflows, SDKs, and APIs.
