Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Heart Beat, Pig Meat

Heart Beat, Pig Meat 3:14
     (written by Waters, Gilmour, Mason, Wright)

Lyrics:
These teenagers are sometimes so freaked out they cannot sit up straight in class.
Perhaps white people are more impressed than black people... a better impression.
Manufacturers from these states report life expectancy of their engines is doubled.
Maxi-codes are both a curse and a blessing for New York. Dry-cleaners are charging.
They're taking our nags, Ace. Yeah, they're making damn good targets for themselves.
Let 'em have it! Win a Florida holiday and a colour TV! ...just once!

Vocals: Dave Gilmour
Spoken words: American TV and radio

A strange piece that consists only of a heartbeat-like drum pattern on a loop, with various sound bites, organ, and Dave's crooning laid on top. Bits of television and radio programs bob to the surface of the song, only to be borne away again on the rapidly moving tide of pop culture, symbolizing its temporary and transient nature.

The title of this piece may be the most interesting thing about it. Just over two years later the band would make a heart beat into an important component of their most famous song cycle, Dark Side of the Moon. In addition, the pig would become a major theme with 1977's Animals album, and continue to be used in concert to the present day.

Heart Beat, Pig Meat is used for the opening credits of Zabriskie Point, in a version 20 seconds shorter than on the album. This is also an entirely different mix — the sound bites are rearranged, new ones are added while others are taken away. The film version was probably put together before the album.

TRACK LISTING (only Pink Floyd contributions)
Heart Beat, Pig Meat
Crumbling Land
Come in Number 51, Your Time is Up

The following tracks were recorded for Zabriskie Point but were not used in the film or soundtrack:
Oenone
Fingal's Cave
Rain in the Country
Violent Sequence, The

3 comments:

  1. After doing some phase cancellation and EQ work on this song I clarified quite a bit more of the voices, some of which are wrong above. Here is my transcript of the right channel male voices:

    ..are concerned because teenagers are sometimes so freaked out they cannot sit up straight in class. This is getting...

    ...Gimme a hand, Lance. Motor manufacturers in the States report life expectancy of their engines has doubled. I really like that one. Elbow bender...'

    ...Maxi-coats are both a curse and a blessing for New York dry cleaners. They're charging 32 shillings to tackle the new styles, nearly double what...

    "They're taking our nags, Ace!" "Yeah! And making damn good targets of themselves. Let 'em have it!" A withering fire...horses ran free. "Grab them mounts. We've got a chance now..."

    Win a Florida holiday and a color TV

    ...charity...

    ...battering...

    What is this...it's torture

    ...told myself this as I stormed out of the house. "I'd like to say no just once" Now we set up...

    ...somebody's house. This house is a...

    ...organizers. Police used tear gas...

    ...a million years...

    The male voice is the film's music director Don Hall reading from two different sources, a book and a newspaper. He offsides the "I really liked that one" line after one article. It is my belief that there were two tracks of his dialogue, one for the book and one for the paper, because there is a slight overlap in the lines "This house is a..." and "...organizers"

    I'm still working on the female voices.

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    Replies
    1. OK I've figured out the left channel dialogue. It is not a woman's voice, or rather not JUST a woman's voice. Most is actually a man with a rather young, high voice. The scene is either a similar scene to that which opens the ZP film or a sequence cut from that scene. Kathleen (the light skinned black woman with the huge afro) can be heard at about 2:31 into the song.

      man 1: ...worried about it. They're playing games with us. But that's not that kind of opression.
      man 2: Yeah. Can't be. Plus we have...
      So what are we going to do about it when it happens. If we are actually...when it happens.

      woman 1: ...worrying about...

      man 2: ...want to educate people about what's going on in school. What's happening in school, that's what all you should worry about. You listen...You know. Perhaps white people are more oppressed than black people because they can't even see their own opression. That opression is...That, that opression is, ah...

      ...police methods are slick, something honest about that. You're a robot, and it gets worse from there. you can recognize that

      At least face the facts what's happening in that school. There've been troubles since that school was built.

      ..people go to school, you know, to get those grades, to get those degrees. To get those grades, your feeling is like one grade is better than the other...less, um, less A's and B's, and people...

      woman 2:...and also, you all know that there was a press conference by the police today. And they said that a man with a green book bag pulled a gun, right? And...


      ...against why filed and unfiled, all the issues...

      Kathleen: ...these motherfuckers using insults, exchanging insults. you want to go and deal with us on that level we'll deal with you at that level. outside. You go outside. Then you know I'll have to meet you. You actually are. There's nothing in 'tween you. We're gonna deal with you [there is an overlap of two words here, the first being "later", at an edit point in the dialogue] They issue statements. Strikes. Does anybody here [some words are obscured by the sibilance of Roger Waters' whispering]

      Good one...[the name spoken after this is obscured, as is the next line spoken, by the echo on the voices]


      [a man's voice] Man they all need me...[then he says more, also buried in the echo]

      Delete
  2. [the black guy sitting by Kathleen]...revolution [obscured] we've got our lives on the line

    [a couple more obscured words]

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