Performed live July 1974
* Unrecorded
(written by Roger Waters)
Lyrics:
Morning all! And uh, taking as the first three millions or so on our journey . . . or . . . twelve do you prefer and um uh — it's a shame. The point is, never mind about all that stuff, do you live in Surrey, that's the point, or do you live in Yorkshire? Or mayhap, you live in Hampshire! And should you live in either place, into your tiny new . . . go and I'll tell you why. And then um, hang on a minute, oh yes Yorkshire I said didn't I. Dorothy Greenwood and that's, uh, uh Yorkshire, hence the expression 'get nottingly!' Ha, ha! Anyway, and she says the . . . words from our husband unfortunately Uncle William was out of the room and he missed all that. Anyway, oh dear oh dear, and she says 'Never mind about all that stuff', she says, and I say 'Congratulations to you Dorothy. Um, and Mr. Greenwood, o' course.' I have to be formal, uh, avec Mr. Greenwood. Now the point is we come to our, um, uh, well, our musical quite high sort of programme actually. And I say, 'Here's a memory to take with you — which will make you very glad you ever made it —' anyway - hey, quelle artistry there! Oh, you must be! Anyway, and I was asked to sing especially for Tricia Moynihan — uh, who's got flu at the mo' you see, from Roger — and he said 'I shouldn't think that was you, not for a minute, but I'll sing just the same.' Anyway, and uh, 'This Boy' and 'Do You Not Forget' — oooooohh, that . . . if someone too intent on top of the morning if this was the boy what would she do for you? Well — I can if you write me a postcard of course but anyway — a-ha — the thing is I — ay, ha, nearly forgot to say didn't I? If you would like me to ah join you on the show numero . . . 'oyo . . . that's the thing — and, but as I say . . . well . . . quack quack quack . . . I'm all whacking the two of you and look forward. So, Jim with the BBC, . . . 11A1AA . . . that's the . . . one — OK?
Raving and drooling, I fell on his neck with a scream
He had a whole lot of terminal shock in his eyes
That's what you get for pretending the rest are not real
Bubbling and snapping at far away flies
He will zig-zag his way back through
Memories of boredom and pain
How does it feel to be empty and angry and spaced?
He was caught in the middle between the illusion
Of safety in numbers and being brought down to his knees
During the French tour of July and August 1974 and the subsequent British Winter tour later that same year, the Floyd played a song set that consisted of three new songs in the first half, followed by Dark Side of the Moon in the second half, and an encore of Echoes. The new songs were Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Raving and Drooling, and You Gotta Be Crazy (in that order). Shine On, of course, appeared on the next album (Wish You Were Here), and is documented in that entry.
Interviewer: "At the time the band was writing [Shine On You Crazy Diamond], was the song for a tour or an album?"
Roger Waters: "I'm glad you asked me that, 'cause you've reminded me that in fact we were about to do a British tour and had to have some new material. So we were getting some things together for that."
Interviewer: "There were a couple of other songs..."
Roger: "Yeah. Raving and Drooling and You've Gotta Be Crazy. Raving and Drooling was something I'd written at home. Dave came up with a nice chord sequence, I wrote some words, and we carried on from there with You Gotta Be Crazy." [Shine On]
Dave Gilmour was interviewed just after returning from the French tour, for which, he said, the songs had to be hurriedly "knocked into shape."
Dave: "They're tons better now than how we had them on the French tour, but it seems to have got harder. It takes a lot longer to get things done now. I suppose it's because we're trying to go one better every time. I think it's always the idea to improve on what we've done before." [Miles]
Rick [Nov 1974]: "We always like to write numbers, go on the road with them and record them later. We did this with Dark Side of the Moon and we think it's easily the best way to go about it. A number changes so much when we do it live over a long period. Shine On has changed a lot since we started already. I can't think of any other bands that work this way. Usually bands record songs and then play them but we feel that if you do a few tours with a number, then that number improves immensely. We will probably record them after the tour. There's enough material in the three songs for an album, but I don't know yet. We may do something else as well which we haven't actually played yet. There are things I am working on in my studio that I would like to put on the next album. It'll be a two year gap between Dark Side and the next one and that's too long in my opinion." [Miles]The new pieces of music were the group's first since the Dark Side premiere in February 1972. One of these was Raving and Drooling, which would appear in a substantially different form on the 1977 LP Animals. At some performances of the song, a tape was played at the beginning that consisted of the spoken words above. The tape is from one or more radio shows of the English disc jockey Jimmy Young, cut into pieces and then spliced back together randomly (see also One of These Days on Meddle). In the context of the song, this was apparently meant to be representative of someone who was 'raving and drooling,' i.e. insane.
Lyrics and timing from the 14 November 1974 performance.
Alternate titles: Raving and Drooling I Fell On His Neck With a Scream, Sheep
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