Welcome to the Machine
| "Welcome to the Machine" | |
|---|---|
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| Song by Pink Floyd | |
| from the album Wish You Were Here | |
| Published | Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd |
| Released | 13 September 1975 |
| Recorded | January–July 1975 |
| Genre | Progressive rock, electronic |
| Length | 7:31 |
| Label |
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| Songwriter(s) | Roger Waters |
| Producer(s) | Pink Floyd |
"Welcome to the Machine" is the second song on Pink Floyd's 1975 album Wish You Were Here. Written by bassist Roger Waters, it features heavily processed synthesizers and acoustic guitars, as well as a wide range of tape effects.
The song describes the band's disillusionment with the music industry as a money-making machine rather than a forum of artistic expression. The plot centers on an aspiring musician getting signed by a seedy executive to the music industry (the "Machine"). The voice predicts all of his seemingly rebellious ideas ("You bought a guitar to punish your ma / You didn't like school / And you know you're nobody's fool"). His illusions of personal identity are further crushed with lines such as "What did you dream? / It's all right, we told you what to dream."
The track was built upon a basic throbbing sound made by an EMS VCS 3 followed by a one-repeat echo which Waters would have played originally on bass guitar (which he overdubs an actual bass part to the song which is more predominant on the Stereo Quad mix). On the original LP, the song segued from the first 5 parts of the suite "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and closed the first side. On the CD pressings, especially the 1997 and 2000 remastered issues, it segues (although very faintly) to "Have a Cigar". This segueing is a few seconds longer on the US version than the UK version. David Gilmour admitted that he had trouble singing one line of the song; saying, "It was a line I just couldn't reach, so we dropped the tape down half a semitone." He sang the part at a slightly lower pitch, then the tape speed was raised back to normal.
Like many Pink Floyd songs, "Welcome to the Machine" features some variations in its meter and time signatures. Each bass "throb" of the VCS synthesizer is notated as a quarter note in the sheet music, and each note switches from one side of the stereo spread to the next (this effect is particularly prominent when listened to on headphones). Although the introduction of the song (when the acoustic guitar enters) does not actually change time signatures, it does sustain each chord for three measures, rather than two or four, resulting in a nine-bar intro where an even number of bars might be expected. The verses and choruses are largely in 4/4, or "common time". However, on the line "It's all right, we know where you've been", a measure of 7/4 is inserted, shortening the sequence, and causing the left-right stereo panning to be reversed for quite some time. An instrumental section begins, with the acoustic guitar adding variations in its strum pattern, until it switches to 3/4 for a length of time, when a 12-string acoustic riff is introduced, ascending up the E minor scale until the chord changes to C major seventh. Finally, the instrumental section ends, and the second verse begins. With the lyric, "It's all right, we told you what to dream", once again a measure of 7/4 is inserted, and the stereo panning is finally returned to normal. Incidentally, these two phrases beginning with "It's all right ..." are the only parts to feature any chord other than some form of E minor or C major—these phrases go to an A bass in the first verse, and in the second verse, the acoustic guitar articulates the A as a major chord, with its C# in contradiction of the frequent C chords. The song remains in 4/4 from this point forward.
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