“Echoes” by Pink Floyd

"Echoes" swallows the entire second side of Pink Floyd's 1971 album Meddle, all 23 and a half minutes of it, and critics hear it as the bridge between the band's experimental cult days and the mainstream success that followed. It grew out of a heap of stray themes, instrumental passages and studio effects, stitched together into one long voyage. The music is credited to all four; Roger Waters wrote the words, about people reaching out and trying to understand one another, an idea he'd keep coming back to.

David Gilmour sings while his guitar cries and howls, Richard Wright ranges across Hammond organ, grand piano and Farfisa, Waters plays bass and Nick Mason drums, and the band produced it themselves. They played it live regularly until 1975, Live at Pompeii included, and it stayed a particular favourite of Wright's.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.