Talk:Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict

Language
I what the scottish dude speaking a 'thick scottish accent' or is it the actual 'scots language'? (not gaelic, scots which evolved from the same root as engish so is quite similar.) I know a lot of people who thought it was gaelic because they couldn't understand it, so possibly this could be scots, i know there is a 'defined' difference between 'scotched english' and scots. Possibly a scots expert would know? (WM)131.111.8.101
 * It's Scottish-dialect English. Several readings of the whole text appear on the web. With this to hand, what is actually been said becomes a lot clearer. Martyn Smith 22:31, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
 * That "Scottish-dialect English" would be what is known as the Scots language, right? Not your standard Scottish English.
 * 70.105.193.178 (talk) 04:16, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

I think he says, "...and the wind cried 'Mary'" at the end, in reference to the Hendrix song (or perhaps not in reference to it). Makes for a more imaginative finishing than, "the wind cried back." --Globe199 7 July 2005 02:03 (UTC)

No. it's "and the wind cried back". Ex Cathedra.

After listening several times again at high volume, I'm convinced he says "Mary," not "back." I'm changing the lyric on the article --Globe199 7 July 2005 02:04 (UTC)

I'm with you on that. It has now been changed to "the wind cried not" which I think is definitely wrong, together with a POV as to what it means. I think it is "wind cried Mary" and is a ref to Hendrix. Revert?NH89.240.228.50 (talk) 00:54, 30 June 2008 (UTC) Cjjones9 (talk) 22:06, 24 July 2016 (UTC) I just e-mailed Ron Geesin via rongeesin.com, and asked him whether he wrote the text he was reciting, or whether he was reading from an old text. Here is his response:

"Hello Chris.

This myth has to be corrected - probably too late though!

I had nothing to do with 'Pict'. The facts are that Roger Waters did a kind of Scottish phonetic impression generally at that time (c. 1969) - he did have a Scottish connection since his mother had Scottish ancestry. Whether he had heard me doing my versions on the radio is not known. I'm not sure if I had even met him at the time he recorded 'Pict': 'tis he who does that phonetic raving, and most probably not from any 'script'.

Best waves,

Ron Geesin."

So apparently it is Waters' voice, not Ron Geesin's, doing the Pict. Cjjones9 (talk) 22:06, 24 July 2016 (UTC)--Cjjones9 (talk) 22:06, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

Thank you, Cjjones9. At the time I was heavily into playing this album (c 1970 - 75) I ran the "scotch rant" past a Scottish colleague and was most taken aback when he said "It's an English man doing a Scots accent". Turns out, to me eternal chagrin, that he was right. 115.77.17.161 (talk)v00n

Hidden Message
I've found sources indicating that the message was spoken by Gilmour, as well as sources indicating it was Waters. I decided to mention the possibility of both in the article, and provides links backing up both claims. Albrozdude 08:03, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

There IS a hidden message on the track that is clear as a bell when played at half-speed. It is Waters saying "That was pretty avantgarde wasn't it?".

Why the list of long song titles?
Why does this article have a link to the list of songs with long titles if it does not itself appear in it? Seems a bit odd. Sabalon 04:15, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Message
There's an issue with the part that mentions the message; it's actually "This is pretty avant-garde, isn't it?" followed by "I wanna quit"; to hear that, you need to speed up the track. You can check this in, say, the A Tree Full of Secrets RoIO. 67.37.178.16 11:30, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Your imagination, I'm afraid. It's clearly: "That was pretty avant-garde wasn't it?". There's nothing about "I wanna quit" and speeding the track up would only make it less audible as it is already speeded up. You mean slow it down. When you do, it is clearly audible as Waters saying the above.NH78.147.100.19 (talk) 14:18, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Genre
this track is undoubtedly pure experimental music, with strong influence from musique concrete, the same applies to the other tracks of 2nd LP, only Gilmour`s song is merely psychedelic rock. So, does anyone agree that we should change the genre statement here?--Doktor Who 00:32, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Has anybody ever heard
....the original real-time recorded tapes. Do they still exist? Martyn Smith 22:31, 19 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, I guess, as many people believe, that musicians normally are not used to give out information pertaining to some of their works, if such works involve "very personal tricks" ;). This is nevertheless just the point of view of a number of music fans around the world, not the truth itself, so it would be worth to search further.--Doktor Who 02:05, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

High pitched squeaking
The article says that "The high pitched squeaking which is repeated every couple of seconds from about 1:30 to about 2:10 is apparently Waters saying 'Bring back my guitar' speeded up by a factor of 10." However, when I slowed this squeak down, I heard nothing that sounded like anybody saying something. But when I slowed it down and reversed it, it sounded like a child crying.


 * In my humble opinion, most of the sounds in this piece are just real animals recorded in some parks, countryside and forests. Dr. Who 14:07, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Tribute Band
I thought at one point this article mentioned the Pink Floyd tribute band named "Several Species." Is there a reason for its removal? 130.85.241.76 (talk) 22:28, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

I originally added the "Several Species" tribute band mention 7/26/06. It was removed by Fran Rogers 1/24/07 with the summary "Removed self-promotion for non-notable band". This was not "self-promotion", and if they weren't notable then, they certainly are now. Among Floyd-heads, they are nearly as well known, and are as well regarded, as the Australian Pink Floyd Show and The Machine, both of whom have their own Wikipedia pages. I restored the "Several Species" tribute band mention 8/2/10. Mark Rizo (talk) 00:41, 3 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Also, as it says at Notability, "These notability guidelines only outline how suitable a topic is for its own article. They do not directly limit the content of articles." So to be mentioned in this article, the tribute band does not have to meet the notability guidelines, it just has to be non-trivial in the context of the article.  In my opinion it meets this criterion. — Mudwater (Talk) 01:22, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

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High pitched squeaking.
A key to unlocking this piece of music is understanding the techniques used to record it.

The "factor of 10" for "bring back my guitar" is pure fantasy. Here's why:

Given the A string on a bass guitar (for ease of calculation) vibrates at 55 cycles per second. Given that speeding up tape with an analog switch from 15ips to 30ips would raise the pitch one octave. Given that the number of cycles needed to reach the same pitch in the next octave doubles.

Then;

1st speed up of the bass note at 55 cycles = 110 2nd = 220 3rd = 440 4th = 880 (sounding A, first ledger line above a treble staff) 5th = 1760 6th = 3520 7th = 7040 (the A higher than the highest C on a piano) 8th = 14080 9th = 28160

Normal human hearing's upper limit is at around 22500 and worsens with age. So on the 9th speed-up the sound would be inaudible to humans. This discounts the noise made by the tape recorder, which would also speed up.

Waters' speaking voice is pitched around 220 (ordinary tenor voice).

I don't want to delete the above but the analysis is wrong because it is treating "a factor of 10" to be 10 octaves higher when it is only 10 times the frequency. So 220 Hz goes to 2200Hz which is high but easily audible by most people of all ages. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JohnRipa (talk • contribs) 21:02, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

If one rips this song to an editing program (such as Sound Forge), one can resample the song to 22050 Hz, then play the file back as though it were 44,100 hz. Doing this allows one to see that there are three speeds to the song: normal pitch, sped up 2x, and sped up again, corresponding to speeds of tape -- 7.5 ips, 15ips, and 30ips. The high pitched squealing is revealed to be the same inhaled shriek technique used on "Careful With That Axe, Eugene." The famous phrase "That was pretty avant-garde, wasn't it?" would then be at normal speed. It also reveals outtakes to the Pict's story to be playing at a lower volume in the right channel, especially at the words "A roar he cried" beginning the last stanza. Hearing the final "And the wind cried ... " at half-speed confirms further that the final word is "Mary", and not "back", as each syllable becomes distinct.

Realkinglion 02:10, 12 October 2007 (UTC)realkinglion

Erroneous Ron Geesin Credit
Before I engage in edit warring, I notice Ron Geesin has been credited with writing and performing on this. This is clearly wrong. For a start this has never been credited to Geesin on ANY release of this track. Also it is clearly Waters as he would sometimes add strange rantings into songs live. I have a version of Embryo live where he does this. Waters' Mother was Scottish and he has used the Scottish accent again on The Wall (album) for the Teacher. Geesin's voice sounds qiute different.NH79.121.143.143 (talk) 02:45, 29 February 2008 (UTC) Furthermore, on p.141 of Nicholas Schaffner's 'A Saucerful of Secrets' (first edition), Geesin says this, regarding the rant on Several Species: "People often ask me if I did that....My variety of Scottish ranting may have jogged something in Roger, but it was probably coincidental. We both had Scottish mothers...as it happens."NH78.147.150.160 (talk) 03:57, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Yep, I just e-mailed him and got this response:

Hello Chris.

This myth has to be corrected - probably too late though!

I had nothing to do with 'Pict'. The facts are that Roger Waters did a kind of Scottish phonetic impression generally at that time (c. 1969) - he did have a Scottish connection since his mother had Scottish ancestry. Whether he had heard me doing my versions on the radio is not known. I'm not sure if I had even met him at the time he recorded 'Pict': 'tis he who does that phonetic raving, and most probably not from any 'script'.

Best waves,

Ron Geesin. --Cjjones9 (talk) 22:11, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

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And the wind cried Mary, etc.
The mock-Pictish spoken by Waters doesn't mean anything, it's just nonsense that he made up. This is verified by the quote cited in the article, from the University of Regina Carillon. If you listen to the track with the idea that he's speaking English, your mind will provide meanings based on similar sounds. For example, the last line of the speech sounds a little like "and the wind cried Mary", although to my ears it's closer to "and the went crayg man" [sic]. So, the article shouldn't transcribe what the "Pict" is saying, because he isn't saying anything. — Mudwater (Talk) 12:29, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

It's insane how pervasively false is every part of this article. I heard that Waters had to learn Old English when he was in grammar school. He had fun with that knowledge on this song. I'm not sure if that story is correct, but it's certainly more accurate than all of the absolute nonsense forwarded in this article. If you don't know the truth, then don't say anything. Don't make up some ridiculous nonsense just to hear yourself talk. Unless you were having a pint with Waters and he translated the text for you, your input is completely meaningless. I don't think this dialogue has anything to do with Scotland. Make a word for word translation, or erase your post. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:547:C000:2FFD:2D4D:5D5B:4485:19E (talk) 01:31, 4 October 2017 (UTC)