“Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he does not want to sign”. You could write about and debate this famous quote from Nobel Prize winner Anatole France almost endlessly, finding so many examples of unexpected situations that often affect our lives.
Clare Torry probably didn’t think twice when Pink Floyd called her in January 1973 to go to the Abbey Road Studios: for her it was a job like any other and, although she was supposed to participate in the recording sessions of Pink Floyd’s new album, she wasn’t in any way excited or hopeful.
By that time, she had already lost hope that she would become a recognised singer in 60s England. Everybody had told her that her voice was respectable and that she didn’t lack in any tone or skill, but the opportunity never came, seemingly continuously postponed by destiny. Or by chance.
While EMI was still suggesting that she recorded covers by other famous vocalists, the years had passed, and that aspiring singer-songwriter was now a woman who had placed her dreams in a drawer. Participating in the rock journeys of others was fine by her.
The track that she was supposed to sing on in was The Great Gig in the Sky, which had originally been titled The Mortality Sequence or The Religious Section.
The author was Rick Wright, and the song was initially based on a long solo on a Hammond organ, surrounded by voices singing about death. When he wrote it, Pink Floyd’s keyboardist wanted to express the sense of gradual passage from life to death, with a characterisation of the piece in two distinct parts. The first showed the refusal to accept life’s end, while the second was resignation and quiet acceptance.
But Pink Floyd were not entirely convinced. The song was missing something, and their sound engineer seemed to have identified the solution. Alan Parsons persuaded them to introduce a female voice, which could bring more evocative passages to the song.
Alan_parsonsAlan Parsons during The Dark Side Of The Moon recording sessions - Madeleine Bell and Doris Troy were initially suggested, but Parsons pushed for Clare Torry, who had impressed him in the past with her vocal talents.
Unlike Bell and Troy, Clare was white and when she arrived to meet Pink Floyd, the band was not impressed. David Gilmour would confess afterwards that the young girl had looked more like a common English housewife than a singer.
Gilmour told her that there was no lyrics for The Great Gig In The Sky. She was supposed to just sing as she thought about the passage from life to death. It was basically improvising.
Ultimately, Pink Floyd gave her complete freedom, but at the same time it was clear that they had no clear idea what they actually wanted her to do.
Torry was surprised by the unusual request, but she tried immediately to follow the band’s guidelines. Her first performance was stopped almost immediately because she was singing “Oh yeah.” Pink Floyd had banned the lyrics.
The keyword was improvising, and she tried to jump in. But that required something more than a simple chorus singer: it needed somebody able to turn themselves into an instrument and merge their voice with Wright’s sound.
On the second take, she tried to get into the song, but something was still wrong. She took a break and then tried for one last time.
This time she decided not to follow the song: she would just be the song, imposing the emotional wave that moved inside her, letting go and really imagining the flow of life towards the inevitable end.
Alberta Canada
The sessions lasted three hours, then Torry left, not particularly convinced. She didn’t think that her contribution had been appreciated by Alan Parsons and the band, and she was sure that they wouldn’t choose her voice for The Great Gig In The Sky.
For her performance, she received thirty pounds (twice the usual rate, since it was Sunday) and she returned to normal life.
Months later, she stumbled across a strange black album cover with a monolith in the middle and, intrigued, she picked it up and was surprised to read her name among the credits on The Dark Side Of The Moon. Her efforts had been rewarded.
Clare Torry’s career didn’t change, but her participation in one of the most famous records in music history allowed her to build a name.
She was hired to sing jingles on advertisements and gained some popularity, both in the studio (Alan Parsons Project, Tangerine Dream, Culture Club, Roger Waters) and for live events.
Then the years passed and something changed within Torry; she was no longer happy to be known as the “chorus singer on The Great Gig in the Sky“. She wanted to seek a bit of acknowledgement after having being behind the scenes for so long.
In 2004, she sued EMI and Pink Floyd, wanting to be recognised as a co-author of the song along with Rick Wright, rather than just a performer.
She won the court case and, through an out-of-court agreement, she was refunded for the years during which her part on the record had not been truly recognised.
The dramatic and fascinating The Great Gig In The Sky would not have become such a world-renowned gem without Clare Torry’s contribution.
The emotional wave of those vocals, lying on the carpet of sound that was so meticulously put together by Richard Wright, really manage to express the flow of existence and deliver a sense of passage between life and death.
Who knows what would have happened, if Torry’s name had never come to light: her voice wouldn’t have entered into the history books, and perhaps Pink Floyd would have left The Great Gig In The Sky as an instrumental. It would have been a massive loss for everybody. But luckily, this time, the pseudonym of God did want to sign.
The Great Gig In the Sky: the story of Pink Floyd’s gem. Posted by Luca Divelti. This story is part of the book: Mama Mia Let Me Go! A journey through the most intriguing lyrics and stories in rock music
https://auralcrave.com/en/2018/05/27/the-great-gig-in-the-sky-the-story-of-pink-floyds-pearl/
All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.
Rhodochrosite is a manganese carbonate mineral that ranges in color from light pink to bright red. It is found in a small number of locations worldwide where other manganese minerals are usually present.
Rhodochrosite has a variable chemical composition. It is a manganese carbonate, but the manganese is frequently replaced by iron, magnesium and/or calcium as shown in this formula: (Mn,Fe,Mg,Ca)CO3.
These substitutions of other elements for manganese change the composition and alter the specific gravity, hardness, and color of the mineral. The bright pink color can become grayish, yellowish, or brownish in response to this chemical variability. A complete solid solution series exists between rhodochrosite and siderite (FeCO3).
Rhodochrosite is generally easy to identify and is rarely confused with other minerals. Its pink color, perfect cleavage in three directions, low hardness, and weak effervescence with cold dilute hydrochloric acid are rarely seen in other minerals.
Shoebill Stork of central Africa. Its full scientific name is Balaeniceps rex; aka B. Rex :)
The most common confusion is between the names "rhodochrosite" and "rhodonite" -- both are pink, manganese-rich minerals with very similar names that people have a hard time remembering
The formation of rhodochrosite usually occurs in fractures and cavities of metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. It is often associated with silverdeposits, and a few silver mines produce rhodochrosite as a byproduct. Some of the common modes of occurrence and their lapidary uses are described below.
In metamorphic rocks, rhodochrosite is found as a vein and fracture-filling mineral where it precipitates from ascending hydrothermal solutions. Repeated episodes of crystallization allow it to build up in layers on the walls of the fracture.
Each layer can be a unique precipitation event and produce material with a slightly different pink color. This gives character to the material for lapidary use. Miners usually remove the rhodochrosite from the wall rock of these veins and cut it into thin slabs with a diamond saw. The slabs can then be used to make cabochons, small boxes, or other lapidary projects.
Each layer can be a unique precipitation event and produce material with a slightly different pink color. This gives character to the material for lapidary use. Miners usually remove the rhodochrosite from the wall rock of these veins and cut it into thin slabs with a diamond saw. The slabs can then be used to make cabochons, small boxes, or other lapidary projects.
Some rhodochrosite forms in cavities in sedimentary and metamorphic rocks when descending solutions deliver a supply of dissolved materials. In these deposits, the rhodochrosite accumulates in layers on the walls of the cavity and may form stalactites and stalagmites on the roof and floor of the cavity - just like speleothems in a cavern.
These formations are often removed and slabbed to produce material with concentric pink banding. Some of the best examples of this form of rhodochrosite are found at the Capillitas and Catamarca deposits in Argentina.
Rhodochrosite is extremely rare as well-formed crystals. One of the few locations in the world where they are found is the Sweet Home Mine, near Alma, Colorado. Originally opened as a silver mine in 1873, the rhodochrosite was disregarded at that time.
Then, as the popularity of mineral collecting increased, the well-formed crystals found at the Sweet Home Mine became many times more valuable than the lapidary material. Excellent, small, hand-size specimens currently sell for five-digit numbers. Broken or damaged crystals are sometimes used as faceting rough.
Rhodochrosite for lapidary and mineral specimen use is only found in a few locations worldwide. These include Argentina, South Africa, Peru, Montana, Colorado, Russia, Romania, Gabon, Mexico, and Japan.
Rhodochrosite has a hardness of only 3.5 to 4 and has perfect cleavage in three directions. This eliminates it as a good choice as a ring or bracelet stone which might be subject to abrasion or impact. It does well in earrings, pins, and pendants, which are generally not subject to as much abuse as a ring.
Author: Hobart M. King, Ph.D.
https://geology.com/minerals/rhodochrosite.shtml
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