Pink Floyd - Zabriskie Point

Pink Floyd - Zabriskie Point

by Jonas Lenberg in Vinyl of the week

I can’t remember when I bought my first Pink Floyd album. Pink Floyd is a band that has somehow got under my skin gradually over a very long period of time and completely coloured my soul. I have always regarded this band as one of those that has influenced me the most, especially their early work.

So when my Brother in Arms, Clifford, sent me a little message from the UK and asked if I wanted to go to the Pink Floyd exhibition Their Mortal Remains at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2017, I was quick to take him up on it. A perfectly valid excuse for me, and an opportunity to secure an exception permit for a pub or two.

And this brings me to Zabriskie Point, a soundtrack that really puts my love of Pink Floyd to the test. At the exhibition there was a section dedicated to the band’s film music. More, Zabriskie Point and several others were presented there. But right where the LP of Zabriskie Point should have been, there was simply an empty space. They had simply been unable to get hold of a copy. This surprised me a little. I have had at least three copies in my hands over the years. I can admit that I bought my first copy partly because of the cover – a rather wonderful hippie 60s artefact.

The album really is a case of the good, the bad and everything in between, and a complete mishmash of different artists, to such an extent that one of my friends actually tried to physically carve his own track into the record with a knife, just so he wouldn’t have to listen to one of the other artists involved. Yes, you can imagine how well that went down!? The Pink Floyd music on the album, however, is very special and, in my opinion, fascinating; experimental, atmospheric and psychedelic, with plenty of sound collages, echoes, floating guitars, tape loops and long atmospheric passages. The material dates from 1969, the period between Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother, which gives you some idea of what we are talking about. And the three tracks – “Heart Beat, Pig Meat”, “Crumbling Land” and “Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up” – are recordings from the Zabriskie Point sessions and really belong to this very particular phase of Pink Floyd.

The whole collection of tracks and the way everything is thrown together probably isn’t really meant to be understood. I’ve given up. I probably ought to watch the film, which I actually haven’t done. There are certain pieces you find yourself hoping will come to an end quickly. Perhaps that is why my current copy sounds like frying bacon – previous owners have simply given up and jumped around among the tracks.

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