7 Interesting Facts About “Echoes” You Probably Didn’t Know About

Featured on Pink Floyd’s sixth studio album, Meddle, Echoes was its final track. It has since become one of the band’s most popular and enduring songs.

Here are seven interesting facts about it:

1. Its working title was “Nothing, Parts 1-24.”

“Echoes” developed from 24 pieces of music that the band members had no idea what to do with.

2. It’s credited to all four members – Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright.

It’s the first time in a while when they all wrote one song together.

3. Like several fans, Waters also picked up on its similarity to Phantom of the Opera.

“The beginning of that bloody Phantom song is from ‘Echoes,'” he told Q magazine in an interview. “It’s the same time signature – it’s 12/8 – and it’s the same structure and it’s the same notes and it’s the same everything.”

4. It was Wright who composed the long piano intro along with the main chord progression.

“The whole piano thing at the beginning and the chord structure is mine, so I had a large part in writing that,” Wright told Mojo magazine in 2008. “But it’s credited to other people of course. Roger obviously wrote the lyrics.”

5. The seagull sound from Gilmour was actually a mistake.

“One of the roadies had plugged his wah wah pedal in back to front, which created this huge wall of feedback,” Wright revealed. “He played around with that and created this beautiful sound.”

6. They performed it for their 1972 concert documentary film Live at Pompeii.

They split it into two to open and close the documentary.

7. It synchronizes with Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But, just like Dark Side of the Moon, this was pure coincidence. Pink Floyd wasn’t working on anything during the film’s production. And Kubrick most likely only heard Echoes after the film was completed.