Oddly enough, members of Minutemen pointed to Ummagumma as a major band influence.

When I was a kid we'd smoke pot and refer (reefer) to this and many other Pink Floyd albums. Now as a non-potting geezer the experience of Ummagumma is still a lovely trip. I remember sitting about with a group of cottonmouthed potheads trying to imitate the "scotsman" and say "and the wind cried Mary" in his tongue twisting accent- to no avail. The cover of Ummagumma provided much amusement for our fevered little brains too- the reissue cd comes with a nice poster of same.

I'm going to make a reference to a 19th century French novel entitled "A Rebours" (against nature) by J.K. Huysmans so don't go thinking I'm going all egghead or pedantic on you. I guess the hero of the book Des Esseintes is basically anti social and moves to the country to pursue artistic awareness (naturally you'd want to get out of Paris to do that). Des Esseintes is a control freak. Even though he lives in the contry he tries to block out the pastoral aura by sealing and blacking out the windows and then ironically he covers the walls with lavish artwork (much of it impressionistic art depicting pastoral scenery) and perfuming the air with artificial scents (designed to imitate nature)- it's weird and I didn't finish the book but I remembered Des Essientes a coulple years ago while listening to Roger Waters' "Grantchester Meadows" off Ummagumma.

I was walking with my dogs along a mountain path which snakes along under the trees alongside a beautiful creek whilst listening to "Grantchester Meadows" on my discman. If you haven't heard Grantchester Meadows- you must. It is one of those lovely pastoral Pink Floyd ballads (and epic too at over seven minutes) which features harmonies and acoustic guitar dubbed over an electronic loop of water and bird sounds. Also the lyrics describe rivers and animals as remembered from a "city room". Usually as I make this walk I'm listening to music that is diametrically opposed to the scenery but "Granchester Meadows' was like right on with what I viddied on the path- just like old Des Essientes- ha. It really added to the effect when I considered that some of the water and bird sounds were synthesised noise- not actual nature
recordings (there is a goose honk and splashing sounds that I think are real).

Ah well, I hope you see what I was driving at there, I apologize if it is too confusing for clarity.

If you don't have Ummagumma; get it. The live disc is culled from club and concert hall gigs in the UK (late sixties) and the Studio disc features works by all members of the band (even the drummer) and all put together in a weird experimental/classical fusion sort of way- a real classic must have.

Any Ummagumma love out there?