On the Run (instrumental)

"On the Run"
Instrumental by Pink Floyd
from the album The Dark Side of the Moon
Published	World Copyrights Ltd
Released	1 March 1973
Recorded	11 October 1972 – 9 February 1973
Genre	Electronic experimental sound collage
Length	3:45
Label	Harvest
Songwriter(s)	David Gilmour Roger Waters
Producer(s)	Pink Floyd

"On the Run" is the third track from English rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon. It is an instrumental piece performed on an EMS synthesizer (Synthi AKS). It deals with the pressures of travel, specifically air travel, which according to Richard Wright, would often bring fear of death. The basic idea was first developed by David Gilmour, but improved with a different note sequence by Roger Waters, earning both a writing credit.

Composition

This piece was created by entering an 8-note sequence into a Synthi AKS synthesiser made by the British synthesiser manufacturer EMS and speeding it up, with an added white noise generator creating the hi-hat sound. The band then added backwards guitar parts, created by dragging a microphone stand down the fretboard, reversing the tape, and panning left to right. There are also other Synthi and VCS 3 synthesizer parts, made to sound like a vehicle passing, giving a Doppler effect. The 8 note sequence is played at a tempo of 165 BPM, while both filter frequency and resonance are modulated. Near the end, the only guitar part is heard: a chord over the explosion of the presumed aircraft. This gradually fades, segueing into the chiming clocks introduction of the following "Time".

When The Dark Side of the Moon was performed in 1972 (before the album was released), it went under the title "The Travel Sequence" and was a more simple guitar jam, without synthesisers and other electronic instruments. A short clip of this is on the DVD Classic Albums: Pink Floyd – The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon and can be heard on all performances of Pink Floyd playing the album in that year. (A studio version of the original arrangement was finally released on the Immersion box set of Dark Side of the Moon in 2011, alongside a live performance from Brighton 1972.)

'We had originally go an "On the Run," a different thing, which is on a live one if you've heard one of those bootlegs, you might have heard a different version of it than is on Dark Side of the Moon. We had a sort of guitar passage, but it wasn't very good. We'd just got this new synthesizer, a briefcase model EMS-1 [Synthi AKS], and in the lid there was a little sequencer thing. I was playing with the sequencer device attachment, and came up with this sound, which is the basic sound of it. Roger sort of heard it, came over and started playing with it, too. Then he actually put in the notes that we made...it was his sequence, that "de-di-doo-de-di-dil"- -whatever it was. He made that little sequence up, but I had got the actual original sound and I actually was the one doing the controlling on the take that we used. Then we chucked all sorts of things over the top of it afterwards.'

— David Gilmour

"Everything you hear on that track, apart from the sound effects, was done live. It was all coming out of the Synthi A. Even the hi-hat over the top of it was done on that synth. There was no means of synchronising any two performances – that's why it was live. Even on the road, before a show, they would have to punch in the notes of the sequence manually, very slowly, then speed it up on playback to give the fast, sequenced effect you hear on the record.'

— Alan Parsons, engineer

Voices

• Twenty-seven seconds into the piece, a female voice on a loudspeaker can be heard; apparently an airport public address system. She says, "Have your baggage and passport ready and then follow the green line to customs and immigration. BA 215 to Rome, Cairo and Lagos." Engineer Alan Parsons reused this sample on the "Sea Lions in the Departure Lounge" bonus track of the 2007 deluxe edition of Tales of Mystery and Imagination by the Alan Parsons Project.
• At 1:54, Roger "The Hat" Manifold, Pink Floyd road manager says, "Live for today, gone tomorrow – that's me," then laughs.

Reception

In a contemporary review for The Dark Side of the Moon, Loyd Grossman of Rolling Stone described "On the Run" as a "standout with footsteps racing from side to side successfully eluding any number of odd malevolent rumbles and explosions only to be killed off by the clock's ticking that leads into "Time."

Live performances

During the first official performance of Dark Side of the Moon, at the Rainbow Theatre on 17 February 1972, a version of this song was played with guitar, keyboard and drums instead of the synthesizer track that appeared on the album. Subsequent performances matched the album version and, at the end of the song, a model aeroplane would fly from one end of the arena to the other, appearing to crash in a brilliant explosion. The same effect was used in the A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, but with a flying bed rather than an aeroplane. The Division Bell tour would reuse the aeroplane, only this time with the back of it in flames for additional effects.

A live version of the song can be heard on the Delicate Sound of Thunder concert video, although it did not appear on the album release, however, it appears on the 2019 reissue and remixed version of the album. Another live version appears on the CD, vinyl, and DVD releases of Pulse.

Roger Waters and his solo band performed this song live from 2006 to 2008 during his tour, The Dark Side of the Moon Live.

The song was used by longtime public address announcers Tommy Edwards and Ray Clay of the Chicago Bulls organization during the Michael Jordan era as the theme for the visiting team at Bulls home games. This also marked the first use of songs of any kind in the live setting in the NBA.

During their 1970s "Musicradio" era, Chicago radio station WLS-AM 890 used part of the song as background music for recorded prize and contest phone calls that were played on-air.

Personnel

• David Gilmour – electric guitar, EMS Synthi AKS
• Roger Waters – EMS VCS 3, tape effects
• Richard Wright – Hammond organ, Leslie speaker
• Nick Mason – percussion (heartbeat), tape effects

with:

• Peter James – footsteps
• Roger "The Hat" Manifold – spoken vocal

Other versions

• The Seatbelts cover the song on the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack.
• The music for the video game Delta for Commodore 64 is heavily inspired by this song.
• The song was covered by The Flaming Lips along with the rest of Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon.
• Shpongle appears to have done a version of the song in the track "Tickling the Amygdala" from the album Museum of Consciousness.
• On the Various Artists albums Return to the Dark Side of the Moon and Yes Progressive Rock!, Alan White and Larry Fast (of Nektar and Synergy) perform this song.

References

Footnotes

Citations