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From: James Guthrie interview > Another piece that worked better than expected was the telephone operator. Roger was keen to illustrate the personal disconnect

From: James Guthrie interview > Another piece that worked better than expected was the telephone operator. Roger was keen to illustrate the personal disconnect of being on the road. We were in L.A. at Producer’s Workshop so I phoned my neighbour, Chris Fitzmorris in London. He had the keys to my flat and I asked him to go there and said that I would call him through an operator. “No matter how many times I call”, I said, “just pick up the phone, say ‘Hello’, let the operator speak and then hang up”. I placed a telephone in a soundproof area, got on to an extension phone and started recording to ¼” tape. It took a couple of operators – the first 2 were a bit abrupt, but the 3rd was perfect. I told her that I wanted to make a collect call to Mrs. Floyd. “Who’s calling?” she asked. “Mr. Floyd”, I replied. Chris’s timing was terrific, over and over he would hang up just at the right moment and she became genuinely concerned. “Is there supposed to be someone there besides your wife?” I was playing her along saying things like “No! I don’t know who that is!” “What’s going on?” and she would try the call again. Unwittingly, she was helping to tell the story. Afterwards I went through the ¼” and edited my voice out, just leaving her and Chris. I sometimes wonder if she ever heard herself on the record. Source: https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/other-related-interviews/james-guthrie-interview-pink-floyd-the.html https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/other-related-interviews/jame...

mrandish 2y ago
It's cool to hear how that came together as an improvisation. It recalls a simpler time when a major album (or movie, TV show, etc) could just feature your neighbor and a random telephone operator without signing releases and clearing rights. It also gave Chris Fitzmorris (the neighbor) one of the greatest "random cool thing that happened to me" stories ever.
- wahnfrieden 2y ago
  Musicians still release samples without clearing them
  - mrandish 2y ago
    Yes, I'm aware. Although a major mega band doing so on a wide release album these days would be taking a significant legal risk - which is why it's now fairly rare. But back in 1979 it wasn't uncommon, to the extent that one of the then-biggest bands in the world could do so on their biggest album project yet.
    - wahnfrieden 2y ago
      It might be a notorious example but artists do take those risks https://www.billboard.com/lists/kanye-west-ye-sampling-lawsuits-full-list/andrew-green-v-kanye-west/ https://www.billboard.com/lists/kanye-west-ye-sampling-lawsu... (not to mention the many artists that release music without licensing from the beat producers, which still happens regularly)
  - jorvi 2y ago
    Confidently incorrect. “Grant Upright Music vs. Warner Bros” almost completely killed any creative use of sampling on official releases, which is why the only place you still see it consistently is mixtapes. Think 50 Cent’s “The Undertaker”.
- slillibri 2y ago
  Alternatively, treating the “random telephone operator” as a prop and forcing them to be part of your project without consent is troubling.
  - aaaooj 2y ago
    I do not believe that you are genuinely troubled by this.
    - selimthegrim 2y ago
      [flagged]
    - asdafasad 2y ago
      I mean... I'm not troubled by it, but as a person who has worked in a job where I received direct calls from the public that I had no choice but to deal with it, I am definitely annoyed on behalf of the operator. It's not the worst thing in the world, but... wow, what an annoying day. Can you imagine six months later, you hear your most annoying day at work played on an album?!
      - Zanni 2y ago
        As a former telephone operator from this era who spent most shifts frantically bubbling scantrons as business men rattled off their calling card numbers and call numbers at lighting speed, I would have been delighted by this break in routine.
        jonah 2y ago
        > frantically bubbling scantrons I want to know more! I assumed numbers were entered directly on a 10-key. Were they scantrons as a paper record, as an asynchronous way to enter the data, or?
        Zanni 2y ago
        It was a paper record of every (paid) phone call. This was in the 80s before the switch to digital. The front side had the origin and destination numbers, the back side had the calling card number. Also--we didn't use a 10-key! Our keypad was 2x5 rather than 3x3, and inverted (low numbers at the top).
raywu 2y ago
> Initially, I was shocked at how slowly everything moved! I was used to working really quickly when producing and engineering albums. Suddenly it was like the brakes were on and often it was difficult to get the momentum going. Eventually, I adapted to the Floyd pace. One of the great things about working with this band is that you are allowed time to be creative, to pursue an idea even if it takes some time. The Floyd had a production deal to make their records and the record label never heard anything until it was done. The record was made purely and only by the people in the studio. The creative freedom without commercial intervention - this is very cool. I can almost hear it in The Wall - how grand and elongated the songs are. What a great interview. Thank you for linking
- hinkley 2y ago
  “The Floyd”? Ironic that Have a Cigar was released four years before The Wall: The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?
  - kagakuninja 2y ago
    The band originally was The Pink Floyd (after changing their name from The Tea Set)
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - hinkley 2y ago
      But never The Floyd. Just as the band isn’t named after a man called Pink.
      - cf100clunk 2y ago
        s/never/commonly\, in the parlance of the time\,/
      - WolfCop 2y ago
jameslk 2y ago
I was wondering if they ever figured out who the operator was? I couldn’t find anything about her through my Googling. Seems like she should have some credit in the album for her brilliant contribution
- shric 2y ago
  The session singer who did "The Great Gig in the Sky" vocals on The Dark Side of the Moon famously got £30. She later sued and got an undisclosed settlement. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Torry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Torry
  - suzzer99 2y ago
    Great documentary about the backup singers that became iconic on rock songs and yet made next to nothing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWyUJcA8Zfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWyUJcA8Zfo
  - MarkusWandel 2y ago
    Also on that album of course "There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark". Wasn't that just some random studio guy, on the spur of the moment, too? Simpler times, more creativity.
    - genter 2y ago
      Pink Floyd wrote some questions down on note cards and asked random people in the studio, recording their answer. The Beatles were part of this, but their answers were too guarded and weren't used.
- lastdong 2y ago
  It may have been Jane Barbe (AT&T). https://telephoneworld.org/telephone-sounds/miscellaneous-telephone-sounds-recordings/ https://telephoneworld.org/telephone-sounds/miscellaneous-te... I believe (unable to fully verify) she got a credit in the 2017 album “Is This The Life We Really Want? — Almost 40 years after the release of The Wall”. https://www.discogs.com/release/10441646-Roger-Waters-Is-This-The-Life-We-Really-Want https://www.discogs.com/release/10441646-Roger-Waters-Is-Thi...
SoftTalker 2y ago
"He keeps hanging up. And it's a man answering." You can tell the operator was really loving that....
- emmelaich 2y ago
  Too cheap to hire a voice actor, let's stress out some random telephone operator.
GrumpyNl 2y ago
This contradicts the finds of the author, this story means it was regular DTMF used while the author could not find that. Or am i missing something?
- matthiasl 2y ago
  (Author here) No contradiction. I think what happened is 1. The recording engineer dialled the operator. Could have been pulse dialling, could have been DTMF, doesn't matter. 2. Operator answered and the engineer said "I'd like to call London, collect, number 01xxx831". 3. Operator entered 044 1 xxx 831, and this was transmitted to another exchange in SS5 tones. I didn't grow up in the USA, but a couple of people who did have said that, yes, they think that at least some of the time, you could hear the SS5 tones and also the initial conversation between the operator and whoever answered the phone. It may be that it depended on the operator, since they probably had a mute button, and maybe on the particular exchange the operator was in. In the film, we hear from 3 onwards.

mrandish 2y ago

It's cool to hear how that came together as an improvisation. It recalls a simpler time when a major album (or movie, TV show, etc) could just feature your neighbor and a random telephone operator without signing releases and clearing rights. It also gave Chris Fitzmorris (the neighbor) one of the greatest "random cool thing that happened to me" stories ever.

wahnfrieden 2y ago
Musicians still release samples without clearing them
- mrandish 2y ago
  Yes, I'm aware. Although a major mega band doing so on a wide release album these days would be taking a significant legal risk - which is why it's now fairly rare. But back in 1979 it wasn't uncommon, to the extent that one of the then-biggest bands in the world could do so on their biggest album project yet.
  - wahnfrieden 2y ago
    It might be a notorious example but artists do take those risks https://www.billboard.com/lists/kanye-west-ye-sampling-lawsuits-full-list/andrew-green-v-kanye-west/ https://www.billboard.com/lists/kanye-west-ye-sampling-lawsu... (not to mention the many artists that release music without licensing from the beat producers, which still happens regularly)
- jorvi 2y ago
  Confidently incorrect. “Grant Upright Music vs. Warner Bros” almost completely killed any creative use of sampling on official releases, which is why the only place you still see it consistently is mixtapes. Think 50 Cent’s “The Undertaker”.
slillibri 2y ago
Alternatively, treating the “random telephone operator” as a prop and forcing them to be part of your project without consent is troubling.
- aaaooj 2y ago
  I do not believe that you are genuinely troubled by this.
  - selimthegrim 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - asdafasad 2y ago
    I mean... I'm not troubled by it, but as a person who has worked in a job where I received direct calls from the public that I had no choice but to deal with it, I am definitely annoyed on behalf of the operator. It's not the worst thing in the world, but... wow, what an annoying day. Can you imagine six months later, you hear your most annoying day at work played on an album?!
    - Zanni 2y ago
      As a former telephone operator from this era who spent most shifts frantically bubbling scantrons as business men rattled off their calling card numbers and call numbers at lighting speed, I would have been delighted by this break in routine.
      - jonah 2y ago
        > frantically bubbling scantrons I want to know more! I assumed numbers were entered directly on a 10-key. Were they scantrons as a paper record, as an asynchronous way to enter the data, or?
        Zanni 2y ago
        It was a paper record of every (paid) phone call. This was in the 80s before the switch to digital. The front side had the origin and destination numbers, the back side had the calling card number. Also--we didn't use a 10-key! Our keypad was 2x5 rather than 3x3, and inverted (low numbers at the top).

raywu 2y ago

> Initially, I was shocked at how slowly everything moved! I was used to working really quickly when producing and engineering albums. Suddenly it was like the brakes were on and often it was difficult to get the momentum going. Eventually, I adapted to the Floyd pace. One of the great things about working with this band is that you are allowed time to be creative, to pursue an idea even if it takes some time. The Floyd had a production deal to make their records and the record label never heard anything until it was done. The record was made purely and only by the people in the studio. The creative freedom without commercial intervention - this is very cool. I can almost hear it in The Wall - how grand and elongated the songs are. What a great interview. Thank you for linking

hinkley 2y ago
“The Floyd”? Ironic that Have a Cigar was released four years before The Wall: The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?
- kagakuninja 2y ago
  The band originally was The Pink Floyd (after changing their name from The Tea Set)
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - hinkley 2y ago
    But never The Floyd. Just as the band isn’t named after a man called Pink.
    - cf100clunk 2y ago
      s/never/commonly\, in the parlance of the time\,/
    - WolfCop 2y ago

jameslk 2y ago

I was wondering if they ever figured out who the operator was? I couldn’t find anything about her through my Googling. Seems like she should have some credit in the album for her brilliant contribution

shric 2y ago
The session singer who did "The Great Gig in the Sky" vocals on The Dark Side of the Moon famously got £30. She later sued and got an undisclosed settlement. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Torry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Torry
- suzzer99 2y ago
  Great documentary about the backup singers that became iconic on rock songs and yet made next to nothing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWyUJcA8Zfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWyUJcA8Zfo
- MarkusWandel 2y ago
  Also on that album of course "There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it's all dark". Wasn't that just some random studio guy, on the spur of the moment, too? Simpler times, more creativity.
  - genter 2y ago
    Pink Floyd wrote some questions down on note cards and asked random people in the studio, recording their answer. The Beatles were part of this, but their answers were too guarded and weren't used.
lastdong 2y ago
It may have been Jane Barbe (AT&T). https://telephoneworld.org/telephone-sounds/miscellaneous-telephone-sounds-recordings/ https://telephoneworld.org/telephone-sounds/miscellaneous-te... I believe (unable to fully verify) she got a credit in the 2017 album “Is This The Life We Really Want? — Almost 40 years after the release of The Wall”. https://www.discogs.com/release/10441646-Roger-Waters-Is-This-The-Life-We-Really-Want https://www.discogs.com/release/10441646-Roger-Waters-Is-Thi...

SoftTalker 2y ago

"He keeps hanging up. And it's a man answering." You can tell the operator was really loving that....

emmelaich 2y ago
Too cheap to hire a voice actor, let's stress out some random telephone operator.

GrumpyNl 2y ago

This contradicts the finds of the author, this story means it was regular DTMF used while the author could not find that. Or am i missing something?

matthiasl 2y ago
(Author here) No contradiction. I think what happened is 1. The recording engineer dialled the operator. Could have been pulse dialling, could have been DTMF, doesn't matter. 2. Operator answered and the engineer said "I'd like to call London, collect, number 01xxx831". 3. Operator entered 044 1 xxx 831, and this was transmitted to another exchange in SS5 tones. I didn't grow up in the USA, but a couple of people who did have said that, yes, they think that at least some of the time, you could hear the SS5 tones and also the initial conversation between the operator and whoever answered the phone. It may be that it depended on the operator, since they probably had a mute button, and maybe on the particular exchange the operator was in. In the film, we hear from 3 onwards.