Roger Waters / 4:42
Musicians: David Gilmour: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar / Rick Wright: keyboards / Roger Waters: bass, gong (?) / Nick Mason: gong (?), cymbal / Recorded: Abbey Road Studios, London: November 26, December 3, 4, 1968; April 13, 1970 (Studio Two, Studio Three) / Technical Team: Producer: Norman Smith / Sound Engineers: Peter Mew, Anthony Clarke / Assistant Sound Engineers: Neil Richmond, Nick Webb
“Embryo” is a song whose words and music were written by Roger Waters at the end of 1968. As David Gilmour confirms, recording work, begun on November 26 in the middle of the Ummagumma sessions, was suspended at a certain point: “We all went off it for some reason. We never actually finished the recording of it […].”36 Why was “Embryo” not chosen for inclusion on an original album? This remains a mystery as the song is a real success, starting with the utter originality of its subject matter. Through the lyrics, Roger Waters expresses the sensations of an embryo as it develops into a fetus. Eventually, right at the end of the song, the baby is born: Here I go/I will see the sunshine show. Before reaching this stage, however, the bassist has already tossed out a sequence of quirkily humorous lines such as: Always need a little more room, Waiting here, seems like years, and All around, I hear strange sounds.
Although not included on Ummagumma, “Embryo” was recorded “live” on December 2, 1968, for the BBC radio show Top Gear and after that was regularly performed in concert until 1971, featuring lengthy improvisations that sometimes took Waters’s composition over the twenty-minute mark. As far as record issues are concerned, the song was chosen for inclusion on the compilation Picnic: A Breath of Fresh Air (1970) that united songs by various Harvest artists (notably “Into the Fire” by Deep Purple, “Mother Dear” by Barclay James Harvest, “The Good Mr. Square” by the Pretty Things, “Eleanor’s Cake [Which Ate Her]” by Kevin Ayers, and “Terrapin” by former Floyd member Syd Barrett) and a number of years later on Works, the 1983 Pink Floyd compilation released exclusively in the United States, and was eventually included in the box set The Early Years: 1965–1972, released in November 2016.
On November 26, 1968, then, Pink Floyd entered the studio to record “I Am the Embryo,” the working title of what was to become “Embryo.” The first take was initially selected, before immediately being wiped at the second session, on December 3. The group duly rerecorded the base track, once again selecting the first take as the basis for the various voice, organ, and piano overdubs, which were completed the following day. But then the group seemed to lose interest and abandoned the song. More than a year after this final recording session, on April 13, 1970, Norman Smith was given the job of doing a stereo mix so that the song could appear on the Harvest compilation Picnic: A Breath of Fresh Air. The group was not present and would question the way its recording was marketed. “[…] EMI got Norman Smith to mix it, and they released it without our OK,”36 David Gilmour would later declare.
“Embryo” is a slow, melancholy, and gentle piece. Like so many Roger Waters compositions from this period, it has an orientalizing melody. This impression is reinforced by the Mellotron flute sounds in the intro, the muffled gong and cymbal (struck on the bell), and the melodic line supported by piano. On lead vocals is David Gilmour, singing in a characteristically silky voice. He can be heard doubling himself in the refrains, which bear a certain resemblance to nursery rhymes, and also playing acoustic rhythm guitar, presumably the Levin LT 18. For the instrumental part that follows immediately from the refrain (1:08), he plays electric, modifying the sound of his white Stratocaster with his wah-wah pedal in order to blend with the dreamlike atmosphere created by Rick Wright on keyboards. Wright can be heard at the same time on the Farfisa organ and the Mellotron, obtaining a steel drum sound from one of his keyboards, most probably by adding Echorec and/or chorus effects. In the coda (from 2:35), he improvises on the piano and at 3:08 is joined by the sped-up sound of crying children (made by Waters, some sources claim). While on the subject of Roger’s contribution, it would be impossible to overstate the importance of his excellent bass line, which acts as the backbone of the song. His Rickenbacker 4001, played by Waters with abundant glissandi, has a velvety sound obtained in all probability as a result of being plugged directly into the console. It is also with this instrument that “Embryo” concludes. It is a great shame that this track features on only two compilations because it deserves better!