Pink Floyd - Breathe (In the Air)

Part 3a of the Allergy-Beatdown trilogy

To read part 1 of the allergy trilogy, click here. To read part 2 click here.

I also want to give a shout-out to this week’s new readers! Welcome! You can check out the more than 90 posts on the Earworm & Song Loops archive page.

Photo by Aryo Yarahmadi on Unsplash

If I were to take a poll asking you to choose the first song about breathing that comes to you, I would bet Pink Floyd’s “Breathe (In the Air)” would be #1.

Unless you are under 30. Then it might be something like Tame Impala’s “Breathe Deeper,” from the excellent 2020 album, The Slow Rush.

Nope, not me — a few of you might reply to prove your uniqueness. And then share with your fellow wormheads some lesser-known but not-too-obscure breath-based tune to prove your street cred.

I know this because I would do the same thing if asked to answer such a poll.

That’s why, as a bonus, I’ve curated a breath-based Spotify playlist of 20 of the best breath/breathing songs, which will be shared with all paid subscribers of Earworms and Song Loops.

Wanna hear this playlist? Upgrade to paid membership for the low-low cost of 5 measly bucks a month! Or subscribe for a year for 40 dollars! That’s 33.33% off. Don’t use Spotify? Good on you — I’ll share a YouTube playlist for you fine folk! Everyone can play!

The Dark Side of the Moon is considered one of the greatest albums of all time.

Discogs, the premier online database/resource for all genres of music, recently polled its community to find out which album they felt was their favorite, and The Dark Side of the Moon was #1. In contrast, Rolling Stone chose it as their 55th best album.

Of course, musical taste is subjective. As much as I love The Dark Side of the Moon, I will admit that it’s not even my favorite Pink Floyd album. That honor would go to Animals. And then Meddle. But that’s just splitting hairs.

You don’t stay in the Billboard Top-200 charts for a record 917 weeks without offering a collection of timeless songs that defy genre, generation, and the laws of attraction.

What could I possibly say about “Breathe (In the Air)” that hasn’t already been told at some point over the past 50 years since the album’s release on March 1, 1973? There have been hundreds of articles and interviews in rock magazines, extensive trivia in the liner notes of one of the dozen or more rereleases of The Dark Side of the Moon over the years.

Well hold on to your hats, your minds are about to be blown.

Earworms and Song Loops has uncovered exclusive, never-discussed, behind-the-scenes info about the making of this rock classic.

1.

The original title for “Breathe (In the Air)” was actually “Breathe In the Air (Through Your Nose For the First Time in Decades)” but the label made the band shorten it.

The entirety of The Dark Side of the Moon can be viewed as a metaphor for the struggles that three of the band’s four musicians (not named Roger Waters) had with debilitating hay fever.

It’s an under-reported fact that drummer Nick Mason, in particular, suffered from chronic itchy eyes and dry throat. His widely admired, sparse percussive style was in fact a technique he developed so that he would have time to reach into his trouser pocket for a Ricola cough drop between measures.

2.

When keyboardist and songwriter Richard Wright died from lung cancer at age 65 in 2008, it was a shock to fans worldwide. His death was a huge loss to the music world. But do you know what wasn’t reported? Any mention of Wright’s severe peanut allergy.

Can you guess who simply loved peanut butter and tuna sandwiches?

That’s right, Roger Waters.

Now, I’m not saying that Waters had anything to do with his ex-bandmate’s death. Waters had tried to disband the group, then extricated himself from Pink Floyd after 1983’s The Final Cut (which is widely considered Waters’ first solo album, due to the lack of input from the other band members).

It’s no secret that Roger was livid when the three other Floyds continued to record and tour under the band name he co-founded. They’d been working on music for what would posthumously become The Endless River (2012), their 5th post-Waters’ album, so it isn’t beyond the realm of imagination that Waters might have hidden an errant peanut in an otherwise nut-free tuna sandwich.

Let me repeat — might have. I’m not implying that Waters had anything to do with Richard Wright’s death, but as you will learn in the 3rd exclusive below, nefarious acts of revenge are nothing new to the embittered, nimble-fingered bassist.

peanut butter and tuna sandwich; as imagined by Substack’s Photo AI. I especially like the realistic-looking lettuce.

3.

Most Pink Floyd fans are unaware that when guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour was in grade school, a punch to the face from a classroom bully had deviated his septum.

This only exacerbated young David’s chronic hay fever. Unable to spend much time outdoors, he focused his afternoons and weekends at home practicing the guitar. As he grew older, a wheezy, nasal-vocal delivery kept the famous Floydian from pursuing his dream of becoming a lead singer as well as an axeman.

Before his joining Floyd, persistent allergies led the young musician to keep a box of tissues — painted black to look like an effects pedal — at his feet during all live performances, never certain when a sudden burst of nasal mucus might strike.

After the success of 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets, his first as guitarist for Pink Floyd after the death of Syd Barrett, Gilmour was finally able to afford the surgery to repair his nose. For the band’s follow-up, a soundtrack album to accompany German filmmaker Barbet Schroder’s heroin drama, More, Gilmour began to take on some of the lead singing duties, exhibiting new-found vocal confidence. With each subsequent album, Gilmour would contribute more and more to the songwriting, taking lead vocals on many of their most recognized songs, such as Dark Side of the Moon’s renamed and shortened “Breathe (In the Air).”

https://songwhip.com/pink-floyd/breathe-in-the-air

According to Wikipedia, the authorship and composition of “Breathe (In the Air)” is credited to: David Gilmour and Richard Wright for the music and Roger Waters for the lyrics.

With this in mind, and knowing that Waters was never fully accepting of Gilmour’s more prominent role in the band, is it possible we’ve all been misreading the song’s meaning?

Were the lyrics actually a subtle dig at Gilmour, who Waters clearly knew had struggled with hay fever and a deviated septum? Breathing (in the air) through his nose was only possible for David for a couple of years at that point.

The last stanza of the song reads:

For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race toward an early grave

Could this be a veiled warning to Gilmour? Here’s an alternate interpretation:

For long you live and high you fly (You’re riding on the coattails of my band); only if you ride the tide (Do things my way); Balanced on the biggest wave/you race toward an early grave (Be careful; life can be dangerous.)

Neither Waters nor Gilmour have responded to my request for clarification, but the circumstantial evidence seems overwhelming.

4.

David Gilmour’s 1984 solo album, About Face, was actually more literal than anyone (at the time and since) realized.

Reviewers assumed the title referred to the common interpretation of the idiom: an act of making a reversal in direction. The new direction being a career as a solo artist after his mistreatment by Waters during The Final Cut sessions.

But in fact, the album was all “about” David Gilmour’s “face.”

Take a good look at the cover.

Posing in profile, David is gazing to the side, his right nostril not visible. It was his right nostril that, since early childhood, remained perpetually clogged, keeping him from breathing effectively through his nose.

In addition, on the cover David’s left thumb is seen pointing behind him, indicating that the part of his life when he’d struggled mightily with profound hay fever, was now in the rear-view mirror.

It was through the help of a holistic allergist that Gilmour was finally able, after years of herbal interventions, to inhale deeply through both nostrils. In effect, to “breathe in the air.”

Air returns as a theme on About Face’s third track, “Love on the Air,” co-written with The Who’s Pete Townsend. One might listen to the song and believe it is about expressing one’s feelings of love for a romantic partner out loud. This misinterpretation is easy to make, especially considering Gilmour was indeed in love at the time.

But although “Love on the Air” is indeed a love song, it’s actually a love song to the breath. Gilmour is ‘loving on the air.’ He’s feeling “high on his own supply.”

Another interpretation is that the song is about forgiveness. “On the Air” is a reference to radio. To the “airwaves.” Pink Floyd were and are one of the most popular bands on rock radio. Maybe Gilmour is giving thanks to all the people and industries that contributed to the success of his career.

And in his own way, perhaps, Gilmour is forgiving Waters for his callous behavior through the years.

“Love on the Air,” at its core expresses a timeless truth: Sometimes all we can do when we grow apart from our brothers and sisters is forgive them and find a way to move forward.

While taking time to post a few sharp barbs on Twitter of course.

• This is part 3a of the allergy trilogy. The unearthing of so many Pink Floyd exclusives made this post a lot longer than expected. The personal essay portion of this story, of how — like David Gilmour — I finally conquered my debilitating hay fever, is coming next!

• I did end this piece with a bit of bad blood between Waters and Gilmour (and Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson), but wasn’t going to get into it here. I prefer the feuds I write about to be fictional and conjured from my nutty brain. There’s plenty of reporting on the real one online. Here’s one article.

• What do you think about The Dark Side of the Moon? One of the greatest albums ever made? Overrated? Only good for stoned excursions at the Laserium?

• I do love comments, so don’t hesitate to voice your thoughts!

And as always — thanks for reading! You Rock.

Steve