Published Pink Floyd Music Publ Label Harvest | Length 5:13 | |
Released 30 October 1971 (US)
5 November 1971 (UK) Recorded July 1971
Morgan Studios, London
August 1971
AIR Studios, London Genre Psychedelic folk, progressive folk | ||
"A Pillow of Winds" is the second track from Pink Floyd's 1971 album Meddle.
Contents
Music and lyrics
This soft acoustic love song may be quite uncharacteristic of the band's previous and future material. Guitarist David Gilmour composed the chord sequence using an Open E tuning ( EBEG#BE ), played in a series of arpeggios, and Roger Waters wrote the melody and lyrics. This song also features slide guitar work by Gilmour, as well as a fretless bass, played by Waters. The song begins and ends in the key of E major, with a darker middle section (following the lyric, "and the candle dies") in the parallel minor, E minor. Both the E major and E minor chords feature the ninth, making this song one of many Pink Floyd songs to feature a prominent E minor added ninth chord, "Em(add9)". Throughout most of the song, the bass line remains on E as a pedal point, creating a drone. A chord named "G#m/E" is more accurately called an E major seventh chord, "Emaj7", and a "Bm/E" is just as equally named an "E7sus2". In the instrumental interlude, however, the chords change completely to A minor and B minor chords, leaving the E bass drone for a time before returning to E major.
According to Nick Mason, the song's title originates from a possible hand in the game of mahjong, with which the band had become enamoured while touring.
The song's lyrics refer to an eiderdown, better known in the U.S. as a comforter. Two other known Pink Floyd songs make reference to an eiderdown, Syd Barrett's "Flaming" and Waters's "Julia Dream".