On the Run (instrumental)

## About

The Dark Side of the Moon

**"On the Run"** is a song released by the English psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, and is the third track of their eighth album, *The Dark Side of the Moon* (1973). It is an instrumental piece performed by guitarist David Gilmour, and bassist Roger Waters, on an EMS synthesizer (Synthi AKS). It deals with the pressures of travel, which, according to Richard Wright, would often bring fear of death, and the risk of putting the fate of your own life in the hands of strangers. The song features footsteps racing from side to side, preformed by Peter James, successfully eluding any number of odd malevolent rumbles and explosions only to be killed off by the clock’s ticking that leads into “Time.”

## Lyrics

[Spoken]

*"Have your baggage and your passports ready and follow the green line to customs and then to immigration. BA 215 to Rome, Cairo and Lagos"*

[Verse; Roger Manifold]

*Live for today, gone tomorrow. That's me*

\*Laughs\*

## 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

***featuring:***

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

## Info

* This piece was created by feeding an 8 note sequence into the EMS VCS 3 and speeding it up to 165 BPM, with a white noise generator adding the high hat sound. The band then added guitar parts, created by dragging a microphone stand down the fretboard, and panned left to right. There are also some other synthesizer parts, made to sound like some type of vehicle passing, giving a Doppler effect. The 8 note sequence (D, F, G, F on octave below Middle C, and D, middle C, D, E on Middle C octave) is played at a tempo of 165, and modulates upwards occasionally. Near the end we hear an explosion which gradually gets quieter, leading up to the chiming clocks marking the intro of "Time."
* When The Dark Side Of The Moon suite was performed in 1972 (before the album was released), it went under the title "The Travel Sequence" and was, instead of a complex electronic instrumental, a more simple guitar jam, without the use of synthesizers and other electronic instruments. A short clip of this is played on the DVD "Classic Albums: The Making Of The Dark Side Of The Moon" and can be heard on all performances of Pink Floyd playing the album live in that year.
* At 27 seconds into the piece, the sound of a female voice on a loudspeaker can be heard. Some think it to be an airport public address system, saying "Get your tickets and your passports at the ready, we make a brief stop at customs and then we begin. Now boarding flight 215 to Rome from Colorado Fields." The talking continues for nearly thirty seconds, but some of it cannot be heard because a helicopter like noise is played over it.
* In the beginning of the song, we hear something similar to a whispering voice saying: "On the run" repeatedly. It's the sound of a Leslie speaker without any sound played though it.
* At 1:54, Roger the Hat, a Pink Floyd roadie, says: "Live for today, gone tomorrow. That's me", then laughs. The laughter on the CD version sounds markedly different to the laughter on the record.
* When the album is listened to along with the film The Wizard of Oz Dorothy sings "Over the Rainbow" while "On the Run" is played. This forms an interesting contrast. The initials of the titles in both songs are OTR. Also, if the viewer uses his/her imagination, it seems that Dorothy is watching "planes" fly overhead.
* The NBA's Chicago Bulls uses On The Run for visiting-team player introductions.
* When the band performed the song live on the post Roger Waters tours, all (except Wright and touring keyboardist Jon Carin) disappeared from the stage
* A live version of the song can be heard on the Delicate Sound of Thunder concert video. This version did not appear on the CD release.
* The song was originally titled as "The Travel Sequence", it had a much different sound and did not include the Sythenzizer, it was an instrumental song and sounded much more like a Jazz/Funk fusion. The song title was eventually changed once they got a hold of the Synthi AKS.

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Moon
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink\_Floyd\_discography
3. ↑ https://www.whosampled.com/Pink-Floyd/On-the-Run/
4. ↑ https://getsongbpm.com/song/on-the-run/2RZEW
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 https://www.songfacts.com/facts/pink-floyd/on-the-run
6. ↑ https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-on-the-run-lyrics