Breathe In The Air

"Breathe In The Air" (often listed on albums as just "Breathe") is a song by progressive rock band Pink Floyd and appears on their Dark Side of the Moon album.

Composition

The writing of this song is credited to David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright. The song is slow-paced and rich in texture, deploying David Gilmour's skilled multitrack performances of slide guitar and lead vocals in gentle, warm timbres. On the original "Dark Side of the Moon" album, it is a single track that is preceded by "Speak To Me". The song is considered to be a representation of birth, with a relief from labour. Its lyrics, composed by Roger Waters, beseech the listener to pause in their seemingly-endless labours and take notice of more meaningful pursuits in life. Approximately three minutes in length, it is the first song on the album, preceded only by wordless screaming and sound effects found across the album in "Speak to Me." Since this sound collage segues directly into "Breathe" via the use of a sustained backwards piano chord, they are usually played together on the radio and the two are conjoined on most CD versions of the album.

The D 7th augmented 9th was inspired by Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Keyboardist Richard Wright had worked out the chord and wanted to find a way to get it back to Eminor so he changed it to a D 7th flatted 9th. The colourful, complex chord changes represents the sophisticated approach to melody and harmonies in the music at the era of "Meddle" and "Dark Side Of The Moon".

The song has been covered by a variety of bands including The Shins and The Flaming Lips.

Alternative and Live versions

*The "P*U*L*S*E" CD and DVD features a live version of the song with a run time of 2:33.
*The song was played at the Live 8 concert and features on the DVD. For that performance "Breathe" and "Breathe (Reprise)" were combined to form one song. Although Pink Floyd themselves had never done this before, Sea of Green had previously covered the song in this manner on their 2001 album "Time to Fly".
*The solo Roger Waters DVD and CD, "", features a version of the song sung by Doyle Bramhall and Jon Carin.
*Roger Waters originally recorded a song called "Breathe" for Music from "The Body", a soundtrack album which he recorded with Ron Geesin. Although the two are largely different in lyrics, chords and subject matter, this version can be seen as an early version of the song. Although the song is still available through a CD release of the album, it often appears on Pink Floyd bootlegs, most notably on "A Tree Full Of Secrets".
* Live versions with Rick Wright appear on the David Gilmour solo "Remember That Night" DVD and "Live in Gdansk" CD.

Personnel

*David Gilmour - Guitar, Slide guitar and lead vocals
*Roger Waters - Bass guitar
*Richard Wright - Organ, Electric piano and Backing vocals
*Nick Mason - Drums and Percussion

Cover version

*A cover version of "Breathe" by 50 Cent Haircut appears on the 2003 Pink Floyd tribute album "A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd".

* "Breathe" is covered on Pink Floyd Tribute album "An All Star Lineup Performing The Songs of Pink Floyd" featuring McAuley Schenker Group vocalist Robin McAuley and Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter.

* The Shins also covered Breathe during their 2007 tour. A recorded version was going to be released as a B-Side on their upcoming single "Turn On Me", but instead it will be released on a BBC compilation.

* Sea of Green cover Breathe and Breathe (Reprise) on their album Time to Fly.

Notes