Us and Them
by Pink Floyd
- 72
- BPM
- D major
- Key
- 10B
- Camelot
- 36
- Danceability
- 86
- Acousticness
Richard Wright first wrote "Us and Them" on piano in 1969 for the film Zabriskie Point, under the title "The Violent Sequence". It was an instrumental demo of piano and bass. Director Michelangelo Antonioni turned it down because it was too unlike the music he wanted, and Roger Waters later recalled his verdict as beautiful but too sad, something that made him think of church. The piece was shelved until The Dark Side of the Moon.
Waters then wrote the lyrics for Pink Floyd. The first verse is about going to war, the second about civil liberties and racism, and the last about passing a tramp in the street and not helping. David Gilmour sang it with harmonies from Wright, who also played the Hammond organ and piano. The verses used an unusual jazz-influenced chord progression, including a D minor chord with a major seventh that was rare in 1970s rock.
Midway through, the band's roadie Roger "The Hat" Manifold speaks about a run-in with a driver. At 7 minutes and 49 seconds it was the longest track on the album. Released in the United States as the second single, it peaked at No. 72 on the Cash Box Top 100 in March 1974.
Us and Them runs at 72 BPM, the tempo of soul, trip-hop and half-time hip-hop. In classical terms it sits in largo territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 3.33 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 833 ms. It is in D major, Camelot 10B, which shares its notes with B minor and mixes cleanly with G major and A major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.