Any Colour You Like

The story behind

This instrumental piece by Pink Floyd, titled Any Colour You Like, is a sonic journey that delves into psychedelic and spacey atmospheres. What makes it particular is the way it intertwines different facets of progressive rock. Richard Wright deploys a complex use of synthesizers, creating a sound that draws from a tape loop to generate that characteristic ascending and descending keyboard solo. For his part, David Gilmour contributes a harmonized guitar solo, achieved with two guitars and the UniVibe effect, which merges with the keyboard's texture. The song, which lasts 3 minutes and 25 seconds, shares the same time signature as Breathe, another track from the album, and even a similar chord sequence, albeit transposed.The recording of Any Colour You Like spanned several months, between October 1972 and January 1973, and was a process that presented challenges due to pitch changes and effects manipulation. The recording engineer was Peter James and Alan Parsons, who also participated in the mixing alongside Chris Thomas. The band Pink Floyd themselves took on the production. The song's title, it is speculated, might come from a common studio technician's phrase, "You can have it any colour you like," echoing the famous description of the Ford Model T. Roger Waters, in a conversation with Phil Rose for his book, suggested a possible connection to the way products were sold in markets, where the offering could be varied but the color was always the same, suggesting a metaphor for apparent freedom of choice.