username July 10th, 2005 08:12AM  
Also on "Wish You Were Here," this song was written about Floyd's manager who at first blew smoke up their asses. "Come in here dear boy, have a cigar youre gona go far..." is the manager luring the band to his management.

"The band is just fantastic that is really what I think... oh by the way which one's pink?" If the manager really thought that the band was so fantastic and had any familiarity with the band he'd know that none of them was pink. It's just the band name.

"We call it riding the gravy traiiinnnnn...." is a term for "riding the wave" doing what everybody else is doing. That is something Floyd was VERY opposed to.

Pink floyd was different. They were ahead of their time. They were writing songs about insanity, dreams and phsycadellia (heavy stuff) meanwhile bands like Wham! were writing songs called "Wake Me up Before you Go Go"

icyhot10 July 9th, 2007 03:07AM  
Riding the gravy train does not refer to doing what everyone else does. It refers to bringing the money which is all the record producer cared about. They did not care about the band, they cared about the 40% they were making off of the album and the tour and everything else Pink Floyd.

anonymous October 10th, 2009 02:31PM  
This song is pretty easy to understand. It's about a talent scout or something similar that tries to make a deal with the boys. He is telling them virtually everything a new artist would like to hear: "You're gonna go far, You're gonna fly high, You're never gonna die, You're gonna make it, if you try; They're gonna love you. " Even tough he really isn't interested in the band and doesn't understand their music : "Oh by the way, which one's Pink?" He tries to convince them by telling them about the money and the fame: "We're so happy we can hardly count. Everybody else is just green, Have you seen the chart? It's a hell of a start, It could be made into a monster If we all pull together as a team. " This really is a critic to the greediness and superficiality in main-stream music. "And did we tell you the name of the game, boy? We call it Riding the Gravy Train. "