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Decoding the telephony signals in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

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Re: Decoding the telephony signals in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

#11

Post by wdfx »

robthebrew wrote: post #5
matthiasl wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. Yep, 44 is the UK country code. The problem I got stuck on is that the rest of the number, 1831, didn't make sense. I assumed the number was complete, since it had the right start and stop signalling (KP1/KF). It's not long enough to be a London telephone number, and, today, I think London numbers start with 020. The UK numbering plan has changed several times since 1980, but I couldn't find a time betwe…

I remember London area codes being 01 (or 0441 from USA) followed by 6 digits, so maybe 3 are missing. It would be interesting to see if that landline is still available, but with 1000 possibilities (01ABC831) maybe a google search might be the way to go.

This is correct.

In the 90's I recall London area prefix changed from 01 to first 071 (central) and 081 (greater) and then 0171 and 0181. Later still, those codes became 0207 and 0208.

I still notice old shop signs up with the old prefixes.

Re: Decoding the telephony signals in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

#13

Post by cf100clunk »

matthiasl wrote: post #3
peutetre wrote: post #2

> The number itself was probably made-up: it's too short and the area code doesn't seem valid. 44 is the country code for the UK.

Author here. Yep, 44 is the UK country code. The problem I got stuck on is that the rest of the number, 1831, didn't make sense. I assumed the number was complete, since it had the right start and stop signalling (KP1/KF). It's not long enough to be a London telephone number, and, today, I think London numbers start with 020. The UK numbering plan has changed several times since 1980, but I couldn't find a time betwe…

Hiya, I see that you updated your blog in regards to this previous HN discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28858285

It references a Telephone World article called ''Pink Floyd's Young Lust – explained and demystified'' with great analysis of the sequences heard.

Re: Decoding the telephony signals in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

#15

Post by defaultcompany »

On the cassette tape version of The Wall I had if you flipped the cassette over during this phone call sequence it would end up being right in the middle of another song (can't remember which one) which has this recording playing as part of the background. I feel like it couldn't have been intentional but who knows.

Re: Decoding the telephony signals in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

#16

Post by matthiasl »

cf100clunk wrote: post #13
matthiasl wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. Yep, 44 is the UK country code. The problem I got stuck on is that the rest of the number, 1831, didn't make sense. I assumed the number was complete, since it had the right start and stop signalling (KP1/KF). It's not long enough to be a London telephone number, and, today, I think London numbers start with 020. The UK numbering plan has changed several times since 1980, but I couldn't find a time betwe…

Hiya, I see that you updated your blog in regards to this previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28858285 It references a Telephone World article called ''Pink Floyd's Young Lust – explained and demystified'' with great analysis of the sequences heard.

The discussion is new to me.

I started analysing the audio because someone sent me a link to the film (The Wall) on youtube and asked me about the signalling. Once I'd decoded the telephone number, I tried googling it, to see if someone else had already figured out what it was (a US local number? the number to a US operator? the number a US operator called to talk to a UK operator? the number a UK operator dialled to get a London number?), but nothing came up. There's quite a bit of good discussion about that in the comments here.

A week or two later, I tried googling 'Pink Floyd Telephone Call', and found that the audio actually comes from the album, i.e. it's not just in the film, and a bit more information about how it was made, and put that in the addendum.

Re: Decoding the telephony signals in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

#18

Post by Polizeiposaune »

matthiasl wrote: post #6
robthebrew wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember London area codes being 01 (or 0441 from USA) followed by 6 digits, so maybe 3 are missing. It would be interesting to see if that landline is still available, but with 1000 possibilities (01ABC831) maybe a google search might be the way to go.

Interesting. Normally, films use deliberately fictious numbers, e.g. in the US it's always xxx555xxxxxx. Wikipedia says the UK uses various area codes for the same thing, including 011x and 01x1. The Pink Floyd number is a bit unusual---it's not made up. According to a previous analysis, the call was the album's "Chief Engineer James Guthrie who called his own London apartment", with a neighbour answering the phone.…

Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_(telephone_number)#Fiction..., the officially reserved block under the NANP has shrunk to XXX-555-01XX, but outside of XXX-555-1212 (directory assistance), and toll-free 800-555-XXXX there is little use of the range.

Re: Decoding the telephony signals in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

#19

Post by mrandish »

cassiepaper wrote: post #8

From: James Guthrie interview > Another piece that worked better than expected was the telephone operator. Roger was keen to illustrate the personal disconnect of being on the road. We were in L.A. at Producer’s Workshop so I phoned my neighbour, Chris Fitzmorris in London. He had the keys to my flat and I asked him to go there and said that I would call him through an operator. “No matter how many times I call”, I s…

It's cool to hear how that came together as an improvisation. It recalls a simpler time when a major album (or movie, TV show, etc) could just feature your neighbor and a random telephone operator without signing releases and clearing rights.

It also gave Chris Fitzmorris (the neighbor) one of the greatest "random cool thing that happened to me" stories ever.

Re: Decoding the telephony signals in Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

#20

Post by raywu »

cassiepaper wrote: post #8

From: James Guthrie interview > Another piece that worked better than expected was the telephone operator. Roger was keen to illustrate the personal disconnect of being on the road. We were in L.A. at Producer’s Workshop so I phoned my neighbour, Chris Fitzmorris in London. He had the keys to my flat and I asked him to go there and said that I would call him through an operator. “No matter how many times I call”, I s…

> Initially, I was shocked at how slowly everything moved! I was used to working really quickly when producing and engineering albums. Suddenly it was like the brakes were on and often it was difficult to get the momentum going. Eventually, I adapted to the Floyd pace. One of the great things about working with this band is that you are allowed time to be creative, to pursue an idea even if it takes some time. The Floyd had a production deal to make their records and the record label never heard anything until it was done. The record was made purely and only by the people in the studio.

The creative freedom without commercial intervention - this is very cool. I can almost hear it in The Wall - how grand and elongated the songs are.

What a great interview. Thank you for linking

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