Rattle That Lock

Album: Rattle That Lock (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • The title track and lead single of Daid Gilmour's fourth solo album, "Rattle That Lock" features the Liberty Choir, along with soul singer Mica Paris, who had nine UK Top 40 hits in the '80s and '90s. Louise Clare Marshall, who also sung on "Louder Than Words," the closing track of Pink Floyd's The Endless River album, also makes an appearance.
  • The song makes use of the four notes that precede announcements at French SNCF railway stations, which Gilmour recorded on his iPhone at Aix-en-Provence station. "It's an anticipatory jingle that lets you know there's an announcement about to be made," Gilmour told the Canadian Postmedia Network, of the SNCF chime he used. "It was inspiration for the music of this song. And when I go to airports or to train stations in England, they have really, dull, tedious jingles, that precede announcements and the same in the States usually."

    "But when you go to France they have this great one that makes you want to dance," he continued. "So while I was in a train station in France I recorded the sound on my iPhone and took it home and started turning it into a song... My manager had to go and get clearance from the guy who wrote it in France so we could use it."
  • The lyrics were penned by Gilmour's novelist wife Polly Samson. They were inspired by Book II of John Milton's Paradise Lost, which is also featured in her novel, The Kindness.
  • The black-and-white video was created by London animators Trunk under the executive direction of Pink Floyd's long-established artwork team Hipgnosis. Trunk used 12 animators to make the clip, which is based on Paradise Lost. Gilmour said: "I love animation when it does something that can't be achieved any other way. The film Alasdair & Jock of Trunk Animation have made highlights the darkness in the song that couldn't have been shown any other way."

    Polly Samson added: "The animators have done a fine job, paying homage to Gustave Dore, bringing his illustrations for Paradise Lost alive, making a powerful visual for the song."
  • The 30-strong Liberty Choir that features on this track is a rehabilitation project that includes former Wandsworth Prison inmates and local singers. Gilmour became aware of the singers after his son Charlie did time in the South London Wandsworth jail in 2011 after being a convicted of violent disorder for his part in a tuition fees protest. Gilmour told BBC News: "Charlie's experience was something that has impacted on us and has made us more aware of the prison system and what could and should be done to improve it. We're just helping out by being part of this initiative, which will hopefully spread."

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