Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk

Lyrics:

I'm in bed
(Doctor, Doctor) aching head
(Doctor, Doctor) gold is lead
(Doctor, Doctor) choke on bread
(Doctor, Doctor) underfed

gold is lead
(Doctor, Doctor) Jesus bled
(Doctor, Doctor) pain is red
(Doctor, Doctor) dark doom

Gruel ghoul, greasy spoon
Used spool, June gloom

Music seems to help the pain
Seems to motivate the brain
Doctor kindly tell your wife that I'm alive

Flowers thrive, realize
Realize, realize

 

"Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" is a song by English psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd from their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967).

Background

"Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" was originally titled "Doctor, Doctor". The song's title is a variation of John 5:8, a verse of the Bible. It was the first song written by Roger Waters to be recorded by Pink Floyd. The phrase "doctor, doctor" would be re-used in Waters's 1992 solo album Amused to Death.

Reception

When Andy Greene of Rolling Stone Australia ranked fifty terrible songs on great albums, he placed "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" at number twenty-eight, calling it a "grating tune" and "Judging by this song alone, nobody would have ever guessed that its author would take over the band in the seventies and turn them into one of the biggest acts in rock history. They were more likely to assume he was on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown." Waters later called it a "very bad song". When Nick Mason was interviewed about the Pink Floyd box set The Early Years 1965–1972, he thought it was "a really average song."

Cover versions

At the Drive-In version

American post-hardcore band At the Drive-In covered the song during their BBC sessions but never went released until their 2005 compilation album This Station Is Non-Operational.

Other versions

Ty Segall, alongside Mikal Cronin covered the song on his 2009 album The Traditional Fools/Reverse Shark Attack.