The Leslie Speaker and the Swirling Organ on 'Us and Them'

That wobbly, shimmering organ sound that floats through “Us and Them” isn’t a studio trick or a synthesizer—it’s a Leslie speaker being used on a piano. Richard Wright played a Wurlitzer electric piano through a Leslie 122 cabinet, which contains a rotating horn and drum. As the sound source physically spins inside the box, the pitch shifts subtly due to the Doppler effect, creating that unmistakable swirl.

The Leslie was invented in the 1940s for Hammond organs, meant to mimic the acoustic spread of a pipe organ in a cathedral. But by the mid-60s, engineers and players realized the rotating speaker could do more than church sounds. Bands like the Beatles, the Doors, and Pink Floyd started running guitars, vocals, and keyboards through Leslies—especially in stereo—to warp their tones into something dreamy and disorienting. For “Us and Them,” that effect gave a simple chord progression a sense of slow, hallucinatory motion, perfect for the song’s drifting, melancholy atmosphere.