Pink Floyd

[Negative Spectrum]

Is there anybody out there? , any other Floydians in the house? I found this band in my early 20's whilst indulging in certain substances but came to love them as much for the music as well as how it felt. I guess my favourite era would be between Ummagumma and Dark Side and i also love the much maligned "The Final Cut" *i consider it the last true floyd album*, with that in mind, here is my favourite song:

[AstroAndMusic]

Truly masters of their art. Gilmore makes me weep deeply. My band is currently rehearsing the first six tracks of 'The Wall' for future performances. We wouldn't have had 'The Wall' and so many others if Sid would've stayed. Sorry Sid. My current fav PF album is 'Obscured by Clouds', followed closely by 'Animals'. But of course they're all so great. Richard Wright has been an influence in my work. Peace to All

[Ciberithm]

DSOTM is one of my favorite albums. I'm also a Gilmore fan, and have a lot of his solo work and a few concert DVDs. He doesn't play fast, but his music has soul, and I never get tired of hearing it. I got DSOTM as a birthday present from a girlfriend in 1976 and really liked it, I had only heard "Money" played on the radio before then and wasn't that impressed. I've since purchased every album released after that, and have most of their earlier albums as well. So yes, I guess I could classify myself as a Floydian, and yes, I spent many evenings in my youth in a THC induced haze enjoying the music of Pink Floyd.

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

I wouldn't call my self a "Floydian" by any means...but many people say that my ambient guitar work has a "Gilmore feel" to it which I respect. I also get requested to play their music sometimes in my line of work and some of their songs are staples to my repertoire.

My funny Pink Floyd story is I used to have this dentist who was a borderline old school hippie. More like a rush fan turned dentist. Anyway, I used to get in accidents on my bike a lot and would go in and have some dental work done. This was back in the day of CD's and discmans so whenever I'd go in, I'd always request "Dark Side of the Moon" during the procedure. I'd listen to maybe 5-10 minutes before the laughing gas would kick in...after that, it was outer space ville. :hypnotized: Maybe that's one of the reasons I make ambient music today? I hadn't thought of that connection until right now.

Anything's possible, right?

[robojam]

So many great albums, and one of those bands where I have a wish list of the few albums I need to get all their albums.

Piper at the Gates of Dawn is a fantastic album, but who would have thought they would have progressed from there to some of the other albums they recorded?

Saucerful of Secrets was a great transition from the Syd Floyd to the Gilmour Floyd

More is something of an anomaly but still pretty good

Ummagumma I think it unfairly maligned as the live disk is great and I find the 4 part solo disk much better than the band's own opinion of it

Atom Heart Mother is OK, but really not a bad album by any means

Meddle to me is the breakthrough album where they really found their feet and has two bona fide Floyd classics (One of these Days and Echoes)

Obscured by Clouds is pretty good but has some filler

Dark Side of the Moon needs no commentary from me

Wish you Were Here ditto

Animals - I never understood why more people don't put this near the top of their lists of great Floyd albums - it is a fantastic album

The Wall is good but I never understood why it is so lauded

The Final Cut might be my favorite Floyd album. Waters at his best!

A Momentary Lapse of Reason was a huge disappointment for me. A couple of good songs but mostly uninteresting

Division Bell was even more disappointing than Momentary Lapse of Reason. Think I heard it once and don't really intend to repeat that

[seismic1]

I think I agree with all of robojam's comments above, apart from those regarding The Wall. I love that album, both conceptually and musically.

[Negative Spectrum]

The wall is probably loved so much because of the film. Its not in my top 5 Floyd albums though

[seismic1]

One of These Days I will watch that film. I've never seen it.

[Seva Randeep]

The wall is probably loved so much because of the film. Its not in my top 5 Floyd albums though

It's a great movie. (Sir) Bob Geldof acts pretty good.

[GaryG]

I like Meddle and WYWH a lot, plenty of other tunes from the other albums are good and Animals holds together well...

...but...

I *hate* The Wall.

I just find it an artless, tramp through badly thought out concepts. I'm certainly not some knee jerk PC type who's going to waffle on about it's misogyny etc etc (yep, a character can express negative traits without the piece as a whole being considered as such) but I get to the end of it and wonder what exactly has been said about the themes it tackles. Insecure men often blame women for their problems? Well, yes they do. Is that a surprise to anyone, did it need a double LP for that revelation? A couple of nice musical moments (tellingly those where Gilmour was more involved) but not much else I can get excited about.

I'll stop now, ruining the mellow AO vibe...

[Thought Experiment]

I think their best stuff comes from those sessions where they worked together as a band, i.e. the songs were true band compositions, rather than Waters or Gilmour coming in with a finished song (or album!) and telling the others what to play. The first few albums, they were very young and didn't know any better. Later on, as Roger Waters wrested more and more control, the songs became more bitter and twisted and a bit 6th-Form if you know what I mean. But then when David Gilmour asserted himself as leader, the songs became a bit anodyne, although they were musically more interesting. I bet neither one of them would admit this, but I believe the best Floyd music resulted from the tension/balance between Waters' more simplistic rock progressions, shouty vocals and sarky lyrics, and Gilmour's more sophisticated bluesy extended chords, melodic singing and sentimental words.

[robojam]

Definitely better when they worked as a band, although The Final Cut is an exception to that rule (no Rick Wright at all, and not much input from Gilmour).

The Wall could have been so much better than it was. Not sure the movie made it popular though as the movie came out so much later than the album which was already a huge seller.

My biggest problem with the Wall is the production - I think Bob Ezrin was a bad choice and it just didn't sound like a Floyd album with him at the helm.

[GaryG]

Didn't Ezrin pretty much co-write it with Waters? Thought he had a much bigger part than simply the producer.

[Thought Experiment]

Didn't Ezrin pretty much co-write it with Waters? Thought he had a much bigger part than simply the producer.

Wouldn't be surprised, Bob Ezrin is that kind of producer - I do know he worked that way on Lou Reed's 'Transformer', and on several Alice Cooper albums.
Never could get into 'The Wall' - one of those albums where Waters was calling too many shots for my taste.

[Negative Spectrum]

Ezrin is listed as co-writer on several tracks, funny thing is though that i love all the work he did with Alice Cooper, the Wall is just too overblown