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The Great Pink Floyd Thread


rushgoober
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Actually, I've been curious about PinkFloyd1973 and his feelings on the Floyd, but rather than just ask him, I thought there are enough fans here to constitute a thread. What's your favorite album, period of their career? What is it about them that you love?

 

Personally, my favorite period of Floyd's career is 1966-1972. Many people are only familiar with their BIG albums - Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979) - don't get me wrong, these are all great albums, and Dark Side especially will always be one of my favorite all time albums, but coming from the persepective of being a conissseur of psychedelic music from the late 60's and early 70's, and delving much further into that genre that most people, I came to the conclusion awhile back that Pink Floyd were truly the MASTERS of psychedelic music, and not one other group or artist came close to creating as many amazing psychedelic songs as they did. The thing here is, you have to delve deeper than just their studio albums, not to say that Piper at the Gates of Dawn (their finest work IMHO), A Saucerful of Secrets, Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother or Meddle are anything to scoff at (I intentionally left out More and Obscured by Clouds even though they have their great moments).

 

With the Floyd however, an essential purchase in their early career is The Early Singles, which were up until the last few years only available on bootlegs - these early singles were truly amazing, and rank right up there with Piper at the Gates of Dawn and their best early psychedelic work. Also, to really get into them, one must go to bootlegs, as they recorded a phenomenal amount of material that never saw the light of day as official recordings, although thankfully now the brilliant 16+ minute version of Interstellar Overdrive and the 11+ minute Nick's Boogie from the Tonight Let's All Make Love in London soundtrack from 1967 is readily available as a legit release. Still, most of the unreleased tracks from 1969's Zabriskie Point soundtrack are only available unofficially, not to mention their plethora of tracks recorded for the bbc, various recordings for movie soundtracks that never got a commercial audio release, acetates, alternative versions of songs, radio broadcasts recorded live without an audience, etc. - there's just TONS of material that has never been officially relesaed but exists in very high-quality sounding versions.

 

Then there's Pink Floyd live. Being a big fan of psychedelic music, outside of the Grateful Dead, I think there are very few groups who were able to pull off their sound live as effectively as they did on albums, and groups like The Beatles didn't even try knowing it couldn't be done as they stopped touring altogether in 1966. Pink Floyd's live shows from this era were magical however, and many high-quality boots exist of their live shows, though unfortunately no high-quality ones exist when Syd was still with them (1967), and there's pretty much nothing great live in existence from 1968 either, but from 1969-1972 there are numerous great quality bootlegs of some really earth shattering music.

 

Come 1972 they started doing Dark Side live, and shortly thereafter started to phase out most of their earlier more psychedelic material - that's fine, and I appreciate that era too, but I don't collect live material post 1973 as it just isn't as interesting to me.

 

Anyway, discuss!

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Great post.

 

Well, what *I* love about them (well, WHO is more appropriate) is Dave Gilmour. I acknowledge with great respect Syd's contributions, but to me Pink Floyd ain't Pink Floyd without Gilmour's voice and brilliant, unmatched guitar. Granted, Roger the Codger had the skill to pen fantastic lyrics...unbelievable at times. In this as in so many cases, the sum is greater than the parts. My loyalty is to Gilmour, though...I've seen the band without Roger, and I enjoyed the show tremendously. Obviously the band performed much of the old Floyd stuff, so that debt is owed to Roger. I do enjoy listening to MLOR and Pulse, but no...they're not the same.

 

To backtrack a bit...the early stuff is an acquired taste, IMO. "Piper" is amazing, no doubt..."Astronomy Domine" is the typical standout. Then "Saucerful" has "Set the Controls" which is a great example of early Floyd...the version on "Live at Pompeii" is fantastic.

 

Well, I won't go through each album smile.gif but I do enjoy every period of the band's development..."Ummagumma" is...different...smile.gif but everything else holds a place in my heart.

 

Floyd will always be in my top five favorite bands.

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QUOTE
."Ummagumma" is...different... but everything else holds a place in my heart.

I hear where you're coming from. Ummagumma is a totally schizophrenic double album. First off, the first album/disc is live, containing some of their best space rock psychedelic tracks, so I would recommend it for that part if for no other reason. The second album/disc is a unique experiment in which each of the four members at the time got a half album side to do their own material, though naturally supported by the rest of the band. This led to perhaps their most avant-garde and bizarre work. Personally I love it and think it's brilliant, but it can be a bit difficult listening, and I understand why a lot of people would have a hard time acquiring the taste. That being said, there are some really beautiful peaceful tracks like Roger Water's Grantchester Meadows and David Gilmour's The Narrow Way, but Richard Wright's Sysphus and Nick Mason's The Grand Vizier's Garden Party can be a bit strident for some. And then there's the truly bizzare Waters piece that also happens to be one of the greatest song titles in the history of the universe: "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" - I'm sure that track has caused MANY a soul to scratch their head and wonder why on earth such a bizarre thing was ever recorded.

 

One bootleg I HIGHLY recommend is called Complete Concertgebouw. In 1969, the year Ummagumma came out, they featured these two suites in concert called The Man and The Journey - each were about 40 minutes and were one continuous piece of music, though the individual elements of each piece contained versions of songs in Piper, Saucerful, early singles and Ummagumma plus some unique pieces that were never recorded in the studio. This Dutch concert was broadcast on the radio, so the bootleg is of very high quality, and it really would have made a fantastic live album - the bootleg has been put out in many different versions with different titles, but the Complete Concertgebouw is the only one I know of that is unedited on 2 discs - essential IMHO!

Edited by rushgoober
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I haven't heard of that (really of ANY) early Floyd boots. Veddy interesting...

 

And yes, "The Narrow Way" is a wonderful piece of music. Shame on me for not giving it honorable mention. smile.gif

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QUOTE
My favorite Floyd album

 

Nice picture - so what's your favorite Floyd album? unsure.gif

 

Seriously, as much as I go on about early Floyd, Animals is an amazing album musically and lyrically. The first time I heard it was when I was 15 and going to an event by msyelf in New York City, taking the train from Connecticut. I was walking from Grand Central Station to where I was going and had Animals blasting on my walkman - totally blew me away! 1022.gif

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Did you know that David Gilmour played most of the bass lines on The Wall? Because Roger was to f***'d in the head to perform!

 

If you ask me, David Gilmour IS Pink Floyd. (prepares for bashing...) wink.gif

 

For the record, they are probably my favorite band.

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QUOTE (CanEHdian @ Jun 8 2005, 11:14 AM)
My favorite Floyd album smile.gif

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b208/shanny66/Pink_Floyd_-_Animals-front.jpg

Mine too smile.gif It's dark and dreary but that is what Roger was trying to portray society as he sees it....Great guitar work (as always) by Dave... yes.gif

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QUOTE (launchpad67a @ Jun 8 2005, 11:21 AM)
Did you know that David Gilmour played most of the bass lines on The Wall? Because Roger was to f***'d in the head to perform!

If you ask me, David Gilmour IS Pink Floyd. (prepares for bashing...) wink.gif

For the record, they are probably my favorite band.

I know some folks who think Syd Barrett is Pink Floyd so go figure! laugh.gif Music-wise ye Dave is Floyd but lyrics-wise Roger is IMO....Love Division Bell but took me awhile to get into MLOR....WAY too many session players, writers, etc. on that one...should've been a David Gilmour solo album really...

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Hey rg, yeah, I like Pink Floyd a little tongue.gif

 

 

Dark side of the moon, it opened my mind to a new kind of music. I was really all over the road in the music before I heard it. I grew up with five older brothers 8,9,10,11,12 years older than me so I had a potpouri of 60's and early 70's were rotated on my turntable. I went through Beatle maniac phase with my frineds in the mid 70's. -But DSOTM was discovered, I would play over and over and over again. It is simply brilliant! Then I caught a fleeting glimpse of The Wall, oh what another brilliant musical masterpiece.

 

Truth be told, I love them all, like Rush, like Yes, no bad applea (or oranges) in the whole bushel, in my opinion.

 

Of the early stuff, OBC is probably the one I listen to the most then PATGOD, of the later stuff, I love PULSE (duh) The Division Bell, AMLOR is also wonderful.

 

My opinions of the Waters, Gilmour issue... Waters has issues, but he is still a great artist, Gilmour is a phenominol guitarist and excellent singer. The band is, in my opinion, Pink Floyd with Rick(Richard), Nick and David with or with Roger. Syd was good in his day, a contributing member and a spark (diamond) that lives with them today. In my opinion Rogers does too, to an extent.

You can take the band member out of the band you can not take the influence that member had out.

 

 

 

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QUOTE
My opinions of the Waters, Gilmour issue...

 

My opinion of the whole debacle is that i really don't have much of one. I listen pretty exclusively to 1966-1973 pink floyd, with the occasional listen to music up through the Wall, so my attitude is more that I just don't care and the whole thing seems kind of silly. That being said, I have read a lot about it and tend to side with Gilmour almost all the time as Waters comes off as so angry and bitter and controlling, and i have no interest at all in his solo material or the final cut. i can see why he had to be ousted from the band, but then again, their post final cut material doesn't do a lot for me - when you need a cast of thousands to put on a show, it seems more like a product than a band, like when it was just the four of them on stage making music. i think learning to fly is an amazing song, but it's just not from the period of floyd that i care much about - i prefer their music up through dark side, highly admire the following 3 albums, and as far as i'm concerned they could have ended their career as a band right there. the wall is brilliant, genius, but ultimately too dark and heavy for me to play more than once every couple of years or so...

Edited by rushgoober
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QUOTE (pinkfloyd1973 @ Jun 8 2005, 01:21 PM)
Hey rg, yeah, I like Pink Floyd a little tongue.gif


Dark side of the moon, it opened my mind to a new kind of music. I was really all over the road in the music before I heard it. I grew up with five older brothers 8,9,10,11,12 years older than me so I had a potpouri of 60's and early 70's were rotated on my turntable. I went through Beatle maniac phase with my frineds in the mid 70's. -But DSOTM was discovered, I would play over and over and over again. It is simply brilliant! Then I caught a fleeting glimpse of The Wall, oh what another brilliant musical masterpiece.

Truth be told, I love them all, like Rush, like Yes, no bad applea (or oranges) in the whole bushel, in my opinion.

Of the early stuff, OBC is probably the one I listen to the most then PATGOD, of the later stuff, I love PULSE (duh) The Division Bell, AMLOR is also wonderful.

My opinions of the Waters, Gilmour issue... Waters has issues, but he is still a great artist, Gilmour is a phenominol guitarist and excellent singer. The band is, in my opinion, Pink Floyd with Rick(Richard), Nick and David with or with Roger. Syd was good in his day, a contributing member and a spark (diamond) that lives with them today. In my opinion Rogers does too, to an extent.
You can take the band member out of the band you can not take the influence that member had out.

excellent point yes.gif

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regarding syd:

 

now i LOVE all the floyd material with syd and am a huge fan of his solo material too, but i do think that some people tend to overrate his tenure with the band, not his influence on the band which was HUGE, but some tend to think the floyd kind of lost it after syd's departure. my point of view is that they didn't lose a thing - well, they did lose his amazing writing and the big loss is what could have been if he hadn't gone off the deep end and was able to maintain that level of creativity WITH the floyd, but floyd did pretty damn well after he left - saucerful of secrets might not have been piper, but it was a very worthy follow-up, and their early singles post syd (while hated by the band), i think hold up pretty close to their singles WITH syd - songs like remember a day, see saw, it would be so nice, julia dream, point me at the sky - these are truly great songs. i, like a lot of people at the time, wouldn't have thought the floyd capable of this level of creativity post-syd, but their choice of dave gilmour plus the talent of the other members that had to come out for survival post-syd left them with a surprising amount of innovation and produced phenomenal results - who would have thought?

 

still, one wonders if there were more great songs like Scream Thy Last Scream and Vegetable Man (the last never officially released single with Syd) they could have done together, or if the material on The Madcap Laughs had been done as a full band project, it could have been something beyond even Piper. alas, his madness became too much for them, understandably, to bear, and it necessitated his early departure. For anyone who doesn't have Syd's first album The Madap Laughs, it is a stone cold classic, essential - really an amazing album that any even casual early Floyd fan needs to hear.

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No bashing here. biggrin.gif

 

Re: the Syd issue: I have the dvd "David Gilmour in Concert" from the Meltdown Festival in 2002...on it Dave performs "Terrapin" (by Syd Barrett) and I thought it was one of the best, most unique selections. Kinda cool that Dave included one of Syd's songs, IMO.

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I love Floyd, and was lucky enough to see them in London on the MLOR tour, but cannot claim any great knowledge of the earlier stuff. I have "Piper.....", and have heard Ummagumma, Saucerful.... and Atom Heart Mother but don't own them.

 

I have everything else up to The Final Cut, but have bought no post Roger material. My knowledge of the earlier singles is limited to the albums and the stuff on Relics, which is one of my favourite albums. (I realise this is probably the equivalent of a Rush 'fan' naming Retrospective 1 as his/her favourite album, but there you go!!. biggrin.gif )

 

Good band, great sounds, but I'd have to say for me, the Meddle - Wall period is my favourite.

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I'm well over the 100 page mark in Nick Mason's (Pink Floyd's drummer) book Inside Out about his life with the Floyd - a HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended read for fans - lots of unique perspectives I haven't seen before, and he seems to write in a style that doesn't overly glamourize some of their high points - he just tells it casually as it is, without a lot of drama - this style actually works and it comes off as being more unbiased than i would have thought possible, while still giving his unique view into things - a great read and amazing (and a LOT of them) pictures!

 

$29.95 (but HUGE) - just over $20 at Amazon.com!

 

http://www.pinkfloyd.co.uk/insideOut/media/insideOut.jpg

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Well, hello all! I'm new here but I knew there HAD to be a Floyd thread in here!

 

Allow me to put in my 2 cents...

 

I have been with Floyd for a little less than 20 years. One of the most influential bands to me. I too collected Floyd bootlegs ranging from a few recording live with Syd all the way to The Division Bell tour. I was able to covert some from cassette to computer. Unfortunately some didn't survive the years (The Journey, The Wall Rehearsals). But I saved some of the most obscure (live performances of Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, Echoes with the original lyrics, Marooned performed in Dallas TX, You Gotta Be Crazy) along with the standards (The KQED & Fillmore performances, Eclipse Suite).

 

Anyways, Floyd were the reason for me to pick up guitar. I learned my chords reading a Floyd guitar book. Gilmours style was forever burned into mine. Now when my band plays or rehearses, we play a LOT of Floyd. Green is the Colour, Cymbaline, The Nile Song, Young Lust, Astronomy Domine, The Gold It's In The...

As you can see, I too am a big fan pre-Dark Side. I almost NEVER listen to the "big" ones. The only ones that can hold my interest are Animals and Final Cut.

 

By the way, bringing up Ummagumma again, I read in the book "Saucerful of Secrets" that each member had half an album to do what they wanted AND THEY COULDN'T GET HELP FROM THE OTHER MEMBERS. So if they wanted other instruments in their songs they had to do it themselves. In there it stated that Gilmour needed help writing lyrics to The Narrow Way and Roger told him DO IT YOURSELF!

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My first exposure to Pink Floyd came back sometime in the 1970s when I was watching a documentary about Thor Hyadahl's Kin Tiki expeditin on BBC 1's Horizon program and they used 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond' as the soundtrack. I remember, at times, being more interested in the music than the actual documentary.

 

As such, 'Wish You Were Here' was the first Floyd album I ever heard and has, since then, remained my joint favourite album along with Meddle (which I got about 6 months ago).

 

I can't lay claim to have heard a lot of the earlier stuff (prior to DSotM), but what I have heard, impresses me greatly. Like Madra, I've got PatGoD and Relics (which was the first Floyd album I ever owned - it was given to me). When I first got Relics, I was very much into my HR/HM phase so a lot of fit went over my head (I only really remember Interstellar Overdrive and Careful With That Axe Eugene impressing me). However, I've gone back and reassessed the album and found it to be full of hidden gems.

 

However, I have to say that, much as I like the Syd Barrett era of Floyd, I like the post Barrett era more. I suppose it's comparable to my attitude towards Rush - I absolutely love the debut with John Rutsey but the arrival of Neil Peart pushed things a stage further.

 

As to the Waters/Gilmour era, out of what I've heard, the only album I've not liked is 'The Final Cut'. Howwever, I must confess that I've only heard it about twice and that was a long time ago so maybe its time for a re-evaluation. Similarly, post-Waters, I've only got The Division Bell and Pulse (as well as a live DVD boot from Venice). As time goes on, I'm expanding on my Floyd collection and discovering proof of what I always knew but couldn't convince a lot of people whose only exposure to Floyd comes from the mainstream music press - there's a hell of a lot more to them than Another Brick in the Wall and Dark Side of the Moon.

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It's Saturday Morning Floyd hour here at home as I relax before I hit the sack for night shift tonite....

 

Just threw mega Floyd in my puter media player(roughly 90 tracks) and press shuffle to see what kind of mix I'd get....just listened to Biding My Time from Relics...Now playing Wish You Were Here....

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/hammers.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/misc7.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/misc9.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/dsotm.jpg

 

 

 

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/floyd67.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/floyd-all5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/floyd72.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/pf5.jpg

 

 

 

Just finished listening to....

 

-Fingal's Cave (unreleased track from Ummagumma sessions)

 

-Scarecrow from Pipers...

 

-Gunner's Dream from Final Cut

 

-Julia Dream-Relics

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/watertch.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/21shineon.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/muur.gif

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/animals-dogs.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/animals-pigs.gifhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/animals-sheep.gif

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/test4vitalsigns/dsotmbanner.gif

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Can't believe I didn't see this thread until now...HUGE Floyd fan here...they were probably my favorite band before Rush. I have most of their albums...I'm missing a few I think. I don't know their whole discography but I do have the following:

 

Piper at the Gates of Dawn - Interesting album, different from their later work, a lot more conventionally psychedelic.

 

Ummagumma - I loved the live disc immediately...the studio disc is still growing on me, but there are some sections that I really, really like.

 

Atom heart Mother - I'm sorry, this one just bored me. droning, boring stuff...nothing really happens at all.

 

Obscured by Clouds - I like this one. Some interesting sections.

 

Meddle - This was their first truly GREAT album IMO...

 

Dark Side of the Moon - What can I say that hasn't already been said 2 million times? My dad has the vinyl, and he gave me the posters that came with it. I have them on my wall.

 

Wish you were Here - This one is similar to Dark Side musically but I think I like it a little bit better.

 

Animals - Great.

 

The Wall - I'm sorry to everybody that is more partial to the earlier Floyd, but the Wall is probably my favorite Floyd album. the movie kicks ass too.

 

The Final Cut - Very underrated. I know it's a Roger solo album technically, but I think it's one of their best.

 

Momentary Lapse and Division Bell - I'm sorry, but I can't get into post-Waters Floyd. He was their main songwriter. These albums sound like the Pink Floyd Tribute Band, just like the Who post-Keith Moon sound like the Who Tribute Band and any of Axl Rose's lineups in the last decade sound like the GNR cover band. I don't dig it.

 

 

But yeah, I still count these guys among my favorite bands.

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