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General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: GentlemanofDread on May 24, 2014, 05:01:50 PM
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TL;DR version: Band met in college, went underground, did a bunch of acid, met some rich guys, managed to get into EMI and made an album.
Welcome to the Sigma 6 discography discussion! No, wait, hang on, that's not right. The Meggadeaths, the Abdabs and the Screaming Abdabs, Leonard's Lodgers, the Spectrum Five? No, still not right. Tea Set still sounds great here. Tea Set must be it. Surely. Up for a small history lesson? Your big chunk of the history lesson is going to be behind a link because otherwise we're in for a huge OP. (https://pastebin.com/VKNMqVn7)
TL;DR version: People met in college, Drummer brought instruments, Acid was done, expermentation, met some rich guys, leading into..
1967, and the band known as Pink Floyd was starting to breach the mainstream walls. Whilst negotiations were going on with a number of companies, UFO, a venue Pink Floyd frequented quite a bit, club manager Joe Boyd and Pink Floyd's booking manager Bryan Morrison got the band some recording time. What came out of these sessions were Arnold Layne and it's b-side Candy and a Currant Bun. Three days before it's single release, Pink Floyd signed with EMI. These were the first releases by EMI on the Columbia label for the band, and it sparked a period of success before the first album. Brief talk about Arnold Layne, and it's kind of the hybrid between the Blues that Syd Barrett loved so much, and the off beat instrumentation that the band had. It's short, too.
Lyrically, it's about a transvestite (who, according to Roger Waters, is a real person), who stole clothes from a washing line and wore them. These lyrics lead to the song being banned by Radio stations, and some fiddling was needed with the numbers to make Arnold Layne a top 20 hit. Between Arnold Layne and the next single to be released, 'See Emily Play', Pink Floyd entered the studio to record..
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3c/PinkFloyd-album-piperatthegatesofdawn_300.jpg/220px-PinkFloyd-album-piperatthegatesofdawn_300.jpg)
This album has two tracklistings, a UK and US version. Let's start with the UK version..
No. Title Lead Vocals Length
1. "Astronomy Domine" Barrett and Richard Wright 4:12
2. "Lucifer Sam" Barrett 3:07
3. "Matilda Mother" Wright and Barrett 3:08
4. "Flaming" Barrett 2:46
5. "Pow R. Toc H."* Instrumental 4:26
6. "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk"+ Waters 3:05
Side two
No. Title Lead vocals Length
1. "Interstellar Overdrive"# Instrumental 9:41
2. "The Gnome" Barrett 2:13
3. "Chapter 24" Barrett 3:42
4. "The Scarecrow" Barrett 2:11
5. "Bike" Barrett 3:21
* Written by Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason
+ Written by Roger Waters
# Written by Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason
And what's the difference in the US Version..?
Side one
No. Title Lead vocals Length
1. "See Emily Play" Barrett 2:53
2. "Pow R. Toc H."* Barrett and Waters 4:26
3. "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk"+ Waters 3:05
4. "Lucifer Sam" Barrett 3:07
5. "Matilda Mother" Wright and Barrett 3:08
Side two
No. Title Lead vocals Length
1. "The Scarecrow" Barrett 2:11
2. "The Gnome" Barrett 2:13
3. "Chapter 24" Barrett 3:42
4. "Interstellar Overdrive"# Instrumental 9:41
Before I discuss anything to do with recording or the US incredible lame (NO AD? MADNESS) tracklist, let's talk the cover for a moment. Up-and-coming society photographer Vic Singh was the man who got to photograph the band for the album cover. Singh knew a guy who knew George Harrison of the Beatles, who were recording at the same time as Pink Floyd. Singh asked Jenner and King to dress the band in the brightest clothes they could find. According to Singh, Once the band had been relaxed with several joints, he shot them with a prism lens that Harrison had given him. Quote from Singh about the cover: "It was unusual and different, and they were delighted with it, and Syd did his own little drawing on the back cover."
Recording wise, there's many stories to tell here. The band's deal with EMI was bad, really bad. A £5,000 advance over five years, low royalties, having to record in Abbey Road [SO TERRIBLE] and no free studio time. However, EMI, because they were unsure of what band they had just signed, allowed Pink Floyd to have free reign in making their album as well as help developing it. This lead to producer Norman Smith and Balance Engineer Pete Brown helping to make The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Brown was Norman's mentor, but most importantly, Brown helped experiment in creating that rather unique echo/reverb heavy sound that Piper had, most of which came from a set of Elektro-Mess-Technik plate reverberators and Abbey Road Studio's Echo Chamber. Brown had made the microphone set up differed heavily from the other small time local band named The Beatles, who Norman Smith set up the mics for.
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is made up of two types of tracks. The long instrumental improvs from Pink Floyd's live act and the shorter songs that Barrett had written, who's LSD intake skyrocketed part way through the recording session. Mason said that these sessions went smoothly, although Norman Smith disagreed. Despite playing some jazz improv with the band to get to know them better and make them feel more comfortable with him, Smith and Syd disagreed a fair bit. A lot of takes were required to record every song, except for The Scarecrow, with it's one take only.
I enjoy this album, although it differs to a fair amount of other Pink Floyd, due to it's more psychedelic material, combined with the difference with Syd's creative controlness. I'm not sure why the US version omits two of my favourite tracks of the album, (Flaming and Astronomy Domine), but I suppose not everything can be perfect. As all of my experience comes from the UK version, I'll have to talk about that. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was the fifth Pink Floyd album I heard, and that was when I was, ooh, 13? (Hi 2007.) I was unsure what I was getting into, and I was even more unsure coming out of it. What did I like? What did I dislike? Did I consider it to be a great debut or an awkward one? I certainly enjoyed Astronomy Domine, Flaming and Interstellar Overdrive, especially Astronomy Domine's guitar sound. I found Pow R. Toc H. and The Scarecrow bad on my first listen to, and the rest.. I just didn't know. I gave it a second spin through to see if my opinions changed, and a third time, before leaving it for a year.
When I came back to it, a year older and bit more open to it, I found myself singing along to every song that I remembered, spotting things that made me appreciate Pow R. Toc H. more (I still don't like The Scarecrow). I must admit, though, Bike doesn't work for me as an ending for an album and I think the US release having it end on Interstellar Overdrive makes for a much interesting ending. But unlike a couple of albums coming up next, I go listen to this album with out much reason too.
I'm going to apologize for this long, pretty bad post, but we're starting!
Questions
1. Should I also do whatever Live EPs there might be?
2. Should we talk about the film soundtracks?
3. Should we also look at the individual members solo albums?
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omg I have't broken Piper out in ages.
I love love love Astronomy, Interstellar, Bike, See Emily Play (probably my fav from the album / era) and Arnold Layne (second fav)
And to answer your questions...
YES YES and YES.
I have been waiting for this thread for like... ever.
I will be participating ;)
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The main reason I was asking about the live stuff is actually a release that was recorded after Piper, came out in 95, and I kind of want to use for the basis of my discussion about A) Syd's decline and B) HOW LONG INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE WAS.
I didn't talk much about See Emily Play, so I should. It's much better than Arnold Layne in my opinion, so I can see why it made it onto the US release of Pipers, but I still think the two tracks it effectively replace are better. Couldn't just squeeze Scarecrow out for See Emily Play?
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As far as the questions, I'm going no, maybe, and no. I feel like solo albums and live EPs will make this thing drag horribly. We've already got about 15 albums to go through, so that's 15 weeks, or nearly 4 months. Movie soundtracks might be a little more sensible since they are full band compositions and the songs don't really appear anywhere else.
Anyway, Piper is an excellent album. I remember picking it up having no idea what to expect. I loved the holy 4 of Dark Side, WYWH, Animals, and The Wall. I knew their earlier stuff was different, but had no idea how different. Immediately fell in love with the psychedelic side of Floyd. Syd's lyrics are amazing, and the songs were so tripped out. Interstellar Overdrive is some serious lava-lamp zone-out shit.
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Do the none PULSE / Delicate Sound / Is There Anybody Out There? live stuff all in one at the end. Yes, do the soundtracks (More and Clouds right? Maybe skip Zabraskie Point (They only did like 2 songs for it.. right?)
And I really think the solo albums need to be done. Roger's albums feel, to me, like a continuation of the direction he was taking with The Final Cut (and kinda The Wall) and David's On An Island is pretty much just as much as a PF album as TDB is. Plus... Live In Gdanks is probably my FAVOURITE of all the Pink Floyd / Waters / Gilmour releases.
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I will say this now, The Wall/Is Anybody Out There? is being put together because I consider Is Anybody Out There the definitive (and best) version of The Wall, but more on that later. I wasn't going to do Zabraskie Point because they didn't make any new tracks for it, so it would have been silly.
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That makes sense... The Wall album and Tour.
Oh but...
Heart Beat, Pig Meat !
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Have to give this one a spin, not that familiar with it, except for Astronomy Domine, but I remember liking it a fair bit. Will post thoughts soon. Definitely on board for this one, though.
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1. Doesn't matter to me. Their omission won't break my heart nor will I be bothered if they're included.
2. Definitely
3. Same as 1.
5. Great thread idea
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This thread... even though it just started.... has me really gitty about
Pink Black Floyd :heart
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I think, regarding the solo albums, I'd do it the way Orbert did for the Yes thread: only feature a few of them, not all of them. Amused to Death and On an Island and maybe another one or two, but that's all.
I wouldn't do the live stuff (it always feels like a waste of that week when the discussion is merely about a live album). The soundtracks, probably.
Anyway, I am not that wild about Piper. It has a few songs I like (The Scarecrow and Astronomy Domine are the two that stand out the most), but it has a lot of stuff I don't care if I ever hear again. When I hear that album, it makes me wonder what people were on when they talked about Syd Barrett's alleged genius. Granted, I like many of the early singles that pre-dated Piper, like Arnold Layne, Candy and a Currant Bun, Apples and Oranges, Julia Dream, Point Me at the Sky and Paint Box, and I would say that Early Singles disc that came with the box set that came out in the 90s is far better than Piper.
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This thread... even though it just started.... has me really gitty about Pink Black Floyd :heart
:blush
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I'm so totally going to follow this thread
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Of their first 4 albums, Piper is far and away my favorite one. It shows that not only were P.F. one of the best prog bands around, but also one of the best psychedelic bands.
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I think, regarding the solo albums, I'd do it the way Orbert did for the Yes thread: only feature a few of them, not all of them. Amused to Death and On an Island and maybe another one or two, but that's all.
I was thinking I'd do it like Orbert. Solo albums would be Pros and Cons to Hitchhiking, About Face and Amused to Death. Maybe On an Island at the end but I'd have to give that a proper spin once more.
Of their first 4 albums, Piper is far and away my favorite one. It shows that not only were P.F. one of the best prog bands around, but also one of the best psychedelic bands.
And all they needed was one good psychedelic album to do that! I am in agreement with you that Piper is the best of the first four albums, although the movie soundtracks might just beat it out.
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Pink Floyd is pretty much my musical equivalent of having grown up, so I'll be following the hell out of this. I have to admit, while I enjoy Piper, I always prefered Saucerful out of their early stuff, it feels more atmospheric to me, but Piper does have Astronomy Domine (which just rules hard).
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On an Island was kind of the natural follow-up to The Division Bell, 12 years later, so I think it'd be a finishing way to eventually end the thread.
I didn't mention this in my first post, but Floyd was really the first band I ever went completely bananas over, back in the fall of 1990. They were far and away my favorite band for a little over a year (until Rush overtook them in late '91). However, I never heard Piper (or, really, anything pre-Meddle until the mid 90s). I never had any inkling to check out the earliest stuff cause everybody I knew who also loved Floyd all said it wasn't worth checking out.
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He's finishing up a new disk as well.
Following.
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Piper is alright, but I've never been that into the Syd period of the band (aside from the singles Arnold Layne and See Emily Play). Better things were to come!
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Honestly, I'm not that big a fan of Piper. I don't really care for either Syd's singing or his songwriting. However, Piper does have a few tracks I like, but I mostly tend to vacillate to the songs which feature the least amount of Syd singing, namely Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive.
I haven't listened to the full album in a long, long time, so I think it's time for another listen but god am I not relishing the thought. At the least, I'll be able to give a more nuanced opinion other than "I dislike most of it" even if that's what it ultimately comes down to.
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He's finishing up a new disk as well.
Following.
And I can't fucking wait for that. I really think On An Island would be in my top 25 albums of any artist of all time.
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And I can't fucking wait for that. I really think On An Island would be in my top 25 albums of any artist of all time.
Yes. Yes. Ten hundred times damn yes.
I love On An Island; Remember That Night from Royal Albert Hall is one of my favourite live recordings; and Gilmour is definitely my favourite musician out there. Can't wait to hear what he puts up next.
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Not a fan of their early stuff. I'll join in when we get to Meddle
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The soundtracks were included in Oh By The Way...so i would think they would be automatic.
Well. ..theres also Zabriskie Point, which isnt included, but i also think you should talk about.
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Answers...
1. No
2. Yes
3. No
Quite honestly, I'm not a huge pre-DSOTM fan. Some is OK, but some is un-listenable to me. SO! When we get down the road a bit....I'm in! Floyd is one of the greatest bands of all time in my book. The 4 album run from DSOTM on is one of the, if not the, best 4 album run ever.
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I listened to Piper in my travels today. I forgot how much I adore that album. Syd is so brilliantly deranged, and his insanity lends itself to the music so well. My girlfriend was listening as well, and commented how it sounds like The Beatles but with even more drugs. I never really thought of early Barrett Floyd as even remotely comparable to The Beatles, but I definitely see it. The vocal styling and song structures are quite Beatles-like. I personally love Piper more than anything The Beatles ever made, but it's kind of cool to think about Piper being released in the same year as Sgt. Pepper. '67 was a really fantastic year for music.
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Every time I listen to Piper-which I love madly, though in a different way than any other Pink Floyd album-I often wonder what might have been had Syd Barrett remained the creative leader of the band. It would have been vastly different, not certain it would have lasted as long, as it was far more rooted in 60s psychedelia than the Waters led version, and possibly wouldn't have made it across the ocean quite as successfully (and I believe the tension between Waters and Gilmour, until the end, drove the band forward creatively), but damn it would have been interesting.
And as you've already covered the solo albums I was about to recommend-Pros and Cons and Amused to Death from Waters, yes, you guys get to hear me gush about my favorite album in longer than two sentences in an oft delayed top 50, and About Face from Gilmour-things are looking good on that front.
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And as you've already covered the solo albums I was about to recommend-Pros and Cons and Amused to Death from Waters, yes, you guys get to hear me gush about my favorite album in longer than two sentences in an oft delayed top 50, and About Face from Gilmour-things are looking good on that front.
I'm definitely looking forward to your long-winded* fellating of Amused to Death. :biggrin:
*And I mean "long-winded" in the nicest way possible, of course. :) :lol
I really think On An Island would be in my top 25 albums of any artist of all time.
I can't go that far, but I do love it to pieces, nonetheless.
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Went through a HUGE Floyd crush phase about 25 years ago lol.
They have always been a huge fave, but I've never explored their early work like I should. Looking forward to this.
As to the questions - do what you want, it's your thread.
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I have a feeling this thread won't really take off with oodles of participation until Meddle is featured.
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I'm putting on LP one of the double album set A Nice Pair, right now. Partly because I've got that set, I've never really known what songs are on Piper, and what songs are on Saucerful. But I'll do my best to pay attention right now.
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I tried to listen to Piper again in order to follow this thread, but I found it just as insufferable as I did the last time I tried to listen to it. :lol The early Floyd albums are just not my thing at all.
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I'd forgotten about Lucifer Sam, that's a great song.
Edit: It actually all fails at Pow R Toc H or something. That just a jamtrack with a solo by Rick Wakeman with a couple of major errors in it. Take Up Thy... is actually a cool song too, I love the (I guess) Farfisa organ in that.
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I have a feeling this thread won't really take off with oodles of participation until Meddle is featured.
It's funny to me that several people seem to be saying this. I was really only just a passive PF fan until I started listening to the pre-Meddle stuff. Atom Heart Mother, Saucerful and Obscured by Clouds were the albums that converted me from "I really like Pink Floyd" to "Pink Floyd is one of the most amazing bands ever!"
On the subject of Piper. It's just so different from anything that came later that it kinda catches you off guard at first. I'll have to give it a spin today, because other than AD, IO and Bike (which I absolutely LOVE) I don't remember any of it.
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Ok... Just sat down and gave the album a proper listen. I forgot how much I love Chapter 24! So mellow. So Chill.
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Okay, so I gave Piper another listen after being away from it for quite a few years. It was... better than I recall. "Astronomy Domine," "Lucifer Sam," "Interstellar Overdrive," "Take Up Thy Stethoscope..." and maybe "Chapter 24" are all the standouts. The rest feel as if they have kernels of good songs within them but overall end up as something I could be happy not hearing ever again.
This might be an album that gets better the more you listen to it, but it's very hard to shake that initial and very negative first impression that I have of it.
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Astronomy Domine is good, but the Piper version falls a bit flat to me, especially since later live versions, from both Ummagumma and Pulse, kick the ever-living crap out of it.
And I'll never get what people see in Bike. It's like, there's sort of a nice melody in there, but it gets lost amongst all of the weirdness and what I see as lyrics that are a bit too corny. It comes across as a Beatles-wannabe song that is missing the great melody.
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To touch on that a little more, and to jump forward just a tad, Jugband Blues has the same problem. While a bit out there, the chorus (around the 40-second mark) is a very nice melody...and then we never hear it again, as the latter half of the song goes into no-man's land and just sort of bludgeons you with all kinds of weirdness and whatnot before just ending. Contrast songs like Bike and Jugband Blues to early singles like Arnold Layne, Apples and Oranges and Candy and a Currant Bun. Those early singles all had their tidbits of weirdness, too, but the nice melodies almost never got lost or overtaken by the, lets call it, experimentation, but it's like by the time they got around to making their first proper album, Piper, what nice melodies Barrett had were being glossed over since the drugs he was taking was making him go all schizo in every song, so not only were the melodies getting lost, the arrangements, especially by short song standards, were suffering badly.
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Completely agree Kev! Syd was great, but madness made some parts of it a bit.. too hard to listen to. I'll talk more about why I'm not the biggest fan of Jugland Blues in the Saucerful post, but..
So I mentioned in OP about long live performances, and I'm curious if anyone is aware of the London 66-67 Live EP that got released in 1995? It's just two tracks, a near 17 minute performance of Interstellar Overdrive and a rather.. spacey tune known as Nick's Boogie. I'm not a fan of it, but it seems to be what people who didn't like Piper's at the time were on about. (Die hard fans of the underground scene said that Pipers wasn't the true Pink Floyd sound!) I'd at least recommend giving the Interstellar Overdrive part a listen at least.
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Bike (to me) works brilliantly almost as a novelty song.
Reminds me of a local thrash band Forced Entry who created a monster thrash masterpiece album that was serious at just about every turn....and then ended with a completely simplistic anthem about partying that rivals Steel Panther in its comic delivery. Of course, it became a concert favorite and staple, and was a perfect way to end the album IMO.
Bike does the same thing for me with Piper. And honestly, I thought everyone loved it. It was the first Syd song I ever heard, and I fell in love with it immediately.
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Bike is a masterpiece. Haters can stuff it.
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Questions
1. Should I also do whatever Live EPs there might be?
2. Should we talk about the film soundtracks?
3. Should we also look at the individual members solo albums?
Here's my take... don't do any of the above in complete and utter detail the way you will with the studio albums. If they are significant and meaningful releases, then sure. However, also be cognizant and respectful there are people on a waiting list for their turn. With a band like Floyd (as I think Scrop mentioned), you could go on for 6 months quite easily - and things might get a little tiresome for all by the end of it. Plus, it also sets the 'precedent' for upcoming bands. My vote would be to keep it to the really meaningful releases, or bundle a few albums of the above categories in one update.
As for Piper, I find it fascinating how bi-polar the reception has been. And I'm in the camp of "I don't get it". As many have said, anything before Meddle just makes me scratch my head. Now, in the late 80s, I probably would've tripped all over it. Now, not so much. Even Meddle walks that line of 'wtf?? and 'WTF!!!'
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Agreed, regarding Meddle, but I'll say more about that when we get to it.
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there are people on a waiting list for their turn.
Where's the waiting list for discogs?? If I'm missing something obvious then hey - I'm on some heavy shit at the moment ;D :hat
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there are people on a waiting list for their turn.
Where's the waiting list for discogs?? If I'm missing something obvious then hey - I'm on some heavy shit at the moment ;D :hat
https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=41524.0
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Thanks - assumed it might have been a sticky like the roulette/top 50's.
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Whenever I see "Pow R Toc H" I say "Power Torch" in my head. Mental interpolation, or whatever it's called. And I think of one of these things:
(https://imgur.com/DfBp4vL.jpg)
Power Torch!
I like the psycho-jams more than Syd's silly songs, but some of Syd's silly songs are okay.
Since I'm a completist, I think all official albums should at least be touched upon. If discussion fizzles after a day or two, fine, move on to the next album. There's no reason to sit on an album for a week waiting for people to comment. When I did mine, I always figured it a was guideline, not a rule, and I don't know if any album even made it to a week. People can always come back to them and comment anyway, if they want.
Solo albums and side projects are trickier. I tried to include the ones which seemed to fit into the evolution of the band's sound, or otherwise influenced it. But my focus was always on the evolution of the band's sound and how it changed as the personnel and the music scene changed, not just "let's discuss every album". Different people obviously will do things differently.
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Good points, Orbert.
Also, with three of this discography threads going at the same time, it'd be cool if the three running them could synch them up so they aren't all doing updates around the same time. Like, one could do an update today, another tomorrow, another Thursday, etc. For those of us who are following all of them, it'd be nice. :coolio
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Could always lump all the Water's solo albums into one discussion and lump Gilmour's 2 post Floyd albums (counting Live in Gdansk... especially since it was the last release Rick played on before dying.)
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Good points, Orbert.
Also, with three of this discography threads going at the same time, it'd be cool if the three running them could synch them up so they aren't all doing updates around the same time. Like, one could do an update today, another tomorrow, another Thursday, etc. For those of us who are following all of them, it'd be nice. :coolio
Agreed... although you could always just read the updates on different days. :neverusethis:
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Good points, Orbert.
Also, with three of this discography threads going at the same time, it'd be cool if the three running them could synch them up so they aren't all doing updates around the same time. Like, one could do an update today, another tomorrow, another Thursday, etc. For those of us who are following all of them, it'd be nice. :coolio
Agreed... although you could always just read the updates on different days. :neverusethis:
I popped off a note to GoD and Ultimate to see what could be done to coordinate. We'll see.
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I'm listening to Piper right now (it's been years) I think it's great! Of course there are a few songs that I'm not keen on but I don't loathe them either. Highlights for me are Astronomy Domine, Lucifer Sam, Pow R. Tock. H, Interstellar Overdrive (of course) Chapter 24, and Bike.
I don't know, maybe I just partook of too much microdot when I was a youngster? That could be my problem, but from this 'Mercan's point of view, the overtly Britishness of this record is so much fun that I can forgive the low points. Still, it will probably be years before I spin this again. :lol
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I listened to the first half of Piper this morning, and that was some fucked up shit.
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I listened to the first half of Piper this morning, and that was some fucked up shit.
Yeah, the whole album is quite a trip. I've always considered Pow R Toc H to be a bad acid trip, while Interstellar Overdrive was supposed to be a good one.
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Even though The Who was already doing heavy stuff, that main riff at the beginning of Interstellar Overdrive is pretty heavy by 1967 standards. It's just too bad that the rest of the song doesn't do a lot for me (and I hate that chirping thing he does on the guitar around the 2:30 mark on for like a minute or so).
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Even though The Who was already doing heavy stuff, that main riff at the beginning of Interstellar Overdrive is pretty heavy by 1967 standards. It's just too bad that the rest of the song doesn't do a lot for me (and I hate that chirping thing he does on the guitar around the 2:30 mark on for like a minute or so).
Yeah, that's crazy. Or should I say 'outta sight'?
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Just finished up. Probably the last time I will ever listen to that.
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"Piper..." is the worst album by a band that went on to become legendary. If ever a band needed a mulligan after their debut, this was it. Charlie D's legacy in DT is more noteworthy that Syd's in PF.
Too harsh?
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"Piper..." is the worst album by a band that went on to become legendary. If ever a band needed a mulligan after their debut, this was it. Charlie D's legacy in DT is more noteworthy that Syd's in PF.
Too harsh?
Nope.
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"Piper..." is the worst album by a band that went on to become legendary. If ever a band needed a mulligan after their debut, this was it. Charlie D's legacy in DT is more noteworthy that Syd's in PF.
Too harsh?
Yep.
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Some people still can't distinguish between what they don't like and what is "bad". Pink Floyd's debut album may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it was groundbreaking and it was perfect encapsulation of what they were all about at the time. Heck, I don't really like it either, but I would never call it bad, certainly not "the worst" of anything. It's fucking brilliant.
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You could argue as well that Syd's legacy is what defined some of the music that Pink Floyd would become famous from.
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Likewise, just because something is 'groundbreaking' it doesn't necessarily make it good. :p
Whatever it was PF was about at that time, I am glad (in a purely musical way) Syd flaked out, they foudn David, and moved on to better music.
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Likewise, just because something is 'groundbreaking' it doesn't necessarily make it good. :p
Whatever it was PF was about at that time, I am glad (in a purely musical way) Syd flaked out, they foudn David, and moved on to better music.
:iagree:
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Likewise, just because something is 'groundbreaking' it doesn't necessarily make it good. :p
Whatever it was PF was about at that time, I am glad (in a purely musical way) Syd flaked out, they foudn David, and moved on to better music.
I can't speak for Orbert, but Piper being "ground-breaking" has nothing to do with it for me. Great music speaks for itself.
And for what it's worth, I think Syd's stuff with Floyd pales in comparison to the "golden" era with Gilmour. While it does come down to subjectivity and "opinions this and that, blah, blah blah...", statements like this:
Charlie D's legacy in DT is more noteworthy that Syd's in PF.
are objectively wrong, and aren't really right just because you didn't like the music they were making at the time.
It'd be kinda like me saying that The Beatles' contribution and legacy to rock music was minimal solely because I didn't like them and not necessarily based on any actual facts. (Which I would never say, cause I love the Beatles, but this an analogy, k?)
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Well, I agree with most of that, but is Piper really considered "brilliant"? Just asking.
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Well, I agree with most of that, but is Piper really considered "brilliant"? Just asking.
In my experience...yes. I'm actually shocked by the amount of detractors in this thread. I knew there would be some. Piper has always had its naysayers. But for the most part, the album is considered a classic. Not that Amazon is the "be all, end all" for anything...but the average review out of 423 reviews is 4 and a half stars....and so far, I haven't been able to find a site where a majority of a group give the album a poor review as they have done here.
I'm baffled.
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You could argue as well that Syd's legacy is what defined some of the music that Pink Floyd would become famous from.
Well, sure, it's impossible to argue otherwise, since Barrett's plight always stuck with the band and was THE inspiration for Shine On You Crazy Diamond and a lot of The Wall.
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Well, I agree with most of that, but is Piper really considered "brilliant"? Just asking.
In my experience...yes. I'm actually shocked by the amount of detractors in this thread. I knew there would be some. Piper has always had its naysayers. But for the most part, the album is considered a classic. Not that Amazon is the "be all, end all" for anything...but the average review out of 423 reviews is 4 and a half stars....and so far, I haven't been able to find a site where a majority of a group give the album a poor review as they have done here.
I'm baffled.
Amazon customers search for, purchase and review albums they already like. That's hardly a relevant sample of music fans, or so it seems to me.
I think what it comes down to is, do you reach for it when you want a Pink Floyd fix? I certainly acknowledge it's importance to both the band and music in general. I even like it...well, some of it but I'm not going to spin it anytime soon.
Some folks 'round these parts seem to engage in hyperbole to make a point is all. They may detest the album but only a rare few have called it, and Syd by extension, unimportant.
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My point was, that I have yet to find a public forum where the overwhelming majority express a dislike for this album...except. here.
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That's because we know better. :P :biggrin:
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I'm not seeing an 'overwhelming' majority disliking it. 'Majority', sure... but it didn't seem to be overwhelming.
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Woot! Woot! I'm happy to see the PF disco thread come about.
As for the album, I hated it when I first heard it in my teens. I grew to appreciate it over time and take it for what it is. It's pretty out there and not every song is bad. I like "The Gnome" and "Pow R Toc H".
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As a couple others noted when I first heard the early material in my teens (obviously after hearing DSotM, The Wall, etc.) it was a shock. I was aware of early psychedelic music and knew the early material was based on that so I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for was the poppy Beatles-esque type songs. Those are the songs that threw me. So stuff like Astronomy Domine, Interstellar Overdrive etc. are my clear favs to this day but I eventually did come around to some of the other material from the album.
As an album overall IMO, it's not bad at all and I can see it being pretty relevant and important at the time.
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Are we moving on to Saucerful of Secrets tomorrow? :heart
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My point was, that I have yet to find a public forum where the overwhelming majority express a dislike for this album...except. here.
That probably has a lot to do with this mainly being a prog forum, so Floyd's more psychedelic stuff is going to put some people off for sure.
Elsewhere, Piper is regarded as a classic. As said before, maybe not the album to end all albums and it surely doesn't reach the iconic status albums like Dark Side has, but the general consensus is: it's purty gud.
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Are we moving on to Saucerful of Secrets tomorrow? :heart
I would hope so. I'd hate to see this thread become one where the updates are infrequent. It's been a week now since Piper was done.
Bueller? :P
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Should be tonight/tomorrow (for GMT me at least!) for Saucerful! Probably gonna move on quickly through the next couple after it due to, well, what they are.
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Can't wait to read it, I'll probably have a listen to saucerful when you post it.
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Well, least it's only 39 minutes long, huh?
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During The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, Syd Barrett's acid intake apparently went from “enough to kill a small country” to double that, and it began taking a toll on him, mentally. During tours, mainly starting during the US Tour, Syd began.. well, I'm not too sure what the right word is here. I'd say breakdown, but somehow, that doesn't seem fitting. Well, the first sign things might be up was that Syd slowly began de-tuning his guitar during a show. With Pink Floyd being renowned already for their experimentation, the fans thought nothing of this. How else would they know that later, during the Pat Boone show interview that Pink Floyd did, Syd responded to all questions with a blank and silent stare. Before a performance in 1967, Barrett reportedly crushed Mandrax tranquillizer tablets and an entire tube of Brylcreem into his hair, which subsequently melted down his face under the heat of the stage lighting, making him look like "a guttered candle".
However, despite Syd's questionable mental stability, they were recording a follow up to The Piper At The Gates of Dawn. Starting in August 1967, the same month Piper was released, Pink Floyd entered the studio to record two tracks, “Set The Controls to The Heart of the Sun” and the unreleased “Scream Thy Last Scream.” These were to be released as a single, but was vetoed by EMI for.. some reason. I'm not sure what the reason is, but after this, in October, the band recorded “Vegetable Man” and “Jugband Blues.” Yeah, that's four songs recorded, only two for the album. Wow. “Remember a Day”, a song originally conceived for The Piper At The Gates of Dawn, received some overdubs and bam, it was decided it would be on this album.
Taking a break to record their next single and it's B-side, “Apples and Oranges/Paint box”(which didn't chart at all by the way) and do another US tour, by the time they started recording again, a new member had joined. With the constantly deteriorating mind of Syd, the band asked friend David Gilmour to become their live guitarist. As the others weren't confident in their song writing skills, the original plan was for Syd to become a non-touring member – in similar style to Brian Wilson's recent status in The Beach Boys. Though for a handful of shows in January, Gilmour played the guitar and sung whilst Syd wandered the stage, occasionally joining in. But for one live show, Southampton Universirty, 26 January 1968, with Waters driving people to the show, one person in the car said, "Shall we pick Syd up?" and another said, "Let's not bother.” That was that. Syd was fully gone. Gilmour was in. Just before this, songs “Let There Be More Light” and “Corporal Clegg” were recorded, with no Syd involvement.
But the band struggled to write and record material for the new album. They were missing 12 minutes, which the band wrote several pieces of material to try and feel, before Mason and Waters concieved a song like an architectural design, including peaks and troughs. This was the title track, “A Saucerful of Secrets.” Even though the producer didn't like it, it made it on the album and so, on 29 June 1968 (or 27th July for the US), we received..
A Saucerful of Secrets- 1968
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Saucerful_of_secrets2.jpg)
1. Let There Be More Light (Written by Roger Waters, sung by Waters, Richard Wright and David Gilmour, 5:38.)
2. Remember A Day (Written by Wright, sung by Wright, 4:33.)
3. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (Written by Waters, sung by Waters, 5:28 )
4. Corporal Clegg (Written by Waters, sung by Nick Mason, Gilmour and Waters, 4:13)
5. A Saucerful Of Secrets (Written by Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour, Instrumental, 11:57)
6. See Saw (Written by Wright, sung by Wright, 4:36)
7. Jugband Blues (Written by Syd Barrett, sung by Syd, 3:00)
Some fun facts before I delve into my thoughts. "Set The Controls" is the only song all five band members appear on, as Gilmour did some overdubs to go with Syd's! Corporal Clegg was the first anti-war lyrics to appear in a Pink Floyd song! "Let There Be More Light" evolved from a bass riff that was part of "Interstellar Overdrive"! This is the first of several Pink Floyd album covers that were designed by Hipgnosis, and was only the second time that an EMI group (The Beatles were the first) was permitted to hire outside designers for an album jacket!
Thoughts on this album? I don't remember it starting off this good. Certainly, "Let There Be More Light" starting with the Rickenbacker Bass Riff from Waters gets me all ready, and the song is certainly.. unique. It's amazingly mixed, using full use of the stereo sound at least. The combination of Waters/Wright in the softer sections is certainly unique and great for those with headphones, especially how Waters whispers added some lovely texture to Wright's vocals, and the hard section is Gilmour's first vocal contribution the listeners would hear. The song contains a lyrical shout out to to The Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which is.. nice I suppose. The last two minutes is the first time Gilmour solos for our ears, and that's important. I'd like to note when played live, the solo came BEFORE the last verse. I really love this track.
"Remember A Day", I can't talk too much about this track, but it's a nice soft track, that I always forget about when I'm talking about this album. It doesn't grab me like "Let There Be More Light" does, but it's Syd's first appearance on the album. David Gilmour would play this song on Jools Holland Live in tribute to Richard Wright in 2008. "Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is a great tune. Based around Mason's drumming (played with timpani mallets) and Waters bass, it's a tune that I can see why it was very popular for fans of Pink Floyd no matter what style you preferred. It's mellow, mystical, and just a nice chill out before..
"Corporal Clegg." Okay, this is where the album starts to falter. It's.. Okay, this is the one I can compare to "Bike" the most. It's loud, it's a bit wacky and although there's some great little moments in it (The solid period where Mason is just hitting the toms and nothing else come to mind), but it's all too.. loud and random for my liking in certain spots. Especially that Kazoo, it just grates on my ears I want to tear out my hair. Stop it, please! I can take this song in small chunks, I'd even say I like it when I listen to it once a month, but the third listen in a week just.. Ergh. So, "A Saucerful of Secrets" is certainly.. well, it feels constructed with the big bits and the small bits. It's what I love in the long song, peaks and lows. I like this tune a lot more than the song before it, at least, though I can't think of much to praise about it.
"See-Saw" is a fantastic little tune, certainly not my favourite on the album but it's the best "trying to be Syd" song that they did, and the mellotron/xylophone on this song adds some cool little sounds on this song. The finale, (Really, this album is 39 minutes long), is Jugband Blues. Okay, I don't like the middle section of this song. Sandwiched between two unwacky sections, it's the wackiness that Syd embodied, really. Out of place, a bit insane and the marching band got a little confused look out of me the first time, but now, I want it to get to the last lyrical section, where the true genius of the song lies, the bittersweet lyrics. It has the same effect on me that Dream Theater's "Space Dye Vest" has. It gets me unsettled, it makes me worried and a bit concerned. Like I have some connection to the person who's crafted these lyrics, and it's.. Yeah. It's unsettling. I'd recommend giving this album a spin, because after "More", we're hitting some lows.
Well, hm. I wrote too much there I think.
"And what exactly is a dream
And what exactly is a joke.."
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I remember being told by a friend never to listen to Saucerful Of Secrets in the dark. When I got the album I was listening to it (it had been a present) on a christmas day evening in a car with only the reading light as illumination (the car was parked and I'd just come along for the ride and to listen to Piper and Saucerful in relative peace while waiting for the driver,my mother, to finish having their hair cut). I was about 15/16 at the time, and I must admit that when it got to the title track, it freaked the shit out of me.
Do listen to it in the dark. Don't forget your brown trousers.
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Ah here we go!
My thoughts:
Let There Be More Light - A great way to start off the album. I always love how on the earlier albums, vocals were shared like this.
Remember A Day - I never realized how beautiful of a song this was until I saw David's performance of it. I'll admit... I cried when Rick died... and that performance still makes my eyes water. I believe this will be one of the songs I want played at my funeral.
Set The Controls.... - Really cool spacey song. I like the spacey aspect of early Floyd. Not much to say on it. My first real experience with this song was Roger's performance on his live dvd. I think there was a sax solo in it...
Saucerful of Secrets:
Something Else - Cool set up. Spacey. Could be cut down for my liking.
Syncopated Pandemonium - That drum pattern :heart
Storm Signal and Celestial Voices - these sections make the song for me. I love Rick's organ work. (I've always loved pretty much anything Rick plays... but still... this is really creepy and cool really fits as the "post battle funeral" section.
See-Saw - meh
Jugband - Meh
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I already knew Set the Controls... and the title track from their live versions on Ummagumma, so I knew what to expect from those songs, but I have to admit that the first two songs were pleasant surprises; I wasn't expecting songs that good to kick the album off, especially since I had never heard of them. Let There Be More Light, in particular, is really good.
Set the Controls... is definitely a cool song to chill out to. Same for the title track to a lesser degree, although I was thrown by the fact that the original didn't really have the wordless vocals that are at the end of the live version; I thought that was a neat effect that added to the climax of the song, and it's absent on the studio version.
Corporal Clegg is totally forgettable, and while See-Saw isn't a bad little song, nothing about it really stands out.
Like I said the other day, Jugbland Blues has a nice melody in there somewhere, but it's lost in the madness that grabs a hold of the songs and never lets go.
Overall, this is a solid sophomore effort, with brief glimpses of the true greatness that was eventually to come.
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I quite like the majority of Saucerful. Really, the only thing I outright dislike is the title track. It just feels like a collage of potentially cool ideas without any sense of direction at all. Love love love love love Let There Be More Light and Set the Controls. Corporal Clegg is pretty dumb, but the kazoo solo is pretty wicked, and I can't seem to get the song out of my head. Remember a Day and See Saw are solid too, and Jugband Blues is a nice end to the Syd era.
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I really like A Saucerful.... The only weak track on the album is actually Jugband Blues.
It seems, for the most part, a very tight album with some very well thought out ideas. "Set the controls", "Remember A Day" and "Let There Be More Light" are really the stand outs IMO.
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Been a while since I gave the full album a spin, since if I have an urge for the songs I like on it-the title track and Set the Controls-I go to the live album of Ummagumma for them. Will have to give the rest of it a try sometime soon.
And actually since all that's I'll have to say about Ummagumma, I just solved what I'm going to say about that one (other than Jesus Christ, what the fuck were they thinking? :lol
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From the rest, as you could probably tell, I highly recommend "Let There Be More Light" at least.
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This album was the beginning of my exploration of early PF. Ultimatemetalhead's comments pretty much sum up my own. I really like everything except the title track...which just seems to be a bunch of pointless soundscapes and meanderings just to fill time. I like a lot of their atmospheric pieces (especially Careful with that Axe, Eugene...which is amazing) but the title track from Saucerful of Secrets is just dreadful.
I love Corporal Clegg and See Saw. Jugband Blues is a bit disjointed, but a nice epitaph for the Syd era. I wish they would have replaced it with Scream Thy Last Scream, Vegetable Man and maybe a couple of other B-sides.
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Off-topic, and I'm not like offended or anything, but it absolutely blows my mind how many people expound on the portmanteau in my name. It's peculiar.
Ultimatemetalhead is not Ultimetalhead, kids.
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Yule Time Tall Head
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My thoughts on this album are pretty similar to what most other people think: The first five tracks are good - though I do like Corporal Clegg, which I noticed not everyone does - but See-Saw and Jugband Blues represent a very poor way to end the album and pull it down considerably. By changing the track order a little and not having the two most insignificant and forgettable (at least to me) songs back to back at the end of the album, it could be severly strengthened.
That said, I really like Let There Be More Light, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun and A Saucerful of Secrets. Needed quite a while to get into the title track, but when it clicked... :hefdaddy
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Off-topic, and I'm not like offended or anything, but it absolutely blows my mind how many people expound on the portmanteau in my name. It's peculiar.
Ultimatemetalhead is not Ultimetalhead, kids.
OMG....I am really sorry. This hits close to home to me. You have no idea how many people call me jamminGdude. Drives me nuts.
It won't happen again.
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Off-topic, and I'm not like offended or anything, but it absolutely blows my mind how many people expound on the portmanteau in my name. It's peculiar.
Ultimatemetalhead is not Ultimetalhead, kids.
OMG....I am really sorry. This hits close to home to me. You have no idea how many people call me jamminGdude. Drives me nuts.
It won't happen again.
No problem, man. It's happened on every single forum I've registered on with this name. :lol
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Off-topic, and I'm not like offended or anything, but it absolutely blows my mind how many people expound on the portmanteau in my name. It's peculiar.
Ultimatemetalhead is not Ultimetalhead, kids.
OMG....I am really sorry. This hits close to home to me. You have no idea how many people call me jamminGdude. Drives me nuts.
It won't happen again.
This was my 5000th post. I was going to save it for an upcoming special announcement, and then spaced it. Damn these Black Russians.... :xbones
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Off-topic, and I'm not like offended or anything, but it absolutely blows my mind how many people expound on the portmanteau in my name. It's peculiar.
Ultimatemetalhead is not Ultimetalhead, kids.
OMG....I am really sorry. This hits close to home to me. You have no idea how many people call me jamminGdude. Drives me nuts.
It won't happen again.
This was my 5000th post. I was going to save it for an upcoming special announcement, and then spaced it. Damn these Black Russians.... :xbones
Racism. Reported. :P
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Saucerful is the only pre-Meddle album I own, but I haven't heard it in a long time. I never liked the title-track, but at least Let There Be More Light and Set the Controls... are good songs.
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I'm always a bit upset more people, when talking about Pre-Meddle songs, don't discuss Let There Be More Light. It's not my favourite song from the era, but it is in my top three.
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Ok, so I listen to Piper again, and I didn't really like. Going to listen to it again though, to form a better opinion. I remember liking Saucerful a lot more than Piper, so this is going to need another listen as well.
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I prefer Saucerful over Piper as an album. Set The Controls is one of Roger's finest songs from this period, and Rick's Remember A Day is nice too.
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I'm always a bit upset more people, when talking about Pre-Meddle songs, don't discuss Let There Be More Light. It's not my favourite song from the era, but it is in my top three.
I love the bipolarity of that song, those 'choruses' sung by Gilmour are really unlike anything else in that song, the psychedelic intro and outro are more fitting. It sort of forms a bridge between the psychedelic ancient-floyd and not-quite-masterpieces-yet old-floyd.
Remember a Day has that great 'Why can't we play today' section, which makes it something totally different from Set The Controls, but for the rest those songs are quite alike, stylistically.
I've always found Set The Controls a bit lacking actually, it would be double as awesome with a jam with different chords, a real chorus, something else at least. Later live versions are more dynamic, which makes them better. The studio version doesn't do much for me.
Same can be said of the title track. Later live versions are awesome (Pompeii :heart) but the studio version, just like Set The Controls, is dynamically not interesting enough, and doesn't have the compositional skills to compensate for it. Although it must be said, that you can sense the epicness they had inside them.
I love the fact that Corporal Clegg is sort of like his own tiny rock opera. Maybe this is the most direct line to The Wall on this album. A story (I can't really hear everything they sing), very, very different parts within one song, but it all fits together. And that Kazoo... Well, I can listen to it (or through it).
See Saw - well yeah, cool experiment, not memorable at all, actually. Not even halfway through Jugband and I've got no idea how See Saw went.
Jugband Blues. This is actually a cool track. I've always loved Syd, his weirdness, his drug-abuse-music, the fact that nothing's normal with him. The orchestral middle part in this song is totally fitting to him.
Overall a cool album, it is loaded with good idea's, but I don't think there's one song that is 'right'. Where Piper was a real debut-album, this is more of a 'but wait we can do much more!'-disc. I can imagine that if you heard this when it came out, you'd have no idea.
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I've always found Set The Controls a bit lacking actually, it would be double as awesome with a jam with different chords, a real chorus, something else at least. Later live versions are more dynamic, which makes them better.
I've always thought that the live version Roger Waters did on the In the Flesh tour in the late 90s was the definitive version.
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I've always found Set The Controls a bit lacking actually, it would be double as awesome with a jam with different chords, a real chorus, something else at least. Later live versions are more dynamic, which makes them better.
I've always thought that the live version Roger Waters did on the In the Flesh tour in the late 90s was the definitive version.
Oh wow, I always thought that was one of the lowpoints of the track :lol
In my opinion that version was too poppy, way too rounded off, instead of the early harsh psychedelic sound. I personally like that song on a 70's bootleg I've got, Pink Pigs over Fillmore West. But still, that still isn't how I imagine it can be. Maybe there's someone around here that can point me to a great bootleg of 1967-1971.
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I'm running behind, I'll try to get to Saucerful later today or tomorrow.
Three discography threads running at once is killing me lol
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I've always found Set The Controls a bit lacking actually, it would be double as awesome with a jam with different chords, a real chorus, something else at least. Later live versions are more dynamic, which makes them better.
I've always thought that the live version Roger Waters did on the In the Flesh tour in the late 90s was the definitive version.
Haven't heard that version, I'll have to give it a listen.
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Saucerful is a good album yet I tend to peeder-out midway through the title track and it just becomes background music as my mind wanders. The first two tracks are stellar though!
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Should have a post up about More tomorrow!
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Dude... Kevin never played with Pink Floyd...
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Or did he?
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Got about halfway through Saucerful this morning. Thus far, MUCH better than Piper.
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I listened to Saucerful a few times over the past few days. While there were still a few tracks that didn't really interest me, there was lots of good stuff on this album too.
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I'm running behind, I'll try to get to Saucerful later today or tomorrow.
Three discography threads running at once is killing me lol
Try being on vacation too! I got some serious homework to do when I get back next week.
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Finished Saucerful. God, it's been ages.
They still aren't there yet, but they've come a long way from where they were.
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Yeah, I thought this was a nice step up, though I didn't have any problem with the debut. I think too many people expect these great classic bands to come out of the gate with their sound already finely honed and polished, and don't take into account how long it can take for a band to find its feet, how different the music scene was back then, and how experimental things were in general. Pink Floyd would never have become the band they were later if they hadn't gone through these formative steps.
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I still haven't listened to the next album I'm bringing up yet today. My headphones have been messed up all day and it's driven me mad. But, after Saucerful of Secrets, so I can't do a post, but who's heard the soundtrack album, More? It's their first one, for a french arthouse movie named, well, More! I'd have a better post but, headphones and the fact I'm having a bit of problems.. finding things out about it.
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I have to admit that I have never listened to More, and I don't intend to because of this thread either. Nothing I have ever read about it has made me the least bit curious about checking it out, and I am not someone who feels like I have to listen to one of my favorite band's worst album (or 2nd worst) just so I can say I've heard it. But hey, that's just me. :biggrin:
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In my opinion, it's not even in the bottom three of Pink Floyd albums, but that's really just me.
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I've barely listened to More, but I remember Cymbaline being a track I quite enjoyed.
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I've heard More. I rather like it although there are parts that I just don't remember.
Main Theme has a nice sort of feel to it, I like that one.
The Nile Song is a fun little number, very different from a lot of Floyd, but it works and it's not bad.
Cirrus Minor is wonderful. It's so dark and I love it.
Cymbaline is really lovely too.
The only other thing I generally remember is Up The Khyber. It's... interesting.
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I've gotten through half of More this afternoon but have run out of time. I actually like it quite a bit. So far The Nile Song and Main Theme has stood out to me. Hmmm...I wonder if this is still available!
I listen to the rest tomorrow.
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Having given this a listen finally again, I remember how good this is. Certainly the weakest track to me in Up the Khyber, but that's more that everything else is really good rather than it being bad. Main Theme is my favourite piece on More, but Quicksilver is up there too! Not the worst, not the best, but a good effort at their first soundtrack.
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For those not familiar with the band RPWL you should check out their cover of Cymbaline on their live Start The Fire album.
10/10
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Having given this a listen finally again, I remember how good this is. Certainly the weakest track to me in Up the Khyber, but that's more that everything else is really good rather than it being bad. Main Theme is my favourite piece on More, but Quicksilver is up there too! Not the worst, not the best, but a good effort at their first soundtrack.
I enjoyed it on one full listen. I'll admit to being partially distracted with business but the notes I jotted down listed, The Nile Song, Main Theme and Ibiza Bar as being great. I'll want to listen again with your suggestions in mind.
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Okay, does anyone else find it funny that all of this discussion about More is taking place before GentlemanofDread's official review of it? :lol
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Nope. He's slacking. His followers are not.
Will listen when I get back from vaca.
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I DO! Mainly because I can't find shit about it, it just seemed what happened was that the french director, Barbet Schroeder, randomly went "I want them", and Pink Floyd went yeah, sure. I can't find any comments about the writing or recording process, but it went smooth enough, it seems. They certainly got on well with Barbet for this soundtrack because they would work again on other soundtrack albums. This was the first Pink Floyd release without any input from Syd Barrett, and only one of two albums with David Gilmour as the sole lone vocalist on the album, which is surprising.
More- 1969
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/40/MoreCover.jpg)
1. Cirrus Minor (Written by Waters, 5:18)
2. The Nile Song (Written by Waters, 3:26)
3. Crying Song (Written by Waters, 3:33)
4. Up The Khyber (Written by Mason & Waters, 2:12)
5. Green Is The Colour (Written by Waters, 2:58)
6. Cymbaline (Written by Waters, 4:50)
7. Party Sequence (Written by Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason, 5:27)
8. Main Theme (Written by Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason, 3:19)
9. Ibiza Bar (Written by Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason, 2:12)
10. Quicksilver (Written by Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason, 7:13)
11. A Spanish Piece (Written by Gilmour, 1:05)
12. Dramatic Theme (Written by Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason, 2:15)
Never actually seen the movie this album is for, but that's because it's not something I really fancy watching. The closest I can get to it is a French drug movie that's nearly as grim as Requim for a Dream, but I'm not too sure. It's not too important to talk about what the movie is about, which is strange considering we're discussing a film soundtrack. Purely because rather than it being a film score backing the visuals, it was supposed to be like a radio. As Roger Waters said about the process.. "His (Barbet Schroeder's) feeling about music for movies was, in those days, that he didn't want a soundtrack to go behind the movie. All he wanted was, literally, if the radio was switched on in the car, for example, he wanted something to come out of the car. Or someone goes and switches the TV on, or whatever it is. He wanted the soundtrack to relate exactly to what was happening in the movie, rather than a film score backing the visuals."
So, yeah, it's less of a film score and more a bunch of music written to be played at sporadic points in the movie. I think I've done a terrible job explaining this one at least, so let's move onto the music! My official opinion? It's good. Not as good as the first three tracks on A Saucerful of Secrets, but More is good. It's certainly a big stepping point away from their psychedelic stuff, certainly, but there's still elements on it, such as Up The Khyber and Quicksilver. With Gilmour much more involved, there's some of his trademark guitar work and sound starting to rear it's head in some of the heavier songs like Main Theme.
The main talking point rather about this album is, at least for me, how Gilmour took over the main vocal duties for this album, and to be honest? Not the best effort. There's not a lot of confidence there, at least in my opinion, but it's all there, really. The rest of the album? Nothing special really. There's no true stand out appearances, though Main Theme and Nile Song are particularly of note for a more hard rock sound that you're used to for Pink Floyd. Certainly recommend those two, as well as the track Quicksilver, which keeps the psychedelic in one last time, but is a pretty relaxing track. Not much else to comment on. It's not special, it's just good. Listenable. You hear it and move on.
(Which should be Saturday we're moving onto an actual album release and not a soundtrack)
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It's been awhile since I've heard this, and I'm strapped for time. I do remember that Cymbaline and The Nile Song were standouts. But I disagree with the statement "a more hard rock sound that you're used to hearing from Pink Floyd". My first exposure to Pink Floyd was The Wall when I was 10...and it didn't occur to me until later how uncharacteristically "hard rock" that album is. Pink Floyd is almost never hard rock, and when they are, it tends to be the exception not the rule.
That being said, The Nile Song *is* an obvious exception, and could be one of the heaviest songs they ever wrote in their career. (and not a bad example either)
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Taking a listen to this album now, it's been a while but I remember there being some great songs on here.
I remember reading Nick Mason's book and this album is barely mentioned.
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Listened to More years ago, and I have no real desire to listen again.
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I'm just about finishing up with Nick Mason's Biography. I had something I was going to share regarding More... But I can't find it now. lol
I really enjoyed More. Its very good (almost as good as DSotM) for putting on and letting yourself just drift off to sleep.
Oh and The Nile Song :metal
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Just finished listening. I forgot how much filler is in this album which makes sense because it's a movie soundtrack. There are still some great tracks on here. Green is the colour being the highlight of the album for me.
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Eh, could be worse in the case of filler. Could be the next album (post coming MONDAY evening)
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Can't wait!
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Listened to Saucerful yesterday. Thanks for the history lesson/reminder of why I don't listen to old PF - way to psychedelic and experimental for my liking. Very few redeeming qualities to it, IMO. I have More, but not sure I'll bother - too much catching up to do with BOC and Devy, as well as trying to figure out how/when to start my Zepplin listening/writeups.
Will definitely follow/listen/participate when we get to Meddle though.
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In a perfect world..
It's hard to talk about this next album. Yes, Ummagumma. Well, that's not true that it's hard to talk about it.. I can tell you that it's split into a Studio side and a Live side. The Live album, despite what the sleeve notes saying it was June 1969, was actually recorded at Mothers Club, Birmingham on 27 April 1969 and the following week at Manchester College of Commerce on 2 May of the same year as part of The Man and The Journey Tour. Also meant for the album was a live version of Interstellar Overdrive, which would have been pretty cool, and a studio piece known as "Embryo", a whole band project, but was dropped. It's a shame, and this rare track is actually pretty good. But why was it dropped?
Because someone (Richard Wright) had the idea that the band members, should individually make "Real Music." They would have half an LP side each to record something, and nobody else in the band could help each other. Yeah. That's right. So, it's essentially, "One college student had an idea and his mates decided to go along with it."
And with that..
Ummagumma- 1969 (October)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/16/PinkFloyd-album-ummagummastudio-300.jpg)
Live Album
1. "Astronomy Domine" (Syd Barrett) 8:29
2. "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason & David Gilmour) 8:50
3. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (Waters) 9:26
4. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour) 12:48
Studio Album
1. "Sysyphus (Part 1)" 1:08
2. "Sysyphus (Part 2)" 3:30
3. "Sysyphus (Part 3)" 1:49
4. "Sysyphus (Part 4)" (All Wright) 6:59
5. "Grantchester Meadows" (Waters) 7:19
6. "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" (Waters) 5:01
7. "The Narrow Way (Part 1)" 3:25
8. "The Narrow Way (Part 2)" 2:54
9. "The Narrow Way (Part 3)" (All Gilmour) 5:51
10. "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party (Part 1: Entrance)" 1:00
11. "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party (Part 2: Entertainment)" 7:06
12. "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party (Part 3: Exit)" (All Mason) 0:38
FIRST THING'S FIRST. This album is special even though it's pretty bad for one reason, to me, and it's that song you've not seen before, unless you brought Point Me At The Sky single. Careful With That Axe, Eugene. From the Pre-Meddle era, it's my favourite Pink Floyd song. But why? The long build up? The fact you can feel it building to something? The impressive scream from Waters? The mental climax? All. Just, if you've somehow missed listening to it, then fix it. Any version. Infact, the live side of this album is easily the best bit, it's a pretty good recording all in all, though none of the songs featured are their best versions.
And then, of course, the experiment. The Studio side. What's the verdict? This, to me, represents some of the worst that Pink Floyd has done. From here on in, everything gets better, but we've got to get through this. I don't really like Sysyphus, Grantchester Meadows is very average. I can't call Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict something I'd ever recommend to someone, but it's a little guilty of pleasure of mine. The tape effects is something unique and it's all a bit new and a decent attempt at an experiment.
I don't like The Narrow Way, and as it turns out, my original thoughts that it just sounded a bit.. lacking in the trying department were true! Gilmour said that he bullshitted his way through the piece, and I feel it shows. There's nothing inspired here. Gilmour tried to break the rules of the no band helping approach and tried to get Waters to write lyrics for him, but quite rightly, Waters said no.
Oh, and Mason delievered the best piece, with his then wife on flute and it's essentially a drum solo, but it's got the nice party atmosphere to it.
I feel like we had to have this. The low, you see, makes what comes after it just that little bit sweeter and that little bit richer.
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I like the concept of the album cover (even though its execution could have been much better).
I like the live songs.
I do NOT like Disc 2. At all.
(https://thejennie.se/wp-content/uploads/forrest_gump_all_i_have_to_say.png)
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This is easily the most average thing to ever come out of a stellar band. Everything before and after Ummagumma is at least good based on its creative merits. This is just...yeah.
(https://thejennie.se/wp-content/uploads/forrest_gump_all_i_have_to_say.png)
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This is another album that I haven't listened to in years, and I'm not sure that I want to listen to it again.
Maybe.
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I love the live stuff. I had this album on LP (and still do, of course) before I had either of the first two albums, so for a long time this was the earliest Pink Floyd I had. "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" still kills me. Perhaps that was a poor choice of words. You know what I mean. But all the live stuff is great.
I re-listened to this album the other day, and wow, I remembered the individual studio works all being pretty experimental, but I somehow remembered them being better. The idea of giving each member of a band the freedom to do solo stuff isn't bad as a concept, but it helps if everyone's on board with it, and it helps even more if they have material they actually want and need to share. Emerson Lake & Palmer had Works, Volume One, but that was late into their career when they all had different solo stuff going on anyway. They were all more mature musicians and there wasn't a whole lot of experimental stuff going on. Here, it's just a chore to get through.
Rick Wright's contributions seem the most fully formed. Keyboard players, most of whom started by taking piano lessons, seem to have a bit more affinity for Classical music, and a certain number of them will aspire to write a Classical opus. But since this was the 60's, somehow it couldn't just be that; it had to have weird experimental stuff thrown in.
"Grantchester Meadows" isn't horrible, but that stupid bird loop ruins it for me. It has a certain rhythm to it, but it's semi-random (since it's an actual bird loop) and I can't tell if it's supposed to be the rhythm track to the piece or is just there for atmosphere. But either way, it's annoying. I too have a soft spot for "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict". It's so crazy silly Waters that it actually works and I admire the result even if I can't say I care to listen to it more than once a year or so.
Gilmour's piece is rather aimless, but it would be tolerable if it didn't have that weird sound effect coming in once in a while just to be experimental and cool. Dude, have some confidence in your own ability and just record a guitar piece. It's not horrible, just not great.
I like the flute in "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" but after that it loses me. I rarely bother finishing this one. By this point, I've had enough 60's acid Pink Floyd. Maybe I'll give it another go since you say it's the best of the lot, but I don't know when.
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The Live disc isn't the worst thing I've listened to this thread.
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This is by far my least favorite PF album. I once heard someone say it was their favorite. I refuse to take them seriously. :|
That being said, I actually enjoy throwing it on once every so often as background noise. It works on that level...not much else.
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The most interesting discussion we could have about this is...how do you pronounce it?
The obvious way is UM-AH GUM-AH. But I've had several hard core fans insist to me that it's pronounced OOM-AH GOOM-AH.
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I enjoy the live disc. A lot.
I meh the studio disc. A lot.
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The live disc is really the highlight for me, "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" is such a killer live song.
The studio album, well it's pretty much a chore to get through. Grantchester Meadows is a good song though.
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I enjoy the live disc. A lot.
I meh the studio disc. A lot.
This, pretty much. Just got around to listening to it again. I distinctly remember my dad absolutely loving this album, which I always found weird. Oh well. Tastes!
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I had a roommate who loved early Pink Floyd and thought the live disc from Ummagumma was about as good as it gets. He also smoked a lot of weed, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
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The live album is brilliant and is one of the best things pre-Meddle Pink Floyd ever did.
The second disc is what happens when you have a good idea and it goes terribly, terribly, horribly wrong. :lol
Okay, maybe not a good idea, but the notion of a band producing music where each member does their own thing independent of the others is an interesting one, and one that, I suppose, could work. It just never seems to. These days if a band did this the label would market it as a live album with an experimental bonus disc by the band.
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Finished listening to the live album this morning. Really, really good stuff.
And then I started listening to the studio album...
No more for me, thanks. Upward and onward!
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Finished listening to the live album this morning. Really, really good stuff.
And then I started listening to the studio album...
No more for me, thanks. Upward and onward!
And we seem to have consensus. Let's fire up Atom Heart Mother, which will bring us one album closer to Meddle.
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Tell you what though, the Live disc/studio disc idea was interesting. Do other bands do this?
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When the classic Yes lineup reformed in 1996, they released a 2-disc set called Keys to Ascension. The first 1.5 discs was live material, and the second half of the second disc was new studio material. The following year, they released Keys to Ascension 2 which was 1 live disc and 1 studio disc. This whole effort is largely seen as a mistake, though, since fans would have eaten up a new live studio album from the classic lineup -- the 90125 band had recently broken up -- and it all would have fit on a single CD anyway. Instead, it was "bonus material" on live albums that were massively (and poorly) doctored up in the studio anyway.
That's the closest I can think of to really splitting things up equally between live and studio material, though it's not uncommon for bands to include a handful of studio tracks to help fill out a live album (KISS Alive II, Moody Blues Live + 5, etc.)
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Before the next studio album, Pink Floyd assisted in another movie soundtrack, though this was an American movie known as Zabriskie Point. Short to the point about the soundtrack? There was nothing of worth to examine here. Careful with that Axe, Eugene made it onto the soundtrack under the name of "Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up". I don't get it either, but the point here is that during these sessions, there was some friction between the band and the director, Michelangelo Antonioni. Some songs Pink Floyd offered were rejected, one of which is known as "The Violent Sequence." I'll touch on that later. Pink Floyd weren't the only band with songs cut, seeing as Jim Morrison of the Doors wrote the track "L'America" for the film, but was rejected by Antonioni. Yeah, that song.
But, 1970, Pink Floyd returned from Rome to London and decided to expand on some out-takes from their Zabriskie Point sessions. Before I discuss any song, and I'm thinking of the big epic in all here, Abbey Road Studios and EMI got a new tool, a eight-track one-inch tape and EMI TG12345 transistorized mixing console (8 track 20 microphone inputs). What did this mean for Pink Floyd? EMI banned them from splicing tapes to edit pieces together! This also meant, in terms of the epic on the album I'm about to introduce, Roger Waters and Nick Mason had to record several 23 minute takes of them playing Bass and Drums. Ouch. Wright and Gilmour got to overdub their parts, thankfully. By the time March 1970 had rolled in, the song was finished, at least from the band's side. However, they felt they were missing something.
The band, via Rolling Stone's manager at the time Sam Cutler, were introduced to a man known as Ron Geesin. With the band being impressed with his composition and tape editing capabilities, the band gave him the backing tracks, told him to compose an orchestra over it and went off for a US Tour. When they came back, they found he had done that and got to work recording it. Because nobody could actually read music in the band, some slight problems between Geesin and the Band, but they overcame it. The choir was conducted by Gilmour and Wright, which apparentally went off without a hitch. Geesin conducting the orchestra, however, some issues emerged. The session musicians present were unimpressed with his tendency to favour avant garde music over established classical works, and, combined with the relative difficulty of some of the parts, proceeded to harass him during recording. John Alldis, whose choir were also to perform on the track, had experience in dealing with orchestral musicians, and managed to conduct the recorded performance in place of Geesin.
The rest of the album? No real stories, really. Waters, Wright and Gilmour all contributed a track each, 4-5 minutes a piece. The final track, however, "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast", is one of those experimental pieces. You know, where they record someone cooking and eating breakfast, with an interlude of music going on now and again? What, you mean not every band did it because it wasn't entirely too good? Well, huh.
But someone was watching. Syd Barrett swung by to spy on his former band mates as they recorded..
Anyway!
Atom Heart Mother- 1970
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/AtomHeartMotherCover.jpeg)
1. "Atom Heart Mother" (Written by Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Ron Geesin. Instrumental, wordless vocals by John Alldis Choir, 23:44)
I. "Father's Shout"
II. "Breast Milky"
III. "Mother Fore"
IV. "Funky Dung"
V. "Mind Your Throats Please"
VI. "Remergence"
2. "If" (Written by Waters, sung by Waters, 4:31)
3. "Summer '68" (Written by Wright, sung by Wright, 5:29)
4. "Fat Old Sun" (Written by Gilmour, sung by Gilmour, 5:22)
5. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" (Written by Waters, Mason, Gilmour, Wright, Instrumental, vocalisations by Alan Styles, 13:00)
I. "Rise and Shine"
II. "Sunny Side Up"
III. "Morning Glory"
I always had mixed views on this album, but listening to it now, I like 95% of this album. The title track, certainly, is a piece I don't go out of my way to listen to, but it's good stuff and certainly is a remarkable effort, considering how Mason and Waters are not stopping from point a to point b. Good effort from the orchestra, and actually I should have mentioned this earlier, this was the first Pink Floyd album to be specially mixed for four-channel quadraphonic sound as well as conventional two-channel stereo. Meaning get those headphones on, and listen to that sound, because this song is just great for it.
"If" is my favourite, though. I'm glad it got a live play from Waters, because it's such a depressing but beautiful piece, and I could listen to it days on end. "Fat Old Sun" and "Summer '68" are good too, although not "Atom Heart Mother" or "If" good. I can listen to them, but I usually stop because I don't like the last song too much. The fact that 'Breakfast' got live performances and 'Summer 68' didn't is mind boggling to me.
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I've always liked the title "Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up" at least as much as the original. What's not to get? That slow buildup is someone sitting in a waiting room. Then they're called in, and you hear lots of screaming. Similar concept, I suppose, but a different background story. What I like is that they're on Number 51, so this has been going on for a while. It's probably pretty messy in the next room.
As for Atom Heart Mother, I like most of it, but "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" is another one of those experimental things that probably seemed really cool at the time (when 95% of people were high most of the time) but today just doesn't quite have the same charm. I have to be in the right mood for the title suite, but I dig it when I put it on.
I always forget about the other songs. Probably from years and years of only ever playing Side One of the LP.
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Not a big fan of the two epics, but If, Summer '68 and Fat Old Sun are great. Especially Fat Old Sun, that's one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs. David's vocals are great and the outro solo is some of his best guitar playing. Well, OK, there was still better to come, far better, but I still find it underappreciated.
Might have to give Atom Heart Mother another spin, maybe my perception of that will change. Alan's Psychedlic Breakfast... well, I don't mind psychedelia, but I'm 99.95% certain that I won't enjoy it if I listen to it again. The idea could be cool, I suppose, but it's just... everything that's bad about Pink Floyd rolled into one piece. Ick.
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A pleasant surprise for me. I couldn't really get into the pre-Meddle stuff, but when I finally got to Atom Heart Mother about three years back, I loved it. Title track makes me think Sgt. Pepper's leading a wicked psychedelic army, the three tunes in the middle are all nice, and the final track leaves me feeling mellow, peaceful...
And hungry. Very hungry. :|
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Absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the title track epic. It broke my heart to hear Roger call it complete rubbish....even going so far as to say that if someone offered him a million dollars on the spot to play it, he wouldn't do it. I could understand if it was some of the more silly stuff from Ummagumma, but Atom Heart Mother really is on a whole different level of wonderful.
Same as everyone else about the songs on side 2. It's all pretty good except for the final track....which, like the stuff from Ummagumma, I will pull out once every few years and find it makes interesting background music, but on the whole not that fantastic.
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I love both the live Ummagumma live disc and Atom Heart Mother. If the live disc were recorded in the same audio quality as their later live albums, it would be just about the best live recording in my opinion. It's so experimental and wonderful.
Atom Heart Mother, I love all of, although Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast is something I love more for the novelty rather than it actually being pretty neat. The other songs, however, are really lovely, especially when the symphonics kick in.
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A pleasant surprise for me. I couldn't really get into the pre-Meddle stuff, but when I finally got to Atom Heart Mother about three years back, I loved it. Title track makes me think Sgt. Pepper's leading a wicked psychedelic army, the three tunes in the middle are all nice, and the final track leaves me feeling mellow, peaceful...
And hungry. Very hungry. :|
Certainly, it's not good if you're starving and need to eat breakfast!
Absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the title track epic. It broke my heart to hear Roger call it complete rubbish....even going so far as to say that if someone offered him a million dollars on the spot to play it, he wouldn't do it. I could understand if it was some of the more silly stuff from Ummagumma, but Atom Heart Mother really is on a whole different level of wonderful.
Same as everyone else about the songs on side 2. It's all pretty good except for the final track....which, like the stuff from Ummagumma, I will pull out once every few years and find it makes interesting background music, but on the whole not that fantastic.
It broke my heart to hear all the band didn't like the title track. Certainly not one of their classics, but it's a fine track! It needs more listens, I feel.
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Absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the title track epic. It broke my heart to hear Roger call it complete rubbish....even going so far as to say that if someone offered him a million dollars on the spot to play it, he wouldn't do it. I could understand if it was some of the more silly stuff from Ummagumma, but Atom Heart Mother really is on a whole different level of wonderful.
Same as everyone else about the songs on side 2. It's all pretty good except for the final track....which, like the stuff from Ummagumma, I will pull out once every few years and find it makes interesting background music, but on the whole not that fantastic.
The title track is a great work. I think the whole album is an awesome journey. I don't know why the band doesn't care for Atom Heart Mother (song), reading the nick mason bio they loved the album when they wrote it.
Fat Old Sun is my favorite off the album. Fantastic song with a fantastic solo at the end, if you guys haven't seen the David Gilmour Albert Hall performance it's worth a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0YANM9lz4c
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I didn't hear this record till probably 15+ years after I got into Floyd, and I cannot remember why I decided to check it out, but I was happy that I did. Summer '68 and Fat Old Sun are both really good, and have become mainstays on my master Floyd playlist. The title track is enjoyable, mostly because of that main theme, but it's so damn long, and there are countless other 23 minute plus songs I'd rather dedicate, well, 23+ minutes to. :lol :lol I don't remember If or the breakfast song being noteworthy at all, but I'll revisit them.
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Listened this morning, again first time in a while. Good stuff, better than what we've gotten thus far.
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Atom Heart is my least listened to PF album (Including soundtracks). The title track is ok. It was much more enjoyable when I saw Which One's Pink? perform an abbreviated non orchestra version a few years ago.
Alan's Breakfast is... well... interesting. I really think the thread should be renamed v. "marmalade..I like marmalade".
the other songs are... ok
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There you go Jay!
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:heart
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Suddenly: a horn section
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Atom Heart is my least listened to PF album (Including soundtracks). The title track is ok. It was much more enjoyable when I saw Which One's Pink? perform an abbreviated non orchestra version a few years ago.
Alan's Breakfast is... well... interesting. I really think the thread should be renamed v. "marmalade..I like marmalade".
the other songs are... ok
Y U NO LIKE FAT OLD SUN?
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I enjoy Gilmour's version on Gdansk... but I really have no interest in the studio version.
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Had a listen yesterday. Skipped the Breakie track with the overwhelming bad taste for it around here. If was good. Title track was 'meh'. Overall, another album I doubt I'll go back to.
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Well, then the next album (post tomorrow) shall be for everyone who's been waiting for it.
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Well, then the next album (post tomorrow) shall be for everyone who's been waiting for it.
I knew it would happen one of these days. :neverusethis:
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Yeah - and hurry up with that Top 50 too ;D The poor fella has plenty on his plate.
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Suddenly: a horn section
That's pretty much my review of the title track right there. :lol :lol
I also never made it through the breakfast thing, and likely never will. My first reaction to it was "what the blue fuck were they thinking?" and that hasn't changed.
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Man...are you guys ever going to hate the Zappa thread. :hat
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Yeah - and hurry up with that Top 50 too ;D The poor fella has plenty on his plate.
Well, then the next album (post tomorrow) shall be for everyone who's been waiting for it.
I knew it would happen one of these days. :neverusethis:
Would like to apologise for taking longer on this one. The course I'm on suddenly became overbearing a bit!
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Yeah - and hurry up with that Top 50 too ;D The poor fella has plenty on his plate.
Well, then the next album (post tomorrow) shall be for everyone who's been waiting for it.
I knew it would happen one of these days. :neverusethis:
Would like to apologise for taking longer on this one. The course I'm on suddenly became overbearing a bit!
No worries man... I was just trying to make a joke. The pace has been just fine.
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I finally had time to listen to Atom Heart Mother.
I actually have the vinyl tucked around here somewhere from when I was a kid. I couldn't recall a thing prior to listening but, man, did it bring back a flood of memories. Good ones too. I like the whole album, yet that could be 90% nostalgia. Although it does seem that the kitchen sound effects go on too long without music.
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Nice segue there jingle
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'Echoes' from Live in Pompeii is so freakin' epic. And then to realise this was the last thing they did before entering the studio to record Dark Side...
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Nice segue there jingle
;)
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After the Atom Heart Mother tour, Pink Floyd entered Abbey Road Studios once more. Then left very quickly. It's the equivalent of coming home from uni and deciding to move out within a day. The main reason was due to the type of equipment that Abbey Road Studios had, in particular the eight-track multitrack recording facilities. Pink Floyd found it lacking in what they needed, and went else where, mainly to Associated Independent Recording (AIR) studios & Morgan in West Hampstead.
Followed by... Nothing. Like, Pink Floyd entered the studio and did nothing. They fooled around, they got drunk, they watched Monty Python and they spent so long on lazing around. Lacking a central theme for the project, the band used several experimental methods in an attempt to spur the creative process. One exercise involved each member playing on a separate track, with no reference to what the other members were doing. Yeah. They weren't really.. doing things. They just had the space to chill, really.
Then, finally, something happened. A new project! Pink Floyd would make music from using only household objects. Whilst the project, known as "Nothings", was dropped, it started work for Pink Floyd. Soon, we had the experiment "Son of Nothings", followed by a possible album title of "Return of the Son of Nothings." These early experiments included he use of Richard Wright's piano. Wright had fed a single note through a Leslie speaker, producing a submarine-like ping. The band, unable to reproduce these pings in the studio, had to use the demo recording on the song it appeared on. Thankfully, the studios that Pink Floyd were recording at let them work on songs in stages, because "Echoes" would have been a pain for experimenting on. Experiments like plugging in Gilmour's Wah Wah pedal back to front for instance.
The only other song of actual note in recording wise is "One of These Days." It was developed around an ostinato bassline created by Roger Waters, by feeding the output through a Binson Echorec. Gilmour and Waters both play bass on this song, making it an amazing stereo listen.
So, here we are..
Meddle (1971)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/MeddleCover.jpeg)
1 One Of These Days, Written-By – David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, Roger Waters, 5:56
2 A Pillow Of Winds, Written-By – David Gilmour, Roger Waters, 5:13
3 Fearless, Written-By – David Gilmour, Roger Waters, 6:08
4 San Tropez, Written-By – Roger Waters, 3:43
5 Seamus, Written-By – David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, Roger Waters , 2:15
6 Echoes, Written-By – David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, Roger Waters, 23:35
Bit of change here. Before I do my own post (I am incredibly positively biased towards this album) about Meddle, what does everyone else think of this album?
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Now this is where the magic starts. One Of These Days and Echoes are classics. I also like Fearless and San Tropez a lot. Seamus is pretty weak, though.
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For whatever reason, I've never been completely bananas about this album the way some people are. I like it, but I don't love it.
Okay, Echoes is obviously pretty great. The leap from Atom Heart Mother (the song) to Echoes is similar to Rush's leap from The Fountain of Lamneth to 2112: neither got it totally right the first time, attempting a sidelong epic, but both nailed it the second time.
I love One of These Days, but I find the later live versions to be far superior to the studio version. Gilmour's solo in the second half of the song is too noisy in the studio version. He used a less heavy tone in the later live versions, and the song benefited big time as a result.
A Pillow of Winds and Fearless are both nice, but neither are songs I go out of my way to hear.
San Tropez and Seamus both suck swamp water.
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Now this is where the magic starts. One Of These Days and Echoes are classics. I also like Fearless and San Tropez a lot. Seamus is pretty weak, though.
This is where I came in. Though my cousin had all the earlier PF albums, I just didn't like them and with Meddle, it was the first PF album, I could relate to.
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San Tropez is my favorite song from this album. It's the ultimate kickin' back, sippin' a drink on the beach song. The piano solo at the end just drifts off and sounds like the sun setting on a perfect day. I have no idea how anyone could not like this song.
The only one I'm not wild about is Seamus, but I still kinda like it because of its experimental nature. There are times when the dog actually sounds like he's singing in tune.
Fearless is good, but the start-stop rhythm of it has never quite worked for me. Other than Seamus, it's probably my least favorite, though it's still a good song.
The rest are great, all top shelf. Echoes of course is amazing, though I do understand the people who say it seems to wander a bit in the middle. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to wander a bit in the middle.
A Pillow of Winds is almost too mellow to be real, but it's such a great catharsis after the dark, menacing One of These Days (and they seque nicely).
I know you young whippersnappers love the live versions of One of These Days, but when I was your age, we only had the studio version, and we liked it! No shoes, uphill both ways, etc. Seriously though, for over 20 years, this was the only version there was, and I really do love this version. To me, it is the live version that fails to capture the magic of the original. The distortion is supposed to be like that, actually obliterating some of the tone and becoming part of the sound itself. (See also the U.S.A. version of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" where Wetton's vocals are so distorted that you can't make out the words. It's supposed to be like that. Or Neil Young and Crazy Horse's "Hey Hey, My My" from Rust Never Sleeps. He'd blown out the speakers during sound check, didn't care, recorded it and put it on the album anyway.) Yes, the version on Pulse is great, and the solo is fine; it's glorious, melodic, and refined. But for those of us who grew up with the original, that is missing the point. It's too "nice" sounding. Give me the dirty, vicious, heavily distorted original.
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For whatever reason, I've never been completely bananas about this album the way some people are. I like it, but I don't love it.
Okay, Echoes is obviously pretty great. The leap from Atom Heart Mother (the song) to Echoes is similar to Rush's leap from The Fountain of Lamneth to 2112: neither got it totally right the first time, attempting a sidelong epic, but both nailed it the second time.
I love One of These Days, but I find the later live versions to be far superior to the studio version. Gilmour's solo in the second half of the song is too noisy in the studio version. He used a less heavy tone in the later live versions, and the song benefited big time as a result.
A Pillow of Winds and Fearless are both nice, but neither are songs I go out of my way to hear.
San Tropez and Seamus both suck swamp water.
It's like you pulled these words right out of my head. I do enjoy Fearless, and put it as a definite #3 on this album.
Bob... completely understand what you mean about studio vs live. In my case though, the first time I ever heard this song was on Delicate Sound of Thunder. What a way to open disc 2. :hefdaddy Although, I thought at first 'what the hell are they playing the Dr. Who theme for'? :lol
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Oops, you're right; it's The Delicate Sound of Thunder, not Pulse.
I know this discussion has come up before, but in general, people tend to prefer the version they heard first, especially if no other versions came until many years later. Such is the case here. True, there are exceptions; but most of the time, the version you're used to hearing, or the one you heard first, is the "right" version.
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Oops, you're right; it's The Delicate Sound of Thunder, not Pulse.
I know this discussion has come up before, but in general, people tend to prefer the version they heard first, especially if no other versions came until many years later. Such is the case here. True, there are exceptions; but most of the time, the version you're used to hearing, or the one you heard first, is the "right" version.
For the most part... though some live versions are so good, they slay the studio no matter what.
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True, but of the Delicate Sound of Thunder tunes, One of These Days and Sorrow were the only ones that I later heard the studio versions of and thought, "The live versions are way better."
I get liking the fury and aggression of the original One of These Days, but while I don't dislike it, I just think it works better the way they later did it.
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Oops, you're right; it's The Delicate Sound of Thunder, not Pulse.
I know this discussion has come up before, but in general, people tend to prefer the version they heard first, especially if no other versions came until many years later. Such is the case here. True, there are exceptions; but most of the time, the version you're used to hearing, or the one you heard first, is the "right" version.
Pulse has a pretty deadly version of OOTD
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Meddle is great, aside from Seamus, though even that isn't as bad as I remembered it being. Definitely the best up to now (though it does get better). Echoes is ridiculously awesome.
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True, but of the Delicate Sound of Thunder tunes, One of These Days and Sorrow were the only ones that I later heard the studio versions of and thought, "The live versions are way better."
Not gonna argue that. I was referring to live > studio on rare occasions across the board in music, not just PF or DSOT. We can all name the songs where it's almost painful to listen to the studio version once you've heard the live one - Freebird, Closer to the Heart (Different Strings version), One Way to Rock, Rock 'n' Roll All Nite, anything from Strangers in the Night...
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Seamus pulls on an extra heartstring when you're a fan of the movie "Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead" :hat
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Meddle is the first album where they reigned back their post-Syd avant garde psychedelia enough to produce somethng that was actually listenable. Side One has some great songs on it, and some pretty music, but Echoes is just transcendent. The band were on creative high at this point - early versions of what would become DSOTM were already in their set-list, and the improvement from one album to the next shows them transforming into one of the most original, important and influential rock bands ever.
Although I've heard all of the early stuff (I quite liked More, actually), this and Obscured by Clouds are the only two pre-DSOTM I'd ever want to listen to again.
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Took a listen to Meddle last night, ended up listening to it three times. I forgot how good the album is, even it's weakest track (Seamus) is still strong. Meddle is where PF started firing on all cylinders IMO.
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Agreed, this is the first one I've listened to in this re-introduction where I thought, "This sounds like Pink Floyd."
FANTASTIC album. :tup
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I really like Atom Heart Mother, but Meddle is just godly.
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Meddle is a wonderful album. I love One Of These Days so damn much, it has all of the rumbly. The studio is my favourite version although the version on The Delicate Sound Of Thunder rules hard too.
A Pillow Of Winds is beautiful. There is nothing more that needs to be said about it.
Fearless is catchy, but I don't really find it piques my interest as much as the two before it. It's a cool song I guess.
San Tropez is a nice song. I do like me some jazz.
Seamus is a nice little bit of blues.
Echoes. Just. Echoes. That song is perfection, lyrically and musically for me. I love everything about it. I love the harmony between Wright and Gilmour, I love the sound of the piano, I love the bass and drum groove in the middle, I love the main riff, I love the atmospheric bit, I love that build-up which kind of feels like the sunrise, I love how the final verse is all major key, I love the ending bit. I just adore this song.
Also: shouldn't this be v.something to do with meddle now?
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Just listened to The Great Gig In The Sky for the first time in awhile...or rather I just listened to Dark Side of the Moon for the first time in awhile. Man, I love that song. So much soul and emotion. It gives me the feels.
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Jumpin a little ahead are we?
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I'll have you know the next album won't even be Dark Side of the Moon! (Bloody Obscured by Clouds)
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I'll have you know the next album won't even be Dark Side of the Moon! (Bloody Obscured by Clouds)
Oi! Obscured By Clouds is amazing.
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i still think One of These Days is Pink Floyd's best instrumental. I still listen to Fearless and Pillow every so often
I haven't listened to Echoes in a while, but it is a masterpiece! So amazing
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Love OdtD.
In love with Echoes. Almost musical perfection in my book. Only bested by Dave and Rick's version on Live in Gdansk
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I could write a lot about this album, but I'm just gonna say it's where Pink Floyd became, recognizably, the band we know them as today, Echoes is frigging amazing, the closest thing to a duff track is Seamus and even that has its charms, and I'm lining up with Orbert in preferring the studio version of One of These Days. Gilmour's lap steel tone on that version sounds like the growl of a madman when it comes it and by the end is just raging. Nothing wrong with any of the live versions, but the studio one kicks them all in the dick. :lol
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:yarr
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I could write a lot about this album, but I'm just gonna say it's where Pink Floyd became, recognizably, the band we know them as today, Echoes is frigging amazing, the closest thing to a duff track is Seamus and even that has its charms, and I'm lining up with Orbert in preferring the studio version of One of These Days. Gilmour's lap steel tone on that version sounds like the growl of a madman when it comes it and by the end is just raging. Nothing wrong with any of the live versions, but the studio one kicks them all in the dick. :lol
I'm pretty sure at least part of that solo is actually Gilmour soloing on the bass. Nick Mason does mention in the biography that it's one of the few Floyd songs with a bass solo.
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All I know about the bass on that song is that both Waters AND Gilmour played the bass on it. I was mainly talking about the first time the lap steel comes in, which sounds fantastic.
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Wonderful album, definitely in my top 5 PF albums, Echoes is one of the best tracks they ever recorded.
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So! Meddle! I left my review for this untill everyone else was done, purely because I didn't want to gush about this album so much before everyone else had their go. Now, it's time to talk about it.
One of These Days is one of the best ways to start an album. The wind into the first bass, the sharper one, is Roger Waters and the dullen one is David Gilmour. This is mainly because of Pink Floyd sending a roadie to go get new bass strings for the Bass that Gilmour was playing.. and the roadie went to visit his girlfriend again. It's probably for the best because the difference between the two basses add a little more to the song, something that sounds better in the ear. The threat, performed by Nick Mason, was recorded through a ring modulator and slowed down to create an eerie effect. And when it hits, there's that slide guitar solo after it. Yes.
We're immediately dragged into the exact opposite of this song with A Pillow of Winds, a mellow love song. After the sheer aggressiveness and darkness of One of These Days, A Pillow of Winds is just something you need, a nice relaxing love song that appeals to the light side of the heart. Fearless is good too, not as special as the first two songs, but just good. I'm still confused how they used the Liverpool F.C fans singing "You'll never walk alone" considering nobody was a Liverpool fan. Oh well.
San Tropez is a hidden little gem on this album, if that's possible to say. With most of the focus going on the first and last tracks of the album, the bluesy piece often gets overlooked, but hey, I like it. It's certainly continuing a nice mellow bit before we get to the weakest track on the album, Seamus. I like it, just not as much as the rest of the tracks on the album. It's an experiment, just not a long one, so it doesn't really grate on me like, say, Breakfast did.
Echoes. My all time favourite song. It's.. it's just the closest thing to perfection there has ever been. The pings. The guitar. The Bass. The delievery of vocals. The rocking section. I've listened to this song so many time and every time is always a joy. My favourite part is the climax, that unreal combination. I'm cutting myself very short because I don't want to spend 100 years of your time gushing about it.
Next, (Thursday), shall be Obscured by Clouds. Sunday, DSOTM.
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To me, Echoes is sort of like Yes' Gates of Delirium in that I think both are totally awesome, but they are both songs I can only listen to every once in a while. Some 20-minute plus songs I can listen to somewhat regularly (the three from Transatlantic's first two albums, 2112, etc.), but something like Echoes is just so out there and different than I have to be in the right mood to wanna listen to all of it.
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To me, Echoes is sort of like Yes' Gates of Delirium in that I think both are totally awesome, but they are both songs I can only listen to every once in a while. Some 20-minute plus songs I can listen to somewhat regularly (the three from Transatlantic's first two albums, 2112, etc.), but something like Echoes is just so out there and different than I have to be in the right mood to wanna listen to all of it.
Haha, great. To me there's a difference too between digestible epics, and works-of-art-epics. The first are the ones you can listen to even two times in a row, the second are the ones you need to sit down for, maybe even work your way through, but the reward you get at the end is great. Funny thing is that Echoes is very much a digestible epic to me. I can even listen to it multiple times in a row.
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I love Meddle to death. Everything on it is awesome (though I find San Tropez slightly weaker). I absolutely adore Fearless, probably even more so than Echoes. Borderline sacrilege, I know.
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Fearless is, by far the most mellow way you could possibily say, "F-U I DID IT ANYWAY!"
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Everything about Meddle is wonderful. I'll take it just the way it is.
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I love the version of Echoes on Live In Pompeii.
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Okay, combination time. Let's do this.
Pink Floyd, movies, Barbet Schroeder. Not the film More this time, rather it's the french film, La Vallée. Never seen it. More out of lazyness rather than the fact I don't want to. But I know it's more lighter than More, so.. I suppose that could be good? Anyway, like More, the Band got to see an early version of the film and jot things down about ideas. Whilst their original thought was that they wouldn't have to do full songs and could just do little pieces, it turned out that they managed to create a whole series of well-structured songs.
The main reason for this was simple. Nick Mason recalls that the sessions were very hurried, and the band spent most of the time in Paris locked away in the studio. They were in there, 4 days, and just worked hard in getting stuff done that things developed. But, some facts about some of the songs on this album I've still not named yet, hmm? "Free Four" is the first Pink Floyd song to receive significant airplay in the US, and the second (After Corporal Clegg) to deal with Waters' dad's death. "Childhood's End" was the last song Pink Floyd released to have lyrics written by Gilmour while Waters was still in the band. "Absolutely Curtains", the closing instrumental on the album, ends with a recording of the Mapuga tribe, as seen in the film. They also got writing credits! Mason plays electronic drums on the title track of the album, which is..
Obscured By Clouds (1972)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ef/Pink_Floyd_-_Obscured_by_Clouds.jpg)
1. Obscured by Clouds (Written by Gilmour and Waters. Instrumental. 3:03)
2. When You're In (Written by Gilmour, Waters, Wright & Mason. Instrumental. 2:30)
3. Burning Bridges (Written by Wright & Waters, 3:29)
4. The Gold it's in the... (Written by Gilmour & Waters, 3:07)
5. Wots...Uh the Deal (Written by Gilmour & Waters, 5:08)
6. Mudmen (Written by Wright & Gilmour, 4:20)
7. Childhood's End (Written by Gilmour, 4:31)
8. Free Four (Written by Waters, 4:15)
9. Stay (Written by Waters, Wright, 4:05)
10. Absolutely Curtains (Written by Wright & Mapuga tribe, 5:52)
Okay, this is a cool soundtrack album. It feels more like an album than More did, and it's a solid album. The fact it starts with two instrumentals can throw someone off, but they're good solid tracks. The VCS 3 synths that Wright uses are amazing. It's a solid album, nothing too impressive but hey, it's certainly a nice easy to listen to album. "Free Four" is still a very light hearted take on an issue that will get more grim takes on it, so you should treasure it. The Mapuga Tribe are great at the end of "Absolutely Curtains", and by the way, what an amazing ending track name is that?
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But, there was something else that came out in 1972! We're gonna have to flash back a bit for this, to 1970. Pink Floyd had done an hour concert in a television studio just as an experiment, to do concerts in unusual places. Adrian Maben had become interested in combining art with Pink Floyd's music, and so during 1971, he attempted to contact the band's manager, Steve O'Rourke. They arranged something.. interesting, to say the least. Eventually.
After his original plan of mixing the band with assorted paintings had been rejected, Maben went on holiday to Naples in the early summer. Guess what he did when in Pompeii? Lost his passport. He had to go back to the Pompeii amphitheater and find it. Whilst wandering it, in the silence, he thought the silence and natural ambient sounds present would make a good backdrop for the music. So, that was it. We were going.
The band insisted on playing live, and brought their regular touring gear with them. So, you hear that sound? That performance? All Floyd. They even got their 24 track recorder in, all the way from London! It took 3 days, and there was not enough power for it all to run, blowing every time. How did they fix this? A huge cable from the local town hall, of course.
Shots that were done in Pompeii were either the band walking around, mud, or the band playing. Anything involving the band playing, they did in short takes so they could splice it together after the band had a listen and a look to check it was okay. Other shots were done, after they ran out of time in the Pompeii Amphitheater, were done in Paris. But when these were done, we got, well..
Live At Pompeii (1972)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0f/Pink-floyd-poster.jpg/220px-Pink-floyd-poster.jpg)
1. "Intro Song"
2. "Echoes, Part 1" (from Meddle, 1971)
3. "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (from Point Me At The Sky, B-side, 1968)
4. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
5. "One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You into Little Pieces" (from Meddle, 1971)
6. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
7. "Mademoiselle Nobs" (from Meddle, 1971)
8. "Echoes, Part 2" (from Meddle, 1971)
Intro Song is a very early version of Speak To Me from Dark Side of the Moon. Fun fact over, this is my second favourite Pink Floyd live thing. Echoes. ECHOES. Even split into two parts, it's just fantastic, and well, it's amazing. It's not the definitive version, that's still the studio version, but this great. Careful with That Axe, Eugene, however, on this, IS it's definitive version. It's the perfect length, it's the perfect delivery and that scream is everything I love about it. Hooooly.
The rest of the tracklist? It's solid. Well, maybe not Mademoiselle Nobs (aka Seamus), but it's a good listen. Nothing that I would consider to be the best live version in cases, but if you've not heard or watched it yet, I suggest you should fix that. Just, take time out of you day, relax, and watch it. I promise you. It's great.
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Carefuk With That Axe Eugene, I can't find any better live version than on this release. I wish I could get a cd of it.
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I really enjoy Obscured. To me it seems as if it's the most straight ahead rock album PF has ever done. The songs are concise, they well put together and flow pretty well. I really should listen to this album more than I do.
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Obscured has always been among my all time favorite PF albums. It's still a "dark horse" favorite of mine.
Wot's...uh the Deal is probably my favorite, but beyond that it's hard to pick out a clear winner. The album is just really consistent and awesome.
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Just finished Obscured By Clouds. Overall, very satisfying (except for Free Four, yuck), but I doubt it will have a tremendous amount of replay for me.
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That sums it up for me, too, although I like Free Four a lot. Very consistent and enjoyable album, but it's never been one I've revisited often at all.
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That sums it up for me, too, although I like Free Four a lot. Very consistent and enjoyable album, but it's never been one I've revisited often at all.
Get out of my head!!!!
Gotta say, I enjoyed Obscured a lot more than I remembered. I think this will make it back into the rotation when I'm in the mood for some Floyd.
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Double post, ftw!
Really enjoyed Pompeii a lot more than I remembered too. Set the Controls was fabulous. Man, too bad I didn't have this album in my arsenal back in my teenage years when I could/would light one up at the drop of a hat. This is one psychedelic album, from the psychedelic band, at the peak of their psychedelic period.
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Following the release of Meddle in 1971, the band assembled for an upcoming tour of Britain, Japan, and the United States in December of that year. You know what this means? BAAAND MEETING, at Nick Mason's house. Whilst in the meeting, Roger Waters had the idea that they could make a new album whilst touring, using the tour to develop all of their possible ideas. Yep. That was what was happening on that. The idea for it? Things that make people go mad. The idea that the album should have one unifying theme was agreed on, and Waters, Gilmour, Mason, and Wright participated in the writing and production of the new material, and Waters created the early demo tracks at his Islington home in a small recording studio he had built in his garden shed.
The basic structure of "Us and Them" was taken from a piece originally composed by Wright for the film Zabriskie Point, and the opening line of "Breathe" came from an earlier work by Waters and Ron Geesin, written for the soundtrack of The Body. Original rehearsals for either the tour, the album or both occurred firstly in a warehouse and then the Rainbow Theatre (Which there are some LOVELY bootlegs for.) They also purchased extra equipment, which included new speakers, a PA system, a 28-track mixing desk with four quadraphonic outputs, and a custom-built lighting rig. This came up as nine tonnes and three trucks needed to move it around.
Really, before the album came out, the only real break they seemingly had was when they recorded "Obscured by Clouds", because they spent a lot of time of rehearsing, fleshing out ideas, before, really.. releasing this album.
The Dark Side of The Moon (1973)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3b/Dark_Side_of_the_Moon.png)
Track Listing
Speak To Me (1:30)
Breathe (2:43)
On The Run (3:30)
Time (6:53)
The Great Gig In The Sky (4:15)
Money (6:30)
Us And Them (7:34)
Any Color You Like (3:24)
Brain Damage (3:50)
Eclipse (2:06)
This masterpiece is where people are most likely going to enter in. It's a great album, not my favourite Pink Floyd album, but it's THE Pink Floyd album. You think of this album, and how special it is. Because, well, it's special. I love it. Maybe not as much as everyone else but.. My favourite track is Eclipse, and that's simply because how magnificent it ends. But let's go through the rest of the album. Speak To Me/Breathe is a pretty incredible opening salvo of music, even if I'm not too sure how Breathe fits into the theme that Pink Floyd was going with. On The Run is interesting work from Richard Wright, but not much to really focus on it for me other than nice.
Time is great, it's very.. English, really. Cynical and a bit humphty, but Great Gig In The Sky is.. not for me, really. I'm just not a fan of the female vocal performance, really. Or the actual person. Money is pretty good, a rocking tune that by now you'd learn to expect and love, but Us and Them is just better for me. Mellow, smoother, a more rewarding audible experience. Especially the sax use. Love it. Any Colour You Like, I feel it got hurt more by the cuts that were made to it during the refining process, it was usually about six to seven minutes long and it fit quite nicely. But Brain Damage and Eclipse are, well.. otherworldy..
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What could possibly be said about this album that hasn't been said before. It speaks for itself. It's just damn near perfection, and only slides down my list of Top PF albums for the same reason Moving Pictures moves down my Rush list....overplay.
I actually find On the Run to be one of the deeper and most thought provoking tracks in PF history...because it tells a very definite story without saying a single words. As such, it forces your mind to paint the picture instead of having descriptive words paint one for you. The only other song I've ever heard that painted a picture of what was happening so well with no words whatsoever is...Jacob's Ladder. Which doesn't really count since it does have words, but my point was that I would know what the song was about even if there were no words.
Which still makes On the Run the greatest "painting with music" song I've ever heard.
On a side note: Listening to this while watching The Wizard of Oz is totally everything it promises to be (if it's synced up properly). Absolutely mind blowing.
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Nice to see Obscured by Clouds[/i[ getting some much deserved love. I thought I would be the only person praising it.
Dark Side of the Moon. The moment everything changed. Not the first concept album, by any means, but the first to really hit the public conciousness and show that rock music could be somethng...more. One of the biggest selling and most important albums ever recorded.
But it also broke the Floyd. Up to this point they were basically four school-friends messing about - DSOTM turned them into one of the biggest bands on the planet and brought an enormous amount of record company pressure to bear. The band would never be the same after this. And neither would rock and roll.
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Dark Side Of The Moon is my favourite album of theirs, with Time being a Top 2 PF song if I would rank them (Shine On You Crazy Diamond would be the other Top 2 song). I remember when I first bought the CD, it was my first foray into progressive rock. I would lie in my bed and have this album on repeat (the clocks in the Time intro would freak me out!) just absorbing everything. A true classic.
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DSOTM is a classic! A 43-minute rock symphony that also finds the time to pioneer techno music (On the Run).
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Every once in a while, I run into somebody who doesn't understand why The Dark Side of the Moon was such an incredible, groundbreaking album. They say things like "I like The Wall better" or "concept albums are so cliché'. Okay, groundbreaking means you can't look at what came later because it didn't exist yet. Similarly, you can't invoke the cliché rule because it didn't exist yet, either. We didn't even call it a concept album; we didn't know what to call it. For most of us, it was just great music, and so cool that the sides each flowed together as a single track, and that there were also recurring lyrical and music themes pushed it to even the next level. And on top of that, the songs themselves are accessible; most of this album gets regular airplay on FM radio stations. The songs are both simple and complex, the production is excellent, and the themes are universal.
And if they still don't understand why, in 1973, this was so amazing, I simply stop associating with them, for they are not worth my time.
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:clap:
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The band would never be the same after this. And neither would rock and roll.
You're right, and they were better for it.
Great post by Bob, as usual. This album helped take progressive rock of the 70s in a whole new direction, and give other artists ideas to do things they never thought of.
It's a shame that the two best tracks are the ones I enjoy the least, just as JD put it, because of overplay. I really find myself enjoying the rest of the album so much more than Time and Money. Great Gig is a masterpiece of a vocal ad lib, and I get goosebumps every time I hear it.
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I still say Dark Side is more of a thematic album than a concept album, but that is probably an argument for another day...;)
Either way, Dark Side is the best album ever. It is musical perfection.
:hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy
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Easily my favorite PF album, and one of my favorites from anyone.
Hell, when I was a senior in high school (89-90), this was still the favorite album for most people I knew.
Also, not that it means anything, but I think that DT did a great job reproducing it live.
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Yeah, I know it's at this point the thread starts becoming a little more lively and I'm just perpetuating that prediction. Sue me. I feel I can only contribute when it comes to the albums I'm really familiar with, so going through some others real quick...
Atom Heart Mother still remains in my eyes Pink Floyd's most underrated album. It's not their best but it's just that I feel that all their best albums have more or less gotten the attention and praise that they deserve, while AHM get's overlooked quite a bit. The title track suite is honestly one of my favorite PF songs ever and the rest of it ain't too shabby either.
Meddle is all sorts of awesome, and not just for Echoes. One of the These Days is a fantastic, energetic opener and Fearless is quite catchy. Echoes is tied with Shine On You Crazy Diamond for favorite PF song ever, and is up there among my favorite songs of all time as well. It blows my mind just how captivating it still is after hundreds of listens.
And then there's The Dark Side of the Moon. It's amazing how much influence this album has even after 40+ years. Not just musically but culturally. I won't even get into how ground-breaking it might have been back during its release--that was simply far before my time. But it's impressive and surreal how so many people, even in younger generations, know of it. I lost count of how many people I saw in high school wearing the shirt, and while most might question as to whether or not they've actually listened to the album in its entirety, I still think it's amazing how that famous triangle and rainbow transcended from just being an image on an album cover to a cultural icon.
The album itself is one of the most genuine and amazing experiences to be had. It may not be my favorite PF album, but it flows the most well throughout. I can't think of a single song that falls flat--they all bring something new to the concept and even the instrumentals on here make you conjure a story to go along with it by the sounds and moods they invoke. It's one of the most thought-provoking albums of all time, and I feel that you learn something new about it with each listen.
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I can't think of a single song that falls flat--they all bring something new to the concept and even the instrumentals on here make you conjure a story to go along with it by the sounds and moods they invoke. It's one of the most thought-provoking albums of all time, and I feel that you learn something new about it with each listen.
Not only is the not a single song that falls flat, there isn't a single moment that falls flat.
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This is not, currently, my favorite PF album but it was for such a long time that you could call it a tie, really. It can still take me away to those rainy afternoons of my teens, when I would curled up in my listening chair with head phones on in the dark and just absorb the tangible mood of the music.
Besides, the opening of Time was the theme music for our local television stations Saturday afternoon Sci-Fi Theatre. I still think of Godzilla movies, reruns of The Twilight Zone and the movie Children of the Damned (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Damned) during that section.
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My introduction to Pink Floyd. What an amazing album. More than half the tracks I would easily put in my Pink Floyd favorites (I'm probably in the minority here, but I have a very eh approach towards Money, but if I do listen to it, I prefer listening to the version on Pulse)
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My introduction to Pink Floyd. What an amazing album. More than half the tracks I would easily put in my Pink Floyd favorites (I'm probably in the minority here, but I have a very eh approach towards Money, but if I do listen to it, I prefer listening to the version on Pulse)
I always slag "Money" for being the over-played, radio hit track of the album, but then I listen to it and I'm like "Ah, fuck it, Money is awesome."
Dark Side of the Moon is my favorite album of all time, easily. It's a very cohesive album that is very much a case of the whole being greater than the individual, but damn are those individual parts so good. "Time" is one of my favorite songs of all time, "Speak To Me" and "Breathe" is one of the best album openers ever. "On the Run" is alright, probably my least favorite on the album, but I'd never skip it. It's an integral part of the experience and with Dark Side, the experience is king. Don't fuck with the experience. "The Great Gig in the Sky" is absolutely phenomenal. I love how much emotion is packed into that song. "Money" is a great little song, the hit, the popular song, but it still smokes and somehow never gets old. "Us and Them" and "Any Colour..." bring the energy of the first half down and get the listener sedated and ready for the closing punch of "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse."
Dark Side also has the honor of being one of the albums I really got into when I was first digging deep into music. I'd play it all the time driving to and from work and it really helped me to appreciate that an album was more than just a collection of songs. Placement and length mattered (that's what she said!) just as much, if not moreso, than the overall catchiness of a single song. I can still remember driving home during the summer, late at night, the stars glimmering up above and the scattered lights of the small rural towns between work and home flickering in the dark like little fluorescent fireflies. "Great Gig..." would come on and I'd roll down the windows, crank the volume, and just try to sing along.
Maybe most of my fond memories are due to nostalgia but, even to this day, I can put on Dark Side and still summon up glimmers of those same feelings even if I'm no longer a bright-eyed, optimistic 19 year old with the whole world ahead of me. Even the cynical bastard in me can still get a bit giddy for that all too brief 42 minutes from the first seconds of "Speak To Me" to the final moments of "Eclipse."
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What can I say? Dark Side is an undeniable classic, even though I prefer the three albums that followed it :)
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Birth. Life. Paranoia. Have. Have Not. Insanity. Regret. Death. What more could you want from an album?
Originally the piece ended with TGGITS, and was performed like this on many demos, but as the piece grew longer, the birth-life-death part of the narrative was compressed onto side one, and the madness/insanity themes were stripped out onto side two. Brain Damage was one of the last parts to be written.
I saw Waters on the Radio KAOS tour, he played Speak to Me/Breathe/TGGITS (with Claire Torry as special guest), Brain Damage and Eclipse as an encore. A very special night I'll never forget.
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Can't say anything else than that there's something about this album that makes it sound unlike any album ever, by any artist. The first half minute sets it up so perfectly, and the way it flows... It's soooo smooooooth
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*FANTASTIC POST*
Great post. Oftentimes, albums can invoke that nostalgic feeling, but in this case for those of us that experienced it for the first time in the 70s or 80s, that nostalgia only makes it better. It's simply a magnificent album.
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It may seem trite to say "it's Dark Side of the Moon. What else needs to be said?" but it also fits. This is one of the most iconic albums in rock music history for a reason, after all. It's personally my most iconic album of the 1970s, if only for its seemingly eternal stint on the Billboard charts. Hearing it finally dropped out of the top 200 was a moment of genuine shock to me: it'd been there forever.
Fucking brilliant album, even if I've grown to like the next two more over the years.
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So, Quick ruling, what's the rule on uploading bootlegs of other bands for discography threads? Only I want to share one from DSOTM era.
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So, Quick ruling, what's the rule on uploading bootlegs of other bands for discography threads? Only I want to share one from DSOTM era.
I assume you mean posting some links to bootlegs? Seeing as how others have done it (I've seen it in the Rush 'tour' thread), and as long as they are not commercially available recordings, I don't think it's against the rules.
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Theeen I have two bootlegs to share from Dark Side of the Moon (Wish You Were Here will be Sunday/Monday), and I'll just leave this here for people. https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=97A0FF784E4B0F06%21231
The Rainbow Tapes comes from the very early rehearsals that Pink Floyd held for doing Dark Side of Moon, taped at well, The Rainbow Theatre. The day I've picked in the last day in the collection, 20th February 1972, but it's mainly because the album is taking a bit more shape in the basics, but there's things different, a bit of flair, and all those encores after the main treat for us now were probably the main reason that people went. It's a good recording, not as good as the other bootleg, but very good for 1972 and hell, even now standards!
Setlist!
Speak To Me
Breathe
On The Run
Time
Breathe (Reprise)
The Great Gig In The Sky
Money
Us And Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse
Tuning & Soundcheck
One Of These Days
Tuning & Soundcheck
Careful With That Axe, Eugene
Tuning & Soundcheck
Echoes / Encore Break
Audience Requests
A Saucerful Of Secrets
Blues
Audience Requests
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Yes, Blues, from More. It was surprising enough to see that being played, but this is what people got for one of their first listens for The Dark Side of The Moon.
Time in London is from 1974. Pink Floyd did a short winter tour of England and surprised fans with a set of new songs that later appeared on the Wish You Were Here album. The climax of the tour was a three-night stand at Wembley Stadium. On the second night, the BBC was on hand to record the show for live transmission. Over the years, it has never been established whether the Beeb ever recorded the entire show. What was broadcast was the Dark Side Of The Moon segment with an additional track Echoes that later emerged when the radio show was broadcast in the US.
But it's a great listen and you should give it a listen! (I hope people can download it)
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Interesting tweet by Polly Samson, Gimour's wife:
Polly Samson @PollySamson
Btw Pink Floyd album out in October is called "The Endless River". Based on 1994 sessions is Rick Wright's swansong and very beautiful.
3:13 PM - 5 Jul 2014
If confirmed, it would be a huge and unexpected event, especially for those like me who are in love with Division Bell!
Here's an article expanding on the subject:
ETA: I didn't even realize the link I posted was in italian, here's the one in English:
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-floyd-endless-river-news/
https://www.rockol.it/news-616842/pink-floyd-disco-inedito-the-endless-river-esce-ottobre-2014#.U7gext717Pc.facebook
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That sounds very intriguing
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What.
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:o
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(https://catmacros.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/wait_what.jpg)
If this is true I don't even know what to say.
I mean lets say this is happening, is this music from when Rick Wright was still alive? What about Nick Mason, I mean he would at least have to be on the album?
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Well it's not April Fool's day and it came from Gilmour's wife, so why wouldn't it be true?
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I guess, just seems so out of no where, 20 years since The Division Bell. . . . . which is probably less than the time it'll take tool to release another album.
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I guess, just seems so out of no where, 20 years since The Division Bell. . . . . which is probably less than the time it'll take tool to release another album.
Yeah, this is literally out of nowhere. From the sound of things, they already recorded the whole album. You'd think that someone would have reported this sooner, considering that it's PINK FLOYD.
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I know in this day and age where nothing can be kept quiet or a secret, but just maybe this was kept secret for such a long time.
Anyway, it's great news for the Floyd fans all round the world.
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I need to relisten to Division Bell, right now.
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My nipples are hard after reading this.
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I know in this day and age where nothing can be kept quiet or a secret, but just maybe this was kept secret for such a long time.
Anyway, it's great news for the Floyd fans all round the world.
I think this may be the case, I guess the recorded it while Rick was still alive? I mean they had a huge number of song ideas during the division bell recordings.
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I know in this day and age where nothing can be kept quiet or a secret, but just maybe this was kept secret for such a long time.
Anyway, it's great news for the Floyd fans all round the world.
I think this may be the case, I guess the recorded it while Rick was still alive? I mean they had a huge number of song ideas during the division bell recordings.
Yeah, from the sound of things, the songs were all written back during the Division Bell sessions and that's where Rick's portions on the album come from. But it sounds like the vocals and potentially other stuff were done rather recently...
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>New Pink Floyd music
>In the year of 2014, our lord and savior
wat
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Don't toy with my emotions, rumor! :omg: Want! WAAAAAAAA--
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There was some leaks about musicians that recorded with David Gilmour, and everyone thought that it was for a DG solo album. But it seems that it was for this, maybe.
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This is fucking Pink Floyd. It's hard not to have a boner for this.
Still, I won't get my hopes up too much until it's official.
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This is...wow. Truly never thought I'd see the day.
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This is...wow. Truly never thought I'd see the day.
Likewise. Seeing as how The Division Bell came out when I was only a year old, I never expected to see another new Floyd album be released in my lifetime. Very pleasantly surprised. :hat
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So wait....was Roger involved as well???
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They'll just bring him in at the last second to record a bunch of angry rambling in a Scottish accent and copy paste it over an instrumental section. :P
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So wait....was Roger involved as well???
From the sound of things, no, he wasn't. But that could be wrong. It seems the details are all really sketchy right now.
~
Also, to help bring this thread back into its original intent, I'll share my thoughts on The Dark Side of the Moon:
To me, this album is the classic rock album of the Seventies. It isn't necessarily my personal favorite (though it very well could be), but whenever I think of 70's rock, my mind always thinks of Dark Side's iconic album cover first. It's just so perfect.
The music inside is also incredibly brilliant. While it isn't necessarily the band's most musically ambitious moment, there is a certain synergy on Dark Side that just isn't present on any of the other Pink Floyd albums that I've heard. This is the sound of a band that is absolutely focused and in-sync with one another. While they sound relatively similar to this on the following album, I still feel like there was a certain something that was lost in the band between Dark Side and Wish You Were Here.
It is also one of the most perfectly flowing albums I have ever heard. I can't think of any other album that actually rivals it in that regard at the moment, aside from maybe Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime. Dark Side is truly a musical journey and its pacing is absolutely perfect. Not too fast, but not too slow either. Just perfect.
I have a tendency to disagree with general opinions about bands and their best albums, but this is one of the exceptions to the rule for me. The Dark Side of the Moon is genuine musical perfection. One of the absolute greatest albums ever made, period.
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>New Pink Floyd music
>In the year of 2014, our lord and savior
wat
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I just realized I haven't commented on Dark Side yet. It is the best PF album... but not my favourite if that makes sense. I love everything about it... from the heartbeat in the beginning all the way to "Ticket To Ride" at the end ;)
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DSotM is just so perfect. Lots of piano, neat chord sequences and just general amazing sound.
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During 1974, the tour of Dark Side of the Moon saw Pink Floyd starting to etch out some compositions, three of them in fact. During gigs when they were playing France and England, they played them. These three songs were known as "Raving and Drooling", "You Gotta Be Crazy" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". We shall ignore the first two songs, they're not important to us now. Want to know what NME thought of these new compositions? They thought it was awful. Yeeep. Pink Floyd responded by, well, going into the studio to start recording.
Alan Parsons had been the EMI staff engineer for Pink Floyd's previous studio album, The Dark Side of the Moon, but he declined the band's offer to continue working with them. Uhoh. Enter the man who worked on More, Brian Humphries. He had worked with them again as a concert engineer for their concerts in 1974, so he was a nice natural fit. Well, for the band, not so much with the equipment that Abbey Road Studios had, as Humphries had some.. problems with it. On one occasion, Humphries inadvertently spoiled the backing tracks for "Shine On", a piece that Waters and Mason had spent many hours perfecting, with echo. The entire piece had to be re-recorded. Ouch.
Working from Studio Three, the band had hit a creative wall after all the sucess they had enjoyed from The Dark Side of the Moon. They were drained, Wright and Waters both hated the early sessions and Mason was struggling to enjoy the multi-track recording style. Gilmour? He was becoming increasingly frustrated with Mason, whose failing marriage had brought on a general malaise and sense of apathy, both of which interfered with his drumming. In fact, it was the criticism from NME that really kept Pink Floyd going during the early days. They wanted to prove NME wrong.
After several weeks, Roger Waters began visualizing another concept, and with Shine On as a good forming point for it all. The opening four-note guitar phrase reminded Waters of the lingering ghost of former band-member Syd Barrett, but Gilmour had composed the phrase accidentally, but he was encouraged by Waters' positive response. Waters wanted to split "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", and sandwich two new songs between its two halves. Gilmour disagreed, but was outvoted three to one. That's right, two songs. The third one hadn't quite been thought of just yet. "Raving and Drooling" and "You Gotta Be Crazy" had no place in the new concept, and were set aside until the following album, which will be next time.
During the recording of this album, there was a visitor. An overweight-man with shaven head and eyebrows, and holding a plastic bag. Waters didn't recognize him, as he was in the room when the man entered. Wright didn't know him and asked a EMI staff member who he was. Gilmour presume he worked for EMI. Mason had no clue. The man, as Wright found out, was called Syd Barrett. Waters was reduced by tears at the state his former friend had gotten into. Another visitor, Andrew King asked Barrett how he had gotten into this shape, and Barrett simply responded he had a big fridge and ate a lot of Pork Chops. He also mentioned that he was ready to avail the band of his services, but while listening to the mix of "Shine On", showed no signs of understanding its relevance to his plight. This was the 5th of June. No member of Pink Floyd saw him again.
Back on track, The start of "Shine On" contains remnants from a previous but incomplete studio recording by the band known as "Household Objects", which was from the Meddle era, in trying to create a new idea going. Jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli and classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin were performing in another studio in the building, and were invited to record a piece for the new album. Menuhin watched as Grappelli played on the song "Wish You Were Here"; however, the band later decided his contribution was unsuitable and, until 2011, it was believed that the piece had been wiped. The band didn't give him credit but still payed him for his contribution, £300 of it. (That's £2,100 for us now).
The band played much of Wish You Were Here on 5 July 1975 at an open-air music festival at Knebworth. Singer Roy Harper, performing at the same event, on discovering that his stage costume was missing proceeded to destroy one of Pink Floyd's vans (injuring himself in the process). This delayed setup, but not too long as they had organised a spitfire flyover so they had to start and well. The light show had to be simplified, a power surge destroyed Wright's keyboards and he had to get replacements. The Press tore them apart after they weren't allowed backstage, and yet..
The album was released on 12 September 1975 in the UK, and on the following day in the US. In the UK, with 250,000 advance sales it went straight to number one, and demand was such that EMI informed retailers that only 50% of their orders would be fulfilled. With 900,000 advance orders (the largest for any Columbia release at the time) it reached number one on the US Billboard chart in its second week. In 1991 Wish You Were Here was Pink Floyd's fastest-selling album ever.
Wish You Were Here (1975)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/WishYouWereHere-300.jpg)
1 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part One) 13:33
2 Welcome To The Machine 7:26
3 Have A Cigar 5:07
4 Wish You Were Here 5:40
5 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part Two) 12:21
Wish You Were Here is my favourite Pink Floyd album. It's got soul, character, amazing little pieces and moments, an epic, an outpour of emotion, fantastic solos and more. It's just, everything that could be perfect with music for me. From the start, the household project and the wine glasses being played to that four chord sequence, all the way through to the "See Emily Play" refrain at the end of part two of Shine on You Crazy Diamond. If Echoes didn't exist, Shine On would easily be my favourite Pink Floyd song. The segue into Welcome to the Machine is fantastic, as is that entire song (even if in my opinion, it's the weakest song on the album).
Have a Cigar, I left a detail out on purpose for a reason. When I was first listening to this album when I was much younger, I really thought it was Waters singing it with Gilmour, a weird duet thing and their voices just melded in that way on the tape. Of course, it was actually Roy Harper, who came in when Waters couldn't handle the pressure on his voice after Shine On. Thanks, Harper, for then destroying a van. Anyway, Have a Cigar has my favourite studio guitar solo from David Gilmour, at the end. It's aggressive and in your face, just perfect.
Wish You Were Here is beautiful. It's all I can say about it, it's so very beautiful.
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Like Dark Side, Wish You Were Here is absolutely perfect in every way imaginable. I hadn't listened to it from start to finish in quite a while until a month or so ago, and doing so was like discovering it all over again. I had almost forgotten how incredible Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar both are (because I tend to listen to the others on their own far more often). I totally agree about Harper's vocals on Have a Cigar; the first time I heard it, it sounded like a unique combination of the two normal lead singers' voices, so it threw me a bit when I found out it was an outsider, but I didn't care.
It always seems like the first Shine On gets talked about way more than the second one, but I think both are about equal, and collectively it is arguably the best piece of music the Floyd ever did.
Basically, like Dark Side, the arguments for Wish You Were Here being their best album are far more compelling than it not being their best. Really, they are like 1a and 1b in their canon. :hefdaddy :hefdaddy
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Wish You Were Here is an amazing album. I believe the original version of the title track (w/ Violin) was released with the experience version of the album recently (search "Wish You Were Here Grappelli" on Youtube)
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The Immersion stuff from DSOTM and Wish You Were Here is interesting (I made sure to check the bootleg I'm offering from 1974 isn't the same on that's on the Immersion sets, and it's not, so phew.) There's a version with Have a Cigar on WYWH with Gilmour and Waters singing it. It's not as good as Harper, IMO, but it's interesting to hear!
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I'm game for discussing the extras with The Wall :heart
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WYWH is one of the albums my father got me for my thirteenth birthday, as it is his favourite Floyd album, so it is special to me. I have to admit, the lap-steel solo in the second half of Shine is probably my favourite Gilmour solo, and I love all the electronic touches to this album. It feels less organic than Dark Side Of The Moon, probably as there is a lot less piano, but the synth sounds give it a lovely monolithic feel I like, and the bass on Have A Cigar is one of my favourite bits of bass ever.
Album is win.
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Currently re-listening to Wish You Were Here at the moment. Haven't listened to it in quite awhile, so it'll be interesting to see what my exact thoughts on the album are like. :hat
Current listening aside, I can most certainly cast my vote of agreement that Wish You Were Here is one of the absolute best albums ever, along with Dark Side and Animals (the jury is still out on the Floyd albums after that, for me).
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I am currently on vacation, and I can't wait to get back so I can listen to this glorious album once again. Truly one of the greatest of all time.
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The apex of their career in my opinion. I love the title track and Shine On so very much
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This is my favourite PF album as well. It's just absolutely magical.
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This is not my absolute favourite PF album, but it's up there. I guess I'd rank it at #3, after DSOTM and Animals.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (the first part) is always taking turns with Time as being my favourite PF song ever. That atmospheric intro, the guitar lines, the keyboards, that lyric about their dear friend Syd - it's just brilliant. Too bad the rest of the album isn't of the same quality, for me at least. Welcome To The Machine has haunting vocals though and a sort of eerie vibe. Have A Cigar is alright. The title track is the 2nd best track here, one of their best songs ever. Very nice lyrics, and a great performance from the band, especially Gilmour. I bet it's great to experience this one in concert. The second part of Shine On closes with a sort of reprise thing, which is cool.
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My second favorite PF album next to Dark Side. Shine On is pretty much one of the best songs ever.
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Apparently, there´s a new album being released....
https://music.yahoo.com/news/pink-floyd-album-endless-river-october-report-040033206.html (https://music.yahoo.com/news/pink-floyd-album-endless-river-october-report-040033206.html)
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WYWH is my 2nd favorite right behind Animals. Welcome to the Machine is pretty underrated, I love it :heart
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WYWH is my 2nd favorite right behind Animals. Welcome to the Machine is pretty underrated, I love it :heart
Welcome to the Machine is actually my personal favorite song off the album! :metal
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Machine is probably my least favourite on the album. Not that I don't like it; I just like the others more.
My ranking:
1. Shine On Part 2
2. Shine On Part 1
3. Have A Cigar
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Machine
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I really love the title-track and Shine On, but the other two tracks don't do much for me. They're not bad, but they do drag the album down quality-wise IMO. I would say probably their third or fourth best album overall.
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Controversial opinion time: Both parts of Shine On are my least favorite song on the album. It's brilliant, no question about that, but it just doesn't gel with me that much. Welcome to the Machine, Have a Cigar and Wish You Were Here are all far stronger songs, imo.
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The title track is the 2nd best track here, one of their best songs ever. Very nice lyrics, and a great performance from the band, especially Gilmour. I bet it's great to experience this one in concert.
Oh man, you have no idea! When we saw them in KC 20 years ago on the Division Bell tour, you couldn't even hear him sing the opening verse of Wish You Were Here, because the entire crowd was singing along with him. That was a major goosebumps moment!! :hefdaddy :hefdaddy
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While Dark Side is a masterpiece, Wish You Were Here is something else. It's one of the few albums that exist that I could genuinely call perfect. Have a Cigar and Welcome to the Machine are underrated tracks for sure, the former being undeniably catchy and clearly the most rockin' track on here, and the latter being haunting, eerie, desolate.
The title track is quite personal for me and happened to be one of the first melodies I learned to play on guitar. Such a melancholic, beautiful piece to a melancholic, beautiful album.
Despite how great every song is on here, Shine On You Crazy Diamond breaks even that barrier. It's tied with Echoes for my favorite PF song and is one of my favorite songs of all time. Every single thing about it just blows my mind. :hefdaddy It's them at their most emotional and thought-provoking, and their summit musically. Seriously, this is a top 10 album for me. Not a bad thing I can say about it.
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I'd say the weakest song is Have A Cigar. My fave is Welcome to The Machine, the entire mood, atmosphere, and just everything about the song is amazing.
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I'm with Ben and Mr. Gold... Welcome to the Machine is my fave, and I just can't like Shine On any more than Have a Cigar or WYWH. It's like 4th place Miss Universe contest. Still stunning, but I just prefer the other three ahead of it.
Will fire this one up shortly.
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I loved Wish You Were Here when it came out, and still do. The "everything flows together" thing from Dark Side of the Moon was carried over, but with fewer and (mostly) longer songs. It eventually replaced Dark Side as my favorite Pink Floyd album for a long time. Not right away, but after having a chance to really sink in.
I see "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" as something of a step up from "Echoes". "Echoes" is great, but let's face it, that middle section gets just a bit tedious sometimes. "Shine On" feels more like a fully developed piece. Even if it might seem padded out by the extended solos and instrumental sections, they're each of a different flavor, and you really feel like they're different movements of a larger piece. I especially love that guitar riff behind the Baritone Sax solo that continues when he switches to Tenor, and it switches to 6/8 and the guitar riff takes on a different feel while not changing at all. It also comes back a few times, providing continuity. And that slide solo. Oh, baby.
I like each of the three middle songs, with a preference for "Welcome to the Machine" due to many, many spins of this album in junior high and high school while learning about both music and combustible non-tobacco products. "Wish You Were Here" has that great, forlorn vibe, but "Have a Cigar" has the awesome vocal performance, the killer lyrics, and that dual synth hook line, so it's hard to choose between those two. But it's like Chad said; they're all great, but if you have to rank them, someone's gonna be last.
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1. Wish You Were Here
2. Shine On, pt. 1
3. Shine On, pt. 2
4. Welcome to the Machine
5. Have a Cigar
Wish You Were Here is definitely my favourite Pink Floyd album, and it sits right in my Top 5 albums of all time. In fact, I don't really care much about DSoTM and Animals, but WYWH is just spectacular, stunning record. Musical perfection right here.
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Best Pink Floyd album for me, no question. Shine On (which I only listen to as one song) is my favourite Pink Floyd song, and all the other songs are great as well, the title track with how emotionally laden it is. Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar I rarely see mentioned but they are both completely great.
Also, don't know if someone has said it yet, but I love love love the cover of this one!
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pink Floyd has always had amazing covers, and WYWH would have to be my 2nd favorite (Dark Side is my 1)
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There was no photo editing in that pic for the album cover too, the guy was really set on fire.
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This is, without a doubt, my favorite PF album. Animals and DSotM are damned close but this is the only one that still commands my complete attention any time it's on.
It's hard to pick a favorite but I'd have to say Shine On You Crazy Diamond p. 6-9 has a slight edge.
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I mentioned this in my top 50-where WYWH came in at number 10-but it seems to me for a lot of people including myself, the path of a Pink Floyd fan is "you start thinking The Wall is the best thing ever, then you listen to Dark Side and figure out that album is, then as time goes on you start appreciating Animals and WYWH more. When you're done, WYWH is your favorite Floyd album.
I remember being flat out bored by WYWH when I first bought it, and actually giving up on it during the second half of Shine On to go listen to Dark Side of the Moon. :lol But in later years, when I returned to it, I realized how fucking wonderful an album it is, and it began marching up my list of favorites until it became, unequivocally, my favorite Pink Floyd album, by a sizable margin. The word "magnificent" comes to mind...even if all too often I bail on the last half of Shine On Part 2. Old habits die hard :lol
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I like how, between the front and back of the jacket and the front and back of the inner sleeve, there are four photos, depicting the four elements (fire, earth, wind, and water). Also, each of the pictures has something "extra" going on. The frame for the photo of the burning man is scorched, the frame for the sand picture has a hole and sand is leaking, etc.
And of course in the original vinyl pressings, it was all enclosed in blue shrink-wrap so you couldn't see any of it. There was a sticker on it to let you know what it was.
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51f%2BE%2BAOrzL.jpg)
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There was no photo editing in that pic for the album cover too, the guy was really set on fire.
Yeah, he has a flame-retardant suit on underneath his suit. :lol IIRC the first take had the flames going the wrong way due to wind and most of the stuntman's facial hair (a mustache) was burned off, so they switched the two men around so that the flames angled away from his face. The final photograph was flipped afterwards so that the burning man would be on the right as intended.
I won't spoil anything since I'm sure it'll come up when appropriate, but the backstory behind the Animals cover is good aswell.
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I won't spoil anything since I'm sure it'll come up when appropriate, but the backstory behind the Animals cover is good aswell.
Oh yeah, I read about that earlier while I was listening to Animals for the fourth or fifth time last night in preparation for the next discussion! :biggrin: Definitely a great story! :lol
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My favorite album of all time. Every single time I've heard it (and it's been in the 500+ spins range) it's moved me beyond
belief. For an album to be able to achieve this after so many years is incredible. Shine On You Crazy Diamond is pure
bliss. Animals, DSotM, The Wall and also AMLoR are also genius on every level.
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I've never considered myself a Pink Floyd fan but I absolutely love WYWH.
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WYWH has always been my favorite Floyd album.
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Because of some things I need to take care of, there won't be the Animals post till Friday, but to spark some conversation, what have been your ratings of the albums up to this point? Favourite songs?
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Been watching the Story of WYWH on BR on and off all week and it's a really good video.
Most of all is the bonus stuff, where Waters and Gilmour do their own solo acoustic versions of the title song.
What a massive difference, Waters is half assed not really even singing, while Gilmour puts a lot more into his.
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I've always enjoyed Meddle, but rarely go out of my way to listen to it. I like Obscured by Clouds more than I remembered, but by-and-large, anything pre-DSOTM has very little interest for me. There are some exceptions, but with everything post-DSOTM being as awesome as it is, why force myself to endure anything that isn't awesome?
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Animals, a album with actually very little in terms of what came before. The most I can tell you is this. Two songs that had been around since the Dark Side of the Moon tour were further developed for this. These songs, originally called "Raving and Drooling" and "You've Got to Be Crazy" were developed into "Sheep" and "Dogs" respectively. With their deal up with EMI, you know, the one they signed waaaay back before The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn? The one that gave them free studio time? That was gone. So instead, Pink Floyd bought a three-story block of church halls at 35 Britannia Row in Islington to compensate. That was.. smart? I guess?
But Animals is an reactionary album, it seems. Pink Floyd responding to the criticism from two completely different ways, as well as their own criticism. Okay, let's clear things up a bit. The criticism that Pink Floyd was receiving was from the conservative figures like Mary Whitehouse (Who is the only Pig identified in the song 'Pigs'), and the Punk Rock movement, who considered Pink Floyd "old fashioned" and most of Progressive Rock "Arty Farty bullcrap." Mr Waters would not have this at all, and so it was the start of Waters feeling like he had to take over to get things done. To quote Richard Wright, "Animals was a slog. It wasn't a fun record to make, but this was when Roger really started to believe that he was the sole writer for the band. He believed that it was only because of him that the band was still going, and obviously, when he started to develop his ego trips, the person he would have his conflicts with would be me."
It's reflected in the writing credits. Every song has Waters writing credits with only Dogs having a co-writer in the form of David Gilmour. Gilmour said to Mojo in 2008 that "Roger's thing is to dominate, but I am happy to stand up for myself and argue vociferously as to the merits of different pieces of music, which is what I did on Animals. I didn't feel remotely squeezed out of that album. Ninety per cent of the song "Dogs" was mine. That song was almost the whole of one side, so that's half of Animals."
Returning to help engineer this album was Brian Humphries, who worked onWish You Were Here. The band had discussed employing another guitarist for future tours, and Snowy White was therefore invited into the studio. When Mason and Waters accidentally deleted one of Gilmour's solos, Snowy White was asked to record one for 'Pigs on the Wing'. Although his performance was omitted from the vinyl release, it was included on the eight-track cartridge version. So I'll talk about it here for a little bit. It's actually a really good solo, it's a great bridge for what became split into parts.
Before I get into my actually feelings for the album, let us discuss the album cover, shall we? Every day on his way to work, Roger Waters passed a power station known as the Battersea Power Station, which was by then approaching the end of its useful life. He decided on using this as the basis for the album cover. The band commissioned German company Ballon Fabrik (who had previously constructed Zeppelin airships) and Austrian artist Jeffery Shaw to construct a Pig shaped balloon, about 30 feet in size and move it to Battersea Power Station whilst it was filled with Helium by December 2nd. However, bad weather meant nothing happened the first day, and Pink Floyd's manager Steve O'Rourke forgot to book a marksman to shoot the pig down for the second day if it escaped. Guess what? It escaped, landed in the county of Kent (i live in this county <3) and was recovered by a rather cross farmer whose cows had been scared by the pig balloon. They got it back, but their early testing shots proved to be the best so the band superimposed the pig onto it and that's your cover.
One last thing about the cover is that during the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony, it received a little nice shout out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7tm7NWsxRRc#t=85
Animals(1977)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/74/Pink_Floyd-Animals-Frontal.jpg/220px-Pink_Floyd-Animals-Frontal.jpg)
Pigs On The Wing (Part 1)
Dogs
Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Sheep
Pigs On The Wing (Part 2)
I'll start with the opening bread of 'Pigs on the Wing (Part 1)'. It's a cool opener, if a bit misleading for what you're actually going to get, with it's cool and lovey dovey tone (as the songs were written about Roger Waters then girlfriend.) Really, there's not much to talk about here, it's a love song, but then we get into 'Dogs'. The theme of album is loosley based of Orwell's "Animal Farm", and 'Dogs' is there to tell you that we're getting a bit angry in this album. It's got a good build up, and I actually think this is one of Gilmour's best vocal performances in the entirety of Pink Floyd's career. It's got anger, it's got the edge that the song needs, and his guitar performance helps build this song up even more. The last vocal passages, sung by Waters, is a great singalong bit, but also demostrates something else. Mason had stated he enjoyed working on Animals more than Wish You Were Here, and I feel like you can tell that during this last section of 'Dogs'. The version, if you have the Wish You Were Here immersion set, 'You've Got To Be Crazy' isn't much different to the actual song.
'Pigs (Three Different Ones)' is the most synth I have heard in a Pink Floyd song. It's got that unique sound that makes it stand out from the rest of the Pink Floyd discography, and the buildup yet again is great. The lyrics only mention one person by name, Mary Whitehouse, but supposedly one of the other Pigs is Mrs Thatcher, who Roger Waters would actually start to hate in about two albums time. This is a good song, but I don't know, I never seem to go out of my way to listen to it much.
'Sheep' however, is in my top 5 Pink Floyd songs. The bass, just the vocal delivery, the piano, the way it rocks and shucks and drags you through well trodden corridors! Like Gilmour on 'Dogs', this is Roger Waters best vocal delivery. Just, that madness in that voice makes it that much better. Plus that reworking of Psalm 23 on the song by Waters. It's incredible. Then, the last piece of bread, 'Pigs on the Wing (Part 2)' is quite a mood whiplash, I'm not entirely sure what was up with that.
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Ah, Animals. It's probably my #2 favourite PF album, after Dark Side Of The Moon. Dogs and Sheep are the standouts for me, with Pigs just a notch below. The Pigs On The Wing parts are pretty nice, but nothing spectacular. I actually discovered Dogs from Roger Waters' live DVD In The Flesh (I was late in getting this album) and it's been my favourite track here ever since. Sheep is also awesome, very angry and fiery vocals in this one.
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My favorite Floyd album :hefdaddy All the three long songs are just awesome, and while the POTW pieces aren't spectacular, they're a nice way of bookending the album.
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Animals was probably the last addition of their discography for me, in the late 90s. Because these songs rarely (if ever) got any radio airtime due to their length, I didn't know anything about this album until I finally got past all the radio friendly and well known albums. Once I did... wow. I'm not sure which of the three songs I prefer most. They're all equally awesome imo, and I rarely listen to them on their own... it's almost always when I spin the whole album.
Another brilliant album.
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It´s a fantastic album. Not as flawless as WYWH, but close. I´d say top 3 for me.
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For years, "Dogs" was my favorite song of all time. Animals took a long time to click for me, because it was the first album I ever had with songs going over the 10-minute mark, and I had no patience. But when it did click, just wow. Definitely my favorite Pink Floyd album.
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I'm probably in the minority but I never cared much for Animals. The songs are good but it feels like a chore to get through the album. There doesn't seem to be a breath in the album. I haven't listened to it in a while so I'll give it another spin and update my opinions.
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Just as Wish You Were Here eventually replaced Dark Side of the Moon as my favorite Pink Floyd album, Animals eventually earned that honor. Neither of these happened right away. They took time to sink in, as many great albums do, especially the dense and complex ones.
I've always loved "Dogs". The buildup, the breakdown, the use of the Vocoder, the use of the repeated phrase motif at the end reminiscent of the end of "Eclipse", all brilliant. But it took longer for the rest of the album to click. "Sheep" was next, but "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" took the longest. Then one day I noticed that piano riff under the dark pre-chorus, and started listening more actively for things I may have missed. I found many, each of which added to my appreciation of the song.
"Pigs on the Wing" was always a nice song, and I guess I didn't really consider it in the rankings, but it's also important. A friend of mine had the 8-track version of the album, so we listened to it from time to time. That's a cool solo. Music geek alert: The solo inverts the time signature in a similar way to the synth solo in "Welcome to the Machine". "Welcome to the Machine" is in 4/4, but the solo is in 3/4. The beat is exactly the same, but subdivided differently. "Pigs on the Wing" is in 4/4, but the strumming pattern is (3+3+2)/4. For the solo, the strumming continues in 3, dropping the final 2 of each pattern. This is hard to explain, but listen to it; you'll hear what I mean.
My favorite Pink Floyd album, the one I go to when I need a good dose of chill. I was blissfully unaware of any of the political bullshit going on in the band behind the scenes. This album has a lot of my favorite keyboard work from Rick Wright, and knowing what we do know now, it's amazing that any of it is there at all. But Roger's ego seemed to be about control and credit; he still knew enough to allow the music to shine. The guitar work is also terrific, and the drum work solid as always.
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Second favorite Floyd album behind WYWH and there were countless nights where I'd come home from one of the nights of adventures I recounted in the 80s thread and put Animals on. It was, in a very real sense, my comedown album, and I fell asleep a lot listening to Dogs. Great fuckin' album.
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My third favorite Floyd album, right after WYWH and DSTOM.
It's simply amazing, front to back, and I find it almost amusing the striking contrast between it and the album that came before, both in style and structure, seeing as how it's book-ended by shorter songs while the middle is comprised of three 10+ minute epics.
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I love Animals, but it is definitely my least favorite of the Big Four, mainly because I merely like Pigs (Three Different Ones); I don't love it. I do, however, love both Dogs and Sheep to pieces. Those are two of my favorite Floyd tunes.
And this has to be posted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1enfo8zn3_g
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For the longest time, Animals has been going toe-to-toe with Dark Side of the Moon for me as my favorite Pink Floyd album. However, while listening to the album earlier this week in preparation for the discussion, I realized that I definitely prefer Animals in the end. It's just so well-done. A truly perfect album. :hefdaddy
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Animals is one of the best albums ever, without a doubt. All three of the long songs are fantastic, with Dogs containing some absolutely stellar guitar work. Love the lyrics all throughout, and Sheep just rocks so hard.
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I've probably mentioned before how much I don't really care for Pigs. Dogs and Sheep; however, are brilliant monsters. Love those two tracks to death. My introduction to Dogs though actually came from the version off of Waters' In The Flesh live album, but I loved it even back then
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Animals is an album that took ages to click for me, I think because the fact that Pigs On The Wing is split into two very shot sections, and with the length of the other songs, I found that pretty jarring. But yeah, the middle three songs are great.
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I like how it turns Wish You Were Here "inside out". Instead of three shorter songs sandwiched between two halves of the main epic, we have three epics bookended by two halves of the short song. I like having the nice simple acoustic song to open and close the album.
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I like how it turns Wish You Were Here "inside out". Instead of three shorter songs sandwiched between two halves of the main epic, we have three epics bookended by two halves of the short song. I like having the nice simple acoustic song to open and close the album.
I've thought about that as well. I actually think that's part of why I'm not as fond of WYWH (or Shine On You Crazy Diamond for that matter) as I am fond of Dark Side and Animals. It's a classic album, no argument there, but I feel like the beginning and ending of the album meander around for too long. In comparison, Dark Side is a collection of great songs that perfectly flow into one another from beginning to end, and Animals is bookmarked by two brief pieces at the beginning and end and let the complex epics act as the journey inbetween.
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I can see that, or hear it, rather. I like how "Shine On" takes it time, introduces its ideas slowly, one at a time, and lets the mood itself serve as part of the song. It did take me a while to come to that, though.
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Animals is my second favourite Pink Floyd album, just behind WYWH. Like many others I think that Pigs a smidgen below the two other epics, but it's still great. Though I really really like the 8-track version of Pigs on the Wing and I am quite sad that it's not on the album proper - that guitar solo is epic.
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Animals is great. I actually listened to it to date. I love the way the albums flows - short, kind of intro song, then three epics, then a short outro song. Both parts of Pigs on the Wing soften up the atmosphere quite a bit, which I really like. I love Dogs, Pigs and Sheep, but out of those I think Pigs is my least favourite. I also like the Doctor Who Theme references in Sheep (which by the way are also featured in One of These Days, which is very audible in the Delicate Sound of Thunder version).
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I also like the Doctor Who Theme references in Sheep (which by the way are also featured in One of These Days, which is very audible in the Delicate Sound of Thunder version).
Can you elaborate? I'm not a Doctor Who fan so I don't know the theme, but this is the first I've heard of references to it.
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I also like the Doctor Who Theme references in Sheep (which by the way are also featured in One of These Days, which is very audible in the Delicate Sound of Thunder version).
Can you elaborate? I'm not a Doctor Who fan so I don't know the theme, but this is the first I've heard of references to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWezqoU79GQ#t=87
Compare with One of These Days from Delicate Sound at around 2:45, and it's unmistakable (imo)
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I like how, between the front and back of the jacket and the front and back of the inner sleeve, there are four photos, depicting the four elements (fire, earth, wind, and water). Also, each of the pictures has something "extra" going on. The frame for the photo of the burning man is scorched, the frame for the sand picture has a hole and sand is leaking, etc.
And of course in the original vinyl pressings, it was all enclosed in blue shrink-wrap so you couldn't see any of it. There was a sticker on it to let you know what it was.
But there's more - The album has a theme of absence, all of the songs are about something being missing - Sanity, purpose, sincerity, love. And each of the photographs has something missing, the orange veil concealing nothing, the faceless empty suit in the desert. My favourite of these is the shot that was given away as a postcard (again, the Wish You Were Here reference) of the diver with no ripples- no photoshopping, they built a platform under the water, go a diver in scuba gear to do a handstand and waited for the ripples to disperse.
Even the album cover itself was absent, behind the plastic shrink wrap. Wish you were here, indeed.
WYWH has the best album cover ever. No other album cover comes close for linking so simply and perfectly to the music it contains.
And an interesting factoid about Animals - in splitting POTW into 2, Waters got twice the songwriting royalties, as these were based on number of songs, and not the length of those songs. He therefore got 4 times as much for the relatively short POTW than Gilmour got for the side-spanning Dogs. It was the reason why Gilmour insisted that the next album have shorter songs. Animals is a masterpiece, however it will always be in the shadow of its 2 bigger brothers.
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The album has a theme of absence, all of the songs are about something being missing - Sanity, purpose, sincerity, love. And each of the photographs has something missing, the orange veil concealing nothing
Ah yes, I'd forgotten about the theme. Can't agree about the orange veil concealing nothing. Look closer. Once my friends told me about that one, it was pretty hard not to see.
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Never fear, I am actually working on a post! Should be today I'm done.
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Animals is amazing, amazing, amazing, but it is still in fourth place for me (behind Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall).
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Animals is 4th for me as well, but replace The Wall with Meddle
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Animals is 5th for me, with Wish You Were Here/Meddle/Dark Side/The Wall in front of it.
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The tour for Animals, known as the In The Flesh tour had the first Pink Floyd shows held in stadiums. In the first half of the show, the band played all of the Animals album in a slightly different sequence to the album, starting with "Sheep" then "Pigs on the Wing (Part I)", "Dogs", "Pigs on the Wing (Part II)" and "Pigs (Three Different Ones)". During "Pigs (Three Different Ones)", Waters would shout the number of the concert on the tour (such as "1-5!" for the fifteenth show) so recordings of the shows would be easy to distinguish from each other. Got to support the bootleggers, I guess. The second half was the entirety of.. Wish You Were Here. Encore consisted of "Money" and "Us and Them". One night, "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" was played, another "More Blues" (More on this later.)
During the tour Waters began to exhibit increasingly aggressive behaviour, and would often yell abusively at disruptive audiences who wouldn't stop yelling and screaming during the quieter numbers. In the New York shows they had to use local workers as lighting technicians due to union problems with their own crew. They had several difficulties with the workers; for example, Waters once had to beckon one of the spotlights to move higher when it only illuminated his lower legs and feet while he was singing. Can you imagine that? Waters singing Shine On You Crazy Diamond with only his legs illuminated? That would be awful!
But, then, it's the night I'm really wanting to talk last. Montreal. Olympic Stadium. 6th of July, 1977. If I remember correctly, just after "Dogs", a small group of noisy fans near the stage irritated Waters so much that he decided to spit on them. He was not the only band member who felt disaffected at the show seeing as Gilmour refused to perform the band's usual encores ("Money" and "Us and Them") that evening too. Thankfully, a backup guitarist, aka Snowy White stepped up to the plate, performing Money, Us and Them and as the crowd would not leave following the encore, also did "More Blues" for them. Later that night, Waters, whilst returning from hospital to treat an injury sustained to his foot while play-fighting backstage with manager Steve O'Rourke explained his displeasure and discomfort at what Pink Floyd were doing to a man known as Bob Erzin and his friend. He stated his desire to isolate himself by constructing a wall across the stage between the performers and the audience. Ruh-roh.
While Gilmour and Wright were in France recording solo albums, and Nick Mason was busy producing Steve Hillage's Green (god damn it Khan guitarist), Waters started making demos. He had an idea and started expanding on it. The spitting incident became the starting point for a new concept. In July 1978 the band reconvened at Britannia Row Studios, where Waters presented two new ideas for concept albums. (I'm actually unsure where the second one started, to be quite honest.) One was 90 minutes worth of Demos entitled "Behind The Wall" (It's on The Wall's Immersion Edition!), the second was a project about a man's dreams across one night that dealt with marriage, sex, and the pros and cons of monogamy and family life versus promiscuity. The band picked the first. We'll discuss that second one later.
But there was another factor to consider. Financial planners Norton Warburg Group (NWG) had invested £1.3–3.3 million of the band's money into high-risk capital venture as part of a scheme to try and reduce the band's tax liabilities. Guess what? It failed. Suddenly the band felt the pressure of needing to put this album out, but it's 26 tracks presented a challenge, and the band felt they needed extra man power. Enter once again, Bob Ezrin. And also James Guthrie. For the same job. Guthrie states that "I saw myself as a hot young producer ... When we arrived, I think we both felt we'd been booked to do the same job."
The first sessions at Britannia Row were emotionally charged, as Waters, Ezrin and Guthrie all had ideas of where they wanted this album to go. Where? I don't exactly know, but I do know they spent money upgraded the studio.. to then leave the country. Due to the NWG stuff, Pink Floyd were advised to bail out of the country so they didn't have to pay tax on what NWG had lost, and do that they did. Off to Nice, really. Ezrin's behavior, his punctuality and excuses were pissing off the band a bit too. His excuses were far-fetched enough that it provided the band with ridiculing Ezrin. So, problems with this producer.
Problems in the band when Waters and Wright's relationship fell apart and the band were rarely in the studio together. Ezrin and Guthrie spliced Mason's previously recorded drum tracks together, and Guthrie also worked with Waters and Gilmour during the day, returning at night to record Wright's contributions. A confrontation with Ezrin led to Wright working only at nights. Gilmour also expressed his annoyance, complaining that Wright's lack of input was "driving us all mad". Okay, so it really should be "Band doesn't like Richard Wright." The band also got a new deal with Columbia for a better deal but a Christmas Release was now on the table, so the band cut their holidays short. Well, everyone but Richard Wright.
Wright was fired. Or Quit. Either way, the end result was that Wright was no longer a Pink Floyd member, but still there as a session member. By August 1979 the running order was largely complete. Wright completed his duties at Cherokee Studios aided by session musicians Peter Wood and Fred Mandel, and Jeff Porcaro played drums in Mason's stead on "Mother". With the release fast approaching of The Wall,some issues led to some changes being made to the running order and content of The Wall, with "What Shall We Do Now?" being replaced by the similar but shorter "Empty Spaces", and "Hey You" being moved from its original place at the end of side three, to the beginning. With this done, the band just left the incorrect sleeves in here so we got..
THE WALL (1979)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/PinkFloydWallCoverOriginalNoText.jpg)
In The Flesh?
The Thin Ice
Another Brick In The Wall (Part I)
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)
Mother
Goodbye Blue Sky
Empty Spaces
Young Lust
One Of My Turns
Don't Leave Me Now
Another Brick In The Wall (Part III)
Goodbye Cruel World
Hey You
Is There Anybody Out There?
Nobody Home
Vera
Bring The Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb
The Show Must Go On
In The Flesh
Run Like Hell
Waiting For The Worms
Stop
The Trial
Outside The Wall
So, I'm actually gonna leave my review for SATURDAY, where I will be posting about what I feel the definitive version of this album is.
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Best song on the album? Comfortably Numb? Nope. Run Like Hell? Nope. Mother? Nope.
Nobody Home :heart
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In the 70's, there was no Internet, no instant access to the sum total of all human knowledge. All we knew is that Pink Floyd had a new album out. Most bands released an album every year or so, but Pink Floyd took two years (DSOTM 1973, WYWH 1975, Animals 1977) because their albums were so freaking awesome. Oh yeah, and we heard that the sound hearkened back to Dark Side of the Moon, kinda. The lead single was "Comfortably Numb" which has a similar sound and vibe to "Breathe".
My high school English teacher my junior and senior years was an amazing man named Mr. Spagnuolo. Senior year, A.P. English, the assignment was to analyze a book or poem. But not just any book or poem, it had to be a large work. He would approve all choices. This was a major project, half our grade for the quarter or something like that. The more adventurous among us might try song lyrics, but again it had to be approved. We would then read our papers out loud to the class, and the class evaluations would figure into our grade.
I asked him if I could do The Wall by Pink Floyd. A concept album, story of a life, or at least a character study, themes of childhood trauma, insanity, isolation. He approved. I wrote a ridiculous paper analyzing the story of Pink in The Wall. The readings would take place over several class sessions, since class periods were only 55 minutes back then. I was scheduled first, on the first day, but it was also the day of the school blood drive, and I was volunteering that day. So I read my paper and had to leave. I didn't get to hear anyone else's, or the feedback to mine, but people later told me that I blew everyone else away. None for the rest of the period came even close, plus everyone had gained a much greater appreciation of the album itself. Hell, sales probably went up because of my presentation.
I played The Wall to death, and today, I don't know if it holds up as it used to. Concept/story albums are a different animal, though. You have to be in the right mood, and no matter how you evaluate it, it seems to me that merely attempting a concept album gets you some points. Of the "big four", it currently ranks last for me. It's still great, and it got me through a very important period in my life, but damn, it's depressing, and I don't need that. When you think about it, most Pink Floyd music is pretty damned depressing, and this one is the darkest of all.
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Best song on the album? Comfortably Numb? Nope. Run Like Hell? Nope. Mother? Nope.
Nobody Home :heart
I don't know if I would say it's the best, but it's my number 2. I love that song and how emotional it is.
Another fun fact, Gilmour didn't play "Is there anybody out there?" I believe they paid some guy to fingerpick it.
As for as the entirety of the album, well I think it's top notch but I agree with what Gilmour said about it and that it lacks soul, which makes sense given the context. The wall is an album I rarely sit down and listen to but when I do I'm always impressed by it, simply fabulous.
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The Wall is a great album in the Floyd discography. At times they reach such emotional highs and stellar musicianship and song-writing. It's an album not without its flaws, such as the few moments of filler here and there and not every song managing to entice me the way some of the others do, but the story arc flows very well and the climax to it all is definitely a highlight. It's definitely my fifth favorite PF album, right before Meddle, Animals, Dark Side, and Wish.
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The Wall.
The fucking Wall.
Allow me to explain.
My father worked (and still does, in fact, though he's approaching 80 years old!) in construction, starting as a carpenter and working his way up to a foreman, then a superintendent for subcontractors, then finally project superintendents for general contractors. Construction work is not an easy life. It's ugly, brutal, physical work if you're doing it in the field, and when you're in charge, you generally find yourself spending a lot of your time realizing that architects and engineers can design things, but they have no idea how to BUILD them, so you're spending a lot of time in problem solving. And as I grew closer and closer to graduation, my dad kept telling me "for fuck's sake, don't do what I did, don't get into construction, just DON'T!" "Okay dad."
This makes what happened in the summer of 1985 funny, in both the humorous and peculiar ways. I came home from hanging out with my friends to my dad, who out of the blue said to me "hey, the company I work for is hiring laborers, want to make some money over the summer?" I instantly opened my mouth to say "fuck no, you always told me to stay the hell out of construction!" when I heard a voice in my head say the following:
Wait a minute now, if you're making money for a few months, you can get those things that doing the odd chore around the house or mowing the yard can't get you. Why, you can even buy expensive double albums like The Wall by Pink Floyd! That's ten whole bucks! Go for it.
I said sure, took the job, thinking, it's only for a few months, I'm sure I'll get out. Took my second check and bought a ton of Pink Floyd albums, but, of course, the big prize was The Wall. See, you made enough money doing this to buy The Wall. Mission accomplished.
29 years later, I am now a construction superintendent, dealing the same headaches and issues that my father always complained about, and to this day, when someone asks me how I got into construction, I tell them 'I wanted The Wall by Pink Floyd." :rollin
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Best song on the album? Comfortably Numb? Nope. Run Like Hell? Nope. Mother? Nope.
Nobody Home :heart
First time I've ever known someone else who felt this. AMAZING SONG!
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The Wall is essentially a soundtrack album to me. The live show and movie are absolutely amazing... But with just the music by itself, it's merely decent.
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The Wall.
The fucking Wall.
Allow me to explain.
My father worked (and still does, in fact, though he's approaching 80 years old!) in construction, starting as a carpenter and working his way up to a foreman, then a superintendent for subcontractors, then finally project superintendents for general contractors. Construction work is not an easy life. It's ugly, brutal, physical work if you're doing it in the field, and when you're in charge, you generally find yourself spending a lot of your time realizing that architects and engineers can design things, but they have no idea how to BUILD them, so you're spending a lot of time in problem solving. And as I grew closer and closer to graduation, my dad kept telling me "for fuck's sake, don't do what I did, don't get into construction, just DON'T!" "Okay dad."
This makes what happened in the summer of 1985 funny, in both the humorous and peculiar ways. I came home from hanging out with my friends to my dad, who out of the blue said to me "hey, the company I work for is hiring laborers, want to make some money over the summer?" I instantly opened my mouth to say "fuck no, you always told me to stay the hell out of construction!" when I heard a voice in my head say the following:
Wait a minute now, if you're making money for a few months, you can get those things that doing the odd chore around the house or mowing the yard can't get you. Why, you can even buy expensive double albums like The Wall by Pink Floyd! That's ten whole bucks! Go for it.
I said sure, took the job, thinking, it's only for a few months, I'm sure I'll get out. Took my second check and bought a ton of Pink Floyd albums, but, of course, the big prize was The Wall. See, you made enough money doing this to buy The Wall. Mission accomplished.
29 years later, I am now a construction superintendent, dealing the same headaches and issues that my father always complained about, and to this day, when someone asks me how I got into construction, I tell them 'I wanted The Wall by Pink Floyd." :rollin
Jaq, you are a master storyteller. Love it.
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Jaq, that is an awesome story! :tup :tup
As for The Wall, it is the album that not only got me into Pink Floyd, but was the kickstart of my journey into becoming a full-fledged diehard music fan, an obsession which still exists today.
And I got into it by seeing the movie first! My friends Matt and Eric had been hyping it up for weeks, so I rented the VHS from the video store and watched it. I didn't know what in the hell was going on in the film, but I loved the music, and it was days later that I bought the cassette of The Wall. I think it was all I listened to for literally months, and when I bought my first CD player shortly thereafter, I intentionally bought only The Wall so I could say that it was the first CD(s) I ever bought. I went back the next day and bought a handful more. :lol :lol
So yeah, even though I acknowledge that Dark Side and Wish You Were Here are better overall cohesive pieces of music, The Wall will always be my sentimental favorite. :hat
Oh, and Nobody Home is definitely one of the best songs from it. :coolio
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Surprise, surprise, surprise!
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Surprise, surprise, surprise!
I love you.
No homo.
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Hmm, okay. The Wall.
I'm not as crazy about this album that a lot of you seem to be. Like many double albums it seems outdrawn, and it has some great heights as well as songs that I don't like (same with the Beatles, they're my #1 band ever but The White Album has the same "problems" for me). I can't really connect with the theme/concept of the album, and the movie is just plain weird. But there are some great songs on this album: Mother, Goodbye Blue Sky, The Brick 1-3, Hey You, Comfortably Numb, Run Like Hell. But there are also songs I don't care for, like Vera, Nobody Home, Bring The Boys Back Home, and One Of My Turns, for instance. Yes, I know they're essential to the story/plot/concept but they're so depressing. I am very rarely in the mood to listen to this album, and I find it a chore to sit through.
I'd rank it last of their classic period (1971-1979), but it's a lot better than the ones who came after it (except The Division Bell).
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It's not without its flaws. Too many of the songs don't work, the concept is often confusing (worms?), it lacks the splendor we'd come to expect from PF, and worst of all the finale, which should be the big cresendo to the album, is unbelievably weak.
To really appreciate it, you have to understand the musical climate of the time. Rock was dead. Punk and Disco were everywhere. This was a time of "adapt or die" for the big 70s rock bands. There's nods towards contemporary musical trends to keep the suits at EMI happy, but beyond that, Waters just didn't care. Which is odd for the man who, not that many years later, would inflict Radio KAOS on the world...
Whichever way you look at it, The Wall is a towering achievement. It may not be as accessable as Dark Side, or as beautiful as WYWH, but for what it is, it's unsurpassed. There had never been anything quite like it before (Building a wall between the band and the audience? The promoters must have thought them mad), and I doubt there ever will be again. Only The Who's Tommy comes close.
I get something new out of this album every time I listen to it. Every line of the lyrics seems to work on so many levels. Watching Waters perform this at Wembley last year was just magical (I even went to Berlin in 1990, but that's another story).
It may not be Floyd's best album, but it is their most impressive achivement.
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As for The Wall, it is the album that not only got me into Pink Floyd, but was the kickstart of my journey into becoming a full-fledged diehard music fan, an obsession which still exists today.
This exactly, for me as well! This was the first album that hit me upside the head and showed me how awesome music CAN be. It doesn't rank first for me anymore (although it did for a long, long time), but this album will always have a cold place in my heart.
A cold, lonely, depressed place.
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The Wall is my second favorite PF album after Animals.
The one thing I remember about The Wall is that when I was a kid I used to sneak into my dad's cassette tapes collection which he frowned upon since he put that collection together in the 70's when it was still pretty hard to find foreign tapes in the market so my grandpa who worked in Sweden used to send him these tapes and that made them more dear to him but I digress. The only music I was listening to and made any sense to me as a kid in the early 90's is Micheal Jackson, I snuck The Wall out of my dad's collection and before the first side was over I stopped listening, the funny part is that I hated it cause I found it too incoherent "Where are the songs?! where do they start and end?" I didn't know the terminology back then but I was looking for verses and choruses, familiar song structure and I was turned off/weirded out when I couldn't find it, in retrospect I think I didn't like that I didn't understand how this music was to be enjoyed in that format.
I saw Roger Waters perform The Wall in Austin and it was a blast.
I hope they release the movie on BluRay, even the DVD version of this movie is shitty quality IMO.
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Ahh, The Wall, my introduction was from the movie, I loved it when I was 10. The animation sequences are what I liked. I was disappointed whem I bought the album that Empty Spaces wasn't What Shall We Do Now?
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The Trial makes me feel so... i don't know, but its great.
Great album
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Ahh, The Wall, my introduction was from the movie, I loved it when I was 10. The animation sequences are what I liked. I was disappointed whem I bought the album that Empty Spaces wasn't What Shall We Do Now?
Because perhaps you should listen to the live album (WHICH IS BEING COVERED NOW).
So naturally, Pink Floyd toured The Wall. You know, it was only natural. The tour was relatively small compared to previous tours for a major release, with only 31 shows in total. You want to know why this was? The costs of the tour were estimated to have reached US$ 1.5 million even before the first performance. Or as I stated to someone when researching this "The bankrupt band went from being in money trouble to safe to being right back into money trouble."
Nick Mason sums it up quite neatly, "The problem, really, with the show is that it wasn't a touring show, so it had to be set up, and left, and taken down again. There were a lot of light operators and stage operators and wall builders. Because of the amount of stuff that went up and down, floated across, did this, did that, there were a lot of operators, rather than just people putting stuff up. And, of course we had lots of semis, as I believe you call them, because of the special lighting pods that we used which needed, each one needs a trailer unit to hold it. And the special stage, because of the way the stage was actually used, there was a sort of structural bracing piece for the building of the wall. So it was all special equipment, I mean it was absurdly expensive. It's not something other people will do, generally, because it's just so expensive to put on, it's simply not feasible. But it was great to have done it once."
But away they went! In 1980, they played a grand total of two venues in America. These were the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (Which they played 7 Times) and the Nassau Coliseum in Unidale, New York (5 Times.). These were in February, and then the next set of shows was.. in August, 1980, at Earls Court in London. After playing a total of six shows, their next shows took place in February, 1981! This time in Westfalenhallen (Germany please), a venue in Dortmund, Germany, which was 8 shows and then one last outing at the Earl Court in July.
This tour, by the way? No Pink Floyd band member made a profit on this tour, but Richard Wright (Who was brought along with the title of Session Musician) made a profit! Take that, Waters!
The idea to include live concert footage of any significant length for The Wall film was dropped shortly before the final shows took place. Though, this is where things get.. muddy. It had been widely believed that 'the wrong type of film' had been used and the results were dark and murky. Mark Fisher, partly responsible for designing the show said the footage was: 'very dark and horrible and boring and should be burned'. These rumours were partially scotched when the Channel 4 documentary 'Behind the Wall' (2000) used perfectly clear footage from the 1981 concerts. Yeah. I don't know what's going on about this film other than someone probably didn't want it shown.
David Gilmour said this about the filming in an interview, "About 20 minutes were shot – for example, 'Hey You', where the camera was behind the wall focusing on us, then it went up and over the wall onto the audience. That's a great bit of footage. But only three tracks were filmed." Uh-huh. What does Waters say about this? That The London shows in 1980/81 were filmed and he had all of the footage and was thinking of putting it together to be released. However felt extremely reluctant to release the concerts on the VCR. What.
Want another twist in this tale? Waters, in 2009 during an interview with Mojo, stated he had found more footage! The assumption is that the cameramen just kept shooting when they weren't supposed to and nobody asked them anything. (Note: It's believed this footage is what is projected on the Wall during the song Mother on Waters' Wall Tour.) Waters did state he would possibly release the footage to the public, so we can only hope..
If you want an audio memory of this tour, then what I'm actually hear to talk about. You see, there's a thing called..
Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81 (Released 1999)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/38/Is_there_anybody_out_there%3F_40273_big.jpg/220px-Is_there_anybody_out_there%3F_40273_big.jpg)
"In the Flesh?"
"The Thin Ice"
"Another Brick in the Wall (Part I)"
"The Happiest Days of Our Lives"
"Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)"
"Mother"
"Goodbye Blue Sky"
"Empty Spaces"
"What Shall We Do Now?"
"Young Lust"
"One of My Turns"
"Don't Leave Me Now"
"Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)"
"The Last Few Bricks"
"Goodbye Cruel World"
"Hey You"
"Is There Anybody Out There?"
"Nobody Home"
"Vera"
"Bring the Boys Back Home"
"Comfortably Numb"
"The Show Must Go On"
"In the Flesh"
"Run Like Hell"
"Waiting for the Worms"
"Stop"
"The Trial"
"Outside the Wall"
(Songs in Bold are not on The Wall album)
The album artwork featured the life-masks of the four band members in front of a black wall. It was worn by the Surrogate Band during the song, well, "In The Flesh". Because of every song on the live album was recorded at different dates, it's worth noting that "Goodbye Blue Sky" and parts of "Run Like Hell" were taken from the 17 June 1981 show, the very last performance by the four-man Pink Floyd until the 2005 Live 8 concert. See More Here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_There_Anybody_Out_There%3F_The_Wall_Live_1980-81)
But this is the best way to listen to The Wall, for me. It seems like this was always the way that Waters wanted to present it at least. There's an extra atmosphere to songs like "Goodbye Blue Sky", "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 1)" and "Hey You" that the live format seems to add quite nicely. Really, it's got the band on fire too. The first half of The Wall is quite nicely bolsted with "What Shall We Do Now?", opening with some amazing drumming from Mason. Infact, the first half is even nicely summed with the new song "The Last Few Bricks", which contains themes from contained themes from "The Happiest Days of Our Lives", "Don't Leave Me Now", "Young Lust", "Empty Spaces" and "What Shall We Do Now?". It's really quite fantastic.
The second half features, in my honest opinion, the best version of "Comfortably Numb". I'm serious. It's simply perfect, it sounds rather more menacing if I'm to be honest, which might be the reason why. "Run Like Hell" through to "The Trial" is breathtaking, Waters/Gilmour step up to the plate with the vocals so well that it's perfection from both of their voices.
Plus, the recording of "Outside the Wall" ends with some git shouting "MONEY!".
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I love the live album. I have the booklet that came along with it when the cd's being in the cover. I have to agree with you that the way to listen to it is live.
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yes, that live album! Definitely the best way to experience The Wall (although the versions of ABITWII and Comfortably Numb on Pulse are the definitive versions of those songs)
Like a lot of you, in terms of content, it's my least favorite of the big 4, but from a sentimental value, it's my second favorite. Dark Side was my first taste of the band, but it was The Wall that really made me a fan
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I think it's a mistake to refer to this as a "tour" and evaluate it as such. Pink Floyd made it very clear from the beginning that because of all the logistical considerations outlined above, that there would be no tour. It was not possible to take a show of this magnitude on the road. Instead, they would play extended engagements in select cities, and that's exactly what they did. They were publicized far in advance, so people could make travel arrangements and buy tickets. There were to be 10 shows in L.A., 10 in New York, and 10 in London if they could get that together. And as you state, they only ended up playing seven, five, and six. They might have broken even if they'd sold out all 30 shows, but the tickets were very expensive (for the time) and simple math tells you that they had to cut nearly half the shows, and the "tour" was a financial disaster. Those who saw the show got to see something truly amazing, no doubt. But it basically destroyed the band.
Those of you who prefer the live album or the movie to the original studio album, that's great. We all have different tastes, and many people's first exposure to The Wall in any format was the movie, not the album. And the music really does come alive on the live album, no question. But for me, it's something like when they make a movie from a well-known book. I prefer books to movies anyway, but if I really like a book, I would prefer to basically see on screen what's in the book. No extra shit added to appeal to a wider audience, and while it's a given that some material must be cut, it really helps if the screenwriters and editors have at least read the book and have some idea of what's actually important to the story.
Anyway, I'd probably listened to The Wall album 50 times before the movie came out. The Wall was my senior year in high school. While it's not my favorite now, it was for a long time, and I think it's brilliant exactly as it is. There was no movie, there was only the album, and the movie that played in your head as you listened to it and read the words. Watching the movie version of The Wall is basically seeing someone's else's vision of the story, when I was fine with mine, and prefer it.
As for the live album, it's great. But for me, much of the appeal of Pink Floyd's music is the atmosphere it creates and the perfect production, the perfect blending and layering of instruments and vocals in the studio. The performances on the live album are great, but again, every note, every second of the studio album is in my permanent memory, and every deviation from that just sounds "wrong" to me. Better perhaps, sometimes even preferable, but not right. I still spin The Wall sometimes, on road trips or other situations where I have some time to myself. But I haven't listened to the live version in probably 30 years.
I consider myself fortunate to have been there to see all of this music unfold in my lifetime, but many of you have a different perspective on all of it, and I recognize that my view can sometimes be myopic.
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Yeah, the live album is good, but there is no way it is as good or better than the studio original.
As for the film, maybe it's the "I heard those versions first" factor, but the film version of Mother remains my favorite version of that tune.
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I am with you, Orbert. The album version is definitive.
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I am with you, Orbert. The album version is definitive.
I actually have a bootleg video of one of the Earls Court shows. Terrible video quality, but interesting to watch none the less.
My favorite PF album, and the grand-daddy of concept albums (though The Who fans might try to argue that). Hard to imagine it as anything but a double album, even though in this day and age, it would pretty much fit on a single CD.
So many memories with this album, and so many memories I've forgotten. Watched the movie countless times in my teens, never once straight. I hardly remember anything about the it :lol. Seeing this live a few years back was a magnificent spectacle to say the least.
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Given how many concept albums there were between Tommy and The Wall, yeah, I think people might argue that point :lol
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Given how many concept albums there were between Tommy and The Wall, yeah, I think people might argue that point :lol
I'm struggling off the top of my head to think of one that would be in the same league as either of these two.
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Given how many concept albums there were between Tommy and The Wall, yeah, I think people might argue that point :lol
I'm struggling off the top of my head to think of one that would be in the same league as either of these two.
Me too.
One really good one is the Eagles's Desperado, but I wouldn't put it in the same category as the aforementioned two.
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Just listening to the live release, and it's a lot better than I remember. I've listened to the studio version countless times, and this is about as good.
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Given how many concept albums there were between Tommy and The Wall, yeah, I think people might argue that point :lol
I'm struggling off the top of my head to think of one that would be in the same league as either of these two.
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis. Double album, character study, certainly in the same league and very much in the same vein.
Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes. Double album, different type of concept album but an 82-minute rock symphony in four movements and considered a masterpiece by many.
Also, in general I think that calling something the grand-daddy of its genre would imply that it's the oldest, the patriarch. The Wall is the youngest of all these. Tommy probably has a better claim to the title by truly being the first of its kind. I'm just saying.
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Don't forget Sgt. Peppers, Pet Sounds, or Freak Out! though, which all predated even Tommy by a couple of years and can also be regarded as concept albums.
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Maybe in some circles, but certainly not all, and not in the same vein or league. I'm wondering what your criteria are.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is not a concept album according The Beatles themselves. Paul had an idea about making the album supposedly the work an a fictitious band known as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and came up with the idea of the reprise at the end and also having both pieces lead into the songs that followed, providing some continuity. But that's it, and that's only half the album. The rest is truly just a collection of songs.
Pet Sounds I've never understood, but if you say so, then maybe. I've heard it lauded as a landmark in production and composition (which I don't really get either), but I've never heard it referred to as a concept album. Don't get me wrong. I love The Beach Boys and consider Pet Sounds a great collection of songs, but what is the concept?
Freak Out! is amazing for what it is, but let's be realistic. It's a bunch of guys let loose in a studio to do whatever they want. Side Four is literally them messing around with whatever the find in the studio and recording the results. Again, what is the concept?
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I never got the "Sgt. Pepper is a concept album" think either. I think that's a case of the Beatles being so revered that some just like to credit them with everything, so they give them the "They had the first concept album" label, too. Hell, I love the Beatles, but let's be real.
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No love for Quadrophenia?
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Quadrophenia is great. I go back and forth on what my favorite Who record is - not just concept album, but record overall - between that and Tommy.
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Holy shit, these 15 pages are an amazing read. Congratulations to everyone. :clap:
I've been extremely busy lately so I didn't have time to go through any of these albums with you (or listen to them some more), and it would kinda suck to join now when the discussion is slowly coming to an end. However, I'll follow and I'll read. I'm loving all of this.
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On that note, I'll probably have The Final Cut/Some solo albums up tomorrow or Tuesday.
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ARE THERE ANY PARANOIDS IN THE AUDIENCE? IS THERE ANYONE HERE WHO IS WEAK?
(Yeah, I love the live album).
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No love for Quadrophenia?
Crap. I knew I was forgetting one. Can't believe it was the other one from The Who, when we were discussing Tommy in the first place.
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So I will say... THE WALL is my all time favourite album. It tops anything else I have ever listened to and will continue to until the day I die. I became obsessed with the concept behind The Wall in high school when a friend of mine was in one of Paul Green's School Of Rock programs and they put on a full performance of the album. The weeks before the show I decided to steal my dad's copy of The Wall (and his copy of DSotM) on CD and listen to them. Before this, I had heard The Wall (and DSotM) a hundred times from my dad listening but I never delve deeper. I became obsessed with the concept of events in one's life driving them to isolating him/her self from the rest of the world. Then and even still today I deal with social anxieties that make me just want to build a wall around myself and cut myself off. I've seen Water's live Wall show twice... and they will forever be ingrained as the greatest two shows I have ever seen.
Also... my next tattoo is going to be the crossed hammers somewhere on my body... probably on my other calf (opposite of my Majesty Symbol :D )
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Regarding the concept albums thing above: none of the three I mentioned are concept albums in the vein of The Wall, Tommy, or The Lamb which all are focused on a story with a plot arc and characters, but rather in closely tied themes (musically or lyrically). Hell, there's probably still a few out there that predate even those, but then again, I don't wanna get into a "what makes a concept album" debate now. :lol
It's true that Tommy can be regarded as the predecessor to concept albums that closely follow a story arc, though I think The Wall and The Lamb perfected it into what a lot of artists strive to do to this very day.
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It's true that Tommy can be regarded as the predecessor to concept albums that closely follow a story arc, though I think The Wall and The Lamb perfected it into what a lot of artists strive to do to this very day.
Exactly my thoughts. I think that both Tommy and Quad were the potential competition for my 'grand-daddy' comment. Tales and The Lamb came to mind with Jaq's first challenge, but they don't quite compare to The Wall. I believe The Wall is the standard for "true" concept albums... with characters, storyline, plot etc... not just thematic albums (DSotM for instance).
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Don't want to derail anything, but while we're on the subject.
Days of Future Past by The Moody Blues at least deserves a mention. Even though it is a bit more "loose" of a concept...it is certainly much closer to a realized concept album than Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper. I still consider them to be one of the very first "prog bands" and Days to be one of the first prog albums....though not a double album like the ones mentioned.
Anyway. Like many others, I went through a phase of being absolutely obsessed with The Wall. I think there was a 6 month period when I was about 18 when I did not listen to any other music but The Wall. The cassette did not leave my car's tape player for 6 straight months, and I still wasn't really "sick of it" when I decided to move on. The concepts just resonated. Not that I had lost my father or any of the other things mentioned. But in a broader brush stroke, it just kindof touches on the themes of ALL the various things (tragedies and other painful events) that can leave scars on a person and make them want to pull away from all human contact. We all have our own individual "bricks" and that is what so many people relate to. If they are not the type of person to pull away, the pain often makes them wish they could.
Absolutely amazing album.
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Whilst I can't talk about the movie version of The Wall really here, (I love it but man is it crazy), it does feature into what was originally planned for the next album. It was supposed to be a soundtrack album of the movie, featuring new music and re-recorded songs that were in the movie, like "When the Tigers Broke Free" and "Bring the Boys Back Home". Mr Waters was also planning to write new music to expand on the story that was told on The Wall. Then, Falklands War happened. Waters was upset with the display of aggressive foreign policy from Miss Thatcher, so he changed musical direction for this album, becoming quite political really.
This change did not sit well with Mr David Gilmour. He was quite unimpressed by Waters's apparent politicising, and the new creative direction prompted arguments between the two. Infact, Gilmour also didn't like the fact they were giving songs that didn't make the cut on The Wall, either. Although this wasn't the first time this had happened (Dogs and Sheep, for example), Gilmour felt like that the tracks "Your Possible Pasts", "One of the Few", "The Final Cut", and "The Hero's Return" simply weren't good enough. He stated he wanted to work on new material..
'I'm certainly guilty at times of being lazy, and moments have arrived when Roger might say, "Well, what have you got?" And I'd be like, "Well, I haven't got anything right now. I need a bit of time to put some ideas on tape." There are elements of all this stuff that, years later, you can look back on and say, "Well, he had a point there." But he wasn't right about wanting to put some duff tracks on The Final Cut. I said to Roger, "If these songs weren't good enough for The Wall, why are they good enough now?"' This is a quote from David Gilmour, and well.. Okay, so I can't check on this, but when I was first doing research on this entire discography thread, I remember reading about Waters giving Gilmour a task to bring in one song, any kind of song for the album. Gilmour came back with a bunch of guitar lines. So, Waters went on with this album.
Early on in making of the album, Gilmour and Waters were actually capable of working together, playing the video game Donkey Kong in their spare time, but they soon couldn't stand each other and so went into recording on their own. Like previous Pink Floyd albums, The Final Cut used sound effects combined with advances and innovations in audio recording technology, which is where Nick Mason spent most of his time. Because he was going through a divorce, he too was not spending time with the rest of the band and just doing a bit of work. After months of poor relations, and following a final confrontation, Gilmour was removed from the credit list as producer, at his own insistence. This is.. well..
The Final Cut- 1983
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e4/FloydFC-Cover01.jpg/220px-FloydFC-Cover01.jpg)
1. "The Post War Dream" 3:00
2. "Your Possible Pasts" 4:26
3. "One of the Few" 1:11
4. "When the Tigers Broke Free" 3:16
5. "The Hero's Return" 2:43
6. "The Gunner's Dream" 5:18
7. "Paranoid Eyes" 3:41
8. "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert" 1:17
9. "The Fletcher Memorial Home" 4:12
10. "Southampton Dock" 2:10
11. "The Final Cut" 4:45
12. "Not Now John" 4:56
13. "Two Suns in the Sunset" 5:23
Okay, so I'm leaving the solo albums for Wednesday evening, because I felt like the point of Waters leaving should be a discussion point, then we'll have Momentary lapse/amused on Friday. But for now...
I like this album. But no way will I listen to it repeatedly. It's too depressing, way too depressing. Considering really, it's now the unbridled emotion of Waters about yet another bloody pointless war, I suppose there was going to be nothing else on this album but depressing. Despite how uninterested Gilmour was during the creative and recording process, this album features some solid guitar work from him. Nothing too spectacular mind you, but solid.
The tracks I listen to the most are the last four. They're beautiful, constrating pieces of music that really showcases what would be the last Roger Waters effort with the Floyd. You've got an acoustic based song, a depressing rock song followed by hard rock, with that climax of "Two Suns In The Sunset" really adding to it. But the rest of the album.. really, it is just too depressing. Not bad, just..
Hard to listen to.
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I was in to Pink Floyd for years before I finally purchased The Final Cut. I like the latter part of your writeup GoD, and it makes total sense. It's hard for me to listen to because it sticks out like a sore thumb in the PF catalog. It doesn't feel progressive like Animals or WYWH; it isn't spectacular like DSotM; it isn't ground-breaking and incredibly creative like the Wall... it just feels different from every other PF album I had and knew. It's not bad... just different - and mediocre.
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I'm ashamed that I was too late to discuss The Wall. That's one of my favorites, if not my favorite album of all time.
Here's the story: in 1979, when my dad was 20 years old, he was slowly becoming a Floyd fan but fell in love with The Wall the moment he heard it. I grew up with that album, and when the time came to figure out what I wanted to play on the final exam of my 4 years of Conservatory, it just had to be The Wall. I was 20 years old when me and a couple of my best friends started rehearsing the album. (21 when we finally played it)
Apart from the fact that I really listened to the album in an entirely different way those months, than ever before, I never realized, until the night we performed, how big of a deal it had to be for my dad. There are album that I've liked since I was 20, but to think that my son or daughter (if I get kids) would perform Bridge Across Forever, Six Degrees, or, or, when they would finish their school, is magical. My dad was crying his eyes out that night, that made the album even more special than it already was.
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That's an awesome story! :tup Yeah, nothing like playing something for one or both parents that has real meaning for them.
As for The Final Cut, it always sounded to me like what we later found out it was: an epilogue to The Wall. It didn't have the magic of a fully-realised Pink Floyd album, or one created with the full involvement of all players, and it wasn't either of these things.
And really, I've never liked it. I played it I think once or twice, then put it on the shelf. Years later, (prompted by a discussion here on DTF I believe) I gave it another spin. Nope. Still don't like it. Still too damned depressing and empty sounding.
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Never really cared for it either. I mean, it's not bad, but it's not Floyd, either.
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I don't dislike this album, but it's really not a Floyd album. It's pretty much a Roger Waters album with Pink Floyd providing backup (and Gilmour on one track). My favorite tracks are The Post War Dream, Your Possible Pasts, When the Tigers Broke Free (although the one I have doesn't have that track), Hero's Return, Gunner's Dream, Fletcher, and the title track
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I love this album. I understand people's grievances for it but even still I always find it extremely enjoyable to listen to and I think it has some really great moments. It's not really a Floyd album, but I don't have a problem with that. The three song run at the end: Final Cut, Not Now John, and Two Suns in the Sunset is one of my favorite three song runs of all time. I love all three songs and together they pack an emotional punch that gives me chills every time.
Oddly though I always felt like When the Tigers Broke Free was way too out of place. It fits thematically but I dunno, it breaks the flow for me.
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Oddly though I always felt like When the Tigers Broke Free was way too out of place. It fits thematically but I dunno, it breaks the flow for me.
It wasn't on the original release, which is the primary reason it doesn't fit the flow.
The Final Cut works if you think of it as what it really is: a Roger Waters solo album. It's Pink Floyd in name only, with a few great songs, some good ones, and a whole fucking ton of depressing ones. I tend to recommend it only to people who are completionists or who love Waters' solo albums.
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Final Cut's pretty bland, but I like it well enough. There's some nice melodies and lyrical ideas here and there. I quite like The Post War Dream and how it builds up before blowing up into the 30 second epicness that closes it out. Really, all the songs have at least one nice section, but it all kind of muddles together. I don't listen to this album very often, but it's not like I hate it when I put it on. Like Jaq said, it's really a Roger Waters solo album.
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Oddly though I always felt like When the Tigers Broke Free was way too out of place. It fits thematically but I dunno, it breaks the flow for me.
It wasn't on the original release, which is the primary reason it doesn't fit the flow.
The Final Cut works if you think of it as what it really is: a Roger Waters solo album. It's Pink Floyd in name only, with a few great songs, some good ones, and a whole fucking ton of depressing ones. I tend to recommend it only to people who are completionists or who love Waters' solo albums.
I know it wasn't on the original, but it still seems odd. Everything about that song fits with Final Cut. Depressing music, Roger Waters singing about war, the rest of the band nowhere to be heard. Theoretically it should fit this album much more than The Wall (which if it was on the album, it wouldn't have fit there either), but it still doesn't.
But yea, I went in expecting a Waters solo album and I got one. I really love his contributions to Floyd and thought they completely lost it when he left, so it's no surprise that I enjoy this album. Unfortunately I don't really like his other solo albums. :-\
By the way, Gilmour is hardly on this album but when he is he fucking kills it. The few guitar solos he has are right up there with his best. The guy never has a bad moment.
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The only song I really enjoy is "Not Now John". Fuck all that indeed. It hits hard, I love the mechanical noises, Gilmour's vocals, playing, Waters' insane screaming ("Where's the fucking bar, John?!"), and the way it reprises One Of The Few.
The rest of it... nothing. Boring an depressing.
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Never cared for this album, it's so dull and depressing. I've tried listening to it a couple of times, but it doesn't do anything for me.
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It's an album that came after a streak of 4 timeless masterpieces, that was an enormous pressure for a band coming apart. It feels like the winding down of Roger Waters and a declaration that none of his psychological problems has been resolved even though they've been laid out for everyone to see.
Again musically it came after 4 very well structured album and The Final Cut feels like a normal any-band album, just a bunch of new songs, not a bad thing but not what I look for with Floyd and was never presented again.
& I don't get the appeal of When the Tigers Broke Free.
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I didn't actually check out The Final Cut until relatively recently. I like it, but it's not up there with Dark Side, Animals or Wish in my opinion. That being said, "Two Suns in the Sunset" is one of the greatest songs the band ever did. Brilliant finale.
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Oh you guys! Now I feel like I should listen to this album again.
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Just had a re-listen of it for the first time in years. You know, when you start to think of it NOT as a PF album, and as a Rogers solo album, it puts it in a new perspective, and makes it seem better to me. It's all about expectations. Expecting it to be something it isn't will only lead to disappointment. So, as a Waters solo effort, I enjoyed it. There were a few "oh, that's definitely PF" moments - noticeably in the title track (especially the solo), and Not Now John. As Mosh said, the final three songs are great, probably because these sound the most like PF.
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Pass.
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I gave this one a spin today. Listening to it, really listening, it's better than I'd remembered. Lots of atmosphere, great production, and even though I get a bit tired of the bleakness of it, each of the songs individually sounds great. David's guitar sounds great as always, the keyboards (is that Rick?) do exactly what they're supposed to do, and the songs have a lot of feel. Overall, it's the singularity of the album that people agree is its downfall, but it's not horrible or anything, just not my thing.
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Love this album. I discovered it while I was at my height of my Wall obsession. I discovered the hard way when I was in high school not to listen to Possible Pasts and the title track while deeply depressed though. Because I did... a lot. It kinda sucks because now I associate the songs (and the whole album) with deep depression and spinning it brings me down. lol
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I gave this one a spin today. Listening to it, really listening, it's better than I'd remembered. Lots of atmosphere, great production, and even though I get a bit tired of the bleakness of it, each of the songs individually sounds great. David's guitar sounds great as always, the keyboards (is that Rick?) do exactly what they're supposed to do, and the songs have a lot of feel. Overall, it's the singularity of the album that people agree is its downfall, but it's not horrible or anything, just not my thing.
It is not Rick! This is the only PF album with no Rick on it. The keys are either Roger Waters, Andy Bown or Michael Kamen.
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Damn. I knew that there was the falling out and Rick left for a while, so it makes sense that this is the one he's not on.
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I actually feel that it wasn't just Waters who had fallen out with Rick, but Gilmour too. Especially after The Wall tour, Waters must have been fine with Wright as just a session guy but not working with him.
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^ I felt the same way.
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You know Nick didn't really play on the album either right? I don't remember how many songs but Waters made him feel like such a shitty drummer that Nick psyched himself out of being able to play.
He did work on the holophonics on this album though.
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You know Nick didn't really play on the album either right? I don't remember how many songs but Waters made him feel like such a shitty drummer that Nick psyched himself out of being able to play.
He did work on the holophonics on this album though.
I can't actually find anything about Waters making him feel shitty, all I can find is that Mason was going through a divorce and just couldn't be fully active. The only song that had drums that Mason didn't do was "Two Suns In The Sunset".
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Ok.
I just read Inside Out too.... I was mixing it up with some other info I got while back. Disregard :lol
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You're thinking about A Momentary Lapse of Reason, where Mason felt so poorly about his drumming that he barely played anything on the album.
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Now that I have more time on my hands, I just can't not chime in. ;D
The Final cut is probably the album I needed the most time to get into. Five years. Never had an album by any band ever taken me so long to figure out. I was 15 when I started getting into Floyd, and I already loved Animals, Wish you were here, Dark side of the moon and some of the early stuff. The Wall was fine but still nothing special (which changed in a few years as well), but The Final cut was just too much. While discussing Floyd with my dad's friend, who had already owned the vinyl for about 25 years, he told me a line that stuck in my head to this day: ''Don't worry about not getting The Final cut, you'll listen to it when you get older.''
Five years later, it happened. I saw Brit Floyd live and they busted out Get your filthy hands off my desert and The Fletcher's memorial home (both of which were only the few songs from the album that I enjoyed). Remembering how cool that was, I decided to return to the album. Suddenly it hit me. Falklands war. The lyrics continuing the anti-war theme that started with The Wall. The dark, depressing vibe that started with The Wall. Roger Waters coming off extremely bitter and aggressive vocally. That was it. I started loving it.
Honestly, I don't see it as a Roger Waters album. I see it as a Pink Floyd album. Reading through this thread reminded me that Waters started to be a more prominent songwriter in the time of Wish you were here. Every next album seems to be more and more about Waters. And even if we compare The Final cut to The Wall, we can see that Gilmour is listed as a co-writer on only one out of 12 songs on The Final cut, whereas he was listed on three songs out of 26 on The Wall. It's not that big of a difference if you ask me. Why would The Final cut be a Waters solo album but not The Wall?
As far as favorites go, I love the opening song, especially the way it explodes in the last half a minute. The Fletcher has a tremendously emotional vocal performance, incredibly sad melody and some of the Roger's sickest lyrics. The guitar solo is worth mentioning, as I think Gilmour did a fine job on here despite not being involved too much. The song with some more involvement from him, Not now John, is also one of my favorites, since it's one of the catchier, ''funner'' songs on it - I also adore the way Waters goes crazy during the outro. Finally, the underrated jewel has to be Southampton dock, featuring extremely touching lyrics and a simple yet powerful chord progression. Also, there something about ''...she bravely waves the boys goodbye again'' and the high pitched background vocals that almost move me to tears. Man, Roger surely sang his heart out on this album.
Overall, I think this is a brilliant and logical continuation of Pink Floyd discography. People often talk about ''the big four'', but I would actually go out on a limb and call it ''the big five'' - a streak of albums that includes The Final cut.
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Why would The Final cut be a Waters solo album but not The Wall?
Richard Wright. At the very least, The Wall featured all four members of Pink Floyd, the ones who had made the sound, made the band what it is. It's not just about the writing credits; there's a lot of give and take and sharing of musical ideas that happen, even subconsciously and even if one of them is technically only a session player, that make an album sound how it sounds. The Final Cut does not have that sound. The keyboards, as I said upthread, are okay, adequate, but not a major contributing force in the sound.
That's why I consider The Wall the last "real" Pink Floyd album. After that, Rick was out, then Roger left and Rick came back and we were a bit closer to the classic sound, but without the writing. Sure, David writes some good songs, but even as much as Roger was a control freak and pretty much a dick to work with, Pink Floyd wasn't the same without him.
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That's interesting, I never thought of Wright as someone who strongly influenced the sound on The Wall, which might be why The Final cut and The Wall sound so similar to me. It sounds like most of the keyboard parts on The Wall were already composed or somewhat figured out by Waters, which might be possible knowing that Waters demoed a lot of the stuff before starting to work with the guys. It's not like I'm perfectly familiar with the history, though, I even forgot if Wright was REALLY involved in it and how much of a ''session musician'' was he. Maybe I should return a couple of pages. ;D
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I agree with Bob... not just on the aspect of Wright only being a session musician, but on the fact that writing credits alone don't tell the story of how songs/albums sound and feel. Writing =/= contributing. The Wall had much more contributions from the band despite Waters leading the bulk of the writing of it. That's not the case with The Final Cut - Waters wrote; the band didn't really 'contribute'. Add on to the fact Gilmour only sings on one track, that's a big piece of it as well. While he only has 3/26 writing credits on The Wall, he's singing on 9/26 - and 7 of the tracks he doesn't sing on are the 'bridge' tracks that are under 2 minutes. So in a sense, he's singing on half the album - vs 1/12 on The Final Cut.
It just doesn't sound like a PF album to me - just the same way that Piper doesn't either - it was dominated far too much by one individual's contributions.
That's just my opinion.
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"Comfortably Numb" wouldn't be the same without Rick. Ditto "Run Like Hell". "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" features the classic interplay between David and Rick. Beyond the hits, there are just countless little atmospheric things that Rick adds that I suppose someone else could have done, but they would have been different, and the sound would not have been the same. Some people call The Wall a Roger Waters solo album. I've always disagreed. To me, it's not about who wrote what or how much, it's how it sounds. The Wall sounds like Pink Floyd to me. The Final Cut sounds good, but it just seems to be lacking something, and now I know what it is.
Ninja'd but whatever, we're saying the same thing anyway.
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Great points and interesting views indeed. I don't agree with all of it, but the ''writing =/= contributing'' is something we can all relate to when discussing music.
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You know Nick didn't really play on the album either right? I don't remember how many songs but Waters made him feel like such a shitty drummer that Nick psyched himself out of being able to play.
He did work on the holophonics on this album though.
I can't actually find anything about Waters making him feel shitty, all I can find is that Mason was going through a divorce and just couldn't be fully active. The only song that had drums that Mason didn't do was "Two Suns In The Sunset".
I remember reading somewhere that Mason had issues with the meter changes in Two Suns. It is a strange song as far as meters go.
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Never cared for the album as a whole but I really like Two Suns in the Sunset regardless. Even if it's depressing as all hell
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Yeah, there is no doubt that Waters was the brains behind The Wall, but it wouldn't have been nearly as good without Gilmour. Hell, Comfortably Numb wouldn't have even been a part of it without Gilmour insisting on it. That is crazy to think about.
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I'll say it here - The Final Cut is the best album Pink Floyd made.
It's NOT a Waters solo album, as many people claim, it's a fully fledged Floyd album. It's not as beautiful or as soaring as WYWH or DSOTM. It's harsh, it's ugly, it's stark and minimalistic. It's difficult to listen to.
The Vietnam War saw a huge flow of protest songs from American music artists. Where was the protest music from UK artists about the Falklands War? There weren't any. Paul Weller was in The Style Council now. The UK music scene was utterly devoid of angry Young Turks bashing into Maggie. I find it so odd that the only major protest music against the Falklands War came from a bunch of middle aged millionaires. These were the very people you'd have expected to be donating money to the Tories, not writing protest albums against them.
You do need to be older to appreciate this. Possibly you need to be British and of an age to have lived through those times, but I do feel that the Betrayal of the Post-War Dream theme probably resonates with a lot of people around the world - the things we fought and died for dismissed and betrayed by a new generation of venal, monetarist politicians. I look around Britain today and all I can think is "Maggie, what did you do?"
The music matches the lyrics perfectly - take Paranoid Eyes, for example, it's basically poetry with hardly any music or tune at all. It is stark music for a stark theme. Waters spits out his acusations with real venom. Gilmour's guitar solos are so few and far between they really hit when they come.
It moves me like no other album. The Gunner's Dream can still make me cry, all these years later. It is the Floyd's most acomplished work, and their best album.
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Despite having The Wall as my favorite PF album and one of my all time favorites, I haven't checked out The Final Cut. I guess I should.
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I still remember in the early days of the internet...I was surfing the web for the first time on my new "hand me down" 8088 computer.
I found what was (at that time) the most popular PF fan website on the net. They were having a poll for PF's best album, and PF's worst album. With over three thousand participants, The Final Cut won BOTH categories. I never forgot that. It makes me :lol to this very day, and it shows just how truly polarizing this album is.
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I'll say it here - The Final Cut is the best album Pink Floyd made.
It is the Floyd's most acomplished work, and their best album.
There's something you don't hear every day... or, ever.
shows just how truly polarizing this album is.
I guess The Final Cut is the 'Scarred' of the PF catalog here at DTF. :lol
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I'll say it here - The Final Cut is the best album Pink Floyd made.
Well, I mean...that's an interesting and bold statement. Can't really fault you because it's your opinion and all, but...
It's NOT a Waters solo album, as many people claim, it's a fully fledged Floyd album.
That's just not true. A bit of research reveals that the album was subtitled "A Requiem For the Post-War Dream by Roger Waters." Furthermore, there is not a single other band member with a writing credit anywhere on the album. Honestly, I know there are plenty of bands that have one songwriter/composer and are called bands. But, the fact of the matter is Pink Floyd used to be a "band" where each member contributed to the process. The Final Cut, despite being called a Pink Floyd album, is not a "fully fledged Floyd album" in any sense of the expression. I'm not saying that makes it bad or anything though. Like I said earlier, I actually like quite a bit of it.
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It is original, unique, and unlike anything else you'll ever hear. The lyrical content is heartfelt, the music perfectly encapsulates those themes, and the performances are top notch all round.
It has the words PINK FLOYD on it - it's a Pink Floyd album. Mason may not play drums, but by all accounts he didn't on The Wall either. Gilmour served as producer and arranger, and his fingerprints are all over the final product, even if his name isn't. Waters may have been the driving force of the Floyd at this point, and the album may sound more like The Pros and Cons of Hitchiking than it does DSOTM, but it's still Floyd.
It is the hardest Floyd album to "get". But once you "get" it, you'll agree with me.
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Even if I somehow "get" the album, I will never agree that it is a "fully-fledged Pink Floyd album." It is a Roger Waters album in all but name.
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It is original, unique, and unlike anything else you'll ever hear. The lyrical content is heartfelt, the music perfectly encapsulates those themes, and the performances are top notch all round.
I don't even really disagree with this, but that doesn't mean it HAS to be a Pink Floyd album to possess these qualities. Example, I absolutely love Strapping Young Lad's album "City." I think it's ridiculously heavy, emotionally charged, and all around the best "angry" album anyone will ever hear in their life. Fact of the matter is, Devin Townsend wrote everything on it, and if someone called it a Devin Townsend solo album, I wouldn't bat an eyelash.
It has the words PINK FLOYD on it - it's a Pink Floyd album.
Correct. It is named a Pink Floyd album, but there are plenty of reasons to call it a Waters solo album, as discussed at length in this thread thus far.
Mason may not play drums, but by all accounts he didn't on The Wall either.
Mason was never really a creative drive in Floyd anyway. This is really neither here nor there.
Gilmour served as producer and arranger, and his fingerprints are all over the final product, even if his name isn't.
Not true. Producers are listed as Roger Waters, Michael Kamen, and James Guthrie. I know Waters and Gilmour had their falling out after the album, but it was made readily apparent by both parties that David Gilmour had NOTHING to do with writing or arranging on the album. The question of whether or not Gilmour had any influence is more opinion based, but I personally hear literally nothing that makes me think "oh that's total Gilmour."
Waters may have been the driving force of the Floyd at this point, and the album may sound more like The Pros and Cons of Hitchiking than it does DSOTM, but it's still Floyd.
There's your problem. It sounds more like a Roger Waters solo album than a Floyd album. This is why people call it a Roger Waters solo album and are a bit more hesitant to call it a Floyd album.
It is the hardest Floyd album to "get". But once you "get" it, you'll agree with me.
I get The Final Cut quite well enough. I feel like Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma are much harder to "get," but that's another discussion. The thing is, I have no problem with anyone stating The Final Cut is a good album. Honestly, it is. I like it. There's a lot of nice stuff on it. I will never ever refer to it as a Pink Floyd album for any other reason than the cover containing the words "Pink" and "Floyd."
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It is original, unique, and unlike anything else you'll ever hear. The lyrical content is heartfelt, the music perfectly encapsulates those themes, and the performances are top notch all round.
It has the words PINK FLOYD on it - it's a Pink Floyd album. Mason may not play drums, but by all accounts he didn't on The Wall either. Gilmour served as producer and arranger, and his fingerprints are all over the final product, even if his name isn't. Waters may have been the driving force of the Floyd at this point, and the album may sound more like The Pros and Cons of Hitchiking than it does DSOTM, but it's still Floyd.
It is the hardest Floyd album to "get". But once you "get" it, you'll agree with me.
Sure, it has the words, but that doesn't mean that it sounds like a PF album. I've got nothing against anything you say, except that sounds like a PF. For the most part, it doesn't. There seems to be consensus that this doesn't sound like a full-fledged PF album, and you are the one outlier that says it is. I don't hear Gilmour's fingerprints all over this one at all.
I think your historical perspective (as you acknowledged) is swaying your judgment of it, which is fine. I don't think anyone is going to convince you of it otherwise, and that's fine too... but don't expect to convince others that it does sound like PF. Other than a few exceptions, I don't hear it.
Ninja'd by UMH, but we're saying the same thing.
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So, after The Final Cut was done, there was no tour, and Gilmour and Waters went on to their solo albums.
BEFORE we go any further however, whilst doing research about About Face, the Gilmour solo album, I discovered that during The Final Cut recording sessions, Gilmour claims that he requested Waters to wait another month for Gilmour to develop some musical ideas himself. Waters' response was two things. Firstly, that he already had plenty of material to complete the album, so this was a bit late in the process to say that now Gilmour. Secondly, Waters apparently offered, after seeing the lack of interest BOTH Gilmour and Mason had in this project, to make it a solo album but Gilmour and Mason still wanted a Pink Floyd album, of any kind, to sell.
Before making About Face, Gilmour made a list. "Doing this album I wanted to make a really good record. I didn't want to do it very very quickly, and I wanted to get the best musicians in the world that I could get hold of to play with me, so I thought I'd just make a little list of all my favourite musicians, you know, best drummer, best bass player, best keyboard player, and I'll work through the list to see who I can get. Jeff Porcaro was top of my drummers list, Pino Palladino was top of my bass players list, and Ian Kewley, or the Rev, as he's known, he actually came and did the bulk of the hammond and piano playing, and he was terrific. Steve Winwood was top of my keyboard playing list but he couldn't do most of the album, but I got him to do a bit. He played hammond organ on "Blue Light." I had a bit more time and was feeling a bit freer about things on this album...just more "accidents" tend to occur."
Well, really, there's not much else to talk about the starting process. He had ideas, wrote to people and got them in. One other person he actually got in, though, was a guy by the name of Pete Townshend, who had supplied Gilmour with the lyrics to two songs, "All Lovers Are Deranged" and "Love on the Air". So, before Roger Waters got his solo album out, we recieved..
About Face (David Gilmour) (1984)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/David_Gilmour_About_Face.jpg)
1. "Until We Sleep" 5:15
2. "Murder" 4:59
3. "Love on the Air" (Pete Townshend) 4:19
4. "Blue Light" 4:35
5. "Out of the Blue" 3:35
6. "All Lovers Are Deranged" (Townshend) 3:14
7. "You Know I'm Right" 5:06
8. "Cruise" 4:40
9. "Let's Get Metaphysical" 4:09
10. "Near the End" 5:36
It's a very 80s album Pop Rock album, really. It's got the sense of something different from Pink Floyd sound, but it's not an album I actually really like. I've listened to it a couple of times and it's just not for me. Really, I'm discussing About Face because of one song, "You Know I'm Right", which was written about Gilmour and Waters' relationship. If you want a bit of insight onto what Gilmour thought about their relationship, listen to this song.
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For this next one, we need to go back to before The Wall. Waters had made two sets of demos, and presented them to Pink Floyd. The band decided they prefered the set of demos that would become The Wall, even though their manager Steve O'Rourke, thought that Pros and Cons was a better-sounding concept, with Gilmour also calling it much much better musically. So, July 1977, Pros and Cons was shelved.
In 1983, after he was done with The Final Cut, Roger Waters unshelved the project to complete it himself. The album was recorded in three different studios between February and December 1983 in London, the Olympic Studios, Eel Pie Studios and in Waters' own Billiard Room. Also known as his shed. Several people appeared on the album, including musical conductor Michael Kamen, the vocal talents of actor Jack Palance, saxophonist David Sanborn and rock and blues guitarist Eric Clapton. Actually, Clapton was fantastic on this album.
The story that's told is about "a man's scattered thoughts during a road trip through somewhere in Central Europe, focusing on his midlife crisis, and how he dreams of committing adultery with a hitchhiker he picks up along the way. Along the way he also faces other fears and paranoia, with all of these things taking place in real time in the early morning hours of 04:30:18 AM to 05:12 AM on an unspecified day." Probably a Tuesday. Tuesdays are the worst.
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (Roger Waters) (1984)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/50/Roger_Waters_Pros_Cons_HH.jpg/220px-Roger_Waters_Pros_Cons_HH.jpg)
4.30 AM (Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad)
4.33 AM (Running Shoes)
4.37 AM (Arabs With Knives And West German Skies)
4.39 AM (For The First Time Today Part 2)
4.41 AM (Sexual Revolution)
4.47 AM (The Remains Of Our Love)
4.50 AM (Go Fishing)
4.56 AM (For The First Time Today Part 1)
4.58 AM (Dunroamin, Duncarin, Dunlivin)
5.01 AM (The Pros & Cons Of Hitchhiking)
5.06 AM (Every Strangers Eyes)
5.11 AM (The Moment Of Clarity)
I love this album, actually. I might, depending on my mood, say it's musically a lot better than The Wall. Clapton is a masterclass on this album and his guitar technique is fantastic. It's also MUCH less grim than The Wall and The Final Cut, because it's got that rather sweet ending to it all. Waters is vocally better here than The Final Cut. Not really much I want to talk about, I just wanted to mention them because..
-- -- --
Waters, a year after Pros and Cons, declared Pink Floyd a spent force. He contacted the band's manager, asking what would happen to royalties for when Waters left. Steve O'Rourke felt the need to contact Mason and Gilmour to let them know what was happening. Waters was angry. He wanted Steve gone. He was trying to sue the band over the use of the name Pink Floyd, and when it was found out that Waters had no claim to the name as a partnership had never been agreed upon, he tried to obtain a veto over the right of the band to exist. Gilmour responded by issuing a carefully worded press release affirming that Pink Floyd would continue to exist. He later told The Sunday Times: "Roger is a dog in the manger and I'm going to fight him"
Waters would then write to EMI to ask out his contract. Waters later stated that, by not making new albums, Pink Floyd would be in breach of contract—which would suggest that royalty payments would be suspended. So really, they needed Waters gone just so they could continue to make music..
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He's undeniably a musical genius, but shit like that has always led me to believe that Waters was first-rate asshat.
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Waters' fatal mistake was thinking the band would never go on without him; he was dead wrong. The fact that they did so with great success was a sore spot for him for many years, although he seems to have gotten over much of it since Live 8, thankfully.
About Face is okay. Murder is a great tune, and there are a few others I sorta like, but the majority of it never stood out to me.
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Waters' fatal mistake was thinking the band would never go on without him; he was dead wrong. The fact that they did so with great success was a sore spot for him for many years, although he seems to have gotten over much of it since Live 8, thankfully.
About Face is okay. Murder is a great tune, and there are a few others I sorta like, but the majority of it never stood out to me.
Did they? I mean, I wasn't around at the time, but while I could imagine the band continuing getting bigger and selling out shows, album/quality-wise there's really not much to cheer for. I know Division Bell has its loyal fan base, but I rarely see much positive response for Momentary Lapse of Reason. Overall it's safe to say that the last two albums and Final Cut are three of the worst received Floyd albums. Waters is responsible for one, but it's not like he left and they put out two masterpieces.
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I'll admit... I've listened to About Face and Pros and Cons a couple times. Neither of them really stuck with me.
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You're thinking about A Momentary Lapse of Reason, where Mason felt so poorly about his drumming that he barely played anything on the album.
I can't remember where I read this but Nick Mason is the only member of PF to play on every PF album I believe. . . .
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Waters' fatal mistake was thinking the band would never go on without him; he was dead wrong. The fact that they did so with great success was a sore spot for him for many years, although he seems to have gotten over much of it since Live 8, thankfully.
About Face is okay. Murder is a great tune, and there are a few others I sorta like, but the majority of it never stood out to me.
Did they? I mean, I wasn't around at the time, but while I could imagine the band continuing getting bigger and selling out shows, album/quality-wise there's really not much to cheer for. I know Division Bell has its loyal fan base, but I rarely see much positive response for Momentary Lapse of Reason. Overall it's safe to say that the last two albums and Final Cut are three of the worst received Floyd albums. Waters is responsible for one, but it's not like he left and they put out two masterpieces.
Yes. Both albums sold a ton, both tours were huge successes, and even Learning to Fly received MASSIVE airplay on MTV at the time (which was a mark of success in 1987). If you want to base success off of the subjective nature of album reviews, have at it, but objectively speaking, the two post-Waters albums and tours were massive successes, especially Waters and some of his minions thought they'd never amount to shit without him.
And no, it's not safe to say that The Division Bell was one of their worst-received albums. It was fairly well-received at the time, and has aged well for many, from what I've read over the years (no, not just here...many other places).
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Yeah, they made the shit ton of money after Waters left, for sure.
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I agree with Zantera and I think nothing post-Waters remotely compares to the Meddle to The Wall streak. I would also argue that nothing pre-Waters domination of writing compares to that streak either, in my opinion.
For one thing both the post-Waters albums sound very dated to the late 80's/early 90's soft/classic rock sound to me while the Meddle to The Wall streak still sounds timeless and in a unique league of their own.
The fact that they still made fortunes after Waters left relates mostly to the name Pink Floyd and their live performances of their classics IMO, with all due respect to the David Gilmour's amazing guitar writing abilities.
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Also, Post-Waters, when Pink Floyd toured, they sold out huge stadiums and Waters could be down the road in half-empty theaters.
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Yep, I remember reading that in one of the Floyd books I have. Waters admitted that it was galling to be playing to half-empty arenas, while Pink Floyd was touring at the same time and selling out venues much larger than the arenas he couldn't fill up. I believe they call that karma. :lol
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That's why you never underestimate the power of brands. Even with an example like Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson leaving, even if their reputation overall took a small dent, Iron Maiden was still friggin Iron Maiden, and Bruce Dickinson was just some guy playing smaller venues. Roger Waters had to be delusional or just blinded by power if he honestly thought that his name carried more depth and meaning than Pink Floyd did.
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Yep, I remember reading that in one of the Floyd books I have. Waters admitted that it was galling to be playing to half-empty arenas, while Pink Floyd was touring at the same time and selling out venues much larger than the arenas he couldn't fill up. I believe they call that karma. :lol
Indeed.
Moral of the story? Don't be a douchenozzle.
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It has the words PINK FLOYD on it - it's a Pink Floyd album.
Absolutely. Band members can change (think Yes), the sound of the band can change drastically (think Radiohead), but it's THE band as long as the name is on there. The Piper is a Floyd album. Dark side is a Floyd album. The Final cut as well. The Division bell as well. And even Roger admitted in the recent interviews that he was wrong about thinking Floyd isn't Floyd without him.
I'm not familiar with that Gilmour solo album, but I really like Pros and cons. I agree that Roger's vocals are remarkable on it, truly chilling in some places.
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Not familiar with either of these two albums. On the issue of whether the post Waters PF albums were a success... absolutely. But we'll leave that to the discussion on those albums. I don't think they are regarded as 2 of the worst 3 albums in their catalog.
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It has the words PINK FLOYD on it - it's a Pink Floyd album.
Absolutely. Band members can change (think Yes), the sound of the band can change drastically (think Radiohead), but it's THE band as long as the name is on there. The Piper is a Floyd album. Dark side is a Floyd album. The Final cut as well. The Division bell as well. And even Roger admitted in the recent interviews that he was wrong about thinking Floyd isn't Floyd without him.
The issue isn't whether or not it's a Pink Floyd album, it's whether it's a "fully fledged Floyd album". Roger wrote it and is all over it. David played some guitar. Nick is mostly absent and Rick isn't on it at all. How can it be a fully-fledged album by the band, when most of the band isn't even on it?
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If we are discussing solo albums...why did we skip David's 1978 debut? (which I believe was better received, had a bigger hit single in "There's No Way Out of Here", and sold more copies)
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Also...another factoid going from memory...
Pros and Cons was a musical concept that Roger had alongside The Wall. It's my understanding that Roger brought BOTH ideas to band, and the other guys thought that The Wall had more potential. (this is also, I believe, why the title of the album is in the same font style as The Wall...someone can correct me if I'm wrong)
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I completely forgot about the David Gilmour solo record. I remember when I first heard it I heard something familiar and that's the solo in "Raise My Rent". He reused some of it for "What Do You Want From Me?".
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Also...another factoid going from memory...
Pros and Cons was a musical concept that Roger had alongside The Wall. It's my understanding that Roger brought BOTH ideas to band, and the other guys thought that The Wall had more potential. (this is also, I believe, why the title of the album is in the same font style as The Wall...someone can correct me if I'm wrong)
I think GoD pretty much said exactly this.
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Also...another factoid going from memory...
Pros and Cons was a musical concept that Roger had alongside The Wall. It's my understanding that Roger brought BOTH ideas to band, and the other guys thought that The Wall had more potential. (this is also, I believe, why the title of the album is in the same font style as The Wall...someone can correct me if I'm wrong)
I think GoD pretty much said exactly this.
Damn my ADD... :facepalm:
Sorry.
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The issue isn't whether or not it's a Pink Floyd album, it's whether it's a "fully fledged Floyd album". Roger wrote it and is all over it. David played some guitar. Nick is mostly absent and Rick isn't on it at all. How can it be a fully-fledged album by the band, when most of the band isn't even on it?
That's very true. ''Fully fledged'' probably implies that every member contributed almost equally or whatever. At least that's what it means to me.
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I liked About Face a lot, owing largely to the "Bob Ezrin worked on it factor" (which back then made an album an instant purchase for me.) Murder, Love On The Air, Out of The Blue, All Lovers Are Deranged, Cruise (which is pretty hilarious, a witheringly sarcastic love song to cruise missiles) and Near The End are all excellent songs, Let's Get Metaphysical is an utterly bombastic instrumental, Gilmour's playing is fantastic, what's not to like? I remember around this time Pete Townshend had an album out, and there was a concert on MTV where David Gilmour played guitar in Pete's band. They did an utterly magnificent version of Love On The Air that prompted me to run out and buy About Face.
Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, overall I like it. The thing with Waters solo albums is that one of them-Amused to Death-is my all time favorite album ever, so the others tend to be smashed under that when it comes time to listen to Roger Waters. But when I go back to it, I always have time for Clapton's playing and a few of the songs, notably Every Stranger's Eyes, are among the best that Waters ever wrote. And it was nice, given how downbeat a lot of Waters' concept albums end, for one to have a happy ending. Between the two, though, I prefer About Face, which is probably one of the reasons I regard the post-Waters era as high as I do. In a lot of ways, About Face is the prototype for the sound Pink Floyd was going to have for the rest of their career.
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And it was nice, given how downbeat a lot of Waters' concept albums end, for one to have a happy ending.
Do you think of The Wall ending as a downbeat one?
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Pros and Cons was really good - lots of reuse of musical themes and melodies from the Wall (naturally). I thoroughly enjoyed it. About Face isn't on Grooveshark or Spotify. Guess it's YT - which is usually the quality of ass, so not a good listening experience. Giving it a shot right now though.
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Did we discuss Gilmour's first 1978 solo album? That to me is far more important as a solo album, as he basically re-worked it for The Division Bell.
Anyway, I love Gilmour's 1978 debut, and I quite like About Face.
Hitch-Hiking has some wonderful moments on there, but the concept just isn't strong enough, and it does dip in places. It sounds wonderful, and really captures that half-awake, half-asleep thing that dreams have. Despite its flaws, I love it.
What is odd is that both Waters and Gilmour toured to promote their respective albums. Both tours lost money by all accounts, but Gilmour was playing smaller venues while Waters was doing a full scale arena show. It did rather seem that the future legacy of the Floyd belonged to Rog - how quickly things change!
Waters is a musical genius when he wants to be, but its his views on fox-hunting that flip him into ass-hattery for me.
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never heard About Face. Gone Fishing, the title track, and Every Stranger's Eyes are my favorites from Pros & Con
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I'll say more when the A Momentary Lapse of Reason discussion begins.
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So began the legal battle. Waters didn't want Gilmour and Mason continuing on, they wanted to continue on. Wright was getting married to his new wife. How do we start off this post? "I told him before he left, 'If you go, man, we're carrying on. Make no bones about it, we would carry on.'" This was Gilmour to Waters. The response from the Bassist? "You'll never fucking do it." Those were fighting words.
So Gilmour started to recruit musicians. Such as a keyboardist! What's that? Richard Wright? I think you must mean Jon Carin. He and Gilmour had jammed and composed the chord progression for "Learning to Fly", so he was in. But he needed someone who had experience. Who had worked with Pink Floyd. Who had mixing and production experience. Yes, I'm talking about HIM.
Bob Ezrin. Who had just rejected Roger Waters' offer of coming to work on Waters's new solo album, Radio K.A.O.S. Ezrin, Gilmour and Carin spent the summer of '86 making some demos together, shootin' the shit. All was good. Then came in, well, the CBS representative Stephen Ralbovsky. What did he think about these demos in November of 1986? "This music doesn't sound a fucking thing like Pink Floyd." What was the first thing Gilmour admitted? Waters' absence was a problem, and that the new project was difficult without his presence. Gilmour was feeling the strain, it seems, of having to fill the Waters gap. He needed a songwriter.
Anthony Moore! Let recording begin! On Gilmour's new project, his houseboat Astoria. First thing to go was Mason's drumming on a lot of songs it seems. Gilmour got in musicians Carmine Appice and Jim Keltner who replaced Mason on most songs. Nick decided to busy himself in the album's sound effects. Infact, some of the drumming on this album was a drum machine. Then, as 86 became 87, the phone rang. Rick's wife, Franka, asked if Richard Wright could help. So in he came, for legal reasons(?), as a session musician. Except most of the music had been done, so Wright was mainly just backing keys and vocals. Gilmour later admitted in an interview with author Karl Dallas that Wright's presence "would make us stronger legally and musically". Really, it just sounds like a counter to Waters' continuing attempts to sue over the right for the Pink Floyd name. Despite the tranquil setting offered by Astoria, Waters' Lawyers would continue to disrupt recording, so Gilmour responded by moving to L.A to finish the recording. The lawyers would have to call late at night to disrupt the recording!
One last thing, however.. "Both Nick and Rick were catatonic in terms of their playing ability at the beginning. Neither of them played on this at all really. In my view, they'd been destroyed by Roger." This is what Gilmour said. It angered Mason.
But..
A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/MLoRLP01.jpg)
1. Signs Of Life
2. Learning To Fly
3. The Dogs Of War
4. One Slip
5. On The Turning Away
6. Yet Another Movie/Round And Around
7. A New Machine (Part 1)
8. Terminal Frost
9. A New Machine (Part 2)
10. Sorrow
This is actually my third least favourite Pink Floyd album. It's purely because it just doesn't flow as well as most of the others. The first five tracks are weirdly following each other, especially "One Slip" after "The Dogs of War". Plus I'm not a huge fan of "One Slip". "Yet Another Movie/Round And Around" all the way to "A New Machine (Part 2) is not good, either. Really if I'm listening to anything off this album, it's three songs. It's the hated "The Dogs of War" which is just a great tune in my eyes, certainly much better than what people say. "On The Turning Away" is the easily my favourite though. It builds. It flows. It's a pretty piece and with Wright returning to backup vocals on it, which really makes the song stand out. "Sorrow", well. It's good, but that guitar intro and later solo push it into incredible. It's truly the highlight of Gilmour's guitar playing on this album. Every time I hear it, it's great.
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Monday, well.
It'll be Amused to Death no matter what, but should I include Radio K.A.O.S too?
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Yet Another Movie is actually my favorite song from this album...and Learning to Fly is my least favorite.
To me, the filler tracks are what really make it. I actually like this album a little better than TDB...but they both sound a bit like a DG solo album with some spacy sound effects thrown in just to make it sound more "PFey"
When I first heard the Learning to Fly single premier on the radio (before the album's release) I thought it was the biggest disgrace to the Pink Floyd name I had ever heard in my life. It was like hearing PF do a Journey cover song. I refused to acknowledge the album until I heard some cuts from the Delicate Sound of Thunder. Sorrow, Dogs of War, and On the Turning Away got me to investigate the album further and now I actually like the album quite a bit, and Learning to Fly even works within the context of the complete album. But I'm REALLY HAPPY that it wasn't a full album of that radio friendly AOR crap.
My ranking:
Yet Another Movie/Round and Round
Sorrow
Dogs of War
On the Turning Away
One Slip
New Machine I/Terminal Frost/New Machine II
Signs of Life
Learning to Fly
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I love AMLOR. Maybe not as much as DSotM-The Wall or TDB... but still.
My thing with this album is I cannot listen to any of the songs individually (except Learning to Fly). It has to be in album context to keep me hooked.
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And Radio KAOS is a TERRIFIC album. YES, you should do it! :metal
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I'll always have love for Learning to Fly. It was the first Pink Floyd I was ever exposed to thanks to MTV. I love On The Turning Away and Sorrow is awesome, especially live.
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Terminal Frost :metal
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I don't love this album, but I like it. Signs of Life, Learning to Fly (first Floyd song I ever knew thanks to MTV!), One Slip, On the Turning Away and Yet Another Movie are all really good. I am not wild about the studio version of Sorrow - it sounds too sterile and lifeless - but the live version from Delicate Sound of Thunder is beastly.
Overall, good album, and I get why some don't consider it a real Floyd album, given the zero input from Wright and Mason.
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AMLOR just scraped into my Top 50 .........was my first exposure to Floyd and so I had/have no real allegiance to the "classic" line up. It's more than possible that I may prefer it to the older stuff as it has a bit of a heavier edge to the guitars that I like. I intend to return to this thread later and properly educate myself on the earlier stuff though - I really only know the hits outside of AMLOR.
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Like Brent, this was the first PF I got as it happened, so it holds a warm spot in my heart. 25 years later, it doesn't sound like or hold up against 70s PF (though I prefer it to Meddle). Perhaps the reason it didn't sound like Floyd at the time (other than the obvious) was because it was a complete 180 from sound and mood of The Final Cut. This was like PF born-again, but slightly different.
Unlike Jay, I do think the songs hold up on their own. I have no problem with any song - the segue tracks are just that. On The Turning Way is one of my favorite PF songs, period. And that opening guitar of Sorrow gives me chills everytime I hear it - especially from Delicate Sound of Thunder.
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I haven't listened to this album in years. I wanted to give it a couple more listens and revisit it adequately, I played it once but couldn't get through the second listen. It's just an album that hardly holds my attention and not a single song stands out as particularly intriguing. A lot of the stuff that Waters brought to the table is now gone and my ears don't hear them being replaced by pretty much anything here. Such a deeply uninteresting record.
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Being someone who doesn't care for a bands "identity"/"sound" AMLOR feels more Happy, like soaring through clouds, compared to the depression of The Wall and the Final Cut.
You can really feel the absence of Waters, and the struggle Gilmour had with writing, which shows in songs like Yet Another Movie.
I feel Pink Floyd deteriorated with The Wall, by Waters not letting Rick in to record.
AMLOR is a great record with what they can do at the time, some good songs but also some not as great. Which is understandable, as the main songwriter left, and Gilmour admits. But he was dared and what followed this album, proved they still had it.
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Went to a kick ass Pink Floyd cover band concert last night!
I must have heard AMLOR less than five times all together. Just like TDB; nothing exceptionally appealing here.
What's remarkable about that album though is how definitively dated it sounds.
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Went to a kick ass Pink Floyd cover band concert last night!
Which One?
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I think I had listened to this album maybe once or twice before but nothing really jumped out at me. Listening to it again and you can easily tell this album was made in the 80's. It has that slick, polished 80's sound and that shitty drum sound. "Learning to Fly" is a song that I remember as soon as I hear the opening chords, but afterwards, it fades entirely from my mind. Not a terrible song, just not very good. "The Dogs of War" and "On The turning Away" are the two best songs with "Sorrow" being pretty good. "Terminal Frost" is kinda decent but it lacks anything in the way of balls. It's a step away from being soothing soft rock, the type of music one would hear in an elevator or in a doctor's office. The rest? Largely boring. I could see myself enjoying "One Slip" after some more attention but meh, it doesn't really seem worth it.
The Final Cut isn't my favorite Floyd album, in fact it's pretty spotty overall, but I'll take that over this any day of the week. Gilmour just wasn't a strong enough writer at this point to make up for the loss of Waters and the absences of Mason and Wright. This album isn't a total loss but, for me, it's a prime candidate for picking out the best and tossing the rest.
Not the worst Floyd album, but it's down there.
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Went to a kick ass Pink Floyd cover band concert last night!
Which One?
Bricks in The Wall (https://www.bricksinthewall.com/), I was general admission, front center of stage and if they had let me write their set list I would have probably wrote what they played last night. They played for two and a half hours.
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AMLOR is a great album. I just don't think it's a good Floyd album. I think even Waters admitted it was a good attempt at sounding like Floyd. I love side two - it flows so well.
The easiest thing in the world would have been for Waters to have continued his solo career under the name "Pink Floyd". He decided that wouldn't be right - the band was a spent force creatively. No wonder he was miffed when Gilmour decided to do the same thing.
And yes, you should cover Radio KAOS - I'm waiting to comment on it.
Gotta feel sorry for Waters at this point in time - I always wonder how sucessful KAOS would have been if it had the Pink Floyd name on it, and how sucessful AMLOR would have been without it.
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AMLOR will always have a warm place in my heart. It was the first new Floyd album released after I became a big fan. As I look back now, I can see that it doesn't sound quite like classic Floyd, but I couldn't make that distinction at the time, so I just liked it. I still think Dogs of War and On the Turning Away stand up with most of the PF catalogue.
:tup :tup
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Seems I'm the only guy who loves this album without reservation. :lol
Context kind of helps this one a lot, seeing as a lot of comments are about how dated it sounds and how 80s it is. Here's the thing: like most Bob Ezrin productions, when this came out in 1987 it sounded unearthly. It was one of the best sounding albums out there, and while nearly 30 years have rendered it dated, back then AMLOR just had this huge, cinematic wall of sound that could shake walls if you cranked it up. Yes, it's as much a David Gilmour solo album with the Pink Floyd name slapped on it as The Final Cut was a Waters solo album done the same way, but I still love it to pieces, and always will. I was one of the ones who figured with Waters gone Pink Floyd was finished, but AMLOR proved me wrong.
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Yep, there is no doubt it's sounds awesome.
Also, the cover is totally awesome. Floyd has a lot of great album covers, but this is one of my favorites.
And to Curious Orange's point about Gilmour needing the Pink Floyd name, he even later said that he had spent decades building up the Floyd name and that no one knew his name, so financially it was the smarter move to use the Pink Floyd name. He obviously felt differently later on, hence him releasing On an Island as a solo album back in 2006.
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For Waters, his album compared to Pink Floyd's didn't have any problems. In 1979 Waters met Jim Ladd for a radio documentary on The Wall album, and this helped start develop the lovely theme that Radio K.A.O.S would have. An event from the 1985 miners' strike in Britain where a striking worker threw a concrete block off a motorway bridge, killing a taxi driver who was taking a working miner to his job. This was in Waters' mind as he recorded over 3 months, starting in October. There's really nothing.. UNIQUE to talk about here to say the least. Waters had the help of his Bleeding Heart band, including Andy Fairweather Low and Mel Collins! That's right, Mel Collins played on..
Radio K.A.O.S (1987)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/34/RogerWaters-album-radiokaos.jpg/220px-RogerWaters-album-radiokaos.jpg)
1. Radio Waves
2. Who Needs Information?
3. Me Or Him
4. The Powers That Be
5. Sunset Strip
6. Home
7. Four Minutes
8. The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)
This is a solid album. It's MUCH better than The Final Cut and A Momentary Lapse of Reason to me, but I do have one issue, and it's why I feel like this is the weakest solo effort from Roger Waters for me. The ending feels like a cop-out happy ending. Seriously. It comes a bit out of nowhere. I would like to state that the Jim Ladd fella is the radio host through out the album, and I feel like he does a fantastic job of it. I'll post my thoughts about both these albums more later, I'm under a bit of pressure at the moment.
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
... Waters didn't have much stories behind the recording of his solo albums, did he? This one did take a while though to record, starting 1988 and finishing in 1992. But it's worth the wait, it's got Jeff Beck on it. The title track's lyrics start with "Doctor Doctor", the same as "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, which is the first song written by Waters. That's the only fact I have for..
Amused to Death (1992)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/68/Roger_Waters_Amused_to_Death.jpg/220px-Roger_Waters_Amused_to_Death.jpg)
The Ballad Of Bill Hubbard
What God Wants, Part I
Perfect Sense, Part I
Perfect Sense, Part II
The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range
Late Home Tonight, Part I
Late Home Tonight, Part II
Too Much Rope
What God Wants, Part II
What God Wants, Part III
Watching TV
Three Wishes
It's A Miracle
Amused To Death
I love this album. I WILL talk more about this, and I'm sorry, but I'm under pressure from else where at the moment so I can't really write long, but I wanted to get the post up about each album first.
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I am busy at the moment, or I'd say more, but seeing as Amused to Death is my favorite album by anyone ever, I will be back later to say more. A lot more. :biggrin:
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Don't know either of these, so I guess I know what's on the listening docket for tomorrow morning!
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I've followed along but haven't really had time to comment throughout. I enjoy a lot of the band's material before Meddle and loved pretty much everything from that point forward.
I'm likely one of the bigger fans of AMLOR on the forums. I like the big sound it has (dated or not at this point). Considering the pressure they had to be under I think it was a large success. I wouldn't put it among their top albums but its still a very good one IMO.
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I absolutely adore KAOS. I think that would made a fantastic PF album. Can you imagine DGs input and flavor on that album, taking it to a whole new level???
Alas...what might have been.
I only gave Amused a couple of spins, and it just didn't hit me at all. But the way everyone brags about it makes me want to give it another try.
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I listened to AMLOR last night for the first time in about 20 years. I was pleasantly surprised.
It hasn't dated as much as I thought it would, but it definitely has that 80s production sound, especially on the drums. Signs of Life is a particularly powerful opener, you're never quite sure where its going to go. Gilmour's voice is a bit raw and dodgy throughout, but the various sound effects and atmospherics work well. On The Turning Away is a real highlight. I actually really loved this, it's Floyd, but a different Floyd. I want to listen to it again, and that's always a good sign.
As for Radio KAOS - Oh dear.
This is something of a curate's egg. The roots of the album can be found on Water's soundtrack to the animated movie Where The Wind Blows. Track this one down if you haven't heard it, it's the origin of Rog's "KAOS sound" and the nuclear war themes. The concept / story of Billy is preposterous and bombastic, and everything it should be in that "so bad its good" way we would expect from the man who gave us The Wall. There are some great songs on here, with The Powers That Be and Sunset Strip being the best. I loved this album when it came out - must have played it to death. Went to see Rog on the KAOS tour, and it blew my mind, seriously. To this day one of the best arena shows I've seen. But the sad fact is, time has not been kind to it.
But. The production is terrible. I have no idea what Rog was thinking. This has always sounded like he's been listening to Paul Simon's "Graceland" and Peter Gabriel's "So", and trying to do something similar, and failing utterly. The album was co-produced with someone called Ian Ritchie (who?), and features the bizarre guitar scatchings of someone called Jay Stapely (who?). In trying to sound contemporary, in trying to move away from the PF sound he was known for, Waters just sounds - awful.
And surely this is the worst album cover in music history? It's terrible, truly terrible. At every single stage of this project you have to ask WTF was Rog thinking?
But somehow, despite all this, I still love it.
I do agree with jammindude - with a bit more room for the songs to breathe, a few Floydian instrumental sections, this could have been superb. At the very least the CD version should have had the brilliant B-side "Going to Live in LA" on it. As it is, AMLOR pisses all over it, and it's easy to see why Gilmour and Mason were selling out theaters while Waters was playing half-empty arenas.
Waters learnt his lesson - Amused to Death was made during Pink Floyd's downtime. It has that Floydian feel to it. It has Jeff Beck on it. It's the best solo album Rog has made. Its everything KAOS wasn't but should have been. Only the ship had sailed, with Gilmour and Mason at the helm...
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Amused to Death is pretty awesome, although, despite the presence of Jeff Beck, I can't help but think how much better it could have been as a Pink Floyd album with contributions from Gilmour and Wright. It's a Miracle is one of the best songs Waters has ever written (although it is much better on the In the Flesh Live, thanks to the added atmospheric keyboard parts by Jon Carin, which are very Wish You Were Here era-esque), and Perfect Sense, The Bravery of Being out of Range and the title track are all particularly dynamite as well. Great record.
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I really like AMLOR. It is the only Floyd album that I have listened to that, in my opinion, sounds like it is in an arena.
Also, because I saw a few people mention it here, I did a proper listen to Delicate Sound of Thunder recently. Amazing. The intro to Sorrow is just :omg:.
I could never get fully into Waters' solo work. Sure, there are songs that I like, but I have a tough time getting into the entire album. I do need to revisit them for sure. The title track of Amused to Death is so great. It reminds me of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms, but more spacey.
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I might be biased here, but in my opinion Brothers in Arms is far superior to anything from Amused to Death. Though yes, there are similarities, like both singers speak their parts, though Mark is doing it with much more soul, I think. Sadly, Roger's solo work never clicked with me. The only song I really like is It's a Miracle.
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I've tried various solo albums from various Pink Floyd members (and ex-members) over the years, and none have really grabbed me. Roger Waters may think he's a brilliant songwriter, and some might even agree, but his ideas never worked for me unless fleshed out in full by the band Pink Floyd. I've heard The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, Radio K.A.O.S., and Amused to Death, and found some of it interesting, but never enough to bother buying any of them.
David Gilmour, in my opinion, writes better songs, but mostly they're just that: songs. If I just wanted to hear songs, there are better singer/songwriters I could turn to.
I was optimistic about Rick Wright's solo stuff, and I think there are only the two albums, but once again they're just basically collections of songs. Not horrible, just nothing special. I guess I was expecting at least one really cool instrumental, or something.
Pink Floyd to me was the four guys, collaborating in roughly equal measure (not necessarily on every song, but balanced throughout the album), creating something that's greater than the sum of the parts. The Wall has its problems, but it's the last "fully fledged" (ha!) Pink Floyd album. When any one of them has too much control/influence over the sound, it just doesn't work as well. While all four were present, Waters' domination of the group was a detriment. The only people who seem to feel differently are those who really like Waters' solo stuff, and that makes sense, but I'm not in that group. After Waters left, sure, they made some good music. But it was still missing something.
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I think Radio K.A.O.S is a masterpiece but for some wondrous reason I haven't heard Amused to Death yet, actually kinda looking forward to it now with all the positive opinions.
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I love AMLOR, it was the first PF album I listened to and I remember being a young kid listening to it over and over. I also remember having the Delicate Sound of Thunder VHS which was awesome to watch.
It's aged pretty well for me but there are a few songs I don't listen to, Dogs Of War being one of them.
Learning to Fly is my favorite track off the album and I love Tim Renwick's solos on PULSE and DSOT.
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I've never really heard any of Gilmour's solo stuff.
I've heard some of Waters's, but it didn't resonate with me.
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Gilmour's On An Island is a 10/10 album and if you ever get a chance to hear or buy his Live At Gdansk release, one side
is dedicated to that album and it's even more beautiful live. I'm not really overly fond of all the other solo albums by the
band members.
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*great post by Bob*
Exxxxactly! I liked the three Waters albums well enough, but got interrupted while trying to listen to Amused to Death. I think it needs a full sitting to truly be appreciated. Will try to give it that at some point.
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Both of those Waters solo albums are really good, I can't decide which one of the two I like better. Radio KAOS is a bit more consistent and catchy, but Amused features my all time favorite Waters solo song, It's a miracle.
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Radio K.A.O.S, like I said, is solid. Certainly, I enjoy the opening song Radiowaves, mostly because it sounds so unlike what Waters would actually do. You could turn it into a dance song! But there's one thing that I feel is really noticeable on this album, and it really starts on this album. His voice! It sounds really scratchy to me. Who Needs Infomation sounds a bit better from vocals, but it's a pretty basic song. Mel Collins is noticeable with that Saxophone during the chorus and god it adds texture! I love texture. This is where the brick incident comes out of Roger's mind into the song.
Me Or Him. I love it. It's got a great big empty room feel. I suppose this is oweing to Benny and being imprisoned. It's got a stripped back feel to it and that female choir is great. Though this song just seems to have a shot at Regan mid-way for it for no reason other than Waters didn't like him. I suppose it's a good lead into The Powers That Be. I feel like there's too much happening in the vocal department at times. There's like, 6 people singing the same line and god, does it get a bit overbearing. Not.. special song, really. Then sudden narrative jump! Billy is in L.A now and Sunset Strip.. Waters seems to be trying to create a disco album at times here. Not my favourite song on the album, but Mel Collins gives another great performance.
HOME! I love THIS song. It's my favourite of the album. That Piano. That Keys. That Bass. Mmgh. The lyrics are great, they really create a feel to it. Even though during the Choruses? it gets a bit muddy at times, this song doesn't suffer for it. It's something that hits close to the heart really. Andy gets that guitar screaming in this song and it's great. If I had to name my all time favourite vocal passage, everything in this last section would be up there. Might even be a winner. Four Minutes is uh.. a song. I can't really say if I like it or hate it. After Home, I can't state my opinion too favourly for it though. The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid) is good by itself, but in terms of the album? Feels a bit of a cop out. The story over this album is choppy at best and seems to jump around after Me Or Him.
I'll have Amused to Death thoughts later.
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ACTUALLY LET'S MOVE ON
So, after A Momentary Lapse of Reason, there was a pause. Pink Floyd didn't do much, really. It was a break. Mason and Gilmour sat on their laurels for a bit before January 1993, where they, along with still not offically a Pink Floyd Member Richard Wright, started mucking about at Britannia Row Studios. Although the band were initially apprehensive about recording together, after the first day their confidence improved. Now enter Guy Pratt again, who had since got a thing going on with Richard Wright's daughter Gala Wright now. He wanted to help out. According to Mason, "an interesting phenomenon occurred, which was that Pratt's playing tended to change the mood of the music we had created on our own". Which I suppose is good? Gilmour, with no pressure from the law, would hit the record key of a two-track DAT recorder if he felt the band were really getting somewhere. He recorded so much from Wright that it became the basis of three tracks!
These improv sessions helped the creative juices of the band, and after two weeks, they had 65 piece of music! When they moved from Britannia to Gilmour's houseboat recording stuido, Astoria, the band listened and voted on each track, eventually wittling it down to 27 pieces of music. After some combining and more eliminating the tracks, they were down to a nice basic 15. Four more went and they arrived at 11 tracks. Their voting way was based upon a system of points, whereby all three members would award marks out of ten to each. This got slightly skewered when Richard Wright awarded all of his songs 10 points and the others nothing. Wright was still not a full time member of the band at this point and it quite upset him. Wright later reflected: "It came very close to a point where I wasn't going to do the album, because I didn't feel that what we'd agreed was fair." Probably best for him to stay. He would receive his first songwriting credits on any Pink Floyd album since 1975's Wish You Were Here.
There was another new player on the scene too! Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson, who also received song-writing credits. The way this started is that she was there for support, but eventually started to help write 'High Hopes', a song about Gilmour's early life in Cambridge. Her role expanded to co-writing a further six songs, and this did not please the producer, Bob Ezrin. Wuh-oh. But not much happened. Along with Keyboard player Jon Carin, Gary Wallis, some singers like Sam Brown, and Momentary Lapse tour singer Durga McBroom, there was more player in recording.
Dick Parry played saxophone on his first Pink Floyd album for almost 20 years, on "Wearing the Inside Out". Storm Thorgerson provided the album cover with the two metal sculptures the height of a double-decker bus, in a field near Ely. You can even see Ely Cathedral in the background for this 1994 release..
The Division Bell (1994)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6e/Pink_Floyd_-_Division_Bell.jpg/220px-Pink_Floyd_-_Division_Bell.jpg)
1. "Cluster One" (Instrumental) N/A David Gilmour, Richard Wright 5:58
2. "What Do You Want from Me" Gilmour, Polly Samson Gilmour, Wright 4:21
3. "Poles Apart" Gilmour, Samson, Nick Laird-Clowes Gilmour 7:04
4. "Marooned" (Instrumental) N/A Gilmour, Wright 5:29
5. "A Great Day for Freedom" Gilmour, Samson Gilmour 4:17
6. "Wearing the Inside Out" (Lead vocals: Wright and Gilmour) Anthony Moore Wright 6:49
7. "Take It Back" Gilmour, Samson, Laird-Clowes Gilmour, Bob Ezrin 6:12
8. "Coming Back to Life" Gilmour Gilmour 6:19
9. "Keep Talking" Gilmour, Samson Gilmour, Wright 6:11
10. "Lost for Words" Gilmour, Samson Gilmour 5:14
11. "High Hopes" Gilmour, Samson Gilmour 8:31
Just like A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, we start off with an instrumental. But Cluster One is much better than that. It's a nice slow simple build in, with that keyboard, that piano and that guitar. It's something beautiful to open before we go into a track I find quite weak, to be honest, What Do You Want From Me?. It's not that it's bad, it's just I prefer EVERYTHING on this album over it. It's got the Chicago Blues Style from Gilmour's guitar, certainly, but.. Eh. Poles Apart with it's folksy style is pretty good. The lyrics speak to ex-bandmate Syd Barrett in the first verse, and Roger Waters in the second, which.. well, I like it. It's got the personal touch from Gilmour.
Then we go into one of the most beautiful tracks that Pink Floyd have ever done in Marooned. Fan-frickin-tastic. It's my go to song for relaxation. It's got amazing work from Gilmour and Wright. It's the two coming together and making a real desert island feeling song. I used this song on one of my projects where I dug a pond. People thought the song was depressing.
A Great Day For Freedom is a pretty good track, though I swear it could of been written by Waters, with it's jaded look at what's happened since the Berlin Wall came down. Solid. Then comes the special track to me. My favourite. Wearing The Inside Out. That saxophone adds a real atmosphere to it and it's amazing to hear Wright singing. This song would easily be in my top 5 of Pink Floyd songs, though is that surprising? It's got a slow.. jazzy feel to it. Something nice about it. The juxtaposition of Gilmour to Wright's voice is incredible too.
Take It Back is a nice breather after this. Nothing too wacky, just solid e-bow playing from Mr Gilmour. Coming Back To Life is essentially a love song from Gilmour to Polly. It's a nice listen, certainly. Keep Talking is rather cool sounding. The sample from Stephen Hawkins was used in a British television advert and Gilmour found it so moving that he had to have it on his album. This song is incredibly despairing. That's a good way to describe it. It's despair at the impossibility of communication. Lost For Words, funnily enough, contains one of my all time favourite verses in music. "So I open my door to my enemies
And I ask could we wipe the slate clean
But they tell me to please go fuck myself
You know you just can't win."
Perfect. It also helps it a rather solid song too. High Hopes is beautiful. If this HAD been the Swan Song of Pink Floyd, for so many years now has been considered to be the thought, it would have been god damn perfect. It's beautiful. That reference to See Emily Play at the end of it just helps make it more. Yet.
We're here. End of Pink Floyd albums. Or so we thought. 2014, 20 years since The Division Bell, we're getting another Pink Floyd album.
(p.s. we will be doing On An Island)
How does this album work for you? Where do all the Pink Floyd albums rack up now for you?
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Poles Apart is so underrated :heart
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The Division Bell is undoubtedly my favorite Floyd record aside from the Big 4, which of course makes it my 5th favorite Floyd record. I am sure a part of it is nostalgia, since it was the first (and to date, the only) new Floyd album after I became a fan, plus it was the only tour I ever saw the band play, but two decades later, the record holds up very well, and I really do think it's as good as I did at first. Sure, the lyrics aren't as great as they were in the 70s, and it isn't a conceptual master work of art like those classics in the 70s, but it still flows like classic Floyd, and it's just a great collection of songs. My favorites are High Hopes, Keep Talking and Poles Apart, but there isn't anything on it I'd call less than very good, So yeah, I love, love, love (!!!) this record. :coolio :hat
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Very, very good album. I haven't listened to it in a while, but hopefully I can rectify that this weekend.
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I love this album, and I damn love High Hopes. I'm still thinking that's the best song PF could ever have to make their exit, but I'm waiting for this new album to prove me wrong. They had recorded one real song with Gilmour, Nash and Crosby on vocals, and it'd be better if it blows me away like High Hopes did.
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I didn't very much like The Division Bell at first, but I do now. I'm still not a huge fan of some of the tracks (especially What Do You Want From Me) but there are some stunning tracks on it. My favourite songs are Lost For Words and High Hopes, with High Hopes possibly being my favourite PF song. That (lap steel) guitar solo :hefdaddy :hefdaddy :hefdaddy
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Great album indeed. I love High Hopes, and other great songs are A Great Day For Freedom, Take It Back, and Lost For Words.
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There is nothing I do not love about this album. I will even admit that I listen to it more than any other PF album (even though it will never edge The Wall out as my all time fav.)
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Fantabulous album. It's been a while since I spun it, but will fix that momentarily.
I'd echo Kev's post, except I did get AMLOR as it happened, and I sadly did not see them tour (was broke and at Uni in '94-'95). Otherwise, he's spot on.
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The slide solo on High Hopes is one of the greatest musical moments ever for me.
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Really a great album, I love it. The only track that doesn't really do it for me is A Great Day For Freedom but the rest of the record is a standout.
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I don't get what it is I'm missing with this one. Everyone seems to love it, but I think it's awful. The whole thing sounds like a carbon copy of Gilmour's 1978 solo album. The songs are bland and uninspiring. High Hopes is a mess, Poles Apart and Lost for Words are embarrasingly bad and sound like teenage attempts at poetry. I've warmed to some of the songs over the years, but not enough to change my opinion on the album.
It's awful. I still cannot believe how poor this is. Why do so many people like it?
Only redeeming feature - Wearing the Inside Out. I love that song. The rest of it? Meh.
Yes, I know, I'm the only one who feels this way.
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No, you're not. I completely fail to understand the appeal of this record as well, being that it suffers from the same problems AMLOR has. It's seven years and I still don't get it, but whatever, time will tell, maybe it clicks someday.
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Mladen, what's your favourite track from this album then?
The plan here for my next few is I'll put the albums into my favourite order on Friday, talk about PULSE, Live 8 and Gilmour's last album. Then we'll be done
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I don't really have a favorite, but the ones I enjoy are What do you want from me, Take it back and maybe Keep talking. Honestly, I can imagine Wearing the inside out growing on me as well, there's something creepy about that chorus that makes it pop in my head every now and then, not to mention that the keyboards sound like oldschool Floyd. The rest of the album doesn't move me at all, unfortunately.
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Mladen, what's your favourite track from this album then?
The plan here for my next few is I'll put the albums into my favourite order on Friday, talk about PULSE, Live 8 and Gilmour's last album. Then we'll be done
Hopefully there will be a resurrection of this thread when the last album comes out.
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My favorite PF album The Division Bell. High Hopes Live is really wonderful and powerful, the lyrics are great.
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1. Wish You Were Here
2. Meddle
3. The Dark Side of the Moon
4. The Wall (Is There Anybody Out There?)
5. The Division Bell
6. Animals
7. Obscured By Clouds
8. The Piper At The Gates of Dawn
9. More
10. Atom Heart Mother
11. A Saucerful of Secrets
12. The Final Cut
13. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
14. Ummagumma
This is my ranking of Pink Floyd albums. Yes, "The Big Four" for me is WYWH, Meddle, DSOTM and The Wall. I feel these are the most representive of Pink Floyd and just best albums overall. I'm sure nobody is surprised by what is last though, are you?
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Not too familiar with the early albums but replace the wall with Animals and it sounds about right. :tup
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1. Wish You Were Here
2. Meddle
3. The Dark Side Of The Moon
4. The Wall
5. The Division Bell
6. A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
7. Obscured By Clouds
8. Animals
9. The Final Cut
10. Ummagumma
11. More
12. A Saucerful Of Secrets
13. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
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1: Animals
2: The Wall
3: Meddle
4: Dark Side
5: Wish You Were Here
6: Final Cut
7: Atom Heart Mother
8: Obscured
9: Division Bell
10: Momentary Lapse
11: Saucerful
12: More
13: Ummagumma
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1. The Final Cut
2. Wish You Were Here
3. Dark Side of the Moon
4. The Wall
5. Animals
6. Meddle
7. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
8. Obscured by Clouds
9. More
=10. A Saucerful of Secrets
=10. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
=10. Atom Heart Mother
=10. Ummagumma
11. The Division Bell
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Something like that.
1. Dark Side Of The Moon
2. Animals
3. Wish You Were Here
4. Meddle
5. The Wall
6. The Division Bell
7. A Saucerful Of Secrets
8. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
9. Obscured By Clouds
10. A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
11. Atom Heart Mother
12. More
13. Ummagumma
14. The Final Cut
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1. Animals
2. Wish you were here
3. Dark side of the moon
4. The Wall
5. The Final cut
6. Atom heart mother
7. The Piper at the gates of dawn
8. A Saucerful of secrets
9. Obscured by clouds
10. Meddle
11. Ummagumma
12. The Division bell
13. A Momentary lapse of reason
14. More
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1. The Wall
2. Animals
3. Wish You Were Here
4. Dark Side of the Moon
5. Meddle
Haven't listened to the others
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The big 4 are the big 4, and the rest are the rest, with the oldest stuff at the bottom, along with The Final Cut.
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I echo the others' love for Division Bell. It's really that great. Every song is great, with High Hopes being properly magnificent. The steel guitar solo, especially with the acoustic guitar coda that was added in the 2006 solo tour (and that can be seen and heard in the Royal Albert Hall and Gdansk releases), is one of my favourite music moment ever.
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1. The Wall
2. Wish You Were Here
3. DSotM
4. Animals
5. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
6. The Division Bell
7. Meddle
8. <Everything else>
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1. Animals
2. WYWH
3. The Wall
4. DSOTM
5. Meddle
6. Saucerful
Haven't heard the rest, but I plan on listening to The Division Bell.
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1. Dark Side of the Moon
2. Wish You Were Here
3. Animals
4. Meddle
5. The Wall
6. The Division Bell
7. The Final Cut
8. Atom Heart Mother
9. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
10. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Haven't listened to Saucerful enough to make a proper judgement about it, but I think it might be better than Piper and AMLoR. Obscured, More, and Ummagumma I haven't listened to at all.
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Of course there would be a tour for the Division Bell. The Division Bell Tour in 1994 was promoted by Canadian concert impresario Michael Cohl. These shows on this tour featured the most special effects, including two custom designed airships. There were three different stages that went around North America and Europe, each 180 feet (55 m) long and featuring a 130-foot (40 m) arch resembling the Hollywood Bowl venue. This required 700 tons of steel carried by 53 articulated trucks, a crew of 161 people and an initial investment of 4 million plus 25 million dollars of running costs just to stage. Ouch, that hurts the wallet.
Of course, this concert was big. It played to 5.5 million people in 68 cities, to the average audience of 45,000 people. At the end of the year, the Division Bell Tour was announced as the biggest tour ever, with worldwide gross of over $250 million. This was shortlived because the very next year, along came Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge Tour with a record $300 million. Both of these share the fact that they were both partially sponsored by Volkswagen! To this day though, only The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, U2, The Police, Bon Jovi, Roger Waters (who) and Madonna have had higher grossing tours.
The tour was sponsored in Europe by Volkswagen, which also issued a commemorative version of its top-selling car, the "Golf Pink Floyd", one of which was given as a prize at each concert. It was a standard Golf with Pink Floyd decals and a premium stereo, and had Volkswagen's most environmentally friendly engine, at Gilmour's insistence. The special edition, originally scheduled for a 1996 release, was cancelled.
These shows were of course documented! What in..?
p·u·l·s·e (1995)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5c/Floyd_PULSE_Cover.jpg/220px-Floyd_PULSE_Cover.jpg)
Disc one
Lead vocals performed by David Gilmour unless stated otherwise.
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V, VII)" (David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright) – 13:35
London, 20 October 1994 (All London performances were at Earls Court.)
"Astronomy Domine" (Syd Barrett) – 4:20
London, 15 October 1994
Lead vocals: David Gilmour and Richard Wright
"What Do You Want from Me" (Gilmour, Wright, Polly Samson) – 4:10
Cinecittà, Rome, on 21 September 1994
"Learning to Fly" (Gilmour, Anthony Moore, Bob Ezrin, Jon Carin) – 5:16
London, 14 October 1994
"Keep Talking" (Gilmour, Wright, Samson) – 6:52
Niedersachsenstadion, Hanover, Germany on 17 August 1994
"Coming Back to Life" (Gilmour) – 6:56
London, 13 October 1994
"Hey You" (Waters) – 4:40
London, 13 and 15 (last verse) October 1994
Lead vocals: David Gilmour and Jon Carin
"A Great Day for Freedom" (Gilmour, Samson) – 4:30
London, 19 October 1994
"Sorrow" (Gilmour) – 10:49
Cinecittà, Rome on 20 September 1994
"High Hopes" (Gilmour, Samson) – 7:52
London, 20 October 1994. Some parts ("forever and ever" line and part of lap steel solo) from London, October 14–19 or 21-29, 1994
"Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" (Waters) – 7:08
London, on 21 October 1994
Lead vocals: David Gilmour and Guy Pratt
Bonus track on cassette and LP editions
"One of These Days" (Gilmour, Waters, Wright, Nick Mason) – 6:45
London, 16 and 20 (last part) October 1994
Disc two
The Dark Side of the Moon
"Speak to Me" (Mason) – 2:30
Cinecittà, Rome on 20 September 1994
"Breathe" (Gilmour, Waters, Wright) – 2:33
London, 20 October 1994 (All London performances were at Earls Court.)
Lead vocals: David Gilmour and Jon Carin
"On the Run" (Gilmour, Waters) – 3:48
London, 20 October 1994. Explosion recorded in London, 15 October 1994.
"Time" (Gilmour, Waters, Wright, Mason) – 6:47
Intro recorded in Modena, Italy on 17 September 1994. The rest of song and most of "Breathe (Reprise)" was recorded at Cinecittà in Rome on 20 September 1994. Ending of "Breathe (Reprise)" recorded in London on 20 October 1994.
Lead vocals: David Gilmour and Richard Wright
"The Great Gig in the Sky" (Wright, Torry) – 5:52
London, 20 October 1994
Lead vocals: Sam Brown, Durga McBroom and Claudia Fontaine
"Money" (Waters) – 8:54
Modena, Italy on 17 September 1994. Part of sax solo in London on 20 October 1994
"Us and Them" (Waters, Wright) – 6:58
London, 20 October 1994. Second and third choruses London, 19 October 1994.
"Any Colour You Like" (Gilmour, Wright, Mason) – 3:21
London, 23 October 1994. Last part recorded in London, 19 October 1994.
"Brain Damage" (Waters) – 3:46
London, 19 October 1994
"Eclipse" (Waters) – 2:38
London, 19 October 1994
"Wish You Were Here" (Gilmour, Waters) – 6:35
Cinecittà, Rome, 20 September 1994
"Comfortably Numb" (Gilmour, Waters) – 9:29
London, 20 October 1994
Lead vocals: David Gilmour, Richard Wright, Jon Carin and Guy Pratt
"Run Like Hell" (Gilmour, Waters) – 8:36
London, 15 October 1994
Lead vocals: David Gilmour and Guy Pratt
So, bold prediction, because the cassette version has a song called..
"Soundscape" (Gilmour, Wright, Mason) – 22:00
An ambient piece that was played before the 1994 concerts
This song will be on the next album.
Unlike Delicate Sound of Thunder, David Gilmour and producer James Guthrie have stated that no parts of the songs were re-recorded in the studio. So everything you hear wasn't from a studio, which is probably for the best because this is an incredible live album/DVD. Seriously, it sounds fantastic. If you're watching the DVD it LOOKS fantastic. Some difference to the PPV version in cameras, you got a longer solo for Comfortably Numb (which makes it TOO long in my book), but it was relatively the same. Though if you watched the Pay-Per-View version, you got a shot of Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) of "ENIGMA".
Well, that refers to my all time favorite marketing scheme. It originated on the Internet as a Web-based contest, implemented presumably as a promotion for the album and its tour.
On 11 June 1994, a user of the anonymous Penet remailer service posted the following message to the Usenet newsgroup, alt.music.pink-floyd:
>>>>>>>> T H E M E S S A G E <<<<<<<<
My friends,
You have heard the message Pink Floyd has delivered,
but have you listened?
Perhaps I can be your guide, but I will not solve the enigma for you.
All of you must open your minds and communicate with each other,
as this is the only way the answers can be revealed.
I may help you, but only if obstacles arise.
Listen.
Read.
Think.
Communicate.
If I don't promise you the answers would you go.
Publius
Read the rest on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publius_Enigma) because it's incredible to read. I don't want to flood this with Publius quotes now.
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That's pretty crazy!
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I kind of wish more people in any business would have these crazy ideas. ARG's are the perfect follow up to this but still. Not really done in some other industries
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It must have been fun for the 10 people who had internet in 1994 :D
Why does "enigma" appear in the PPV but not on the Pulse version? was it edited out?
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It was, or rather, was edited out of the DVD version. Why? I have no idea, but rather it becomes the backdrop of what it should of been, "E=MC2".
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Just listened to this for the first time in eons. Damn that was good. Think I may have enjoyed it more than Delicate Sound. Sorrow was fantabulous. So was SOYCD
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Pulse is the one album my dad has had in his car for the last 10 years ;D
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Pulse is the one album my dad has had in his car for the last 10 years ;D
I would like to meet this man
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Unlike Delicate Sound of Thunder, David Gilmour and producer James Guthrie have stated that no parts of the songs were re-recorded in the studio. So everything you hear wasn't from a studio, which is probably for the best because this is an incredible live album/DVD. Seriously, it sounds fantastic. If you're watching the DVD it LOOKS fantastic. Some difference to the PPV version in cameras, you got a longer solo for Comfortably Numb (which makes it TOO long in my book), but it was relatively the same. Though if you watched the Pay-Per-View version, you got a shot of Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) of "ENIGMA".
I don't know if I believe this. I sat and watched the PPV video a few times and I believe the audio source was coming from the PPV video and there are some flubs on the live version that were cleaned up for the VHS/DVD.
May not have been recorded in the studio but maybe a copy/paste from another show.
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Sugar, did I not put that in? Yeah, there were parts from other shows on the tour/some vocal stuff raised up.
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Ohh ok sorry, I was waking up when I read that post.
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No no, I don't think I wrote about it in the first place so you're correct and I should of brought mention to it! Working on a Live 8 post this evening.
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After The Division Bell, Pink Floyd seemed to vanish. Nothing. There was no word about the Floyd, but that was normal a bit. It had happened after A Momentary Lapse of Reason so the hopes that there might be another album were constant. In the meantime, Roger Waters emerged once more. There had been no tour for his own album between the two Floyd albums, Amused to Death. But in 1999, for the first time in 12 years, Roger Waters emerged for the first time for a live tour. And then another next year. And then another two years later. These tours were known, perhaps with that trademark dry wit of Roger, "In The Flesh". Which was also the name of the Animals tour..
"My view is that I've been involved in two absolutely classic albums – The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall," Waters told Classic Rock. "And if you haven't got Amused to Death, you haven't got the full set. So this album – the live one, which pulls together songs from all three albums – hopefully redresses the balance." That's right. He consider his third classic album to be Amused To Death, and the live CD of this tour shows that, I suspect. I also think he really likes Wish You Were Here, seeing..
In The Flesh (2000)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/43/Roger_Waters_-_In_The_Flesh_Live300.jpg/220px-Roger_Waters_-_In_The_Flesh_Live300.jpg)
Disc one
Lead vocals performed by Roger Waters unless stated otherwise.
"In the Flesh" – 4:41
"The Happiest Days of Our Lives" – 1:34
"Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" – 5:53
"Mother" – 5:37
Lead vocals: Roger Waters and Katie Kissoon
"Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert" – 0:56
"Southampton Dock" – 2:15
"Pigs on the Wing, Part 1" – 1:18
"Dogs" (Waters/Gilmour) – 16:26
Lead vocals: Jon Carin, Roger Waters and Doyle Bramhall II
"Welcome to the Machine" – 6:57
"Wish You Were Here" (Gilmour/Waters) – 4:54
"Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Pts. I–VIII" (Gilmour/Waters/Wright) – 14:42
"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" – 7:15
Disc two
"Speak to Me" (Mason)
"Breathe (In the Air)" (Gilmour/Waters/Wright) – 3:22
Lead vocals: Doyle Bramhall II and Jon Carin
"Time" (Gilmour/Mason/Waters/Wright) – 6:24
Lead vocals: Roger Waters and Doyle Bramhall II
"Money" – 6:11
Lead vocals: Doyle Bramhall II
"Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, Part 11 (AKA 5:06 AM – Every Strangers' Eyes)" – 5:19
"Perfect Sense (Parts 1 and 2)" – 7:26
Lead vocals: Roger Waters and P.P. Arnold
"The Bravery of Being Out of Range" – 5:05
"It's a Miracle" – 8:12
"Amused to Death" – 9:24
"Brain Damage" – 4:07
"Eclipse" – 2:18
"Comfortably Numb" (Gilmour/Waters) – 8:10
Lead vocals: Roger Waters and Doyle Bramhall II
"Each Small Candle" – 9:18
This is a solid live album, for anyone a fan of Waters style of Pink Floyd and his solo albums. Certainly not the best version of a lot of Pink Floyd songs though, in my opinion, but "Set The Controls for The Heart of the Sun", featuring Norbert Stachel on the sax, certainly is a strong contender for such a title. But if you were going to listen any song off this live album, make it "Amused To Death". It's an incredible piece. During "Dogs", Waters and others would stop playing during the guitar bit and go play cards. The Live DVD was a bit of a "What." moment for me when that happened.
The other thing to note about this tour is the appearance on the two London shows of this tour of a drummer by the name of Nick Mason. The relationship was starting to be repaired.
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Gilmour, and I know he said this but I can no longer find it, in 2001 when doing a gig at a festival, said that Pink Floyd was over. It had been 7 years since The Division Bell, and now it seemed they were done. It was over. Untill a Bob Geldof, Mr Pink in The Wall movie, called Nick Mason in 2005, asking if there was a chance of a Pink Floyd re-union. Following this, Geldof contacted Mr Gilmour and he said no, so back to Mason he went, asking if Nick would have a word for him, but Nick said no. What Mason did do was contact Roger Waters, who was enthusiastic about this and contacted Geldof. Then.. the impossible, after 1985. Roger Waters rang David Gilmour. The next day, Gilmour agreed and contacted Richard Wright who also agreed.
They planned their setlist at the Connaught Hotel in London, followed by three days of rehearsals at Black Island Studios. There were some arguments about pacing of songs, but nothing big. After 24 years, the classic lineup played together at Live 8. Waters said on stage, before Wish You Were Here, "It is quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years, standing to be counted with the rest of you ... we're doing this for everyone who's not here, and particularly of course for Syd."
If there was a classic end point for Pink Floyd, Live 8 was it. It was perfect, emotional, and they looked like they wanted to be there. They wanted to play. To make a change.
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I like In The Flesh, when I wanna listen to a good Pink Floyd live playlist I mix it in with Pulse. Frankly I wouldn't have my fill of Floyd if it was one or the other.
On one hand I wanna hear Roger sing on the songs like Crazy Diamonds, Comfortably Numb and Happiest/Brick II but I wanna hear Gilmour's guitar on these songs, it doesn't work as well for me if it was either or. I know both Gilmour and Waters hired the best musicians there is to play with them live but it really never sound the same and it's not about how pro the tour musicians are.
That's why Live 8 was an amazing treat, I wish the audio was professionally recorded and released.
Waters recent The Wall tour is the best Pink Floyd related live event ever IMO and I'm baffled as to why we don't have a BluRay release of it yet.
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I got introduced to the song Dogs by this DVD (I hadn't heard Animals yet), and there's a great version of Mother on this one.
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In the Flesh - Live is worth it just for the Amused to Death sequence of songs, which is absolutely phenomenal, especially It's a Miracle and Amused to Death, both of which blow the studio versions out of the water.
Live 8 was awesome to see live on television at the time. Like has been said, it was something you never thought you'd see again - the classic lineup playing together - and it was quite a thrill. :hat
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I saw that Live 8 performance live and bought the dvd set later just for Pink Floyd. Luckily since that time I've gotten into waaaaay more of the bands that performed, but Pink Floyd is still the highlight of that whole thing to me.
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"The Live 8 rehearsals convinced me that it wasn't something I wanted to be doing a lot of ... There have been all sorts of farewell moments in people's lives and careers which they have then rescinded, but I think I can fairly categorically say that there won't be a tour or an album again that I take part in. It isn't to do with animosity or anything like that. It's just ... I've been there, I've done it." Gilmour was done with Pink Floyd. It was up, it was over for him. He wanted to focus on his next solo album, which had been being recorded from 2001 up to 2005. Recorded whereelse but Astoria, Gilmour's personal houseboat, it featured contributions from Robert Wyatt, Jools Holland, Georgie Fame, David Crosby, and Graham Nash, as well as Richard Wright and a member of an early incarnation of Pink Floyd, Bob Klose. Who? He was the guy that was the original guitarist when they were in school together! (It's in my early history lesson.)
The track "Smile" was heard briefly in an unmastered form on the BBC2 show Three Men in a Boat which retraced a trip on the River Thames that passed the houseboat. One other thing of note, as well, in 2009, it was chosen The Greatest Solo Album by a former Pink Floyd band member by classic rock station Planet Rock. Well..
On an Island (2006)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0c/David_Gilmour_On_An_Island.jpg/220px-David_Gilmour_On_An_Island.jpg)
"Castellorizon" (Gilmour) – 3:54
Featuring David Gilmour on guitar, Orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner.
Based on a night he spent on Kastellórizo.
"On an Island" (Gilmour/Samson) – 6:47
Featuring David Gilmour on guitars, vocals, electric piano and percussion, David Crosby, Graham Nash on vocals, Guy Pratt on bass guitar, Orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner, Richard Wright on Hammond Organ, Rado Klose on guitar and Andy Newmark on drums.
"The Blue" (Gilmour/Samson) – 5:26
Featuring David Gilmour on guitars, vocals, bass guitar, percussion, piano, Rado Klose on guitar, Andy Newmark on drums, Jools Holland, Polly Samson on piano, Chris Stainton on Hammond Organ and Richard Wright on vocals.
"Take a Breath" (Gilmour/Samson) – 5:46
Featuring David Gilmour on guitars, vocals, Phil Manzanera on guitars, Guy Pratt on bass guitar, Leszek Mozdzer on piano, Ged Lynch on drums, Orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner and Caroline Dale on cello.
"Red Sky at Night" (Gilmour) – 2:51
Featuring David Gilmour on saxophone and lap steel guitars, Chris Laurence on double bass, Caroline Dale on cello, Orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner and Ilan Eshkeri on programming.
"This Heaven" (Gilmour/Samson) – 4:24
Featuring David Gilmour on guitars, vocals, bass guitar, Phil Manzanera on guitars, Andy Newmark on drums, Orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner and Georgie Fame on Hammond organ.
"Then I Close My Eyes" (Gilmour) – 5:26
Featuring David Gilmour on guitars, cümbüş, bass harmonica, BJ Cole on dobro guitar, Robert Wyatt on cornet, percussion, vocals, Phil Manzanera on guitars, Andy Newmark on percussion, Orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner, Caroline Dale on cello and Alasdair Malloy on glass harmonica.
"Smile" (Gilmour/Samson) – 4:03
Featuring David Gilmour on guitars, vocals, percussion, Hammond Organ, bass guitar, Polly Samson on vocals, Willie Wilson on drums and orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner.
"A Pocketful of Stones" (Gilmour/Samson) – 6:17
Featuring David Gilmour on guitars, vocals, Hammond Organ, piano, bass, percussion, Leszek Mozdzer on piano, Lucy Wakeford on harp, Alasdair Malloy on glass harmonica, Chris Thomas on keyboard, Chris Laurence on double bass, Ilan Eshkeri on programming and orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner.
"Where We Start" (Gilmour) – 6:45
Featuring David Gilmour on guitars, vocals, bass guitar, percussion, Hammond organ, Andy Newmark on drums and orchestrations by Zbigniew Preisner.
This album, having given it a listen, is not my favourite Pink Floyd solo album. Certainly, with songs like "Castellorizon", "Take a Breath" and "Smile", it's got good tracks, but I just simply don't find this as good as Roger Waters' Amused To Death, but this album, as I think Kev said all the way back on page 2, is the natural follow up to The Division Bell, but it's not as good as it. On An Island is a solid, if just a bit unspectacular album for me.
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Syd Barrett died on 7 July 2006, at his home in Cambridgeshire, aged 60. Complications of diabetes. Wright commented: "The band are very naturally upset and sad to hear of Syd Barrett's death. Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire." This was just a year after Live 8, after Roger Waters had wished that Syd was here.
Richard Wright died at home, of an undisclosed form of cancer, on 15 September 2008 at age 65. 2 years. This was quite a shock to the band, including Waters, as he had been scheduled to appear with Gilmour on Later... with Jools Holland but cancelled just a couple of weeks before because he wasn't feeling well.
In 2010, Waters and Gilmour performed together at a charity event for the Hoping Foundation. The event, which raised money for Palestinian children, took place at Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England, where they played to an audience of approximately 200. In return for Waters' appearance at the event, Gilmour agreed to perform "Comfortably Numb" at one of Waters' upcoming performances of The Wall, which occurred on 12 May 2011. Gilmour also came out for "Outside The Wall" at the end, along with Nick Mason! Waters said to the crowd "So now we know tonight was the night when David did me the enormous honour of coming to play 'Comfortably Numb'. So, please welcome David Gilmour! ... By a strange and extraordinary, happy coincidence, there is another remnant of our old band here tonight. Please welcome Mr. Nick Mason to the stage!"
But 2014 is a strange year.
Keep this topic in mind. The Endless River.
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On An Island is probably my second favourite album from anything Pink Floyd related, outshined only by WYWH. Gilmour really managed to put his soul in the record, resulting in extremely mellow, soulful record; and I can't even tell how awesome Remember That Night DVD is. Probably my favourite live recording of all time.
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So much love for this album!
omg
Are we discussing Gdansk?
We NEED to discuss Gdansk!
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UH WE CAN DISCUSS GDANSK
AND REMEMBER A NIGHT
BUT I'LL NEED TO WATCH THEM FIRST
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GET ON IT
I THINK ONLY THE FIRST HALF OF GDANSK IS ON DVD. YOU MUST LISTEN TO THE SECOND HALF.
YOU WILL CRY TEARS OF JOY
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A momentary CAPS of reason?
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Or maybe, just maybe, On an Island should get its due here before we move on to the live albums, eh? ;)
Personally, I love On an Island; it's a great rainy day record, and I love the laid back vibe of it. Definitely my 2nd favorite solo record by the Floyd guys (behind Amused to Death).
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I absolutely love On An Island. My problem is I hardly listen to it because of the version on Gdansk... so I usually lump them into one item in my head.
Those harmonies tho
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UH WE CAN DISCUSS GDANSK
AND REMEMBER A NIGHT
BUT I'LL NEED TO WATCH THEM FIRST
I feel like I'm a minority in this but I actually prefer Remember A Night over Gdansk. The fat old sun solo is one of the highlights.
As for the On An Island record, I was in love when it first came out but it didn't have a lot of staying power. I still prefer to Rogers work but only slightly.
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So I was reading this Alice Cooper related page:
https://www.sickthingsuk.co.uk/content.php?id=musicians/m-fredmandel.php
It states that it was well known that Rick Wright didn't play on The Wall. Is that right? I went through the thread and nobody mentioned it. Can't be all that well known then, no?
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He did play, though!
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I've known for a long time that he barely played on the album, but I've never heard that he didn't play at all.
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He did play, though!