Pink Floyd Discography thread v. 'On An Island, end V1'

[ReaperKK]

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.

[Orbert]

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.

[Jaq]

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.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

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.

[KevShmev]

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

[Mister Gold]

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.

[Ultimetalhead]

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.

[masterthes]

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

[Sketchy]

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.

[Orbert]

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.

[Mister Gold]

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.

[Orbert]

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.

[Scorpion]

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.

[Onno]

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).

[Orbert]

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.

[jingle.boy]

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)

[The Curious Orange]

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.

[Orbert]

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.

[GentlemanofDread]

Never fear, I am actually working on a post! Should be today I'm done.

[hefdaddy42]

Animals is amazing, amazing, amazing, but it is still in fourth place for me (behind Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall).

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Animals is 4th for me as well, but replace The Wall with Meddle

[GentlemanofDread]

Animals is 5th for me, with Wish You Were Here/Meddle/Dark Side/The Wall in front of it.

[GentlemanofDread]

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)

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.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Best song on the album? Comfortably Numb? Nope. Run Like Hell? Nope. Mother? Nope.




Nobody Home

[Orbert]

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.

[ReaperKK]

Best song on the album? Comfortably Numb? Nope. Run Like Hell? Nope. Mother? Nope.




Nobody Home

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.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

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.

[Jaq]

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." 

[jammindude]

Best song on the album? Comfortably Numb? Nope. Run Like Hell? Nope. Mother? Nope.




Nobody Home

First time I've ever known someone else who felt this. AMAZING SONG!

[Buddyhunter1]

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.

[TexansDT]

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." 

Jaq, you are a master storyteller. Love it.

[KevShmev]

Jaq, that is an awesome story!

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.

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.

Oh, and Nobody Home is definitely one of the best songs from it.

[Orbert]

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

[JayOctavarium]

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

I  love you.


No homo.

[Zydar]

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).