Friday, April 4, 2008

A Bit of Pink Floyd History

By Andy Jackson

I think I probably started listening to Pink Floyd because I used to chill with some dudes who smoked weed and used to play Floyd a lot and I found the music is really good to listen to when you are stoned. Pink Floyd are a kind of psychedelic rock cross breed and their lyrics are quite deep and philosophical.

Pink Floyd formed in Cambridge, England in the early 1960's and were originally called Tea Set but one night while they were playing at a gig there was a band with the same name so Syd Barrett came up with the name The Pink Floyd Sound which was named after two blues singers (Pink Anderson an Floyd Council). The group switched between their two names for a while until finally Pink Floyd won over.

Floyd were made up originally of David Gilmour, Rick wright, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Bob Klose. Bob Klose actually left the group before Pink Floyd had recorded any albums and David Gilmour came in to replace Barrett after his decline. In the early years Syd Barrett was the "leader" of the group and wrote most of the early songs.

The first of Pink Floyd's albums was The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and was released in 1967 and is considered one of the best debut albums by any group. The album contained many new technologies and the use of electronics such as the use of stereo panning, electric keyboards and echo effects.

Pink Floyd toured with Jimi Hendrix in the early 1970's which helped them to rise in popularity and with that rise came the decline of Syd who had been taking a lot of "psychedelic" drugs and pushed him into a mental deterioration. It was around this time that David Gilmour joined the band to take the place of Syd who it is reported would just be standing still and staring into space during rehearsals and some of their performances and it is said this is due to his constant taking of LSD. Eventually the other members of the group slowly stopped taking Syd along to their concerts and his last performance was in 1968 when they played at Hastings Pier. Syd Barrett died on July 7th, 2006 after spending years in seclusion.

After Syd had formally left Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Rick Wright started to take on the role of writing the lyrics and songs between them and A Saucerful Of Secrets was released in late 1968. Following this album they started to become more popular and were recruited to write the music for the film More. After this they released many further albums (Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, Obscured By Clouds, Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall).

In 1985 Roger Waters left Pink Floyd and started to pursue his own solo career. There were some disagreements over the use of the "Pink Floyd" name when David Gilmour and Nick Mason continued to use the name and started recording a new album in 1986. The disagreements were finally settled out of court and the album was released (A Momentary Lapse Of Reason). There were several other albums released which were Delicate Sound Of Thunder and The Division Bell.

Roger Waters finally returned to the band in 2005 when they played together again at the London Live 8 concert. Pink Floyd have inspired many of todays groups and artists, such as Phil Collins & Genesis, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Yes, and their music is a prominent feature of the musical by Tom Stoppard called Rock 'n' Roll which premiered at the Royal Court Theater, London in 2006.

Some of their most popular songs are: Interstellar Overdrive, A Saucerful Of Secrets, Careful With That Axe, Eugene, Brain Damage, The Great Gig In The Sky, Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2), Comfortably Numb, The Final Cut, Learning To Fly, Money and Wish You Were Here.

My Top 10 Pink Floyd Songs are:
01. The Thin Ice
02. Astronomy Domine
03. Money
04. Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)
05. Hey You
06. Comfortably Numb
07. Us And Them
08. Wearing The Inside Out
09. Brain Damage
10. The Great Gig In The Sky

View the full blog for my top music reviews of bands songs and artists and share with me your comments and your top songs.

Andy Jackson
Wisdom_Mcr

Web: http://wisdommcr.pcriot.com/
Blog: http://my-top-music-reviews.blogspot.com/
Email: wisdom.mcr@gmail.com

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