Pink Floyd Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd music Roger Waters Dave Gilmour Syd Barrett Nick Mason
Rick Wright music Pink Floyd Pink Floyd Pink Floyd The Music of Pink Floyd
This page is intended as an internet learning exercise for
music students interested in exploring the works of Pink Floyd. It can
be a stand-alone unit on modern music, it can be part of a fine arts/music
class, or it can simply be an activity for the use of any modern music/history
teacher looking for an alternative method for learners. I chose to create
an exercise around this particular group because I believe that their principles
in creating music transcended the usual emphasis on moneymaking. They
are one of the few rock and roll bands to truly attempt to advance the "art"
of making modern music, rather than simply profit from their talent.
The worksheet that is part
of this site should help guide your learning, focusing your study on the
elements that make Pink Floyd such a special musical organization. If
you intend to take the course for credit, please print out the Contract, sign it, have your parents sign it if
you are a minor, and get it to Mr. Woody. Then, proceed to the Worksheet Page and print it out, so that you will
have the questions before you as you read through the other pages.
You should contact Mr. Woody either HERE or at school before
starting if you intend to receive credit. If you are using the site
only for your personal information, you may still find the worksheet useful.
The Listening List will show which songs are referred
to in questions on the worksheet.
You will also find recurring names and concepts listed
in the Glossary which accompanies this site.
Its purpose is to provide information for the Pink Floyd "rookie" or casual
fan. I also have a tendency to let my vocabulary run amok, so I put
the glossary there to make my ideas more clear.
The symbol {CPFS}
indicates that we are talking about an example of one of the peculiar characteristics
of the Pink Floyd sound, and will link you to the Characteristics page, where you can get a full
description, and other examples to compare with it.
With all this available to you, it causes a great many
links on each page, so try not to get too exasperated with me. The
site is intentionally low-tech, so that anyone cruising through it will not
be deterred by slow page-loads or overwhelmed by extraneous graphics.
Besides, it's just my style.
This site is not a fanzine, though my respect and admiration
for the work done by these artists will certainly show through. It is
not intended to be definitive or comprehensive (that would require a book).
It is not intended to be completely objective (but then, how objective can
one be about one's taste in music?). It is also not intended to create
any sort of debate between the author and any other Pink Floyd "experts",
so don't be sending me a bunch of complaints if you disagree with my taste
in songs or albums (though "kindred spirits" are always welcome to say "Hi").
You can e-mail me HERE.
Most of the historical data on the group comes from the fascinating book,
Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey by Nicholas Schaffner.
If you are quite interested in the band, I strongly urge you to purchase
a copy, as you will find it insightful, intriguing, and informative.
If you are interested in pictures, quotations, and other information about
the band, you might try what I did: go to Google, search the phrase "Pink Floyd",
and I think you'll get more interesting sites than you know what to do with.
There are certainly plenty of high-tech displays of Pink Floyd info available.
This is also not the place to order Pink Floyd albums
or items. I got all my newest CDs from Amazon, which has a wide selection (usually
all in stock) at reasonable prices.
What is Pink Floyd?
Born as the "Architectural Abdabs" (due to the field of study
chosen by some of its members), the group was later known as The Pink Floyd
Sound, in homage to Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, a pair of old-time Blues
guitarists. Pink Floyd may be more easily understood for what they
are not, rather than what they are. It is a group that defies categorization
for the simple reason that categories require generalization, and there is
nothing general (common) about the music of Pink Floyd. Their Blues
don't follow the usual blues chord or rhythm patterns; their Rock seldom
falls into the driving, direct-to-the-target 4-chord structure most bands
use; their Jazz is never so free-form as to lose its way in the improvisation;
their Funk is cool and intelligent, without getting too beat-conscious; their
Techno-sounds are never so far gone and machinelike that you wonder if there's
a melody; and they can't be Pop, since you never get the peppy beat or sappy
lyrics that most Pop bands dump on you. To my mind, there are actually Three
Ages of Floyd. In the First Age, Syd Barrett was the driving creative
force, and provided an influence that the band felt throughout its career.
Syd wrote most of the songs and played lead guitar, Roger Waters played bass
and tested the compositional waters from time to time, Rick Wright played
the keyboards, and Nick Mason beat those drums. Though much of their
music during this Age sounds very similar to other 60's "psychedelic" rock
groups, it contained numerous experimental elements that other bands dared
not try. Though you will hear many of the Floyd's effects imitated
by others, you will seldom hear them done nearly so well. Sadly, the
exposure to drugs, particularly LSD, combined
with the pressure to regularly produce salable tunes, eventually contributed
to Syd's descent into mental instability, and the band had to alter itself
to survive. On this website, Age I is represented by the albums PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN and parts of SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS, as well as some from RELICS. One good move the band made in Age I was
to bring in another guitar player, first to cover for Syd, and eventually
to replace him. The addition of David Gilmour was an inspired choice
that changed the dynamics and musicianship of the group in a very positive
way.
The Floyd in Age II became a much more stable organization,
and the members began to grow as musicians and creators. Age II is best
seen, I think, in three parts. Part A has the band seeking its new
personality, and trying out many new sounds, searching for their true identity.
This includes the albums from SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS
(most of it) through the rest of RELICS. (It
also includes an album not reviewed here, OBSCURED BY CLOUDS)
Part B, which I consider to be the very best Floyd, represents the peak of
collaboration among the members, with the optimal balance between emphasis
on lyrics and emphasis on music. Each album is thoroughly listenable,
and thought-provoking, and is unlike anything produced by any other group
(especially the middle two albums). This includes the albums MEDDLE, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, WISH YOU WERE HERE, &
ANIMALS. In Part C of Age II, the lyrics gained
the upper hand most of the time, as Roger started to assert his personality
over those of the other group members. Though these albums have their
good points, and their staunch adherents, I find the final two albums of
Age II to be somewhat inferior in that they have lost the perfect balance
that made the Part B albums artistically attractive, and tilt much too far
to the side of lyric dominance. Part C includes the albums THE WALL and THE FINAL CUT.
In Age III, Pink Floyd makes a valiant, but uneven effort
to struggle along without Roger, who had left to pursue his personal creative
urges. Pink Floyd becomes now essentially Dave's band, but his poetic
qualities are lacking, mainly due to a lack of experience, and the music
becomes much too mainstream. Neither the remaining members of the band,
nor Roger himself, were as successful or creative as they had been in the
past. Truly, the whole Pink Floyd was much greater than the sum of
its parts. Age III includes the albums MOMENTARY LAPSE
OF REASON and DIVISION BELL.
To look back on it now, one has to wonder how a band
could totally reject the Top-40 mentality of the record companies and radio
stations, and yet wind up one of the most successful acts of the late '60's
to mid-80's. In fact, you must often wonder how they even managed to
get their records made, since the "songs" were so unsuitable for radio play,
due to their length. It was largely due to their own knowledge of sound
recording techniques that gave them an edge over other groups, who had to
rely on technicians' understanding of their music to make it sound good.
Their elaborate stage show, which combined sound and pictures in an artistic
way that no other group could match, caused the group to strive for a true
musical "experience". Pink Floyd learned as much as possible about
sound quality and recording technology, and are as responsible as any other
group for the development of multi-track recording, CD format, and improved
concert sound-systems.
WARNING **** Pink Floyd is a band that MUST
be listened to on CD and with headphones (since you can no longer hear them
live) in order to fully appreciate just how complex and layered their recordings
are. Any other listening mode will limit your ability to fully grasp
their artistry.****
This still does not fully answer your question about what
Pink Floyd is, does it? To get some more insight into it, try the page
Characteristics of the Pink Floyd Sound.
Debates Raised by The Pink Floyd Sound
There are a variety of questions that a band like Pink Floyd
makes us ask ourselves about our own definition of "music" because they present
us with such diverse examples of their concept. The "public"
often has a pretty limited idea of what constitutes music, which is why Pink
Floyd may not be appreciated by some audiences. I've tried to categorize
some of the questions they raise on the Debates
page.
The Albums
On the pages linked to these album titles, you will find reviews
of the Pink Floyd albums that I consider to be most significant. All
album and song analysis is my own, and I am entitled to the thoughts contained
therein, erroneous though they may be. Visitors to the site are welcome
to form their own opinions about the group and their music, but I'm not really
concerned what you think of my opinions. I would hope that the
reviews here would be most helpful to those who are interested in discovering
the music of Pink Floyd, but are unsure what they are getting into.
*** All information on this website was collected by the
author, and all ideas and opinions are copyright to him. Though any
individual is welcome to use the content of this site (especially in an educational
way), proper credit should be given to the author.***
