PINK FLOYD

“We're just two lost souls Swimming in a fish bowl, Year after year, Running over the same old ground. What have we found? The same old fears.”

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REWRITTEN INTRO​

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"B+" 

Main Decade: 70's 

Main Eras:

Psychedelia (1966-1969)

Progressive (1968-???)

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Key Members:

Syd Barret, Guitar 'til 1968

Roger Waters, Bass

David Gilmour, Guitar

Nick Manson, Drums

Rick Wright, Keyboards 

 

Key Songs: 

Comfortably Numb, Echoes, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here, Dogs, Money, Time, Sheep, One of These Days, The Great Gig In The Sky, Have a Cigar, High Hopes, Us And Them, Mother, Breathe, Learning To Fly, Welcome to the Machine, Pigs (Three Different Ones), One Of These Days, Keep Talking, Hey You, Fearless, The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, Another Brick In The The Wall pt. 2, Set The Controls To The Heart Of The Sun, A Pillow of Winds, What Do You Want From Me, In The Flesh, Astronomy Domine, The Nile Song, Interstellar Overdrive, Goodbye Blue Sky, Cymbaline , Brain Damage, Run Like Hell, Take It Back, On The Turning Away, Wot's Uh The Deal, Summer '68, Ibiza Bar, Bike, The Narrow Way Pt 3, The Final Cut

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 Link to the Cavern's Spotify playlist of THE BEST PINK FLOYD SONGS

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Of all the bands I've discovered, three are tied for third place in my personal taste. The Doors and Led Zeppelin came next, immediately after I discovered the Beatles and the Stones. Today I'll talk about the third, whom I came to much later, and who slowly climbed the ranks to a shared third place: Pink Floyd. My favorite radio host (that Claudia Angélica whose smile you could almost see behind the microphone) introduced them as "Music you dance to with your mind," a description I've never been able to find better.

 

Pink Floyd was three bands. Three bands that formed a three-headed monster and created some of the most perfect albums in history. I'm not exaggerating. Each Pink Floyd incarnation has its pros and cons, but on balance, each one offers far more advantages. Barrett's madness, Waters' atmospheric soundscapes, and Gilmour's precision made Pink Floyd a band for three different generations, all sharing the same roots.

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The story begins in the early 1960s. Roger Waters and Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett grew up in Cambridge. They had known each other since they were teenagers, attending nearby schools and sharing an interest in music and art. David Gilmour, a friend of both since adolescence, was also in this same circle, though he wasn't yet part of the band. In 1962, Roger Waters moved to London to study architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic . There he met two other students who would change his life: Nick Manson and Rick Wright. The three quickly connected over two things: architecture and their love of rhythm and blues. Thus, they formed the precursor to Pink Floyd, called Sigma 6, which also included Keith Noble, Clive Metcalfe, and Sheilagh Noble, playing covers at university parties. There were many lineup changes, and at some point Bob Klose joined on guitar, adding a certain sophistication to the group with his jazz background. The band's name also came and went. Among others , they were called The Meggadeaths (!!!!), The Abdabs , The Screaming Abdabs , Leonard's Lodgers, Spectrum Five, and Tea Set. In 1965, Roger Waters invited his old friend from Cambridge, Syd Barrett, to join the group. That decision would change everything. Barrett was not only an excellent guitarist but also an extremely creative songwriter. He began writing original songs with surreal lyrics and music very different from what any other London band was doing. When singer Chris Dennis left the group due to RAF service, Syd also became the lead vocalist.

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During a performance, they discovered that another band was also called Tea Set. To avoid confusion, Syd improvised a new name. He took the names of two blues musicians he admired: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. It was similar to when Brian Jones came up with his band's name after seeing a Muddy Waters record. Initially, they were The Pink Floyd Sound , but soon everyone was calling them Pink Floyd, and that's how they would go down in history. In late 1965, Bob Klose left the group because he was more influenced by jazz, and Syd was increasingly steering them towards a psychedelic sound. This led to the formation of the quartet we know from Pipers . With their surf-rock, psychedelic sound, spacey, surreal, and wild lyrics, long improvisations, echoes, reverb , and kaleidoscopic lighting effects, they began to make their way onto the London scene. By late '66 and early '67, they were the most sought-after band at the UFO Club.

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In February 1967, they secured a record deal with EMI to record their debut album, no less than at the already famous Abbey Road Studios, where The Beatles were in the middle of the Sgt . Pepper sessions. While legend has it that Syd managed to get along well with John and Paul and listen to some recordings from the booth, from which he supposedly stole a couple of ideas, Waters says that he bumped into Lennon in the corridors and that he behaved like a complete idiot.

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To be honest, it took me a very, very long time to appreciate Syd Barrett, the leader of Pink Floyd's early period; but when I did, I was able to fully appreciate their subsequent eras and elevate the band to such a high level in my opinion. Barrett was only fully present on the first album, *The Pipers at the Gates of Dawn* from 1967, but his madness lingered like a shadow at least until '71. *The Pipers at the Gates of Dawn* is definitely among the 10 most important albums of '67. Why? Because it was perhaps the most revolutionary in terms of sound in a year when sound itself, almost everything produced, was revolutionary. The album's cosmic aura can only be perceived after many listens. At first, I deplored it, and frankly, I thought it was the work of a madman. It is, but in the best possible way. Only Cream's Disraeli Gears, with Clapton's greater lucidity, managed to portray the pure psychedelia of the era as well, albeit from a different perspective. In PATGOD, sharp lyrics, neurotic sounds, spacey atmospheres, and songs that grate on the nerves to the point of enjoyment, to a sweet sonic masochism, all shine through…

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Barrett was an misunderstood genius. The music he made while with the band wasn't commercial at all, and the music the band made in the years immediately following his departure was even less so. No, Syd didn't need to kill himself with an overdose to forge his legend: he simply went mad, literally, and that's why the legend isn't so widely known. It's incredible to think that just a year earlier, in '66, Pink Floyd were playing bad, hallucinatory surf covers . But Barrett sowed the seed of one of the bands that would later bring Progressive Rock out of the underground , a very difficult kind of music to digest, and yet one that never lost its unique aura.

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Barrett didn't just go mad from abusing LSD and perhaps other, even stronger drugs; no, he proved it, and then some. The sound of Pipers bears the unmistakable mark of acid, coupled with the psychosis it induced. Even so, the album enjoyed a degree of success, enough to land them a television appearance, where Syd, I don't know if unhinged or more lucid than anyone would have guessed, would stop playing and freeze like a statue while they filmed, leaving everyone on tenterhooks. And when the recording stopped to lecture him, he'd start playing like never before. But let's get back to the music; that first Floyd album was a faithful reflection, both rhythmically and lyrically, of what was happening in 1967: utter ruin, but a ruin with utopian undertones. “ Astronomy Domine” is one of the densest songs of that year, a violent song in terms of musicalization, where the progressions of the other musicians who were trying to compose the path of something that did not make much sense could already be perceived.

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David Gilmour was a childhood friend of Syd Barrett and Roger Waters in Cambridge. While Pink Floyd was beginning to gain fame, he played with other bands and traveled around Europe busking. In 1968, when Syd Barrett's health problems made it very difficult for him to continue performing, the others invited Gilmour to join the band. The initial idea was for him to help Syd with concerts, but shortly afterward, Barrett left the group permanently. Even on their second album, A Sourceful of Secrets , he played with them on only a couple of tracks, as they were leftovers from the previous album, and the title track, which was his only appearance with all five members of Pink Floyd.

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The overall result wasn't very healthy, due in part to Syd being too far gone, as the others couldn't find another leader or their own style. Barrett was supposed to focus on songwriting while the others played the music, something similar to what was about to happen with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, but it seems that proved impossible. So Syd made a couple of solo albums, with some consolation prize help from the others, and then he suffered his first death, the musical one. Listening to those albums, I wonder what would have happened if the rest of the band had played them. It's obvious that Floyd's early sound is more psychedelic than progressive, and those stripped-down songs on Madcap... Laughs and Barrett have impressive potential. But on their own, left to the acoustic interpretation of a demented genius, they sound very childish, certainly sincere, but not very good in my opinion. Which makes us think that in the rest of the band, Waters, Wright, Mason and (at last but not least ), Gilmour, there was potential and not everything was centered on the leader.

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The following years were a time of adaptation and democratic growth. Floyd already had a certain reputation, at least in the UK, and they did everything they could to maintain it. If Ringo wondered when he joined the Beatles, "What's an idiot like me doing with guys like these?" I wouldn't be surprised if David wondered, "What's a guy like me doing with idiots like these?" Gilmour joined the band for two reasons: one, because Floyd was a group that started out very successfully; and two, because he was the one who had taught the guitarist to play that way, that is, with whammy bars. Fame and money didn't work out for him, at least not in the first four years. However, he himself had evolved enough that by that time the sound was very different. On the subsequent albums ( Sourceful , Ummagumma , Atom, and chronologically, Obscured ), Floyd was a void trying to fill another void. I'm not denigrating those albums at all, but you can feel Syd's ghost in the sound, the search for the madness that had catapulted them in the first instances, but which after the debut, was nothing more than a shadow that led Floyd to live in the underground and have a commercial decline.

 

Obscured by Clouds wasn't released until '72 , it was because he had been locked away for over a year. Following the creation of this album, but released earlier, was Meddle (somewhat similar to Let It Be and Abbey Road), the first masterpiece of the Floydian sound as we know it. Meddle already displays a maturity, no longer merely semi-improvised sounds . The creation of atmospheres begins, particularly in Echoes, where Roger's leadership becomes evident, leading him to produce a string of spectacular, quite ambitious albums throughout the rest of the 70s, now with a much clearer purpose. Likewise, David's solos became incredibly precise, astute, sometimes lacking sincerity and even possessing a certain coldness, but fitting perfectly into the musical atmosphere and enhancing it considerably. In short, they sounded like a professional, mature band, creating sounds they had perhaps intended for a long time but were only now managing to achieve.

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While Meddle wasn't a commercial success either, and Obscured in '72 sounded like a step backward (for reasons mentioned earlier), '73 would catapult them into history with a practically perfect, sublime album that would bring them the glory that had been so long denied them. I'm referring, of course, to Dark Side of the Moon.

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For many, it's the best rock album of all time. With an overproduction that, without intelligence, would have ruined any other record, on this one, the sounds, the choruses, the laughter, the effects, Gilmour's sometimes theatrical guitar, Roger's obsessive bass lines, and Clare Torry's impressive voice all come together to create very different atmospheres. Neurosis, melancholy, despair, hope, eroticism… An overly ambitious work, as I've already said, but only by aiming for the sky can anything be achieved. With this album, Floyd managed to recapture something that was being lost from the legacy of the 70s: Rock as authentic art, and perhaps it was this album that consolidated what had been started by other bands in '66 and '67. While Zeppelin reigned supreme in the early years of the decade, things turned out that Floyd's best period arrived at the precise moment when Led Zeppelin's best days were beginning to decline, resulting in a technical tie as the two best of the 70s.

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Pink Floyd had already achieved what they wanted: fame and money to burn. Having found a style that bordered on progressive and psychedelic without fully embracing either, they maintained the same formula for several years. It's not that prog was completely ignored until then; in fact, I consider DSOTM to be more of a very intelligent, well-produced, and well-arranged pop album than a good progressive record. But it was this album that gave the entire movement a tremendous boost. Despite the album's greatness, in my opinion, it shook the music world so profoundly that progressive and classic rock ideas quickly ran out of steam trying to reach this "peak," subsequently leading to musical decline. And I'm not just talking about the band. Movements like disco and punk emerged as a counterattack against prog , and we all know which genres triumphed. The album's influence, then, was not only musical but also sociological and cultural.

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Anyway. After taking a break for the first time in six years and being overwhelmed by the idea that they would never surpass Dark Souls of the Moon, Pink Floyd released Wish You Were Here in '75. If it weren't for its tremendous insincerity, it might be my favorite album by the band. And perhaps it is, depending on my mood and the weather. WYWH is a tribute to Syd Barrett, the old frontman they hadn't heard from in years and whom they had idealized. From that idealism was born a gem that breathes Syd's ghost, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, another work composed of multiple parts like in their early days, but with a very precise musical and intellectual vision. The band masterfully handles tension, building to a crescendo from the very first note, delivering pinpoint solos and lyrics that, without being at all sentimental, move the listener with their intelligent nostalgia. The rest of the album is equally superb, featuring Waters' sharp lyrics, showcasing his absolute mastery of songwriting, and Gilmour's mathematically precise guitar solos, which he used to rectify any compositional errors. The result is sublime.

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The thing is, Syd appeared in the flesh at the recording studio. He was bald, overweight, and had no eyebrows. It took them a while to recognize him. When they finally did, they hugged him, invited him in, and showed him what they had recorded of the album. The most well-known legend says that after this, they politely asked him to leave the studio and never saw him again. Other rumors say that Barrett kept showing up in the following days, even with his old guitar, until the security guard barred him from entering, and he spent the whole day playing alone in the street. Whatever the truth may be, the fact remains that the man they were paying tribute to had been kicked around like a dog. That was Syd's second death, the symbolic one. And that hypocrisy and lack of loyalty taints even the impressive social commentary they achieved with their next album, Animals . Incidentally, (before delving into this album), Barret excused himself with his madness to deliciously avenge this betrayal, implying from the 90s onwards that he did not remember being the founder of any band and that he didn't even know who the hell Pink Floyd was (Sometimes being crazy has advantages, I personally don't think I would have forgotten).

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During the recording of Animals, the tension between Waters and the rest of the band grew alarmingly. Musically, it's not noticeable. The album is another of Floyd's ambitious works, based on Orwell's "Animal Farm," to critique social stratification, politics, armies and war, and the people's inaction in the face of oppression. The result is breathtaking: the music perfectly reflects the moods expressed in the lyrics, from the despair, anguish, and fear of the sheep; the anger, savagery, rage, and blindness of the dogs; to the obsession, ambition, arrogance, and scheming of the pigs—I mean, politicians. The other third of the time, depending on the weather and my mood, this is my favorite Pink Floyd album.

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After another brief hiatus, which Waters used to plan what he would consider his "masterpiece": The Wall. This time, why not say it, the most ambitious work of a band that was ambitious in itself. The attempt at a rock opera, which isn't very clear on the album but is more evident in the film, has many highs and lows. Waters is so obsessed with emphasizing a vital process , but he forgets that he already did it successfully with DSOTM, and his overcomplicating things this time around makes the album have its ups and downs. As usual, Gilmour rescues the work with his guitar and with the best composition on the double album, Comfortably. Numb . However, the break is done. The tyranny with which Roger manages the album makes the barriers insurmountable. And if the rest of the band dares to put their names on the next album, The Final Cut , it's an action I don't understand unless it's out of fear of expelling another member for an even more insane act of madness than the last time. The Final Cut is a paradoxical name, and perhaps that wasn't a mere coincidence.

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After the lengthy legal battle that stripped Waters of the rights to the Pink Floyd trademark and his subsequent expulsion (though some call it desertion), Manson, Wright, and Gilmour once again became a leaderless band disguised as a democracy on their next album: A Momentary Lapse of Reason. In reality, David would shoulder the band's burdens (which meant he established another dictatorship) to create A Momentary Lapse of Reason in the late 80s and The Division Bell in the mid-90s. Once again, the refined sound, the meticulously crafted solos, and lyrics almost as incisive as Waters's heralded a third wind. After Pulse, their best live album, Floyd didn't breathe again until their brief reunion as a trio to ring in 2000 in Egypt, and later a reunion with Waters for Live 8 on July 2, 2005, a performance that garnered more attention than the event itself. In that brief meeting they would play the 4 “Speak to Me”, “ Breathe ”, “Money”, “Wish You Were Here” with an apotheosis closing with “ Comfortably " Numb " and a hug from the four members. There were hopes for a possible reunion, and with this event, the band temporarily positioned itself as the biggest on the planet. But the clashes between Gilmour and Waters soon resurfaced, and the hope of a reunion beyond five songs vanished. With social media, it became clear that even another reconciliation was unthinkable, since David and Roger held opposing views.

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Syd Barrett died of pancreatic cancer on July 7, 2006. The news was reported in the media five days later. No members of Pink Floyd attended his funeral.

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On September 15, 2008, Rick Wright died of lung cancer at the age of 65. This time, the three remaining members showered the keyboardist with praise. Gilmour compared him to George Harrison, calling him the "Quiet Floyd" in that he wasn't very media-savvy, but within the band, he was the one who brought balance to the group.

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One might have thought that the story ended there, but on November 7, 2014, Pink Floyd released a new studio album, The Endless River. It's an almost atmospheric work, with hardly any vocals, and in which they used outtakes and unused tracks left by Wright from the Division Bell sessions.

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Roger Waters became a media figure for his advocacy for Palestine, but also got into trouble for criticizing artists who didn't boycott Israel. In 2023, Waters released The Dark Side of the Moon Redux , a re-recording of the legendary 1973 album in a more minimalist version, celebrating its 50th anniversary. At one point, he suggested it reflected his original vision for the album, more focused on the lyrics and without so many guitar solos, in another of his attacks on Gilmour. Although technically a Waters solo album, it could be considered the last significant news about a band release until 2026.

 

What survives of Pink Floyd is their legend, their unparalleled music, their masterful solos, their concerts in extraordinary venues, four consecutive flawless albums, and their various acts of madness transformed into genius. There were also countless rumors following their brief reunion: a world tour, a new album, a concert on the moon, and other impossible things. But most importantly, they left behind an experimental music that bordered on perfection.

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Lineup: Roger (Syd) Barrett on guitar and vocals; Roger Waters on bass and vocals; Rick Wright on keyboards; Nick Mason on drums. In 1968, Gilmour joined the group on guitar and vocals for the recording of their second album, while Barrett left during the recording process due to a unanimous decision and irreversible madness. And perhaps we should mention Clare Torry as a sixth member of Pink Floyd for her masterful and unparalleled vocal contribution to The Dark Side of the Moon .

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By Corvan 

Sep/23/2007

Rewritten: Jul/14/2026

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