Pink Floyd lovers

lindsmuse · 2009-12-01T08:42:00+00:00

It seems that each and every music lover of every generation hold Pink Floyd close to their heart. When the radio used to be the internet and music connecte...

Pink Floyd lovers

lindsmuse

Now if I could just work out how to paste images in here - (please help me!) - I could put some of Syd Barretts abstracts in here! . Yip I reckon he was just your avrage frustrated abstract artist!

Tokai-SA

lindsmuse wrote: I just quickly went and read a bit about Syd Barret over at Wiki.(Must confess - it was the music I was into - knew little about the band) Was just wondering.

+ 1, for me that's what it's all about, the band and their music since Syd Barret left the band, not what the band did whilst Syd was in it.

David Gilmour used to teach Syd Rolling Stones licks during lunch breaks.
All the talk about Syd Barret every time a Pink Floyd discussion comes up, I don't get it.

The genius of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright = Pink Floyd...IMO

Shine on you Crazy Diamond is dedicated to Syd.

"Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!"

Bob-Dubery

Tokai SA wrote:
lindsmuse wrote: I just quickly went and read a bit about Syd Barret over at Wiki.(Must confess - it was the music I was into - knew little about the band) Was just wondering.
+ 1, for me that's what it's all about, the band and their music since Syd Barret left the band, not what the band did whilst Syd was in it.

David Gilmour used to teach Syd Rolling Stones licks during lunch breaks.
All the talk about Syd Barret every time a Pink Floyd discussion comes up, I don't get it.

The genius of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright = Pink Floyd...IMO

I think that Pink Floyd sound the way they do because of Waters. His bass lines provided the anchor that is really a large part of their sound.

Barret was important to Floyd because he opened the gates for them. They'd been just another white, English R 'n B band (the name is derived from the names of two rural bluesmen - Floyd Council and Pink Anderson). Syd started taking them down a more original path. Not just in terms of eccentricity. Under his leadership they started the long, spacey jams and instrumentals they became famous for.

Waters defined the Floyd sound, but without Barret there may not have been a Floyd at all, or they would have been just another British blues band. Barret opened the gates to another dimension.

Renesongs

Maybe the angst and trauma of watching your best friend and band mate quickly unravel into dementia was the fuel for most of Pink Floyd's work for the next 3 decades. There is a theme of fame disillusionment and eventual insanity that seems to be pervasive throughout their post Barrett period. Brain Damage, Wish you were here, Shine on you crazy Diamond, Comfortably Numb and possibly the whole of The Wall IMO seem to be inspired by Barrett's melt down.

Tokai-SA

Bob and Rene

Good points...makes sense.

I remember as a kid hearing Floyd coming from my two elder brothers bedrooms, I was like 12 years old.
Something about Gilmours solos and the sound of his guitar just addicted me to the band, it's kind of hard to describe.
So for me it wasn't Roger's brilliant bass lines that grabbed me, I was too young to understand that kind of thing, it was the wailing tone of Gilmours guitar that I loved.

My guitar playing hobby is totally influenced by Gilmour, thank G-d for that, I wasn't born with the gift of speed, at least with Gilmour I can get away with playing extremely slow. ?

FenderBender

Renesongs wrote: Maybe the angst and trauma of watching your best friend and band mate quickly unravel into dementia was the fuel for most of Pink Floyd's work for the next 3 decades. There is a theme of fame disillusionment and eventual insanity that seems to be pervasive throughout their post Barrett period. Brain Damage, Wish you were here, Shine on you crazy Diamond, Comfortably Numb and possibly the whole of The Wall IMO seem to be inspired by Barrett's melt down.

+1 Rene, although I feel a section of The Wall, and most definitely parts of The Final Cut had a lot to do with Waters' inability to come to terms with his father's death and issues with his mother.

Squonk

There is lot to mention about Pink Floyd, but I was not drawn by Rogers bass or David's guitar playing.

The first album I heard was "Obscured by Clouds" and the first song that got under my skin was "Childhood's End" which strange enough was a Gilmour composition. "Meddle" opened my eyes to progressive rock and I remember still trying to get my Dad to understand "Echoes"

Strange enough I didn't quite get "Dark Side of the Moon", the songs were OK, but not the same as previous albums.
"Wish you were Here", restored my faith in the Band
"Animals" was one of those strange albums that seemed to be very loose, but had some brilliant moments.
"The Wall" and "The Final Cut" were not IMO great progressive rock albums, but maybe progressive rock had died out at that point. Maybe Floyd had changed direction a little bit.
Dont get me wrong, I am not saying that these albums are not good, but everyone seems to list these albums as the defining moments for Pink Floyd.

If you could only take 3 Albums of Floyd on an Island, what would they Be?

Mine

Wish you were here
Meddle
A nice pair (the boxed Piper at the gates.. and Saucerful of Secrets)

Bob-Dubery

Some readers of and participants in this thread may be interested in an article that Joe Boyd wrote for The Independent. Boyd's path through the 60s intersected with Floyd's in several significant ways. He was involved in the London Free School for whom a then little known Pink Floyd played a benefit concert. He ran the UFO night club (London's first "underground" club) at which Pink Floyd made their name. He produced their first single.

Years later he was involved in a tribute concert to Syd Barret. But it wasn't just a wake or just about nostalgia. As he explains in the article he regards Barret as having been very important in the emergence of a London sound, indeed a British sound.

Bob-Dubery

Thinking back on it, the thing for me about Dark Side of the Moon was Gilmour's playing. His great strat tone, his instinct for dynamics, his spacey blues soloing is all on full display on that album.

There's also example that distinct Pink Floyd thing in their sound that, for me, has a lot to do with Waters's bass lines*. You can hear it, for example, on the chorus of "Us and Them". A kind of tension between the bass and the melody. I was often struck by this on Floyd's songs (another notable example is "Comfortably Numb", especially under Gilmour's extended solo) and I find it seductive even now.

* Somebody please put me out of my misery and reveal the rule for using apostrophes to indicate possession when the noun ends with an S. Is it "Waters's"? I've checked my copy of The MacMillan Guide to English Grammar but it is silent on this particular matter.

Wizard

* Somebody please put me out of my misery and reveal the rule for using apostrophes to indicate possession when the noun ends with an S. Is it "Waters's"? ...

yes.
http://copyediting-grammar-style.suite101.com/article.cfm/rules_of_apostrophe_usage

Bob-Dubery

Wizard wrote:
* Somebody please put me out of my misery and reveal the rule for using apostrophes to indicate possession when the noun ends with an S. Is it "Waters's"? ...
yes.
http://copyediting-grammar-style.suite101.com/article.cfm/rules_of_apostrophe_usage

Hmmm... depends on wether or not an extra syllable is added. Have to think on how one would say that out loud.

singemonkey

Strunk and White, among others, say that you should add apostrophe "s" after all names ending in "s" except one or two by long tradition (the obvious case here is Jesus').

So it's "Waters's" bass, or even "KISS's lead guitarist, Ace Frehley."

This rule makes sense because otherwise you'd be adding apostrophe "s" to some names, but only an apostrophe to others. The pronunciation stays the same, however.

Bob-Dubery

singemonkey wrote: Strunk and White, among others, say that you should add apostrophe "s" after all names ending in "s" except one or two by long tradition (the obvious case here is Jesus').

So it's "Waters's" bass, or even "KISS's lead guitarist, Ace Frehley."

This rule makes sense because otherwise you'd be adding apostrophe "s" to some names, but only an apostrophe to others. The pronunciation stays the same, however.

This is what I love about the English language. There are so many standards to choose from.

singemonkey

Some of it's very arbitrary, and left-over from say, one nut-job who decided things have to be a certain way. For example, in Bill Bryson's mother tongue, he says that one crotchety school-teacher opined in a book that a preposition at the end of a sentence struck him as ugly. Now, even if you know that it's an absurd rule, you often have to bow to it to stop your boss from seeing you as an ignoramus.

Furthermore, he mentions that the possessive apostrophe-"s" was written up by some particular individuals, based on some peculiarity of Latin grammar and it was adopted. Now if you think about it, it doesn't really add any value. It's completely obvious from the context whether you're using the possessive or not. When Jesus wept, it's quite clear that he didn't have a lot of wept to hand around and when someone gambled over Jesus' clothes, it's quite clear that Jesus wasn't clothing at the time. Other punctuation mimics pauses and rhythm in speech, or denotes hidden letters. The possessive apostrophe-"s" was added to denote some letters that were assumed to be there, but actually never were.

FatBoy

X-rated Bob wrote:
This is what I love about the English language. There are so many standards to choose from.

Standards are a good thing, everybody should have one! ?

Wizard

I haven't listened to Pink Floyd for years; but have indulged heavily over the last few days as a result of this thread.
I was reminded why I don't listen to them - their music makes me feel sad.
Not sure if its the key they play in; or the meloncholy vocals or what ... but certainly doesn't leave me feeling upbeat.

On a different point; no-one ever seems to mention the drumming in Pink Floyd ... which for me are a very distinctive part of their signature sound.

Riaan-Combrink

Squonk wrote: If you could only take 3 Albums of Floyd on an Island, what would they Be?
Mine
Wish you were here
Meddle
A nice pair (the boxed Piper at the gates.. and Saucerful of Secrets)

I have every release, and as indicated above I love both (er.. make that three and 1/2) phases of the band. For some reason, these are the three that resonate with me:

The Final Cut
The Wall
DSOTM [or add, interchangeably, Animals or WYWH].

About the Waters/Gilmour/Barret debate, although its much more nuanced than this, isn't the bottom line not that all these combinations were just different, and not better/worse? The Final Cut IMO would never have been the album it is without Gilmour's two mind-blowing, soul-wrenching solos on Fletcher Memorial Home and the title track. Any of Dave and Polly's lyrical musings on Division Bell just starkly highlight the absence of Waters' lyrical brilliance. The whimsical catchiness, and simple musicality, of some of the Syd stuff vs the Wall and Final Cut are poles apart (oops, PF pun alert), but simply different.

And I think Wizard has pointed out an important observation - what perhaps bummed many guys out about the Final Cut era was exactly the fact that it was so brutally sad. Personally and politically. I have never heard starker, more personal emotions than on the middle section of that title track. You don't make that up to fill an album. It sucked from you emotionally, and sometimes music is supposed to do the opposite - uplift, inspire, or simply make you wanna dance or get down and dirty - but better or worse? Those are IMO simply inapplicable and inappropriate paradigms in this discussion.

lindsmuse

Thanks for help with the image Alan.

Here's an abstract by Syd Barrett which I think looks pretty good .... like the work of quite a good artist - I'm still reading about abstract painting so can't say for sure. But it doesn't look like the work of a crazy guy really.

I also find their music, altho really incredible, a bit depressing and kind of moved away from them for same reason.

Wizard

That picture is in the same style as Paul Klee ... my favourite artist

lindsmuse

Yes!!! And he played the violin as did Matisse and Kandinsky which is interesting- musicians and artists like Syd Barrett ? - and I suppose there were others. You should look at some of his other stuff - I just googled 'Syd Barrett abstract paintings' and he seems to be quite a good abstract painter from the little I've seen. Seems balanced and tasteful...