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 through
the school website (www.pchs1.com) 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 Hotbot,
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.***
