First off, and of course most importantly, is my love for the band Pink Floyd, I own almost all of their albums and enjoy the work they produced from their first album The Piper At The Gates of Dawn in 1967 all the way through the last album The Divison Bell which came out in 1994. (There was a live album released in 1995 called P.U.L.S.E. which in my opinion was also very good.) Some people argue that after Waters left the band in 1983, Pink Floyd was not the same and of course they weren't. Waters was a genuis at writing lyrics, but the band went on. Roger was very distressed and angry when he left the band and sued the rest of the members, asking that they not use the name Pink Floyd, he lost and so they continued. Many people were and still are not happy about this and it created a seperation in Roger Waters and Pink Floyd fans who often argue over who is better and why.
While Roger Waters was a wonderful lyricist, his voice added a whiny tone to the music which is most evident in The Wall (1979) and The Final Cut (1983). Some of the music was meant to have a whiny undertone and sounded most effective with it present, but in other songs it just made the music sound downtrodden and unpleasant.
The best comparison I have heard relating to the band and it's changes after Waters, was actually a quote regarding the Publius Enigma, but it went something like this... "It is like a cracked bell, it will never sound the same once it is cracked, but that doesn't mean that the cracked bell can no longer produce beautiful harmonic tones." Well, it was something like that anyway.
I love David Gilmour's work, in my opinion, he is the greatest guitarist of all time. He joined the band in 1967 when Syd Barrett decided he wanted banjo and sax players. Later on he would replace Barrett.
Syd Barrett was also a key to the music when the band formed. His unique and quite odd influence can be heard in The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) and A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968), the first two Pink Floyd albums released. It was shortly after the release of Saucerful that Barrett became delusional and crazy from LSD and was then removed from the band.
Many people think of only a select number of albums when they hear the name Pink Floyd, such as Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975) and The Wall (1979), but there are so many other albums with work just as impressive such as Meddle (1971) and Obscured by Clouds (1972) both of which mark the sounds of the early Floyd. And then onto later albums like Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994) which I believe was a 180 degree turn back to sounding like the early Floyd with a new energy present in the music.
Through many years and 3 generations, Pink Floyd has remained, and it is not known if they will ever release another album, but I know many people including myself, would love to see it happen.
I have to say Pink Floyd is my all time favorite band. Thier music provides me with inspiration no matter what type of mood I may be in. The feelings behind thier work are indescribable.
Dear Sam, I think that sei stato un po' troppo duro [Editor' s note : this is the last time I translate your mail ; as Baciga said "In English please!"] I think you were too harsh towards "Pow R. Toc H.", expecially in comparison with "Flaming" that, according to me is a song with tons of psychedelic clichè, with uninteresting and unmemorable lyrics in comparison with the other Barrett' s compositions in the rest of the album ( also with "Scarecrow", a pretty nice picture )."Pow R. Toc H." has to been revalued because ( apart for the good music ) it was composed by all the four members and is a sourt of the premonition of the band' s future style ( I think it' d fit well in a suite of the '70 period ).By the way...I want to focus your attention of the collaboration between PF and The Beatles in the 1967 spring, while both the groups worked at the Abbey Road Studios.The Beatles were present at some recording session of "Piper" and each band advised the other and they infuenced each other ; for instance Barrett used a lot of times in "Piper" the ADT ( artificial double tracking ) ; Norman Smith, the Beatles sound engineer until "Revolver" ( do you rember the beginning of "Tomorrow Never Knows" ? ), explained this trick to Syd.I'm waiting for your review of DSOTM.Hi Sam.( ehy, it' s Barrett not Barret! )
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