| Revision as of 12:58, 7 June 2006 view source83.250.98.146 (talk) →Roger Waters-led era: 1976–1985← Previous edit | Revision as of 12:58, 7 June 2006 view source 83.250.98.146 (talk) →Syd Barrett-led era: 1965–1968Next edit → | ||
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| ==Band history== | ==Band history== | ||
| ===Syd Barrett-led era: 1965–1968=== | |||
| Pink Floyd evolved from an earlier band, formed in 1964, which was at various times called ], The Meggadeaths, ], and The Abdabs. When this band split up, some members — guitarists ] and ], ]mer ], and ] player ] — formed a new band called Tea Set, and were joined shortly thereafter by guitarist ], who became the band's primary vocalist as well.<ref>Schaffner, p. 25</ref> When Tea Set found themselves on the same bill as another band with the same name, Barrett came up with an alternative name on the spur of the moment, choosing '''The Pink Floyd Sound''' (after two ] musicians, ] and ]).<ref>Mason, p. 30</ref> For a time after this they oscillated between 'Tea Set' and 'The Pink Floyd Sound', with the latter name eventually winning out. The word ''Sound'' was dropped fairly quickly, but the definite article was still used occasionally for several years afterward, up to about the time of ]. In the early days, the band ]ed ] staples such as "]", but gained notoriety for psychedelic interpretations, with extended improvised sections and 'spaced out' solos. | |||
| ]'' (1967)]] | |||
| The heavily ]-oriented Klose left the band to become a ] shortly before Pink Floyd started recording, leaving an otherwise stable lineup with Barrett on ], Waters on ], Mason on ] and Wright switching to ]. Barrett started writing his own songs, influenced by ] and ] ] with his own brand of whimsical humour. Pink Floyd became a favourite in the ] movement, playing at such prominent venues as the UFO club, the ] and ]. As their popularity increased, the band members formed ] in October 1966, a six-way business partnership with their managers, ] and Andrew King,<ref>Schaffner, p. 30</ref> issuing the singles "]" ({{audio| Arnold_Layne.ogg|sample}}) in March 1967 and "]" in June 1967. "Arnold Layne" reached number 20 in the ], and "See Emily Play" reached number 6,<ref name= "Schaffner 320–321">Schaffner, p. 320–321</ref> granting the band its first TV appearance on ] in July 1967. | |||
| Released in August 1967, the band's debut album, '']'', is today considered to be a prime example of British psychedelic music,<ref name="AMG Reviews">, retrieved ] ]</ref> and was generally well-received by critics at the time, and it is now viewed as one of the better debut albums by many critics. <ref name="Rollingstone">Rolling Stone, ] ]</ref> The album's tracks, predominantly written by Barrett, showcase poetic lyrics and an eclectic mixture of music, from the avant-garde free-form piece "]" ({{audio-nohelp|Interstellar_Overdrive.ogg|sample}}) to whimsical songs such as "]", inspired by the ], a rural region north of ] (Barrett, Gilmour and Waters's home town). Lyrics were entirely surreal and often referred to folklore, such as "The Gnome" ({{audio-nohelp|The_Gnome.ogg|sample}}). The music reflected newer technologies in electronics through its prominent use of stereo panning and electric keyboards. The album was a hit in the UK where it peaked at #6, but did not get much attention in North America, reaching #131 in the U.S.<ref name="Pink Floyd & Co">, retrieved ] ]</ref> During this period, the band toured with ], which helped to increase its popularity. | |||
| ====Barrett's decline=== | ====Barrett's decline=== | ||
Revision as of 12:58, 7 June 2006
| Pink Floyd | |
|---|---|
| File:PinkFloydphoto.jpgPink Floyd, left to right: Richard Wright, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Nick Mason | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Cambridge, United Kingdom |
| Years active | 1965 - present (on indefinite hiatus) |
| Members | David Gilmour Nick Mason Richard Wright |
| Past members | Syd Barrett Roger Waters Bob Klose |
| Website | www.pinkfloyd.co.uk |
Pink Floyd are a British band noted for progressive rock music, philosophical lyrics, classical rock compositions, sonic experimentation, innovative cover art and elaborate live shows. One of rock music's most successful and influential acts, the group have sold an estimated 73.5 million albums in the U.S., and over 200 million albums worldwide.
Pink Floyd enjoyed modest success in the late-1960s as a psychedelic band led by Syd Barrett. Barrett's increasingly erratic behaviour eventually caused his colleagues to replace him with guitarist David Gilmour and the band went on to record several elaborate concept albums, achieving worldwide success with 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon, 1975's Wish You Were Here, 1977's Animals, and 1979's The Wall, among the best-selling, most critically acclaimed, and enduringly popular albums in rock music history. In 1985, singer and bassist Roger Waters declared Pink Floyd defunct. The remaining members continued recording and touring under the name, eventually reaching a settlement with Waters giving them rights to the name and most of the songs.
Waters performed with the band on 2 July 2005 at the London Live 8 concert, playing to Pink Floyd's biggest audience ever. On 3 February 2006, Gilmour gave an interview to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica which indicated the band would no longer tour or produce any new material, although various members still plan on producing solo or collaborative material. The possibility of an appearance similar to Live 8 has not been ruled out by either Mason or Gilmour.
Band history
=Barrett's decline
Finding their feet: 1968–1970
Musically, this period was one of experimentation for the band. Gilmour, Waters and Wright each contributed material that had its own voice and sound, giving this material less consistency than the Barrett-dominated early years or the more polished, collaborative sound of later years. Waters mostly wrote low-key, jazzy melodies with dominant bass lines and complex, symbolic lyrics, Gilmour focused on guitar-driven blues jams, and Wright preferred melodic psychedelic keyboard-heavy numbers. Unlike Waters, Gilmour and Wright preferred tracks that had simple lyrics or that were purely instrumental. Some of the band's most experimental music is from this period, such as "A Saucerful of Secrets", consisting largely of feedback and atonal screeches and loops, "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" (Audio file "Several_Species.ogg" not found), which is a series of sped-up voice samples resembling rodents chattering that reaches its climax in an incomprehensible Scottish dialect monologue, and "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (performed under different names during this period), a very Waters-driven song with a bass and keyboard-heavy jam culminating in crashing drums and Waters's primal screams.
Whilst Barrett had written the bulk of the first album, only one Barrett composition, the Piper outtake "Jugband Blues", appeared on the second Floyd album. A Saucerful of Secrets was released in June 1968, reaching #9 in the UK and becoming the only Pink Floyd album not to chart in the U.S. Somewhat uneven due to Barrett's departure, the album still contained much of his psychedelic sound combined with the more experimental music that would be fully showcased on Ummagumma. Hints of the epic, lengthy songs to come are in its centrepiece, the 12-minute title track (Audio file " A_Saucerful_of_Secrets.ogg" not found), but the album was poorly received by critics at the time, although critics today tend to be kinder to the album in the context of their body of work. Future Floyd albums would expand upon the idea of long, sprawling compositions, offering more focused songwriting with each subsequent release.
Pink Floyd were then recruited by director Barbet Schroeder to produce a soundtrack for his film, More, which premiered in May 1969. The music was released as a Floyd album in its own right, Music From the Film More, in July 1969; the album achieved another #9 finish in the UK, and peaked at #153 in the U.S. The band would use this and future soundtrack recording sessions to produce work that may not have fit into the idea of what would appear on a proper Pink Floyd LP; many of the tracks on More (as fans usually call it) were acoustic folk songs, although critics tend to find the collection of the film's music patchy and uneven. Two of these songs, "Green Is the Colour" (Audio file "Green_is_the_Colour.ogg" not found) and "Cymbaline", became fixtures in the band's live sets for a time, as can be heard in the many available bootleg recordings from this period. The latter was also the first Pink Floyd song to deal with Roger Waters's cynical attitude toward the music industry explicitly. The rest of the album consisted of incidental music with a few heavier rock songs thrown in, such as "The Nile Song" (Audio file "The_Nile_Song.ogg" not found).
The next record, the double album Ummagumma, was a mix of live recordings and unchecked studio experimentation by the band members, with each member recording half a side of a vinyl record as a solo project (Mason's first wife makes an uncredited contribution as a flautist). Though the album was realised as solo outings and a live set, it was originally intended as a purely avant-garde mixture of sounds from "found" instruments. The subsequent difficulties in recording and lack of group organization led to the shelving of the project. The title is slang for sexual procreation, and reflects the attitude of the band at the time, as frustrations in the studio followed them throughout these sessions. Wildly experimental on the studio disc (except for Waters's pure folk "Grantchester Meadows"), with atonal and jarring piano pieces ("Sysyphus" (Audio file "Sysyphus_Part_II.ogg" not found)), meandering folk guitar ("The Narrow Way") and large percussion solos, the live disc featured excellent performances of some of their most popular psychedelic-era compositions and caused critics to receive the album more positively than the previous two albums. With fans, the album was Pink Floyd's most popular release yet, hitting UK #5 and making the U.S. charts at #74.
1970's Atom Heart Mother, the band's first recording with an orchestra, was a collaboration with avant-garde composer Ron Geesin. One side of the album consisted of the title piece, a 23-minute long rock-orchestral suite (Audio file "Atom_Heart_Mother.ogg" not found). The second side featured one song from each of the band's then-current vocalists (Roger Waters's folk-rock "If", David Gilmour's bluesy "Fat Old Sun" (Audio file "Fat_Old_Sun.ogg" not found) and Rick Wright's psychedelic "Summer '68"). Another lengthy piece, "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast", was a sound collage of a man cooking and eating breakfast and his thoughts on the matter, linked with instrumentals. The use of incidental sound effects and voice samples would thereafter be an important part of the band's sound. While Atom Heart Mother was considered a huge step back for the band at the time and is still considered one of its most inaccessible albums, it had the best chart performance for the band so far, reaching #1 in the UK and #55 in the U.S., although it has since been described by Gilmour as "a load of rubbish" and Waters as suitable for "throwing in the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again." The album was another transitional piece for the group, hinting at future musical territory such as "Echoes" in its ambitious title track. The popularity of the album allowed Pink Floyd to embark on its first full U.S. tour. Before releasing its next original album, the band released a compilation album, Relics, which contained several early singles and B-sides, along with one original song (Waters's jazzy "Biding My Time").
David Gilmour-led era: 1987–1995
Solo work and more: 1995–Present
Pink Floyd have not released any new studio material or toured since 1994's The Division Bell. The band released a live album entitled P*U*L*S*E in 1995. P*U*L*S*E hit #1 in U.S. and featured songs recorded in London, Rome, Hanover and Modena on The Division Bell tour in 1994. VHS and Laserdisc versions of the concert at Earl's Court in London 20 October 1994 were also released, and a DVD edition will be released on 9 October 2006. A live recording of The Wall was released in 2000, compiled from the 1980–1981 London concerts, entitled Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81. It hit #1 on Billboard Internet Album Sales chart, and hit #19 on U.S. charts. A newly-remastered two-disc set of the Floyd's best-known tracks entitled Echoes was released in 2001. Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright all collaborated on the editing, sequencing, and song selection of the included tracks. Minor controversy was caused due to the songs segueing into one other non-chronologically, presenting the material out of the context of the original albums. Some of the tracks, such as "Echoes", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Marooned", and "High Hopes" have had substantial sections removed from them. The album reached #2 on U.S. charts. In 2003, a 30th-Anniversary SACD reissue of Dark Side of the Moon, featuring high resolution surround sound, was released with new artwork on the front cover. In 2004 a remastered re-release of The Final Cut was released with the single "When the Tigers Broke Free" added. The 30th-Anniversary SACD reissue of Wish You Were Here is due later in 2006. Waters and Wright are reported to be working on solo albums; David Gilmour released his first solo record since 1984's About Face, called On an Island, on 6 March 2006, and began a tour of small concert venues in Europe and the U.S. in support of the album a few days later, with Richard Wright as part of the band.
Nick Mason's book, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd was published in 2004 in Europe and 2005 in the US. Mason made public promotional appearances in a few European and American cities, giving interviews and meeting fans at book signings. Some fans claimed that he said he wished he were on a tour with the band rather than on a book tour. There has been talk of Roger Waters doing a Broadway musical version of The Wall, with extra music to be written by Waters. The Broadway version will feature all of the music written by Waters but it is not known whether the songs co-written by Gilmour ("Young Lust", "Comfortably Numb", and "Run Like Hell") will feature.
The images of Pink Floyd
Nearly as famous as Floyd's music is the artwork that comes with it. Throughout the band's career, this aspect was mainly provided by photographer and graphic artist Storm Thorgerson and his graphic studio Hipgnosis ("hip" gnosis or hypnosis). Many of these images have acquired fame in their own right; notably the cover depicting a man shaking the hand of his burning alter-ego for Wish You Were Here and the refracting prism for Dark Side of the Moon. The cover of Meddle underlined the band's ideas about the visualization of sound with its close-up of a human ear accompanied by visible sound waves.
Thorgerson was involved in the artwork for every album except The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the front cover of which was a photograph by Vic Singh and the back cover a drawing by Barrett; The Wall, for which the band employed Gerald Scarfe; and The Final Cut, which was designed by Waters himself, using photography made by his then brother-in-law, Willie Christie. Only the covers for The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, and Ummagumma include images of the band members themselves. Roger Waters explained this on a video/DVD on the making of Dark Side of the Moon: "We always wanted to kind of... not be on our covers ourselves; not have pictures".
Live performances
- Main article: Pink Floyd live performances
Pink Floyd are renowned for their lavish stage shows, combining over-the-top visual experiences with music to create a show in which the performers themselves are almost secondary. They have always resisted the temptation of a large screen portraying band members owing to the fact that they "don't really do very much," prefering instead to show music videos to run alongside the songs.
Discography
- Main article: Pink Floyd discography
Studio albums
- 1967: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
- 1968: A Saucerful of Secrets
- 1969: Music From the Film More
- 1969: Ummagumma
- 1970: Atom Heart Mother
- 1971: Meddle
- 1972: Obscured by Clouds
- 1973: Dark Side of the Moon
- 1975: Wish You Were Here
- 1977: Animals
- 1979: The Wall
- 1983: The Final Cut
- 1987: A Momentary Lapse of Reason
- 1994: The Division Bell
Top 20 singles
- 1967: "Arnold Layne" / "Candy and a Currant Bun" (#20 UK)
- 1967: "See Emily Play" / "The Scarecrow" (#6 UK, #134 U.S.)
- 1973: "Money" / "Any Colour You Like" (#13 U.S.)
- 1979: "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" / "One of My Turns" (#1 UK, #1 U.S.)
(Chart numbers taken from Schaffner, p. 320-321)
Additional song samples
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Band members
Official Pink Floyd members
- Syd Barrett (1965-1968)
- David Gilmour (1968-present)
- Bob Klose (1965)
- Nick Mason (1965-present)
- Roger Waters (1965-1985)
- Richard Wright (1965-1981, 1987-present)
Notable or frequent contributors
Note that these are not official members of Pink Floyd, but musicians who have made significant studio or live contributions:
- Sam Brown - backing vocals
- Jon Carin - keyboards and vocals
- Bob Ezrin - production, keyboards and composition
- Ron Geesin - orchestration and composition
- Roy Harper - guest lead vocal
- Michael Kamen - orchestration and keyboards
- Carol Kenyon - backing vocals
- Dick Parry - saxophone
- Guy Pratt - bass guitar and vocals
- Tim Renwick - guitars
- Clare Torry - guest lead vocal and backing vocals
- Gary Wallis - percussion
- Snowy White - guitars
See also
- List of rock instrumentals
- List of songs over fifteen minutes in length
- List of best-selling music artists - World's top-selling music artists chart.
References
- Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8
- Jones, Cliff. Another Brick in the Wall: The Stories Behind Every Pink Floyd Song, 1996. ISBN 0553067338
- Mason, Nick. Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, 2004. ISBN 0297843877 (followed in 2005 by the paperback edition (ISBN 0753819066) which features an updated section on the band's Live 8 reunion)
- Miles, Barry. Pink Floyd: A Illustrated Documentary, 1982. ISBN 0399410015
- Palacios, Julian. Lost in the Woods: Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd, 2001. ISBN 0-7522-2328-3
- Schaffner, Nicholas. Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey, 1991. ISBN 0517576082
- Various authors. "The Amazing Pudding", 1982–1992. (a fanzine)
Notes
- RIAA, retrieved 22 April 2006
- About.com, retrieved 9 February 2006
- "la Repubblica", 3 February 2006, translation here
- "Die Welt" interview, 6 February 2006
- Billboard interview, 20 February 2006
- ^ Pink Floyd & Co. discography, retrieved 15 February 2006
- Rolling Stone, 26 October 1968
- ^ AMG, retrieved 16 February 2006
- Schaffner, p. 146
- BBC Music profile, retrieved 9 February 2005
- Rolling Stone, 2 December 1970
- Schaffner, p. 154
- Fitch, p. 17, 19, 41, 43, 64, 65, 93, 125, 126, 138, 139, 165, 176, 208, 273, 287, 294, 295, 313, 323, 343 and 353
- Amazon.co.uk, retrieved 16 April 2006
- BBC News, 5 August 2004
External links
Official sites
- Pink Floyd's UK site
- Pink Floyd's U.S. site
- Roger Waters official site
- David Gilmour official site
- Denis O'Regan - Official site of the photographer whose work appeared on The Division Bell and P*U*L*S*E
- Storm Thorgerson Official Site - Website of the artist who masterminded many of Pink Floyds most memorable covers.
Other links
- Another Link on the Wall - A large collection of fan sites, news resources and other external links, updated regularly.
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