Well what can I say about these guys that has not been said?
Well quite a great deal actually as an old friend of mine I fell out with spent three years astounded of my knowledge of the band and their music that he used to say that if I wrote a book about them he would be first in the queue!
Now me personally I would not think my knowledge is that great and some die hard fans would know far more about certain things with Pink Floyd than I do.
But I do have a certain understanding about their music!
It all started while diving into my Dad's audio tape collection while he was absent one day and pulling out an odd looking album with cartoon like artwork and two robotic hands performing a handshake! On listening to it I was mesmerised by these unique sounds that up until the point I never dreamed ever existed or possible!
Later on a friend of my father's. who they both played in a band together, came round with a stereo and aan audio tape of The Wall album and on hearing elements of that, and Another Brick In the Wall Part 2 in particular, I for one was SOLD!! In fact I remember being insanely jealous when I realised they had opted to used a school just up the road from my house when my school was OPPOSITE my house! Of all the luck?!?! LMAO.
No then begun a love affair that I was not to realise the magnitude of until my first CD player and getting 9 CDs FREE with my new system I got hild of The Dark Side of the Moon I had admittedly never listened to before hand, so kind of odd you may think that my introductions to Pink Floyd were by way of their Wish You Were Here album and THEN The Wall before hearing The Dark Side of the Moon?!?! Quite funny really when I think about it.
Of course all the other CDs quickly followed, save More, Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets as for me it was the David Gilmour and Roger Waters era that I adored. Oddly today I do own Saucerful but NOT Piper! Well Piper was NOT included, curiously, in the Shine On box-set I snapped up on release?!
I am often asked which IS my favourite album and I always get a stunned look and then appreciation and laughter when I answer ... 'would I ask you which of your children is your favourite?'
Well it has to be the main three but I cannot nor will not state which of them is my favourite as in all honesty the answer could be different each time you ask me, hehe.
The odd thing is this ex friend of mine had not heard The Division Bell and that surprised me and he assumed it would not luve up to expectations and though he thought that A Momentary Lapse of Reason was good but not quite Floyd I played him first Marooned, as he adores David Gilmour, and then the late Richard Wright track Wearing the Inside Out. Now I had been trying to answer for sometime an age old question he had put to me and common among floyd fans ... Which Ones PINK?!
I played that track while telling him nothing at all about it. He loved it ans said 'is that Gilmour' and I said no but what album does it sound like the most? What would it not seem out of place on and he gave me the answer I was hoping for ... Dark Side. I then told him who wrote the music and who was singing and his chin dropped.
He then started to actually see what I had been saying... They was ALL Pink Floyd!!
I then explained to him what I had before to give a definitive answer depends on which album you are talking about and as your favourite is Dark Side then i would have to say the Wrighty was the most influential in the sound. Just like Roger Waters was on The Wall and David Gilmour and Roger Waters and Rick Were on Wish You Were Here.
Of course there will be those that say it was Syd Barret ad for a time it was!
A band has many sounds and peronsal styles that make up their uniqueness that turns out unmatched and no doubt the Cambridgeshire background produced those enticing and cryptic lyrics they are also renowned for. Oddly I used to pass Grantchester Meadows on a weekly basis and that reminds me of the first time I heard that track was playing on a radio in a friends store where the manager was giving me stick about Pink Floyd being rubbish and he was more into mellow sounds.
While having this debate Grantchester Meadows suddenly came on the radio and I had no idea it was Floyd and the funny side is that this guy debating with me over whether they were crap or not then said ... 'now listen to this?! This is more like it, trippy and laid back and far better than anything Pink Floyd could play or write!'?!
Agreeing with him that the song was pretty amazing and imagine the stunned looks on all our faces and the reasons why when at the end the DJ announced 'well that was Grantchester Meadows by Pink Floyd'?! Hahaaaa!!
Geoff, who had been debating and tating the Floyd could bot do anything that cool sounding suddenly dropped his jaw while me and my brother Nick fell about with laughter. Nick said 'didn't you know that was Pink Floyd I though you had all their albums and I said, well apparently NOT?!' Haha
Little anecdotes like that are rife in my life with regards music and none more so than Pink Floyd or The Pink Floyd OR The Pink Floyd Sound.
Yes sir, reptty unforgettable and a source of utter frustration for the 7 year wait Gilmour said it would take to release to follow up to The Division Bell while appearing on Jools Holland's show one night, hmm or was it Q Magazine? I fail to recall.
With the sad and premature passing of thoroughly nice chap Richard Wright this wait is now over and will never be again.
The Pink Floyd Sound died with him sadly and my he rest in peace.
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