I just don't understand Pink Floyd

[Jazz Ad]

It is ok not to like a band.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by baba

It may have taken The Wall to get widespread recognition in the US, but Pink Floyd is HUGE in the US. I love them, but the radio here has destroyed entire swaths of their catalog for me due to overexposure.

Agree. The Wall made them mainstream...but prior to that ('70s), I know all my friends (musicians & friends of musicians) dug them big time.

[4dog]

Originally Posted by kevteop

I think some of their earlier stuff is interesting but then they became a stadium rock band fronted by a blues guitarist. How terribly pedestrian.

Im fine liking a pedestrian band.

[Spectrum]

I'm in my 40's, and as long as I can remember Floyd has always dominated radio airplay in the US. I didn't really like them until about 10-15 years ago; but I always thought they had some good tunes and I always loved the mystique surrounding the band. When a friend at work turned me onto Echoes and the Animals album, as well as their older stuff, then I got it.

Parts of DSOTM and The Wall have indeed been killed by radio overplay, but if I listen to the whole album from end to end it is fantastic. Same thing with Wish You Were Here. And lately I've been listening to stuff like Grantchester Meadows and Fat Old Sun and The Narrow Way and Pow R Toc H.

The only stuff I can't really dig is the post-Waters stuff. Gilmour's guitar playing is always awesome, but it lacks Roger's conceptual direction and also makes the mistake of adopting an 80s sound. And while the Wall is good, I can only take it in measured doses, as Roger's depressing and angry angst thing gets a bit too thick.

It's okay not to like it, of course. I didn't for the longest time. Sometimes tastes change, though.

Also, I listen to a lot of psychadelic and stoner rock and love it, and I don't use drugs. You either like the music or you don't IMO. Suit yourself, though, whatever works for you, as long as you take care of yourself it's cool.

[sigmafloyd]

Pink Floyd puts me to sleep too that's why in love them. Put echoes on a good pair of headphones and bliss out

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by tjnkoo

In no way am I trying to trash them though, honestly! I want someone to help me understand the Pink Floyd phenomenon. Fellow musicians are practically offended when I say they bore me to tears, especially being how much I am into progressive music (its my favorite genre). Nearly all my favorite bands are prog (minus Primus and earlier Modest Mouse), but I just don't get Pink Floyd. Please help me see the light, o' talkbass.

Sorry, Sport. It doesn't work that way. If you don't get it, then you don't get it. There's no "explaining" that will work.

At the risk of offending you - which is sincerely not my intent - I sense that you suffer from the restlessness and short attention span that is characteristic of youth. I note that nearly all of the bands you cited tend to play very, very busy music.

Pink Floyd is not about the notes: It's about the ambiance. It's about space.

That's about as much "explaining" as I can do. Try to wrap your head around that. And in the meantime, chill. That might help a bit as well...

MM

[MysticMichael]

Just one more thing I will add: Pink Floyd is one of those bands that is very much a product of the time and the subculture from which it originated - much more than most. In this case, that happens to be the psychedelic subculture of the Sixties. There's no getting around that - it's obvious in everything they ever played, right up to and including Dark Side of the Moon, at least.

To be very candid, I personally was a part of that scene for a number of years during my youth, and I can tell you from personal experience that if you ever listened to Ummagumma while tripping, no explanation would be necessary. You just intuitively "got it". Or at least I sure did.

Disclaimer: I'm not encouraging anybody to go score some hallucinogenic drugs in order to fully appreciate Pink Floyd. I myself haven't done so in many years, nor will I ever do so again. I'm simply trying to provide what might be termed a more fully-dimensional accounting for their music, and the cultural context that helped generate the creative spark for the band - particularly for the benefit of the relatively young and inexperienced amongst us...

MM

[steamthief]

Originally Posted by bggeezer

I would just like to add that PF never made it 'big' in the US.

Says the poster from the UK. LOL! 'Merica disagrees: http://www.vh1.com/music/tuner/2012-...-chart-record/ Maybe 30,000 stoners kept forgetting where their albums were and bought DSOTM over and over again?

I do think it's criminal that the Kinks aren't considered in the pantheon of all time greats in the USA, but that's another topic.

Originally Posted by baba

It may have taken The Wall to get widespread recognition in the US, but Pink Floyd is HUGE in the US. I love them, but the radio here has destroyed entire swaths of their catalog for me due to overexposure.

QFT. Although whenever "Dirty Woman" comes on when I'm driving, I'm compelled to crank it up LOUD - the guitar work in that song is amazing!

[Wagz]

+1 to what MysticMichael said.

The ambient 'space' in Floyd's songs really resonate with an altered state of consciousness. When you're in that sort of mood, a lot of the prog bands the OP mentioned (bands I love BTW) are too busy and hectic when you just want to chillax.

Also, as mentioned before in this thread, the messages behind a LOT of Pink Floyd's music connected with people. Waters was a great lyricist with very strong opinions about politics and the human condition, which made them a rarity at the time.

PS. IMHO, the modern 'prog/ambient' counterpart to Floyd is Sigur Ros. Highly recommended workout for your sound system!

[ShoeManiac]

Originally Posted by bggeezer

I would just like to add that PF never made it 'big' in the US.

LOL!

Dark Side Of The Moon spent 741 consecutive weeks on Billboard's Top 200 chart from 1973 - 1988. They were very big in the United States, and DSOTM was very much the beginning of that phenomenon.

It's perfectly fine to "Not Get Pink Floyd". Just as it's perfectly fine to "Not Get Rush", or whatever other band you want to insert into that conversation. Listening to music is an entirely subjective experience, and every listener reacts in their own unique way. Listen to what you like.

I've never gotten why people feel the need to lump Pink Floyd in with prog bands. Some people feel compelled to categorize music and many other things. They're more comfortable when they can put something in a genre or box, or what have you. That's a bigger conversation, but it's very much a part of where the American music scene comes from. As for Floyd? I've always found Pink Floyd interesting because they have done their own thing, and charted their own course. There's something to be said for doing your own thing.

[unclebass]

Never cared for Pink Floyd, don't really get the mass appeal. I find most of their songs really, really depressing. But then I don't get the appeal of Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, or Def Leppard, yet it doesn't seem to have any affect on their popularity. How boring would it be if all bands sounded alike?

[asands]

Its like a lot of other bands, they get a lot of their credit because of the time it came out and the influence it had with that generation IMO. That being said, it took me many years to come around to them and now I like them so much I go watch a tribute band once or twice a year and its one of my favorite shows! El Monstero is the s*^t!

[avvie]

Maybe 30,000 stoners kept forgetting where their albums were and bought DSOTM over and over again?

Sortof.
The album stayed on the charts until the cd format appeared. Mostly there were repeat purchases by those who scratched their vinyl and melted their tapes in a hot car.

And it's called "Young Lust", not "Dirty Woman" ;-)

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by unclebass

Never cared for Pink Floyd, don't really get the mass appeal. I find most of their songs really, really depressing.

...in which case I'd bet just about anything that you've heard practically none of their early work - which I would define as everything up to Dark Side of the Moon - and have probably only heard a bunch of late-period "Pink Roger" instead.

If you had listened to their first two albums - Piper At The Gates of Dawn & A Saucerful of Secrets - you would have a very different opinion of the Floyd right now. It's pretty brilliant stuff, in its own way: Typical late Sixties British Invasion pop...but with a very definite flavor of, shall we say, "psychic anarchy" - courtesy of Syd Barrett.

Playful, adventurous, loony, off the wall? Yes. And also upbeat, fun & very creative. Not particularly depressing at all.

MM

[Floyd Eye]

Wow. You guys are kidding right? Pink Floyd boring? Maybe the stuff after Roger left, but the rest of it is insanely bad ass. I don't know if I would necessarily call it prog rock.

[Floyd Eye]

Originally Posted by MysticMichael

...in which case I'd bet just about anything that you've heard practically none of their early work - which I would define as everything up to Dark Side of the Moon - and have probably only heard a bunch of late-period "Pink Roger" instead.

If you had listened to their first two albums - Piper At The Gates of Dawn & A Saucerful of Secrets - you would have a very different opinion of the Floyd right now. It's pretty brilliant stuff, in its own way: Typical late Sixties British Invasion pop...but with a very definite flavor of, shall we say, "psychic anarchy" - courtesy of Syd Barrett.

Playful, adventurous, loony, off the wall? Yes. And also upbeat, fun & very creative. Not particularly depressing at all.

MM

I would agree with this, although I quite like the Roger stuff too. Man, Syd was cool as hell though.


Here's a friggin' great song.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkRcwqxLEuk

[kevmc28]

Try the first two or three albums with the Syd Barrett stuff and just after...get high first, if you are into that.

I like listening to the Pompeii concert on headphones without the studio add ons...just the live stuff. Pretty cool, too.

[Floyd Eye]

Originally Posted by asands

Its like a lot of other bands, they get a lot of their credit because of the time it came out and the influence it had with that generation IMO. That being said, it took me many years to come around to them and now I like them so much I go watch a tribute band once or twice a year and its one of my favorite shows! El Monstero is the s*^t!

Oh yeah. I think El Monstero is a St. Louis thing though. I've seen 'em a bunch of times.

[bggeezer]

I'm glad I was wrong about the Floyd not being big in the US in the early days.
I was just quoting Waters and Gilmore from around the 'Pompeii' era. They (and I) obviously don't know what we're talking about!

[millsbass5]

Go on a trip. You'll understand 'em better.