Pink Floyd are three, if not four different groups. Like many young people of my age I first heard them with their number one single Another Brick in the Wall. It topped the charts at Christmas – a welcome change from the novelty, schmaltzy Christmas records that surround it – There’s No One Quite Like Grandma being the most terrible one of the lot.
That is a representative song of the third phase of Floyd – the one where Roger Waters is leading the band that he joined after the second album and is far more focused on real world affairs.
Their next album was The Final Cut, whilst it focused on Waters’ father and his wartime experience it was really about the Falklands conflict – the lyrics of Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert sum it up – Brezhnev took Afghanistan/ Begin too Beirut/ Galtieri Took the Union Jack./ And Maggie one day/ Took a cruiser with all hands/ Apparently to get it back.
I had assumed that the title meant that it was the final Floyd album and it seemed that way for a long time. Waters left the group and continued a solo career in the same style as those two Floyd albums.
Mike Read on the Radio 1 breakfast show had a taste for early psychedelia and often played Arnold Layne or See Emily Play with the band’s original line up on a semi-regular basis.
That incarnation of Floyd ended with Syd Barrett’s drug fuelled burn out (he spent his life as recluse in Cambridge). Mental health issues were not considered in the same way as they are now (just one of the reasons harking back to some sort of better time in the past misses out on sexism, racism and homophobia as well) so Syd was a figure of pity and a warning to others but he did not appear to be given any help.
Roger Waters replaced him in the band and was their main song writer. Echoes and Atom Heart Mother followed – both fine albums. It was the next two albums that cemented their reputation. The Dark Side of the Moon is a timeless classic that sold heavily for many years. Sometimes these famous albums are overrated – this is not and is one of the great British albums. Steve Doubtfire lent me this in the sixth form and it truly knocked me away.
It was followed up by Wish You Were Here, not as famous but just as good. Both are about Syd and mental health issues.
Roger Waters and the rest of Floyd hated each other and it only got worse when Dave Gilmour brought Floyd back for their final incarnation, though it was hard for them to find enough material to perform (not of the remaining band members were prolific song writers). Neither album is really worth searching out, not bad, just unremarkable.
I tried Roger Waters’ first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch-hiking, it was just more of the same with a sexist cover.
They reunited to perform at Live 8, but it was frosty. Still Pink Floyd are one of the titans of British Music.
This is from The Dark Side of the Moon. Rest in Paradise Syd Barrett – you crazy diamond.
Eclipse
Playlist
- Lucifer Sam
- See Emily Play
- Arnold Layne
- Interstellar Overdrive
- Atom Heart Mother
- Echoes
- Any Colour you Like
- Brain Damage
- Eclipse
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond
- Welcome to the Machine
- Wish You Were Here
- Another Brick in the Wall (part 2)
- Get You Filthy Hands Off My Desert
- The Fletcher Memorial Home
- Not Now John
- Two Suns in the Sunset
Five Miles Out 