It’s the inevitable Pink Floyd post. So cover your eyes.
The first album I ever heard by Pink Floyd was A Saucerful of Secrets, the second was Animals. Both have held special places in my memory and life.
The first album I ever bought by Pink Floyd was Obscured by Clouds and my favorite is Atomheart Mother closely followed by Animals. I prefer The Final Cut to The Wall.
My greatest love for Floyd’s music is the period right after Syd’s departure and prior to The Dark Side of the Moon. I really like the Richard Wright songs and his voice when mixed with Gilmour’s, sometimes Roger is just too sincere.
I could live without Dark Side and Wish You Were Here but spring would never be the same without Meddle, and summer reminds me of The Wall.
I enjoyed the 80’s and 90’s Floyd and went to see Roger perform The Wall twice but missed Gilmour’s tour, the only time I saw Floyd was The Wall at Earls Court.
Since 1978 there has not been a week I have not heard at least one Floyd song, either on the radio or the stereo.
My favorite bootleg is the Electric Factory Sept 1970.
Anyway in the early 70’s Floyd were stretching beyond the bounds of their minds and sanity. They were loud and confusing musically with a quadraphonic pa. They were adventurous, frying eggs on stage and sawing wood, banging on things and shaking stuff. They were also writing great melodic songs and long pieces that were never rambling and pointless. They were a jam band that had a rabid fan base. They constantly challenged there audience and the recording process. They tried to make an album with no conventional instruments, they made an album were each had to write their own song with no help from the others.
If they had a deal now they would have been consigned to obscurity after the second album. They are one of the best arguments for giving bands time to mature.
Yes what they produced after Dark Side of the Moon is probably more significant but there is an innocence and joy about those early albums, a belief that anything is possible if you have the nerve to do it. They are often overlooked even by the band, the soundtrack albums More and Obscured By Clouds pushed aside for the joyful excesses that Dark Side and Wish You Were Here are.
So here are my 10 choices for songs you should pay attention to before the super star status hit the band. Naive wonder filled songs that have inklings of the future.
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