Oh, to answer: I started out with “Comfortably Numb”, then got The Wall, then I worked backwards. I haven’t gotten The Final Cut yet, although judging by certain responses, I’ll be a bit cautious (laugh at “bourbon and wallpapered daddy pictures” comment).
Floydian since 2003.
They are definitely an interesting band. I’ve listened to Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, and The Division Bell. All are very good. Even the songs that I’m not fond of I find to be of high quality. Just not my thing.
I’d say they are worth a listen. You’ll probably find something of theirs that you will like.
About 20 years ago I got caught on a camping trip with about 50 Floyd fans who wouldn’t stop playing The Wall.
Since then I havn’t been able to stand Pink Floyd.
Maybe your friend was thinking of Steely Dan?
Pink Floyd were notorious in the 70s and 80s for never giving interviews (a habit that continued until the Waters/Gilmour feud sent each camp scrambling to get its story told), not for refusing to tour.
Pink Floyd was the* best thing ever * when I was 17.
Stir in another 17 years and …voila…it’s pretentious teenage death music. But not bad (yawn).
Kind of like Catcher in the Rye that way.
I liked them back when they had their first Top 100 hit, but after finishing elementary, junior high and high school, sowing my wild oats, attending trade school, going to college and getting a diploma, starting my second career, getting married and settling down and having kids, I sort of fell away from listening to them. I think that they may have fallen off of the charts some time after that.
Now I’ll read the thread and see if someone already beat me to this rather obvious joke. By the way, I like their stuff, both with and without Syd.
Bleh. They’re a band I should hate, but I can’t pluck up the energy. First they were too weird, then they were too bland. Dave Gilmour does his atmospheric guitar thing quite well, though.
Pink Floyd didn’t tour regularly, I’d guess because it would have been an economic and logistical nightmare to do so. I worked part time at an arena in the Eighties. Most of the tours at the time traveled in ten to fifteen semi trailers; Pink Floyd’s act took two sets of forty trucks. They would leapfrog through the tour, with one crew setting up while the other was performing in the last town. Load-in took three days. The other acts of the day could set up in an eight hour day.
It was worth it though, in that they were aiming for multimedia excess and they got it. The show included quadraphonic sound, backscreen projection, laser lights (when they were new), flash pots, a twenty-foot wide crystal ball that opened into a lotus blossom*, a flying hospital gurney as big as a truck, the infamous giant inflatable pig, leftover sets from The Wall and whatever else that they could throw into a college basketball stadium.
*[sub]The crystal ball was as wide as two semi trailers and split in two for travel. When U2 played the next week they left their (much smaller) crystal ball in the truck.[/sub]
Male - really like “Wish you were here”, thought “The Wall” was an interesting concept album and movie, but the tendency to pretentiousness and worst of all, fretwankery, puts me off ever getting an album. I really hate prog rock…
…yet curiously, I’m all about The Tull. Well, no-one said I had to be consistent.
I bought ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ when it came out in 1973.
Recently I upgraded from my collection of vinyl to CD and am listening to it as I type this!
Of course I’m an old codger. :eek:
I like the Who, the Beach Boys, Queen, Simon + Garfunkel and the Police.
[thin, quavery voice ON] They don’t make records like they used to, you know. [thin, quavery voice OFF]
At one time I was a big fan and thought (as teenagers do with their favourite band) that everything they did was wonderful. It isn’t of course, for example some of the folky accoustic stuff I now find embarrasing.
I have never understood the pretentious tag. Surely being pretentious, having a tendency towards pretentiousity, means acting as though you and/or your work is more important or deeper than it really is? Pick any song off one of the good albums (DSoTM, WYWH, Animals*****) and the lyrics are pretty much in your face - there’s no hidden/deeper meaning. If anything (especially on DSoTM) they’re a bit too literal. The only thing I can think of about the music that’s pretentious is that sometimes it goes on a bit. But I’d defend that as having to do with building an atmosphere/mood.
I’m a big Syd fan too.
*****There are only two good Floydy songs on The Wall, to me the rest don’t really sound like PF. Take the Trial (please 
) it’s fun, but if you snuck it onto one of the good albums it wouldn’t fit. It sounds like something from a musical.
Hmm. . . The Wall. My sixteen-year-old is very much into The Wall, which I think is age-appropriate; he should be wowed by it at his age. Me? I find it a Very Impressive Achievement, but not something I care to invest my time in these days. I keep going back to Wish You Were Here, especially the first cut. It’s almost a let-down when the vocals come in after the first half hour (it seems) of instrumentals.
Unless you’re just listening to selected tracks, Floyd just isn’t the same when heard on an mp3 player. On the albums the songs flow into one another, but with mp3’s there’s always a slight pause. I know you can join tracks with iTunes, but there’s a limit to the file size, and then you’d have to also copy the songs individually if you wanted to hear them.
It is a sad but a long time ago (around 1999) I created .mp3 of Dark Side and Wish You Were Here along with Close to the Edge (by Yes) that were giant single mp3s. Some Albums should be listened to this way if possible. The sad part is, I don’t remember how I did it or have the software to do this anymore.
It was in the days of 98 and possibly an early version of musicmatch. Possibly some recording software my wife had for our Midi.
I will have to agree with the many people who say The Wall is not the best album for an introduction. In fact, I think anything from * Wish You Were Here* on is pretty much the reason they got the label ‘pretentious’ . There are good songs on them, but they are concept albums, and many of the songs are there to tell the story, not because they are good songs. I like some of the Sid stuff (if you haven’t heard Interstellar Overdrive, then you haven’t heard Pink Floyd), but my favorite period is the part leading up to Dark Side of the Moon, they did not seem to know exactly what they wanted to do, and tried everything. Fearless and One of These Days from Meddle are particular favorites of mine, and I can still listen to them regularly after being introduced 15 or so years ago.
(I know that the Wizard of Oz does not really match with * Dark Side*, but have you seen the last section of 2001 synched with *Echoes *? Spooky…)
Ooops, sorry, Syd, not Sid.
DSOTM is, without a doubt, my favorite album. I’ve probably heard every song on that album on the radio, with the exceptions of Speak to Me/ Breathe In the Air and The Great Gig In the Sky. Any time Brain Damage is on the radio, Eclipse always follows. One time, the radio station played Brain Damage and that was it. Too many people called in complaining, so the DJ apologized and played Eclipse. Money is way overplayed though, IMO (it doesn’t help that Us and Them is the next track and is my favorite song on that album, and hearing Money makes me want to hear that song). In fact, on the jukebox at our local bar, Money is the only song that can be played off that album. :mad:
A question I’ve been asking myself lately is whether the album The Division Bell is still relevant. After all, much of that album is about the band’s troubles with Roger Waters, who they just recently went back and played with.
You might say I’m an uber-fan…I’ve all of the albums blus a couple dozen live bootlegs of Floyd, plus solo Waters stuff.
My favorites wax and wane over the years, but hands down the best Video/DVD is their “Live at Pompeii”. The singing dog just slays me 
Bit off topic: Does anyone else remember listening to Floyd on 8 tracks.
You would be kicked back really enjoying Welcome to the machine and then **K’PUNK ** the 8 track would change tracks and blast you out of the mood.
Some of Echoes also sounds weirdly like the Phantom of the Opera theme. Only I can listen to it.