# pink floyd ? another explanation **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 7, 2000, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702 "2000-04-07T21:48:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![phtimo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/848f3c/32.png) [@phtimo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phtimo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/1 "2000-04-07T21:48:00Z")
Hi Board Member and/or Master In France the story goes that Pink Floyd was a (or one of the) nickname of the very fist acid in the UK, but I have to say that this may be what you call Urban Legend ? ps : just found your WebSite while searching for the ultimate Hotel California decrypt, and your site is REALLY COOL !! salut, ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2000, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/2 "2000-04-07T22:40:00Z")
[Where did Pink Floyd get its name? (07-Apr-2000)](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mfloydname.html) Bonjour! Je n’ai jamais entendu cette théorie, d’où la tenez-vous? ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/3 "2000-04-08T00:00:00Z")
But what we really want to know is, “What’s up with this whale story?” Does any whale ever actually do this? Come on David, you only answered half the question! 🙂 * * * _It is too clear, and so it is hard to see._ ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/4 "2000-04-08T01:19:00Z")
And it might help to have an attribution for the more mundane answer… after all, it just doesn’t have the same panache as a made up story. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lvick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d07c76/32.png) [@lvick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lvick)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/5 "2000-04-08T09:58:00Z")
When I was in Baja last year on a whale watching trip, we were told that the male Grey Whale does indeed, on occasion, catch some air with his wood, and that they do call it a pink floyd, FWIW, never did see it myself, but one in our group claimed to. ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/6 "2000-04-08T15:24:00Z")
I recall seeing something of this sort of display on the Discovery channel or the like. ## Tinker _ring_ - I hope that’s not Bob Eubanks on the line ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/7 "2000-04-08T16:24:00Z")
DSYoung said: > [@](#): > > And it might help to have an attribution for the more mundane answer… Here ya go: _Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey_, by Nicholas Schaffner, Copyright 1991, p. 26. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/8 "2000-04-08T18:32:00Z")
Well folks for what its worth I’d always heard the “Pink floyd is a type of LSD” story…(In Montreal in the late 80’s… and Vancouver in the early 90’s…) usually from acid heads, but from others too. Im not saying its right, I believe the “mundane” reasoning, Im thinking that the brand of LSD must have been named AFTER the band instead of vice -versa. As for the whales, Ive heard that story too, but never that it was called “Pink Floyd”…I had a friend who was an mammal science major and if you can believe it took a course on the “physiology of sex”. She used to regale me with bizzare trivia like that. * * * * * * Juliefoolie ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2000, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/9 "2000-04-08T20:40:00Z")
> [@](#): > > _Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey_, by Nicholas Schaffner, Copyright 1991, p. 26. Hey, I’ve got that book. Cool. I’ve also seen the same story in a number of other places. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/10 "2000-04-09T14:56:00Z")
Thanks, David! 🙂 I am hoping the rest of the book’s secrets aren’t as mundane. (scurrying off to find and read about the band…) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2000, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/11 "2000-04-11T16:13:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I recall seeing something of this sort of display on the Discovery channel or the like. I never knew _Animal Planet_ had “After Dark” episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2000, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/12 "2000-04-11T22:51:00Z")
I saw a show on dolphins on TV last year. It showed males with their penises erect. Not that I’m in to animal porn. ---
**Author:** ![Maxrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Maxrad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maxrad)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/13 "2000-04-14T05:06:00Z")
A quibble with the explanation as given: any blues fan knows Pink Anderson was neither obscure, nor from Georgia, nor yet a blues artist exclusively. North Carolinian Pink Anderson did everything from gospel to blues to ballads…and quite well, too. But then so did Robert Johnson. ---
**Author:** ![Smeagal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Smeagal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeagal)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2000, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/14 "2000-04-30T02:31:48Z")
I dont know what you people are talking about, but the name Pink Floyd was made by Syd Barret who took the names of two jass players (Pink Anderson and Floyd Council) and stuck them together:-) I hardly doubt any of them had anything to do with LCD. The story might have originated from something to do with the fact that Syd Barret used LCD himself. _hmmmmm…_ 😛 ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pink-floyd-another-explanation/1702/15 "2000-05-01T20:32:50Z")
Getting a vision of Syd Barrett crouched in his psychedelic pad wearing his psychedlic thread. Checking the time on his digital watch. Doing sums on his pocket calculator. Yep, reminds me of that Beatles tune: **L** ucy in the **C** onservatory with **D** iamonds