Pink Floyd

Recently I was listening to some of the music of Pink Floyd, and I came to reflect on how my perception of the group has developed over the years.

When I was growing up, I had not even heard of Pink Floyd, because they were not a "singles band". It was only when "Another Brick In The Wall" ascended the British charts that I really became aware of their existence. I thought that they must be some mysterious newcomers, although looking back their music scarcely conveyed that impression.

In my early adolescence I purchased "The Dark Side Of The Moon" on vinyl. Until then, the more cerebral echelons of rock music had been largely alien to me.  Perhaps because some of the lyrical content was beyond my youthful comprehension, the record proved a disappointment, as I focused primarily on the musical content, and the relative absence of instrumental virtuosity puzzled me. To me, the album failed to match up to the mythology which had grown to surround it in my mind.

Further down the road, with a more widely developed sense of discernment, I was able to appreciate "Dark Side" and their other celebrated works, including the material from the Syd Barrett era. I could never really get into the albums which followed "The Wall". The music to me had become overly ponderous, and some of the lyrics excessively earnest. Some edge was also lost with the departure of Roger Waters.

Even in their most creative and cogent phases, Floyd were treading a fine line, between leaving much to the imagination of the listener, and straying into too grandiose and preachy an approach. An air of mystery worked best, and this was sometimes lost when the message grew too literal. Half of the fun and the challenge is working out "what are they really getting at here?".  Such an effect is more readily accomplished when sufficient remains unsaid.

I consider that Floyd were at their most vital and compelling when their songs induced feelings both of uneasiness and curiosity, in their capacity to lay bare the raw essence of the human condition - "Wish You Were Here", "Us And Them", "The Great Gig In The Sky".

"The Dark Side Of The Moon" succeeded because it examined the whole gamut of the human experience (death, time, money, insanity, war etc). It was not a stunningly original idea, but it was more grounded and concentrated than the average concept album of the time, and they pulled it off with a collection of concise, poetic and affecting statements. It was profound, but coherently realized and accessible, distilling the often strident statements of Seventies rock down into something which sounded convincing, sincere and digestible.

A thing which I have found over the years is that Pink Floyd's music, or at least some portions of it, have an appeal to those people who would otherwise have little truck with progressive rock or "album" rock. Perhaps the topics of alienation and despair, and the anti-authoritarian outlook, have led such individuals to embrace their work, and deem it credible and "cool".  "The Wall" in particular appears to have drawn in quite a broad constituency.

Although their 1970s releases tend to garner the most attention and airplay, some of their most intriguing and influential work can be found on those albums which came in between the Barrett epoch and the "classic" years.  Records such as "Meddle" and "Ummagumma" are well worth checking out. I know that some people still think that "Bike" is their masterpiece. I find it increasingly difficult to disagree; it is a perfect slice of English psychedelia!

It is also worth noting that Pink Floyd's influence, in a way, has burned rather strongly over the past decade or two, through various groups consisting of serious young men with big statements to make.