Best Pink Floyd lp ?

Dark Side is much more than an album. It is a book with stories and
a plot, an understanding about life and love, an approach to
existence which happened to have music, yet it could have been a
series of paintings or a play.

With ALL proportions kept, it is the same spirit as Mellon Collie and
the Infinite Sadness, by far Smashing Pumpkins' work of art and the
most decent thing made in the 90's.

Then again, I don't know how good that is, since in that decade
all the fools were drooling with the empty teenage-fooler
puff a.k.a. Nirvana and its front clown.

Originally posted by epiphinehas
No question. Conceptually, artistically, musically, creatively, and in terms of production, DSOTM is the best. If you think of Pink Floyd's life as a magnifying glass, DSOTM is the moment when the rays of the Floydian sun were focused into a brilliant burning point of light, scorching a permanent indentation onto the collective unconscious. It can't b ...[text shortened]... t said, "Echoes," "Grantchester Meadows," and, "Fearless," are my favorite Floyd tracks.

Three excellent picks--I could listen to all 3 every night. In fact, I made a tape of my favorite Floyd tracks, and only Embryo interrupts your list.

Originally posted by Seitse
Dark Side is much more than an album. It is a book with stories and
a plot, an understanding about life and love, an approach to
existence which happened to have music, yet it could have been a
series of paintings or a play.

With ALL proportions kept, it is the same spirit as Mellon Collie and
the Infinite Sadness, by far Smashing Pumpkins' work of ...[text shortened]... fools were drooling with the empty teenage-fooler
puff a.k.a. Nirvana and its front clown.

Wow! I'm not the only one who doesn't regard Mr. Cobain as a musical genius. Here's to you, sir! Now if we could just convice Rolling Stone magazine that Nevermind is NOT one of the 20 greatest albums of all time...

Originally posted by PinkFloyd
Wow! I'm not the only one who doesn't regard Mr. Cobain as a musical genius. Here's to you, sir! Now if we could just convice Rolling Stone magazine that Nevermind is NOT one of the 20 greatest albums of all time...

They won't, sadly, since their "journalists" owe still a looooot of their sex life to Courtney Love.

Man, it's so fresh to find someone with taste... and the guts to say publicly that Cobain was just the alternative version of Hanson. Which he was.

Dark Side.

Lyrically, that album is transcendent. It's poetry, especially the first half. At that's just one of it's virtues.

Originally posted by MitHundeSein
Dark Side.

Lyrically, that album is transcendent. It's poetry, especially the first half. At that's just one of it's virtues.

Here's a post sure to set you all alight ...

I too once would've said similar praiseworthy things of Dark Side, and I still enjoy the odd listen - but I think it's canonisation is a little over stated. There are plenty of better musical pieces, and most certainly better lyrical pieces - including a number of Floyd tracks from other albums.
Personally I would put Animals up there as being amongst their best.

Originally posted by amannion
Here's a post sure to set you all alight ...

I too once would've said similar praiseworthy things of Dark Side, and I still enjoy the odd listen - but I think it's canonisation is a little over stated. There are plenty of better musical pieces, and most certainly better lyrical pieces - including a number of Floyd tracks from other albums.
Personally I would put Animals up there as being amongst their best.

Interesting. Animals is probably my least favorite. I find it rather boring, personally. I'm not saying it's crap, not by any means, just... dry. You can tell things were off kilter with the band; that Roger Waters had too much control and had his head way too far up his a**. DSOTM had a healthy creative balance by comparison, and was beautiful despite also being a highly conceptual piece.

Originally posted by epiphinehas
Interesting. Animals is probably my least favorite. I find it rather boring, personally. I'm not saying it's crap, not by any means, just... dry. You can tell things were off kilter with the band; that Roger Waters had too much control and had his head way too far up his a**. DSOTM had a healthy creative balance by comparison, and was beautiful despite also being a highly conceptual piece.

Sheep seems to be tthe considered favorite song from Animals, but I didn't care for it. I did like all the Pigs songs, though. As an album, iy seemed disjointed. But hey, it's Floyd, so I had to get it!
For those who have heard that CD of singles that came with the PF boxed set, which of the 10 did you like best? I had never heard Point Me At The Sky before, and it quickly became my favorite.

Originally posted by PinkFloyd
Sheep seems to be tthe considered favorite song from Animals, but I didn't care for it. I did like all the Pigs songs, though. As an album, iy seemed disjointed. But hey, it's Floyd, so I had to get it!
For those who have heard that CD of singles that came with the PF boxed set, which of the 10 did you like best? I had never heard Point Me At The Sky before, and it quickly became my favorite.

I'm a Dogs fan myself ...

Originally posted by PinkFloyd
Sheep seems to be tthe considered favorite song from Animals, but I didn't care for it. I did like all the Pigs songs, though. As an album, iy seemed disjointed. But hey, it's Floyd, so I had to get it!
For those who have heard that CD of singles that came with the PF boxed set, which of the 10 did you like best? I had never heard Point Me At The Sky before, and it quickly became my favorite.

"If you survive till 2005, I hope you're exceedingly thin, for if you are stout you will have to breathe out while the people around you breathe in, breathe in, breathe in..." I love that line. "Point Me At the Sky," you're right, is probably one of the better songs on that disc, if not the best. I also liked, "Paintbox," and, "Julia Dream," not to mention Syd's, "Scarecrow," which is my favorite.

_________________

I have this theory about Syd Barrett's lasting influence on Pink Floyd, which I'll run by you.

People forget that Syd was far more original and creative than either Waters or Gilmour, and tend to attribute their eventual popular success to factors exterior to Barrett himself. But the fact is, the bedrock of Floyd's success is in the seriousness with which the band approaches its music.

Barrett gave himself wholly to his art. Even though his lyrics and music seemed to be mere whimsy at times, it was difficult if not impossible to extricate Barrett the man from his art. His band mates, of course, were able to disassociate in a healthier manner.

After Syd finally went insane, Roger and David had to labor to capture the uniqueness of Syd's style, which in itself called for a level of artistic dedication they simply could not match. Not that they weren't any less talented musically than Syd, but as artists they were not as profoundly surrendered to their work as was Syd.

The tragedy of madness, coupled with the level of dedication to their art demanded in the wake of Syd's exit from the band, eventually gave rise to the level of seriousness which sets them apart from almost every other group. On the surface, yeah, they were in it for the money and the babes, like every other band, but in the purely artistic realm the effect of Syd Barrett on their enduring success cannot be overstated, in my opinion.

When you think about it, what is so refreshing about Floyd (their Animals album included) is that Syd, being who he was, made it impossible for Floyd to ever be a post-modern group. Yes, there's sarcasm and cynicism in their music, but no tongue-in-cheek; no wink in the direction of the audience. Pink Floyd is old-school in their seriousness. I think that's why when people learn to appreciate Floyd there is an innate recognition that these guys are tapping into something timeless. Syd Barrett saved them from contemporaneousness; from the mediocrity of a post-modern cop-out.

Originally posted by epiphinehas
"If you survive till 2005, I hope you're exceedingly thin, for if you are stout you will have to breathe out while the people around you breathe in, breathe in, breathe in..." I love that line. "Point Me At the Sky," you're right, is probably one of the better songs on that disc, if not the best. I also liked, "Paintbox," and, "Julia Dream," not to me ...[text shortened]... s an innate recognition that these guys are tapping into something timeless.

Nice thoughts, but entirely subjective with respect to Syd Barrett and his influence.

'People forget that Syd was far more original and creative than either Waters or Gilmour'

What do you base this on?
I know it's cool to be a Syd Barrett fan and wax lyrical about the loss to the world when he dropped out. But how do you judge creativity and originality in popular music?

Originally posted by amannion
Nice thoughts, but entirely subjective with respect to Syd Barrett and his influence.

'People forget that Syd was far more original and creative than either Waters or Gilmour'

What do you base this on?
I know it's cool to be a Syd Barrett fan and wax lyrical about the loss to the world when he dropped out. But how do you judge creativity and originality in popular music?

I just base it on stuff I've read about the band and interviews with Waters and Gilmour.

I'm actually not a huge fan of Syd Barrett, really. I like the early post-Barrett/pre-DSOTM era much better. My ideal version of Pink Floyd, like the young Elvis, is Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii.

YouTube

I don't mean to denigrate in any way what Pink Floyd accomplished without Barrett. It's my theory that Barrett's influence is more fundamental than the craft of songwriting, and far more important to Floyd's eventual success than most people might be aware.

At bottom, it's just a theory.

Originally posted by epiphinehas
I just base it on stuff I've read about the band and interviews with Waters and Gilmour.

I'm actually not a huge fan of Syd Barrett, really. I like the early post-Barrett/pre-DSOTM era much better. My ideal version of Pink Floyd, like the young Elvis, is Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLJ_QVfT_wM

I don't mean to den ...[text shortened]... oyd's eventual success than most people might be aware.

At bottom, it's just a theory.

That makes sense.
I've heard many people rave about Barrett and thought you were doing the same - not that I don't enjoy Piper at the Gates and so on.
I agree with you - Live at Pompeii is fantastic.
I love their live version of Echoes.

Ahhh Syd. After reading about him and hearing the anecdotes, I wanted to put him in the "musical genius" category. Afetr listening to Opel and Madcap Laughs several times, I just couldn't do it. I can only take whimsy in small doses, and Syd --well, he just IS whimsy personified. Rolling Stone picked 3 Floyd albums (I think) for their Top 500 all time issue, and Piper was one of them--the only one I didn't agree with. This may mark me as a reconstituted Floyd fan, but I just can't listen to the early versions of Astronomy Domine; only when they cleaned it up for the Echoes compilation could I take it.
All that notwithstanding, I think Corporal Clegg had some really good lyrics.

Sorry, for me it will always be.


Wish you were here.