Having a Pink Floyd weekend

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Pretty in-depth analyzes of melodic dissonances. Was never that musically inclined enough to break down the effects
With such detail , but can relate to bass contexts . And subsequent flow of musical inspirations .
Musical inclinations were frowned upon by parents . Had to settle for others version of recorded music. Played through household stereo system . Generally heavily influence by parents tastes , until preteens.

I lucked out - had older cousins with pretty big libraries of interesting stuff. Some friends even in grade schools had older siblings that we were picking things up from.

Such a great band, so many great albums. I agree with your assessment of their albums for the most part. Saucerful is definitely underrated, especially since people bemoan the lack of Barrett material after Piper. More, Ummagumma, and Atom Heart Mother are alright for the most part. I think Obscured by Clouds is their most underrated album tbh. It's not for everyone tho, and it is noticably different from their other albums since it's still a soundtrack at the end of the day.
I would recommend giving another listen to the albums you hadn't already heard, since in my experience they get better as you hear it more. I've listened to all their records for years and I still notice things I'd missed.
In particular, I would suggest giving Animals another look. It might be their best record imo, but it's the odd one out of the Big 4 (Dark Side-WYWH-Animals-Wall). Compared to the other three, Animals is much less accessible. Dark Side is a great intro to prog in general bc it's superficially simple for a prog record. WYWH isn't as 'listenable' as DSotM, but it's deeply heartfelt and even the long Shine On suite is broken into more bite-sized pieces. The Wall also has the benefit of not having any 10+ minute prog epics and makes up for it by having shorter, more varied songs which are grounded by the albums narrative.
Animals is probably least accessible for a number of reasons. It's easily their most political record (protest prog?)--so Tories might be turned off by some of Waters' stances. Aside from the short Pigs on the Wing songs; Dogs, Pigs, and Sheep are all very long. On first listen, I felt like each song kind of dragged on too long, but the more I listen the more I like. Dogs contains some of Gilmour's best solos. Honestly each song has some of the best instrumental and lyrical work they ever did. Wright's keyboard skills really shine here in ways they never did again IMHO. Nick Mason's drumming goes from aggressive (Sheep) to subdued (the 'heartbeat' under Wright's keyboard sections in Dogs) and everywhere in between.
But this is just my two cents as a big Floyd and Animals fanboy. The Big 4 are all so good tho that we'd be here all day if we tried to debate which was best.

I actually have to admit - listening to Dogs again with some of the 'reaction' superfans (King KTF really gets them and can be fun to listen along with) it's well composed, the musicianship is great, Sheep might have been the most musically exciting, for whatever reason I just don't feel like the center mass of it hit me where as I think of any of the albums Wish You Were Here probably hits me the most square-on and Welcome to the Machine really has that impersonal brutality that I'm used to thinking of our social and economic systems as having.


I'd also have to say - Temporary Laps of Reason, the Division Bell, and The Endless River, I liked all of those as well, it's a bit like their music does fit well into at least three epochs - Barrett to DSoTM, DSoTM thru to Roger Water's leaving, and then post-Waters. Being a bit more exacting it almost seems like Animals through to The Final Cut was it's own phase as well and I from what I gather it's a bit more of Roger Waters in Al Jourgenson mode. There's something that carries across between Animals and The Final Cut, they've got a similar expressive feel and I think I mentioned - Final Cut was more ballads but it seemed like some of what was nascent in Animals got unpacked more there.

Youtube's Pink Floyd channel posted this a couple days ago, more of their transitional material:

Animals has always been my favourite Pink Floyd album. As you say, it features some of Gilmour's best guitar playing and I like the political themes in the lyrics which I think still resonate today. I saw Roger Waters a couple of years ago and the highlight of the show was when he played Dogs and Pigs (Three Different Ones) complete with inflatable pig and Battersea Power Station as a backdrop. I've been lucky enough to have seen that show, Water's Wall tour and Gilmour solo so I just need to catch Nick Mason and then I'll have seen pretty much every era of Floyd performed by one of the band members.

Side note - someone said something earlier about depression. I'm actually planning a similar deep dive on King Crimson.

Like I said - I feel like my best resource is diving in rather than avoiding on that one. Guess I'm a data guy to a fault.

Time. On repeat ....... preferable witout the bells .

I bought Dark Side of the Moon at 15, 43 years ago, lifetime fan, they seem part of my life

There are many good Pink Floyd songs , but Time was very instrumental in getting my life moving .

Time's been tricky for me to talk about, it's a 70's thing but they roll up a bunch of songs under the same song title (well... I guess Goldie did that with Timeless / Inner City Life / Pressure as well and that's a biggie for me). Breathe is probably my favorite segment of that as it really pulls hard at me emotionally, as does Wish You Were Here and Welcome To The Machine.

I don't know if this is always the case, it seems to be with super-bands and artists, but it seems like there's often some powerful story uniting, organizing, and driving them. In PF's case it was Syd's artistic demise. I also get really interested in seeing how people of this caliber of thinking age and how they reflect it in the music, ie. if you're a creative and tend to be emotionally opened - very few people can give you guideposts of what it's like to make it into middle age and beyond with that orientation (unfortunately there are also many in the 27 and now growing 45 clubs).

I'm going to go ahead and recommend Barrett's solo albums if you're a fan of Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I wouldn't say his solo work is quite as good as that record, but still great and very much worth checking out if you like his style.

King Crimson is going to be a deep dive by default. The first album is thankfully the best place to start. It has a good mix of harsh, chaotic jazz rock and calm, almost medieval sounding songs.
Also be prepared for the style to change much more than Pink Floyds did. KC's lineup went through many changes over the years.
My fav albums by them are In the Court of the Crimson King, Lizard, Red, and Discipline.

I'll have to. I know Wright tended to beat them up a bit, if anything it might tell a bit about what happened to him. My best guess with Syd is that what happened to him with too much acid (and who knows what else) is something that was probably in progress anyway and he just got there faster. To be a bit more specific - it's a bit like the chaotic engine that made the art of his songs and music was some sort of dialectic tension that found and answer, and once it found that answer it went up in smoke.


I got up through the end of Islands last night and started on Larks' Tongues this morning. I have to say I really liked Lizards, probably because I'm a big psychedelic guy (a bit like how I seem to promote Saucerful of Secrets more than a lot of people would). I also think people are a bit unfair to Poseidon - ie. it sounds 'a bit too much like Court of the Crimson King' - so what, not enough to complain about it IMHO and Devil's Triangle was quite an enjoyable listen.

I totally wish my music repertoire was much larger ..