PINK FLOYD

That's not something I would argue with, but 'nonsense' it ain't.

Mid > early >>> late.

I would argue, but then it's all in the eye or ear of the beholder, innit?

Early (up to Obscured), plus "animals", that'll do me.

The span from More OST through to Animals is all I need

Up to Obscured is fine by me, plus reading about the madness that came afterwards, if not listening to the music

Meddle is their best album imo

Obscured by Clouds the most underrated

obscured by clouds is an interesting one because it was written _after_ "dark side of the moon" but it was thrown together in like a week

definitely noticeable how much they've upped their songwriting game since "more", but not as, uh, labored? as "wish you were here" which was worked out over the course of like a year on the road

somehow found myself listening to division bell outtakes lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbuSEUKGnwY
this kinda rules

their best period is every other album but only listened to in random order

'later years' box set should be announced soon from what I've heard

DSOTM rules but Meddle and Animals rule more.

yeah meddle is where the strongest organic Floyd magic occurs... i love parts of Dark Side but it does seem like they’re kinda forcing the magic to happen a bit. If I were around at the tine I’d probably have an opinion more grounded in reality.

Piper is kind of sui generis. Such a huge soft spot for that record but I have a hard time evaluating it within the context of their catalogue; it was a different band.

I haven’t heard AMLOR since it came out, and I’ve never heard the other late-period records. My idiosyncratic ranking of the rest:

Meddle
Dark side
Animals
Saucerful of secrets
Wish you were here
Atom heart mother
More
The wall
Obscured by clouds (I know, I know, I’m a philistine)
Ummagumma
The final cut

Also there needs to be a nice concise collection of the early studio recordings that weren’t collected on albums, undiluted by album tracks. Am I missing anything important/pleasurable here? At 51 minutes it’s a little long for an LP — if you drop Beechwoods and Seabirds it’s down to 42 and probably doesn’t suffer too much.

Arnold Layne
Candy and a Currant Bun
See Emily Play
Apple and Oranges
Paintbox
Scream Thy Last Scream
Vegetable Man
In the Beechwoods
Point Me at the Sky
Careful With that Axe, Eugene
It Would Be So Nice
Julia Dream
Seabirds
Embryo

No-one's been able to find "Seabirds" yet, so it wouldn't be on any album anyway.

The 1992 CD The Early Years has ten of those and is supposed to be really good sounding.

missing "biding my time" from "relics"

and yeah seabirds is gone forever, the tapes were destroyed, all that's there is the diegetic recording in the film

i really wish somebody would record it with the arrangement used in the film (there's one cover but it's a slow ballad arrangement)

The “seabirds” on this list is from the Early Years box set (1969) — apparently it’s an alternate version of Quicksilver from More, so I can happily dump it. Thanks for the tip-off about Biding My Time. I’ve plonked it on the end, which seems to fit Floyd’s penchant for slightly sore-thumb album closers.

https://open.spotify.com/user/neutralst8s/playlist/75mN0ynWouHybfNcGRHU8X?si=2F9Adp60TdqwW6uqbX0t0A

Piper is kind of sui generis. Such a huge soft spot for that record but I have a hard time evaluating it within the context of their catalogue; it was a different band.

yeah it really has so little to do with what they became, it's probably best compared to like SF Sorrow or Os Mutantes

I've got to say disagree with the idea that Piper had little to do with what they became. I think its influence lingered at least up until, but not including, DSOTM.

Part of it? Maybe more "Interstellar Overdrive" than "The Gnome" or "Bike," although I think their pastoralism has roots in Syd too (say, "The Scarecrow").

The direct influence certainly lingered - they were doing "Interstellar Overdrive" in concert through the end of 1970 and "Set the Controls" (a Syd-era composition) through '73 - but the shadow stuck around for the rest of their career. Which is maybe a lot of the issue a lot of people have with Syd's relationship with the band; he deserves to be known as more than a shadow.

Wish You Were Here is all about Syd, after all. I never got the sense that Floyd Mk. II wanted him to be forgotten, the blame lies elsewhere.

It's not at all about him being forgotten, it's about how he's remembered... which is as a Poor Tragic Loony rather than for his actual songs. As opposed to, say, someone like Brian Wilson, who is certainly well known as a Poor Tragic Loony, but not to the extent that his songs are.

For the band members themselves, witnessing Syd's progressive loss of self from up close must have been a traumatizing experience so I get why they decided to underscore that facet of the Madcap in their lyrics ('And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes…'). I haven't watched or read any interviews with them wherein they reminisce about Syd, though…

And maybe I'm reading too much (and too charitably) into this, but I've always felt like the closing quip 'There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark' is a potentially sensitive take on the overarching theme of mental illness (lunacy having both a figurative and etymological meaning throughout), i.e. the demarcation between madness and non-madness, Syd-led Floyd and Syd-less Floyd, etc., isn't as watertight as it appears.

It's much more than about just playing "Interstellar Overdrive" or even "Astronomy Domine" (the first space rock song!) occasionally. Vocals and harmonies (Barrett/Wright) and Syd's unorthodox chord sequences and guitar playing are very influential on the Syd-less band.

I haven't watched or read any interviews with them wherein they reminisce about Syd, though…

Sometimes it seems like they talk about little else! But that could be just because that's the part of their history I find most interesting so seek out.

Good to know! I forgot to mention that I haven't looked up any interviews with them, period. A rabbit hole awaits…

(Btw, I agree with you re: vocals, harmonies, chord sequences, guitar playing, etc.).

i mean, it's not the band's fault that their post-syd stuff was so much more famous than syd's actual stuff. well i mean it is the band's "fault" in that they were the ones who went on to make classic and mega-selling records that have had far more impact on the public psyche than syd's stuff has, and i know there are a lot of syd fans who sort of resent them for that, but i think that's a little unfair to the band, who really went out of their way to do right by syd. i also think that sort of fan resentment gives short shrift to how difficult it is to care about a mentally ill person.

I've seen Wright looking really quite haunted when recalling Syd in documentaries, esp when re-telling the story where they began just blipping over picking him up to take him to gigs.

Speaking of Wright, a great analysis from Samuel Andreyev!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLEwuo5R-tQ

i think that's a little unfair to the band, who really went out of their way to do right by syd. i also think that sort of fan resentment gives short shrift to how difficult it is to care about a mentally ill person.

― Abigail, Wife of Preserved Fish (rushomancy), Sunday, August 4, 2019 11:55 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

from whatever i've read it seemed like gilmour in particular seemed to really go out of his way to facilitate syd's solo career as much as anyone could at that point

Yes, I think Gilmour really made the effort - the others seem to have been variously freaked out by the whole experience - but then he was playing and singing Syd's songs and (I think) lived across the street from him.

(many xposts) Missing the 1966 version of “Interstellar Overdrive” and “Nick’s Boogie”

I guess each of those could take up a side and be album 1 of a double. I’ve never even heard them! Which does not rule.

it's nice of andreyev to do, but i don't think i could stand listening to anyone talk about 'see saw' for 45 minutes. i think i'll check out his video on bartok's fourth string quartet instead.

The best part of it for me is in the middle where he plays through it section by section on piano. Guy rules.

i don't think i could stand listening to anyone talk about 'see saw' for 45 minutes

wow, you've sold out

wow, you've sold out

― mookieproof

you knew it would happen one day

you’ve changed, man

Borges requested “The Wall” be sung to him instead of “Happy Birthday”

can anything possibly rule more than van morrison singing the comfortably numb chorus at the berlin wall in 1990

i fucking doubt it

Not Victor Borges then.

Robert Wyatt doing the "Hello..." bit.

LATER PINK FLOYD RULES

That set is an abomination

I still have yet to hear a note of Endless River.

I saw that 1987 tour — I was 15, maybe 16 — and it was like going to a Laser Floyd show or to see a cover band. I don't even remember what the album (Lapse) sounded like, and have never heard Division Bell or Endless River, never mind the live albums.