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    A Brief History Of Pink Floyd
    A Brief History Of Pink Floyd
    A Brief History Of Pink Floyd
    Ebook131 pages1 hour

    A Brief History Of Pink Floyd

    By Andrew Means

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    With two of the most successful albums in rock history, the members of Pink Floyd are among a select few rock musicians to have left an indelible mark on the cultural life of their times.
    Their flamboyant emergence in the mid 1960s put them at the fulcrum of British youth’s social and artistic experimentation. In early days, songs like “See Emily Play”, written by their initial singer Syd Barrett, helped revolutionize the content of pop music. Later, the group’s instrumentals extended the range of what was conceivable in the genre. Worldwide acclaim followed with the albums The Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall.
    This brief history describes the group’s path from Barrett’s inspired but short-lived leadership to the group’s eventual disintegration and sporadic revivals. Among highlights, it chronicles the rivalry between bassist Roger Waters and guitarist David Gilmour, Waters’ departure, and Gilmour’s determination to steer the band to a career-capping high note as the 20th century came to a close.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAndrew Means
    Release dateOct 10, 2011
    ISBN9781466193055
    A Brief History Of Pink Floyd
    Author

    Andrew Means

    Andrew Means grew up in Britain and lives in Arizona, on the outskirts of Phoenix. As a journalist he has written about musicians and entertainment for local and national media. He writes fiction as A.L.Means. His works include a novel, Shine Like The Sun, a set of short stories entitled Foreign Ways and a children’s story, The Trouble Upstream.

    Read more from Andrew Means

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      Book preview

      A Brief History Of Pink Floyd - Andrew Means

      A Brief History Of Pink Floyd

      By Andrew Means

      Published by Andrew Means at Smashwords

      Copyright 2011 Andrew L. Means

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      New Introduction

      Prelude

      Chapter One: Early Days

      Chapter Two: First Records

      Chapter Three: Barrett

      Chapter Four: Life After Syd

      Chapter Five: Forging A New Floyd

      Chapter Six: Over The Moon

      Chapter Seven: A Sequel To Success

      Chapter Eight: When Pigs Fly

      Chapter Nine: Building A Legacy

      Chapter Ten: The Final Straw

      Chapter Eleven: Separate Ways

      Chapter Twelve: Head To Head

      Chapter Thirteen: Amused & Divided

      Coda

      Acknowledgements

      New Introduction

      To begin with, let me state upfront that this history is missing a chunk. Namely, the last 10 years or so.

      Here’s how it came about.

      In the year 2000, a now defunct publisher asked me to write a shortish biography of Pink Floyd. It felt like a good idea, both from a personal and a wider viewpoint.

      The group had been among my favorites since the first time I heard their breakthrough British single, See Emily Play, on radio’s weekly review of hits.

      The timing seemed right too. By the end of the century, it appeared that the group’s career had reached a sort of lull — the kind of lull that made me wonder whether there was much more of significance to come from Pink Floyd and their estranged bassist Roger Waters.

      After all, not many 50-ish rock stars could expect to top a catalog than included phenomenal albums like The Dark Side Of the Moon and The Wall, not to mention earlier classic songs like The Heart Of The Sun.

      Where do you go after creating that but on to the golden oldies circuit?

      All in all, I thought, not a bad time to reflect on a band’s career.

      Well, time doesn’t stand still, even for rock stars.

      Keyboardist Rick Wright and the group’s original front man and inspiration, Syd Barrett, have passed on to that great gig in the sky — to borrow one of the group’s celebrated song titles. (Barrett died in 2006 and Wright in 2008, of cancer.)

      But Waters and guitarist Dave Gilmour have continued to write and record. Gilmour’s output is perhaps the most interesting, including as it does a remake of the group’s first single, the Syd Barrett composition Arnold Layne, and numerous collaborations, including an album in 2010 entitled Metallic Spheres with the group, The Orb.

      Of his solo albums, the third — 2006’s On An Island — has been the most successful in terms of response. With Gilmour’s trademark Stratocaster guitar accompaniments and distinctive vocals, it’s close enough to latter day Pink Floyd releases to seem like a band album in all but name.

      Waters has continued to create too, in typically unpredictable fashion. Who would have expected his 2010 version of the old civil rights anthem, We Shall Overcome? Rather more predictably, his commitment to political and social causes continues. He’s spoken out against Israeli policies towards Palestinians as well as on the more general themes of poverty and malaria.

      Meanwhile, drummer Nick Mason still seems amenable to a few musical exploits when called upon — presumably as long as it doesn’t interfere with other pursuits, such as his passion for cars and racing them. One unique claim he has in Floydian history however is that he is, so far, the only member of that group to have written a book about his experiences. Entitled Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, it was published in 2004 and has even been adapted in an audio version with Mason doing the reading.

      Most gratifying, from their many fans’ perspective, is that the remaining three do still perform once in a while — sometimes even together. Considering all the bitter words spoken since Waters left the group, the occasional re-unions are all the more remarkable.

      They buried the hatchet for the Live 8 London performance in Hyde Park in 2005 — the first with Waters in 24 years — and have come together a couple of times since, including a London gig in May 2011 as part of Waters’ The Wall Live tour.

      Apart from their concerts, news of interest to Pink Floyd fans continues to surface from time to time. But it tends to have little bearing on the performers’ creative endeavors. Instead it detours into legal snafus or contractual updates or repackaged/re-mixed re-releases or reminiscences or Mason’s work with the musicians’ rights organization, Featured Artists’ Coalition.

      Of course that dirigible pig from the Animals album — or at least its reincarnation — bobs up into the sky once in a while in a promotional venture. And Waters’ rock opera The Wall is probably good for adaptations in mediums we have yet to devise.

      Still, without wishing to completely discount the chances of achievements to come, it seems all but a certainty that Pink Floyd’s great works will be seen to pre-date the year 2000. And so, with the advent of digital publishing, I felt that there might be some worth in re-offering a manuscript that was gathering figurative dust.

      I’ve left it more or less as I wrote it in 2000, except for a little editing and formatting. There continues to be a steady flow of material about the group, and to the sources I list in the acknowledgments at the end I’d add the amazingly all-encompassing Wikipedia and the incisive and detailed retrospective magazine-style publication, Ultimate Music Guide Issue 6: Pink Floyd (from the makers of Uncut). In addition, Gilmour and Waters both have personal websites adding to the stack of Floydian information.

      In retrospect, I’d make a few changes if I re-wrote this. For one thing, I hope I’d do a better job of expressing myself clearly and succinctly. For another, I’d consider opting either for British or American spelling — although there’s something rather appropriate about a transatlantic hybrid too.

      Perhaps I should have included something about the financial troughs the band went through before hitting pay dirt. And, to give credit where it was due but not given, present and past members of the band have not been without a philanthropic spirit. Alongside his wife, writer Polly Samson, Gilmour campaigns about environmental issues and the plight of the homeless.

      Oh, and I should have acknowledged the huge role played by the support people. The technical and logistical complexity behind the group and its road show is staggering. The same applies to Waters’ enterprises, notably with The Wall. As with most major acts, the faces you see in the media are only the tip of the iceberg.

      I might also back pedal a bit on Pink Floyd’s image as spotlight-shunning wallflowers. Clearly they were not without egos — and the clashes that often accompany them.

      But I continue to believe that few if any performers better illustrate the progress of rock music from the ’60s through the turn of the century. In Pink Floyd’s story can be seen the passage from the informal exploratory gatherings of the ’60s to the extravaganzas of more recent times, where the performer-audience dynamics are indeed sometimes reminiscent of totalitarian rallies of earlier decades. It was a transition that weighed upon the mind of Roger Waters for one, and found vent in his songs.

      In retrospect though, the issue is not what they’ve done since the year 2000, given what they did before. As Gilmour sang — addressing fans with an insatiable appetite for more — what do you want from me?

      A few million listeners might answer that by saying: You’ve given far more than most, thank you very much.

      Prelude

      Imagine the ideal credentials for a top rock group and what comes to mind?

      High on the list must be charismatic personalities and dynamic stage presence. Headline-generating controversy and flair are almost a given.

      Now consider Pink Floyd. A top rock group undeniably, with the credentials to prove it. Their album The Dark Side Of The Moon became a staple in sales charts through the 1980s. The Wall, released in 1979, has become one of the best-known and best-selling works in rock history.

      Yet for much of the group’s career, the individual members have been shadowy, almost anonymous figures. With the exception of

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