1967 – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
1971 – Meddle
1973 – Dark Side of The Moon
1975 – Wish You Were Here
1977 – Animals
1979 – The Wall
WISH YOU WERE HERE:
Wish You Were Here is another glorious album by Pink Floyd. They were at the top of the world by 1973 when they released Dark Side of the Moon. Once arrived at that status, the band found themselves at a crossroads on how to give continuity to the colossal Dark Side of the Moon, which over the years became one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. It is worth to saying that the production quality, and the musicianship of both albums, have rarely been surpassed by anyone.
The band was focused on former lead vocalist Syd Barrett for the subject matter of the album. Tells the legend that Syd has been watching the recording of Shine on You Crazy Diamond and casually asked David Gilmour if he needed help with the guitars. He was fat, bald, and spoke very slowly. At first, no one recognized him except Roger Waters, once identified him by the look, could not hold back the tears.
Created during a time of great angst amongst the band, it becomes more and more apparent that Roger Waters was taking care both lyrically and musically of the direction of the band. Wish You Were Here really has to be listened to all the way through from start to finish. The album is obviously dominated by Shine on You Crazy Diamond, which if it is really a tribute to Syd Barrett, is one of the most touching and beautiful tributes ever written in modern music. The 26 minutes of this massive composition divided into 9 parts – which open and conclude the album – is one of my favorite songs of Pink Floyd. Shine on You Crazy Diamond is also one of the best songs ever, period.
Welcome to the Machine follows the opening epic, is a direct criticism of the music industry as money making, and features guest singer Roy Harper on lead vocals, it is dominated by Wright’s organ. The next track, Have a Cigar displays David Gilmour’s guitar at its absolute best. Have a Cigar is also a much more straightforward track than Welcome to the Machine, focusing on a more simple rock sound, being built around a catchy electric guitar and bass riff. The track that gives title to the album Wish You Were Here, talks about what they thought was the collapse of the group as such, and is also again a tribute to Syd Barrett. Gilmour uses a twelve-string guitar to perform the intro before a fuller acoustic solo starts to play over the intro, known in every corner of the world.
The ninth studio album by Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here, was released in September 1975 and reached number one in both Britain and the United States, and has sold worldwide more than 13 million copies.
ANIMALS:
The iconic picture from Animals, of a pig that flies over a power station in London, makes the entrance to a new Pink Floyd Sound. Many defend that this is an album of response given to this new wave of young musicians in the midst punk explosion, others think this statement is crazy and believe Animals is a prog-rock album through and through.
Alongside the aggressive lyrics from Waters, classified some people as Dogs (businessmen and politicians), Pigs (the aristocracy), and Sheep (weak people), the band becomes more intensive on this one, and more than any other Pink Floyd album this is a rock album. Waters finally assumes absolute domination of the band, Gilmour has only a single co-writing credit (in Dogs), and Wright, doesn’t get any writing credits.
Aside from the acoustic ballad Pigs on the Wing, which opens and concludes the album, Animals consists of three songs, all of which exceed ten minutes in length. Dogs is another epic among others like Echoes, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, with seventeen minutes. In this one, we can hear David Gilmour sing with passion the words that he never wanted to sing. Gilmour offers here another collection of great solos among his best ever. This song contains either one of my favorite parts from Wright’s synths mixed with sound effects.
Pigs ( Three Different Ones ) starts out with beautiful bass lines and it’s only eleven minutes long and opens with some angry guitar to match the Roger Waters lyrics, the pigs’ noises throughout are a wonderful idea, and the melody rocks. The angriest moments on the whole record.
Sheep is another surprisingly heavy and unsettling number that carries its ten minutes quite nicely. It features excellent playing from all involved, particularly Gilmour as usual.
The acoustic Pigs On The Wing 2 brings the album to an absolute close, making it like a cycle. A masterful concept
The song structures and musicianship on this record show why Floyd is the great band that they are considered today. The tracks are upbeat and more ‘rock’ than anything they had done before, epic arrangements combined with great lyrics and singing, make this on the podium of Floyd’s best overall work. The main reason it was not a great success like Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, was due to the fact that there weren’t any radio-friendly tracks.
THE WALL:
The Wall is an ambitious work, between a conceptual album and an opera rock (will give also rise to a movie), more than a truly Pink Floyd album. It is another Roger Waters baby, a tale of a musician oppressed by the cruel world, just like in the previous Animals.
It contains a lot of good songs like Another Brick in the Wall, Young Lust, Hey You, Run Like Hell, and Comfortably Numb (with the most amazing solo guitar ever made by David Gilmour). And I will never forget the double compact disc, because it was my first album purchased from my own pocket (good choice I know).
The ambivalence is dark and violent, but the production of Bob Ezrin, offers a unique power to the entire band, even for Floyd’s standards. Far away from the psychedelic era of Piper at the Gates of Down, Pink Floyd, managed to reinvent themselves and be in tune with the time. The success was huge and predictable.
Waters’s relationship with Wright broke down, he felt that Wright was not doing enough to help complete the album. The band were rarely in the studio together. Gilmour says: ‘I think things like Comfortably Numb were the last embers of mine and Roger’s ability to work collaboratively together‘
The Wall was their last great album, It had sold over 23 million, and in the end, Pink Floyd wasn’t killed by Punk’s.
In Between the production of Animals and The Wall, Gilmour takes time off from Pink Floyd, and records his debut solo album, he says about it: ‘This album (David Gilmour) was important to me in terms of self-respect. At first, I didn’t think my name was big enough to carry it. Being in a group for so long can be a bit claustrophobic, and I needed to step out from behind Pink Floyd’s shadow.’
A requiem for the post-war dream
by roger waters
performed by Pink Floyd’
You can read this on the back disc from the original Final Cut edition, and it says all. Waters was totally and absolutely tired of the band and will assume the role of a dictatorial tyrant, and someone says Gilmour wasn’t exactly inspired during this period too. It was the end of the magnificent Floyd period.
