#2 Pink Floyd

If there is one band that has as strong of an influence on rock and roll, it would have to be Pink Floyd. With their psychedelic mischief and experimentation with sound, Pink Floyd is an essential band to anyone’s collection.

In the early days, Pink Floyd didn’t start off as musicians. Roger Waters and Nick Mason started as architects and would form a band with fellow student Richard Wright. They tossed about many different names and followed the path most college/university bands follow.

It wasn’t until 1963 when Syd Barrett, Roger Waters childhood friend, moved to London and joined the band. At the time, the band was called The Tea Set. Barrett came up with the name The Pink Floyd Sound by combining the names of two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, after discovering another band called Tea Set.

From there, The Pink Floyd Sound continued its exploration with sound and visual stimulation while the psychedelic movement continued to grow around them. In March of 1967, the then named Pink Floyd, released their first single “Arnold Layne” In August of that same year, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was released. This marked the first album Pink Floyd released. Come 1968, Syd Barrett’s writing methods had become so convoluted that the rest of Pink Floyd had asked Syd’s Cambridge Tech colleague, David Gilmour, to officially replace Syd. After that, well as they say, the rest is history.

How Pink Floyd has influenced me:

Well seriously, how hasn’t this band influenced me and its other listeners. The amount of ingenuity in their sound and song structure has made a fair amount of their albums, let alone songs, timeless. From using an eight part track with Atom Heart Mother and various sounds, like the sound of clocks chiming in Time on The Dark Side of the Moon, there was just no end to the creative genius that was Pink Floyd.

Where I was lost was after Roger Waters had left the band. From there, sure some songs are worth listening to, but on the whole it was just never the same.

My Favorite Album:

Honestly, my favorite album would have to be Meddle. From the album cover, to just the creativity throughout the entire album, I thought this was one of their crowning achievements. Opening with One of These Days, which in my opinion, was one of their first songs to really mix in the ambience with their psychedelic rock in a perfectly orchestrated track, to San Tropez, to the epically long Echoes, this album just had it all.

In closing, there is just so much to say about how awesome Pink Floyd are and really, we haven’t even touched on either of their masterpieces. If you have something to add, drop us a line! We’d love to hear your comments. Until next time we meet.

- J-Bong

Tosho’s two cents:

I completely agree about the Floyd. Pink Floyd is one of the greatest music groups in history. One of my earliest memories of hearing them was being like 3 years old and sitting in my living room having my dad play me dark side of the moon All The Time! I love Pink Floyd so much I don’t even want to write more about them, just listen to them!!! WHATS NOT TO LOVE?

Tosho’s Favorite Album:

It has got to be Dark Side of the Moon, not to be a band wagon jumper, but because of the early childhood memories of it. I was lucky enough to see Roger Waters perform the entire DSOTM a few years ago, and it was the single greatest concert of my life. That being said, J-Bong is correct, Meddle is THE BOMB! You gotta love Meddle.