Pink Floyd is one of those bands that may never become a radio staple, though they are perhaps the most accessible of progressive rock. The group rarely sought to attract large masses.
The long artistic history is largely made up of 15 studio albums, a few compilation albums, and a few more live albums. Below is the Track-To-Track Guide To The Music Of Pink Floyd:
ANOTHER BRICK ON THE WALL (PART 2)
The idea of doing this song in a four-by-four rhythm came from producer Bob Ezrin because he saw it with commercial properties. Roger Waters didn’t want the song to become a “disco” theme, but in the end, he “swallowed” [pride]. And it certainly became Pink Floyd’s biggest radio hit of all time. Number one in more than forty countries. Great melody from Waters.
SEE EMILY PLAY
One of the reasons why we became absolute fans of the group, the masterpiece of psychedelia, See Emily Play. Perhaps the best song of all time of the genre. A great Syd Barret song, with tons of tricks, tape, special effects, tape echoes, vocal effects, and a great overall sound, with Syd’s voice dubbed. It was not recorded on Abbey Road. Jeff Jarrett, the engineer, was a genius and a madman at the Sound Techniques studio. The whole recording was a wonder of ideas. The cover of the single, as a curiosity, the famous train, was drawn by Syd himself. Absolute masterpiece.
SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND
No theme in Pink Floyd’s career expresses style, quality, formalism, arrogance and sound like this superb theme that opens the album dedicated to Barret. As written with the technique they had already started on “Atom Heart Mother” and had developed on “Echoes”, it is a very well studied improvisation with nine very clear, lofty, timeless parts and that Gilmour guitar riff, which hits you on the head like a chime. Dave Gilmour does a thousand wonderful solos. Wright’s harmonies are gorgeous. It’s Pink Floyd in its purest form.
https://youtu.be/VyLY8YDWzrQ
TIME
No Pink Floyd album has sounded like this one, with that infinite wisdom of Alan Parsons, a great engineer. For example, the idea for the clocks is his and he recorded the special effect in a shop in Covent Garden. The choirs are of supreme beauty. And all the sound. When Waters’s lyrics and Wright’s melodies worked it was all superb. Then there were Gilmour’s solos, the perfect complement to the group’s sound. Perfection. This song still sounds huge, great, heavenly. Eternal, essential, essential, like time itself.
US AND THEM
Indeed, the great masterpiece of the group. Rick Wright’s best melody and best chords, his best song, in perfect harmony with Waters. The entire structure of the theme, including the incredible sax, plunges us into a dreamlike climate as if we were visiting or turning on the hidden side of the moon, with all its mysticism, darkness and beauty. It can be a theme of atmosphere, rock, feelings. whatever we want. I never tire of hearing it and being amazed. The chorus, with those heavenly choruses, the victorious, triumphant chords surround the song in a halo of deification. Intense, passionate, of astonishing beauty. It is impossible to forget it.