Tuesday, June 16, 1970

Musical Artist - Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd was a British art rock band originally formed in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright. David Gilmour joined the band in 1967 and Barrett left in 1968 due to mental health issues after which he became the subject of several musical tributes recorded by the band including 1975's Wish You Were Here and Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Pink Floyd was always more of an album focused band rather than a single band, and over the course of the 1970s and early 1980s, they produced five of the most brilliant albums ever made: The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut. Waters left the band in 1985 over creative differences and the remaining members produced two more albums A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. Waters briefly rejoined the band in 2005 and eventually a final album, The Endless River, was released in 2014. Barrett died in 2006, and Wright died in 2008, and as of 2018, the band is more or less defunct.

I first encountered Pink Floyd when a teenage babysitter brought The Wall with her when she came to sit for me and my brother. I was fascinated by the distinctive artwork on the album jacket, and was entranced by the songs, which were unlike anything I had ever heard before. My next reference was an article that I read when Dark Side of the Moon broke the record for being on the Billboard chart longer than any other album - it eventually spent more than fourteen years on the charts. That said, it wasn't until I reached high school that I really listened to their music - I mean, I had heard The Wall, all the way through once, and a few snippets of other albums here and there, but Floyd's music is best experienced through immersion, in chunks the size of entire albums rather than individual songs. I listened to them a lot on my Walkman while on the long road trips to and from cross-country and track meets. As a result, I always associate the band with riding in the back of a van or a bus while looking out the window at the Virginia countryside.

Pink Floyd has an official website named Pink Floyd. They can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Musical Monday Selections:

04/11/16: Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)

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