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jackhammer · 10-18-2009, 06:02 PM

Pink Floyd

Such a cliched choice I know but I will never dismiss the importance of this band on my musical education. I usually cite Floyd as my favourite band but in all honestly I don't listen to them as much as I used to and this is where the power of liking Floyd is both a help and a hindrance.

I was 17 and started my first full time job having moved towns due to my parents splitting which meant I had to abandon my first serious girlfriend, my college course and my P/T job I had had since the age of 14. However in terms of music is was fortuitous. As a noob to FT work in general and being in a new town, it's only natural to try and ingratiate yourself with new people and I became friends with a slightly older guy who had a fleeting but deep effect on my musical outlook. He liked a lot of Rock music but was never into the Thrash/heavy stuff I was listening to at the time and he loaned me his gatefold copy of Meddle (the days when vinyl was on it's last legs unfortunately). I took it home the same night, played it and admitted to being nonplussed. What were all those weird sounds on Echoes? (the whale calls etc) How the hell is this music? It completely went over my head. He told me to turn out the lights, lay down and play it again. This I did and it clicked immediately. I realised that music wasn't just there to satisfy you in a particular brief moment. It could be more than that. It could transport you somewhere else and become more than just a bunch of notes. Even though I couldn't fully grasp everything about that album I wanted to gorge myself on this music. A few days later Animals was thrust upon me. Music has never been quite the same since. It was heavy, abrasive but rich, layered and laced with genuine emotion that Metal couldn't quite satisfy at this time of upheaval. Sure Metal gave me scope to vent my obvious anger at this turbulent time of my life but the Floyd gave it a grounding in reality. A gravitas that I had rarely heard before. Maybe it was the melancholia that runs through their music that I attached myself too. Whatever it was at that time I was hooked.

This is where Floyd's music enters it's own special place in the musical scheme of things. Their greatest strength is the fact that it is not too outlandish to become ostracised from what they were trying to achieve but it was sufficiently off beat for you to begin to explore new music that may not have appealed to you before.

Listening to the Floyd 1970 onwards it's obvious that their music is a lot more safer than their name and history suggests but they are probably the ultimate 'gateway' band to a broader range of music. They were musicially superior to many other bands but never to the detriment of the music. You learnt about individual instruments, layered composition and production values from the Floyd that lead you to discover a whole new world of music and I think that still rings true today. Despite their many faults, there are very few people who completely dislike Floyd in one form or another and that is one of their major strengths. They are an education onto themselves and although I have since heard many more groundbreaking artists I think that I could never have discovered them if it wasn't for the band.

It still boils down to a simple thing for me. Despite my love for many genres of music I would give all that up right now so long as I could keep my copy of Animals. It always has and always will be everything I want in music.

Recommended albums:
Animals
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Meddle

Recommended DVD'S:
Live At Pompeii.

Recommended Reading:
Inside Out: A history of Pink Floyd by Nick Mason.

From live at Pompeii:

10-18-2009, 06:02 PM	#56 (permalink)
jackhammer Ba and Be. Join Date: May 2007 Location: This Is England Posts: 17,331	Pink Floyd Such a cliched choice I know but I will never dismiss the importance of this band on my musical education. I usually cite Floyd as my favourite band but in all honestly I don't listen to them as much as I used to and this is where the power of liking Floyd is both a help and a hindrance. I was 17 and started my first full time job having moved towns due to my parents splitting which meant I had to abandon my first serious girlfriend, my college course and my P/T job I had had since the age of 14. However in terms of music is was fortuitous. As a noob to FT work in general and being in a new town, it's only natural to try and ingratiate yourself with new people and I became friends with a slightly older guy who had a fleeting but deep effect on my musical outlook. He liked a lot of Rock music but was never into the Thrash/heavy stuff I was listening to at the time and he loaned me his gatefold copy of Meddle (the days when vinyl was on it's last legs unfortunately). I took it home the same night, played it and admitted to being nonplussed. What were all those weird sounds on Echoes? (the whale calls etc) How the hell is this music? It completely went over my head. He told me to turn out the lights, lay down and play it again. This I did and it clicked immediately. I realised that music wasn't just there to satisfy you in a particular brief moment. It could be more than that. It could transport you somewhere else and become more than just a bunch of notes. Even though I couldn't fully grasp everything about that album I wanted to gorge myself on this music. A few days later Animals was thrust upon me. Music has never been quite the same since. It was heavy, abrasive but rich, layered and laced with genuine emotion that Metal couldn't quite satisfy at this time of upheaval. Sure Metal gave me scope to vent my obvious anger at this turbulent time of my life but the Floyd gave it a grounding in reality. A gravitas that I had rarely heard before. Maybe it was the melancholia that runs through their music that I attached myself too. Whatever it was at that time I was hooked. This is where Floyd's music enters it's own special place in the musical scheme of things. Their greatest strength is the fact that it is not too outlandish to become ostracised from what they were trying to achieve but it was sufficiently off beat for you to begin to explore new music that may not have appealed to you before. Listening to the Floyd 1970 onwards it's obvious that their music is a lot more safer than their name and history suggests but they are probably the ultimate 'gateway' band to a broader range of music. They were musicially superior to many other bands but never to the detriment of the music. You learnt about individual instruments, layered composition and production values from the Floyd that lead you to discover a whole new world of music and I think that still rings true today. Despite their many faults, there are very few people who completely dislike Floyd in one form or another and that is one of their major strengths. They are an education onto themselves and although I have since heard many more groundbreaking artists I think that I could never have discovered them if it wasn't for the band. It still boils down to a simple thing for me. Despite my love for many genres of music I would give all that up right now so long as I could keep my copy of Animals. It always has and always will be everything I want in music. Recommended albums: Animals Piper At The Gates Of Dawn Meddle Recommended DVD'S: Live At Pompeii. Recommended Reading: Inside Out: A history of Pink Floyd by Nick Mason. From live at Pompeii: __________________ It be my music and film collection. “A cynic by experience, a romantic by inclination and now a hero by necessity.”