The Official Pink Floyd Thread

[boo boo]

I plan to update my prog ed thread soon and one of the things I'm gonna ad is pop prog.

Or rather, the more commercialized prog that came around in the latter half of the 70s. A category which Supertramp, Kansas, Styx and Saga would fall into, Rush kinda fell into this category too, which is how they managed to survive the late 70s and early 80s when other prog bands couldn't, they embraced the pop but unlike Yes and Genesis kept the prog somewhat intact.

Journey also got their start as somewhat of a quasi prog band, but that stuff was so horrible, even the most diehard Journey fans don't like their first 3 albums.

[Neapolitan]

Originally Posted by boo boo

Or rather, the more commercialized prog that came around in the latter half of the 70s. A category which Supertramp, Kansas, Styx and Saga would fall into, Rush kinda fell into this category too, which is how they managed to survive the late 70s and early 80s when other prog bands couldn't, they embraced the pop but unlike Yes and Genesis kept the prog somewhat intact.

I consider Supertramp more on the lines of 70's Saxomophone-Rock like Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band and Bruce Springsteen & The E St. Band.

Yes' foray into Pop-gresive occured with Trevor on guitar. Genesis was on a slipery slope towards Pop ever since Peter Gabriel left the band and Phil Collins was at the helm, the departure of Steve Hackett didn't help matters. Pink Floyd is that they Top of the Pop moments too. They had a hits with Arnold Layne and See Emily Play then they went underground for a while. In America had a hit with Money and in the UK had a big hit with Another Brick in the Wall part II, and occasionally shown up on the chart thereafter.

What is interesting about Pink Floyd (and other Prog-bands) is that they stayed away from doing covers; Yes on the other-hand did them which makes them slightly different form their Prop contemporaries, that is something a classic rock band would do. The Rolling Stones started off doing all cover songs and then starting writing more of their own music. The Stones are attributed as the first Rock 'n Roll band to do an album of all originals (Aftermath) - Was Pink Floyd the first Rock band to do originals exclusively?

[boo boo]

Hmmm. I dunno, maybe.

And while Genesis had showed a tendency towards pop ever since Gabriel left, they retained their prog roots at least until Abacab.

King Crimson also embraced pop music when they got back together in the 80s, but what they did was still undeniably progressive. It really pisses me off when the most obnoxious prog purists write Discipline off as just pop.

[jackhammer]

Are you still going to get Pomp rock in there boobs? as it had elements of Prog for sure.

[Son of JayJamJah]

Originally Posted by boo boo

Hmmm. I dunno, maybe.

And while Genesis had showed a tendency towards pop ever since Gabriel left, they retained their prog roots at least until Abacab.

Blood Code for Mortal Combat on Sega Genesis?

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by boo boo

Pink Floyd may be the most well known prog band, but they're not the most influencial or important band to prog, King Crimson and Yes both surpass them in that regard.

Some of the more snobby prog fans tend to be more harsh towards Floyd because they didn't employ the kind of technical chops that other prog bands did, the production was more slick, they relied more heavily on production techniques to achieve their sound, and their music was less structurally complex and more accessible.

They still have a pretty big influence on many prog bands.

I love Pink Floyd, if other prog sounds as good as them I'd be very keen to check them out. Any recommendations boo boo?

[Neapolitan]

Originally Posted by Vanilla

I love Pink Floyd, if other prog sounds as good as them I'd be very keen to check them out. Any recommendations boo boo?

Since the question is address to Boo Boo, I let him recommend the Prog bands. And in a way I feel guilty talking about other bands in a Pink Floyd thread, but here are my recommendations

The Church, they are influence by Pink Floyd and some songs have a Pink Floyd sound.

Genesis, after Peter Gabriel left Phil lead them into a more soft rock sound, Follow You Follow Me was kinda of a break through song into the soft rock even though they had some before that.

Alan Parsons Project, today I was listening to Shine On You Crazy Diamond and thinking how the one part sounded like APP song. I kinda thought that I Robot had a Pink Floyd sound

[boo boo]

Originally Posted by Vanilla

I love Pink Floyd, if other prog sounds as good as them I'd be very keen to check them out. Any recommendations boo boo?

Porcupine Tree is one place to start. They're compared to Floyd quite often.

Eloy were quite similar to Floyd as well, especially with their later 70s albums. Camel also have a bit of Floyd influence.

I'd also recommend Gong and Ozric Tentacles, they don't sound like Floyd but they specialize in groovy psychedelic prog so if you like Floyd you might like them.

Here's some recommendations.

Porcupine Tree: Lightbulb Sun, In Absentia, Fear of a Blank Planet
Eloy: Ocean, Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes
Camel: Mirage, Snow Goose, Moonmadness
Gong: Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg, You
Ozric Tentacles: Erpland, Strangeitude, Jurassic Shift

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by boo boo

Porcupine Tree is one place to start. They're compared to Floyd quite often.

Eloy were quite similar to Floyd as well, especially with their later 70s albums. Camel also have a bit of Floyd influence.

I'd also recommend Gong and Ozric Tentacles, they don't sound like Floyd but they specialize in groovy psychedelic prog so if you like Floyd you might like them.

Here's some recommendations.

Porcupine Tree: Lightbulb Sun, In Absentia, Fear of a Blank Planet
Eloy: Ocean, Silent Cries and Mighty Echoes
Camel: Mirage, Snow Goose, Moonmadness
Gong: Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg, You
Ozric Tentacles: Erpland, Strangeitude, Jurassic Shift

Cheers boobs, I will download them now and let you know what I think!

Originally Posted by Neapolitan

Since the question is address to Boo Boo, I let him recommend the Prog bands. And in a way I feel guilty talking about other bands in a Pink Floyd thread, but here are my recommendations

The Church, they are influence by Pink Floyd and some songs have a Pink Floyd sound.

Genesis, after Peter Gabriel left Phil lead them into a more soft rock sound, Follow You Follow Me was kinda of a break through song into the soft rock even though they had some before that.

Alan Parsons Project, today I was listening to Shine On You Crazy Diamond and thinking how the one part sounded like APP song. I kinda thought that I Robot had a Pink Floyd sound

I will also check these groups out too, hehe thanks!

[ElephantSack]

My brother, my girlfriend and I were talking about bands like Pink Floyd (which are few) who don't rely on a lot of movement and release for themselves while they play but are more along the lines of a deep "sensory experience" (to quote my brother), bands like Tool and Porcupine Tree, for example.
It's obvious that without The Pink Floyd, neither of these bands ever would have become what they are. And The Pink Floyd were definitely a band that was all about having every note right, every hit precise; and working with the visual stimuli, they didn't need to be "in your face", because they were already inside your mind.
Dark Side of the Moon has been a reliable standby ever since I was 12 or 13 years old. It's a perfect album. One of the few that if it had anything added or taken away, it would be detrimental to it's sound.
Animals, my second favorite, I didn't discover until I was about 17 or 18, and it took a while to grow on me. But now that I've really listened to it, I feel that it too is an album that is perfect in it's solidarity. I prefer it sometimes to Dark Side...
Although I discovered Meddle before Animals, and I did prefer it for a while, I've grown accustomed to it's sound, and it is a great album with excellent songs. I feel the same way about A Saucerful of Secrets, which I feel is probably one of their darkest and heaviest albums ever, perhaps because it was the last to be recorded with Syd Barret, if my knowledge serves me correctly.
The later Pink Floyd stuff from albums like The Wall and Wish You Were Here just don't hold the same fire for me as their earlier works. But songs like "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Mother" and "Comfortably Numb" are very intense pieces.
Pink Floyd is an untouchable band, in my opinion, because they were the first to produce that kind of sound, which was deep and subtly beautiful and sometimes transcendent, but also had a fairly common thread of being sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek, and even mocking in it's views on society and politics.
They kind of took some of the same fire that the Beatles carried, but gave it a more crass edge. For example, their first hit song, "Arnold Layne" was about a man who goes to department stores to try on and steal women's underwear. And this was 1967. And while the Beatles were peetering out and still writing ballads and love songs (although along with their own metamorphic, transcendental pieces), The Floyd kept exploring deeper into that chasm which separated them from their contemporaries.