Pink Floyd band history. Pink Floyd - composition, photo, clips, listen to songs

Pink Floyd ("Pink Floyd") - one of the "elephants" on which British rock rests. Together with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, they shaped the music of the 1960s. Album The Dark Side of the Moon ("Dark Side of the Moon") became the best-selling in the history of world music - the number of copies sold exceeds 45 million, and this figure is growing relentlessly.

History of creation and composition

Members of Pink Floyd have been linked since early childhood. , Syd Barrett and studied at neighboring schools in Cambridge. At the University of Westminster, at the Faculty of Architecture, Waters met Nick Mason and Richard Wright. It took several decades to understand: together they are the composition of the legendary group in the future.

The first to team up were Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright. Together with fellow students in 1963, they created the Sigma 6 group. They played the repertoire of The Searchers and songs composed by Ken Chapman, the band's manager. The main audience were students at closed parties.

The autumn of the same year gave Sigma 6 two gifted musicians at once - instead of Mason, guitarist Bob Close moved to Waters's apartment, and then Syd Barrett visited London. Since 1964, when the group was renamed the Tea Set (or T-Set), the teenagers began to live together and rehearse for days on end.

Later it turned out that the team under the name Tea Set already exists. This is how The Pink Floyd Sound was born. The new name was formed from the names of two bluesmen - Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The idea belonged to Syd Barrett.

At the end of 1964, the Floyds first appeared in a recording studio and created four compositions. The musicians often performed in bars, where Peter Jenner once noticed them. He was delighted with the acoustic effects and the experimental sound.

Jenner decided to help the band open up and hosted a couple of gigs at themed venues for the general public. He also recommended removing the word Sound and the article The from the name. This is how Pink Floyd sounded for the first time.

Music

In January 1967, the Floyds suddenly became popular. They released the single Arnold Layne, which instantly took the lead in the charts. The work, written in the genre of psychedelic rock, is still included in the list of "The 50 Greatest British Songs of All Time" according to Mojo magazine. The same publication ranked the track at number 56 on their "100 Recordings That Changed the World" list.

The song "Arnold Layne" by Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd is considered the progenitor of psychedelic music, and the debut album The Piper at the Gates of Down, which was released in August 1967, became its standard. Teenagers not familiar with experimental rock were delighted with the space song Interstellar Overdrive and the weird Scarecrow. Music critics were also pleased. The band's first album peaked at number six in the UK charts.

The fallen success was not for everyone. Pink Floyd leader and songwriter Syd Barrett started taking drugs. Together with alcohol and exhausting tours, they made the musician unbearable and mentally unstable. In January 1968, guitarist David Gilmour was hired to replace him.

The song "Interstellar Overdrive" by Pink Floyd

It was originally planned that Barret, after undergoing therapy, would return to creativity and continue to write tracks for the band, but in April he finally left the Floyds. The further biography of the musician is unenviable: he released two solo albums, which, however, did not find a response from critics, and then returned to his native Cambridge to his mother. He passed away on July 7, 2006 from pancreatic cancer.

The loss of a musical inspiration did not break Pink Floyd. The album Atom Heart Mother exceeded the expectations of the musicians and soared to the first line of the UK chart. The track list called the stages of child development: Father "s Shout ("Father's Cry"), Breast Milky ("Breast and Milk"), Mother Fore ("Mother's Foreground"), etc. To record this "story" group the help of the choir and symphony orchestra was required.

The song "Time" by Pink Floyd

Floyd's music is full-fledged works of art, worthy of a place in the classic discography. For example, the 1971 album Meddle included an instrumental piece, a multi-movement suite, and Echoes, a 23-minute "epic sound poem," as Waters called it. All four members of Pink Floyd had a hand in its creation. The composition entered the top 3 long-running songs of the group.

1973 was a triumphant year: the album The Dark Side of the Moon was released. According to Waters' idea, the compositions were to be united by a common theme. As a basis, he proposed to take events and states that drive people to madness. After discussion, the musicians made a list: "tight deadlines, long trips, fear of flying, the lure of money, fear of death, mental stress" and so on. Waters took up writing poetry. By the way, The Dark Side of the Moon was the first record, the lyrics to which were written by one person. The album contains 10 songs.

The song "Money" by Pink Floyd

In 1975, the disc Wish You Were Here, dedicated to Syd Barrett, was released. The former member of the group, as if sensing this, once appeared in the studio with the Floyds during the recording. At first, none of his friends recognized him: he gained a lot of weight, shaved his head and eyebrows. When the musicians realized who was in front of them, they literally lost the power of speech - Barrett was so impoverished and flabby.

A photo taken that day shows the man insane and lost. From that appearance at the studio, no one from the group met with Syd again until the funeral in 2006. Nevertheless, the album dedicated to him turned out to be impressive. It included the track Shine On You Crazy Diamond which is 26 minutes long.

The song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd

The rock opera The Wall, written in 1979, has become a cult opera. Now young people are familiar with Pink Floyd mainly through this album and the track Another Brick in the Wall, Part II, which tells about the problems of education.

The Wall tells the story of Pink Floyd (born Floyd Pinkerton), who from birth brick by brick built a thick wall between himself and society. He grew up without a father, under the yoke of a hysterical mother. The teachers added fuel to the fire, then the girls. In the course of the opera, Pink gets divorced, gets hooked on drugs, loses control of aggression and goes crazy.

The song "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" by Pink Floyd

Tours in support of the opera turned out to be expensive. In each city, the musicians staged a theater show, destroying a wall made of cardboard blocks 12 meters high. The concerts were accompanied by animation clips, which were created by 40 animators. The loss from this album amounted to about 400 thousand pounds. To balance income and expenses, the film Pink Floyd: The Wall was made in 1982.

During the recording of the album The Wall, problems began in the group: Waters proclaimed himself the leader, did not recognize the rights of other soloists to write songs. During the tour, he lived separately from his now former friends and drove a separate car.

The song "Not Now John" by Pink Floyd

For some time, Pink Floyd turned into Waters' solo project, and in 1983 the album The Final Cut was released with the subtitle: "Requiem for the post-war dream of Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd." At these points, the leader clashed heavily with Gilmour, which led to Roger's departure from the group.

Until 1986, the musicians were engaged in solo work, and then Gilmour and Mason tried to return Pink Floyd. Wright later joined them. Together they recorded two albums that reached the top three of the UK charts. After that, the activity of the group fell into "suspended animation".

The song "High Hopes" by Pink Floyd

In 2005, the four Floyds put their differences aside and got together to play Live 8, an anti-poverty show. The band was offered £150 million to tour the US, but the members turned it down and returned to solo projects.

For their anniversary in 2015, they re-released some compilations and albums. In August of the same year, David Gilmour officially announced the dissolution of Pink Floyd.

Pink Floyd now

Roger Waters released Is This the Life We Really Want? It climbed to number three in the UK. In 2018, the musician announced his intention to make a farewell tour with Us + Them.

In 2015, David Gilmour's solo album Rattle That Lock was released. It was followed by a short tour of Europe and America.

Nick Mason retired from creativity. He lives in Los Angeles, plays golf and actively browses social networks.

For example, when the news of his passing broke in March 2018, he tweeted, quoting the famous line:

"In my opinion, reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Richard Wright died on September 15, 2008 from lung cancer. He was 65 years old. He did not have time to complete his fourth solo album.

Discography

• 1967 - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
• 1968 - A Saucerful of Secrets
• 1969 – Music from the Film More
• 1969 - Ummagumma
• 1970 - Atom Heart Mother
• 1971 - Meddle
• 1972 Obscured by Clouds
• 1973 - The Dark Side of the Moon
• 1975 - Wish You Were Here
• 1977 - Animals
• 1979 - The Wall
• 1983 - The Final Cut
• 1987 – A Momentary Lapse of Reason
• 1994 - The Division Bell
• 2014 – The Endless River

Clips

• 1968 - Astronomy Domine
• 1968 See Emily Play
• 1968 Arnold Layne
• 1968 - The Scarecrow
• 1968 - Apples and Oranges
• 1971 - One of These Days
• 1973-Money Wayne Isham
• 1975 - Welcome to the Machine
• 1979 – Another Brick in the Wall, Part II
• 1987 - Learning to Fly
• 1988 – On the Turning Away Lawrence Jordan
• 1994 - High Hopes
• 2014 - Marooned
• 2014 – Louder Than Words

The British rock band Pink Floyd was founded in 1965 by fellow students of the architecture department of the Polytechnic Institute in London. The founders of the group: Richard Wright (keyboardist, vocalist), Roger Waters (bass guitarist, vocalist), Nick Mason (drummer) and their friend from Cambridge - Syd Barrett (guitarist). Initially, the group was called "The Pink Floyd Sound", after which shortened the name in honor of the blues musicians: Pink Anderson and Floyd Cansil.The article "The" was dropped only after the 70s.Three years later, the band was assembled into the "Golden Lineup" with lead guitarist David Gilmour.The group began its career in in clubs where she played rhythm and blues compositions.In 1966, London School lecturer Peter Jenner, who was delighted with the use of acoustic effects in songs, became seriously interested in them.He, along with his friend Andrew King, became the group's managers. currently one of the most influential and successful bands in rock music, they held their last tour and silently disbanded in 1994. Despite the disintegration of the group, each member made a successful career for himself.

In August 1967, the debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was released. The album's tracks carry a mixture of avant-garde and whimsical music. Not all participants survived the success that fell on the group. Due to excessive drug use, the leader, Syd Barrett, leaves the group. At that time, the second album was almost ready, but the group revised all the material and began to create it from scratch. On the second disc "A Saucerful of Secrets" only one song by Sid - "Jugband Blues" got. After the release of the album "The Dark Side of the Moon", the band was in a period of high point. The main idea of ​​the album is the pressure of the modern world on the human psyche. The album “The Wall” was also a concept album, which was in rotation for a whole year on all world charts. It became very expensive and brought great popularity to the team. The band's last performance took place in 2005 at the Live 8 concert, where they put on a grandiose show that will forever remain in the memory of the listeners. In total, the team has sold about 74.5 million albums in the US and about 300 million records worldwide. All the albums written by the group contained elements of innovation, and the live performances were thought out as a grand show.

The author of almost all the songs of the group was Waters, which is why he secured the status of a permanent leader. The team is famous for its philosophical texts and acoustic experiments. The first recordings were made in 1967 at Polydor, then the compositions were written: “Arnold Layne” and “Interstellar Overdrive”. The first song was banned from the radio because it was about a transvestite who stole lingerie from ropes at night. The group's most famous songs are "Time", "Money", "Wish You Where Here" and "Another Brick in the Wall".

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The history of this leading psychedelic band of all times began in the first half of the 60s, when bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright united under the banner of "Sigma 6". The team had to change a number of names ("Megadeaths", "Leonard"s Lodgers", "The Tea Set", "The Abdabs", "The Architectural Abdabs", "The Screaming Abdabs", "The Pink Floyd Sound"), before than the musicians settled on the version of "Pink Floyd", composed of the names of two bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. By that time, there were some personnel changes in the group, the most important of which was the appearance of a singing guitarist and extraordinary composer Syd Barrett. "Pink Floyd "quickly stepped over the boundaries of rhythm and blues, traditional for that time, and started experimenting with sound. Feedback, reverb and other tricks were used, as a result of which unusual music was born, and to enhance the psychedelic effect at concerts, the group used a light show Having made a name for themselves in the underground, in 1967 the band signed a contract with "EMI" and immediately drove the debut single "Arnold Layne" with a story about a transvestite into the British Top 20.

The second EP, "See Emily Play", broke the top ten, followed by the album "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn". Most of the songs on this record were written by Barrett, but Sid managed to make strong friends with drugs and quickly left the game. Often he flew away right on stage, so already in 1968 he was kicked out of the group, and the vacancy was filled by Sid's old friend, David Gilmour. With Barrett gone, Waters took over and most of the material on "A Saucerful Of Secrets" was his own.

Despite the change of leader, the team not only managed to easily stay afloat, but also managed to significantly improve its status. Gradually, "Pink Floyd" developed its own easily recognizable sound, and all their albums were invariably present in the top ten. In addition to "A Saucerful Of Secrets", the soundtrack to the film "More" and the double "Ummagumma" were also released in the late 60s, divided into live numbers and experimental developments of each of the band members. The highest achievement of the transition period was the work "Atom Heart Mother", which was at the very top of the national chart and is remembered for the first collaboration of the musicians with the orchestra. The "Meddle" program, famous for its 23-minute epic "Echoes", turned out to be successful, but the appearance of the relatively weak record "Obscured By Clouds" did not at all portend the subsequent burst of productivity and a sharp rise in the popularity of the group. The first sign of global success was the album "Dark Side Of The Moon". This true masterpiece of psychedelia lifted "Pink Floyd" to the very top of the "Billboard" and spent 591 weeks on the overseas charts.

It seemed that after "Dark Side" it was difficult to produce something similarly grandiose, but the team coped with this task and two years later offered the listeners no less exciting material called "Wish You Were Here", one of the highlights of which was a dedication to Barrett " Shine On You Crazy Diamond". Against the background of the two previous works, the disc "Animals" looked a little less attractive, but in 1979 "Pink Floyd" dealt a new powerful blow to the charts with the over-ambitious double album "The Wall".

However, multi-million copies and successful tours in support of the release did not save the team from an internal split. Waters finally concentrated all power in his hands, and at his suggestion, Wright was removed from the official composition. Roger's relationships with his other colleagues were also far from ideal, and in the end, this affected the quality of the material. The album "The Final Cut" (especially against the background of previous masterpieces) turned out to be a failure, and after its release, Waters announced the dissolution of the team. While he was setting up a solo career, Gilmour and Mason decided to revive Pink Floyd and brought Wright back to the state. The first attempt of the restored band in the form of the disc "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" turned out to be rather weak, but after several years of trampling on the spot, the band released a worthy album "The Division Bell", quite comparable in quality to the earlier works. The release was accompanied by a global tour and the release of the live album "Pulse", and in subsequent years the activity of "Pink Floyd" has significantly decreased. A notable event happened in the summer of 2005, when all four members of the classic line-up took the stage at the London Live 8 concert. Unfortunately, the reunion tour, which was eagerly awaited by the fans, did not follow, and in September 2008, Richard Wright died.

It seemed that the story of the group ended there, but in 2011, Waters, Gilmour and Mason again found themselves together on the same stage, and in the same year a powerful campaign was launched to re-release early material, called "Why Pink Floyd?". A few years later, even more unexpected was the announcement of David's wife that Pink Floyd was preparing a new album. Subsequently, however, it turned out that "The Endless River" was assembled from illiquid assets 20 years ago, but despite the fact that this almost instrumental work did not bear much resemblance to the classic "Floyds" and caused a lot of criticism with its ambient mood, it was on the charts of a number of countries took first place.

Last update 20.12.14

The professor's son, who was torn apart by the spirit of controversy, dropped out of college at a young age to become a real rocker. And now - the rebel who shocked others with his antics gets a crust in Cambridge.

At the prom in Cambridge they come in formal-weekend robes, almost like Harry Potter. The main rumor is being passed from mouth to mouth: one will join us today, whose name cannot be pronounced aloud without aspiration. In the line of the best students and guests of honor - half-educated wizard - Gilmore, great and terrible. Goes for a diploma of a specialist in various arts. Honorary, according to the totality of merit.

David Gilmour, rock musician: "It's very nice and strange to stand here in a doctoral robe. Firstly, it's hot in it. Secondly, I dropped out of college because of sloppiness and music, which broke the heart of my father, a professor of genetics."

Gilmour the half-educated, proudly reminding in every measure and in every interview: "Do you know where you need to go with your education? You, a society of pigs on wings, what do you teach? Your books are another stone in the wall in which you walled your soul ". It was his revolution against adults, which real rockers never consider themselves to be, against bullying boys - such as Roger Waters, a colleague in Pink Floyd, who wrote the famous abstruse lyrics - smart guy, get out of our group, sing without scientists!

Gilmour was recognized as the best electric guitar player in the world, the destroyer of the Berlin Wall, a member of the pantheon of immortal Britons, but by no means an assistant professor, as his father dreamed. Therefore, in front of the hall where diplomas are given, he practically stumbles under the strict gaze of the dean.

David Gilmour: "You don't need to take an example from me. I would probably look up to you now. The golden age of rock is over, rock and roll is dead, and I'm getting a diploma of higher education. Learn better, children. In your time You can't do otherwise. Although, you know, my friend Syd Barrett, the founder of Pink Floyd, learned and then went crazy and died."

Polite applause instead of music - now Gilmour, great and terrible, an educated man and almost a scientist. In academic circles, they expect his image to increase children's desire for education, as they once expected him to almost growl: "Hey, teacher, leave the children alone!"

David Gilmour: "It's all nice. But I'm not going to wash my diploma. You know, I'm 63. And somehow all this rock fun is no longer healthy."

The picture from the cover of the disc. It was here, around the white pipes of the Battersea power plant, that Pink Floyd launched their famous inflatable winged pig. As Gilmour says today, then it seemed like a powerful protest against social philistinism, today - like a children's balloon. If only because for him it is the natural evolution of the revolution. After all, rockers don't grow up. They just get tired of being naive.