Pink Floyd question

[Jafs]

Hi dirties,

I own Dark side of the moon, The Wall, Wish you were here & Animals(this one is a deception for me) by PF and I wanna know if you consider that Meddle and Pipers at the gates of down are essential and why.

Thanks.

[BeautifulBurnout]

Piper at the Gates of Dawn (and A Saucerful of Secrets, together as A Nice Pair) were important to me largely because of the way in which the band were pushing the boundaries of musical experimentation at the time. Bear in mind that the Moog synthesizer had only been toyed with up til then, and a lot of the effects created on these albums were using electric guitars. Piper was also the last album to have Syd Barrett on as a vocalist. In 68, he started to lose the plot seriously, and acid got the better of him. I think it is worth owning for that reason alone - a kind of Pink Floyd Mk I.

Meddle, on the other hand, is an absolute must for your collection. There are some fantastic numbers on there, my faves being "One of these days...." which I described elsewhere as one of the earliest banging dance numbers, imo. The whole of side two (not that you will notice it on the CD though) is Echoes, which is a superb, experimental ambient piece that kind of weaves its way underwater. Damn, that sounds pretentious and I don't mean to, but when you listen to it you will understand what I mean.

Edit: by deception do you mean disappointment? I love Animals, but it was the last Floyd album I really loved. After that it kind of got monotonous in my opinion.

[Bargo]

Years ago when I was first discovering Pink Floyd and starting to collect all their albums, I went to the local music store and asked if they could order in Piper... for me. I was puzzled when the store guy warned me that it "might not be what I expected".

When it finally arrived I was able to understand what he meant. As an album, it's got some great moments (and as a whole I've grown to appreciate it more and more as the years go by), but for a 15-yr-old who was weaned on Dark Side and The Wall, it sounded nothing like the Pink Floyd I knew. With a theme of fairy tales and psychedia hanging over many of the songs, it is far removed from the political protests of Animals or the angst of The Wall. Whilst most of the songs are about 3-4 minutes in length, one track (Interstellar Overdrive) probably gives the biggest hint of where they would eventually go, a sprawling jam featuring lots of guitar and electronic experimentation.

It is an important album in order to understand Pink Floyd's roots, when Syd Barrett was the driving creative influence behind the band. It gives you an appreciation of why the remaining members felt the need to write tracks such as Shine On... and Wish you were here about him, because he clearly had a lot of creative talent that was sorely missed when the drugs took hold.

As for Meddle, well, I agree that it is a must for anyone who likes Pink Floyd. Echos is arguably the greatest song they've ever written, and whilst nothing else on the album comes close to it in terms of grandeur, they're all very good (except for Seamus, which is rather awful). A good accompaniment to it is the Live at Pompeii video/dvd which contains live performances of Echoes and One of these Days.

[adam]

I love Meddle, but if you were only going to buy one more Pink Floyd album, it should be Umma Gumma. For real.

[BeautifulBurnout]

Originally Posted by Bargo

A good accompaniment to it is the Live at Pompeii video/dvd which contains live performances of Echoes and One of these Days.

Heh. I saw that at the cinema as a spotty teenager! Good movie.

As to Piper vs Sgt. Pepper I will sit on the fence. It is like trying to compare apples and oranges.

[holden]

A suggestion for essential early Floyd:
"Ummagumma".

More structured and dare-i-say listenable than the hallucinogenic Syd Barrett albums, and it's trippy as heck!

[thee carp dreamer]

i'm gonna stick my oar in and say you have to get meddle. you have to.
echoes is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.

or, get the live in pompeii dvd.

[stimpee]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

Heh. I saw that at the cinema as a spotty teenager! Good movie.

As to Piper vs Sgt. Pepper I will sit on the fence. It is like trying to compare apples and oranges.

However, Sgt Pepper is considered by many to be the best Beatles album (though not by me), whereas Piper... isnt largely considered to be Floyd's best album.

You'd have to compare Dark Side Of The Moon to Sgt. Pepper. But personally, I consider the White Album to be their best by far, with Revolver close behind.

In general, comparing Beatles to Floyd isnt such a good idea though, and a separate thread for Beatles discussion should really be started.

[Jafs]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

Meddle, on the other hand, is an absolute must for your collection. There are some fantastic numbers on there, my faves being "One of these days...." which I described elsewhere as one of the earliest banging dance numbers, imo. The whole of side two (not that you will notice it on the CD though) is Echoes, which is a superb, experimental ambient piece that kind of weaves its way underwater. Damn, that sounds pretentious and I don't mean to, but when you listen to it you will understand what I mean..

That's why I love Pink Floyd, for this experimental rock side.

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

Edit: by deception do you mean disappointment? I love Animals, but it was the last Floyd album I really loved.

Yes, and I find this one a little annoying, even after repeated listen.

About The Wall, I really like the second disc and I think the first is not musically so great. But The Wall is an entity first, so...

And for "Piper...", some says that it's "better" that Sgt Pepper, what do you think about that ?

[adam]

I love Floyd, and I own about seven Floyd disks, and zero Beatles albums, but there is no way that Piper is better than Sgt Pepper. No way.