I always loved Bach. I thought he was a rocker before there was even a hint of rock. Hell, I think rockers got inspiration from him. But, I am a musical dummy and I could be dead wrong.
I was not as big of a fan of Mozart as most. I preferred Back, Beethoven, and even Handle over him, but again, I don't know crap about music.
Y'all..............I can see Floyd, Bach, and Beethoven on stage together. Gilmour playing electric slide, Waters playing rhythm, Bach joining Wright on keyboards, and Beethoven on the stage floor pounding time w/a cane.
I forgot the link to "Great Gig in the Sky." This is the song by Wright that was written about death, but Gilmour later tabbed as the greatest orgasm of all-time:
I truly believe that Floyd can not be classified. Clem mentioned Yes and ELP. I didn't care for Yes and loved ELP, but Pink Floyd was way beyond both groups. I do think that the Moody Blues had some aspects that were similar, but they are dissed by many so-called expert critics. Floyd's sound was unique. They were very progressive on almost every level of what they did.
I think that Floyd's secret was never getting too big for their own britches.
They never got too deep into compositional complexity, but always stayed true to the Blues roots that gave them their signature sound. When you listen to any of Gilmour's solos, you'll hear someone who never screams with fast-fingered pyrotechnics. He doesn't have to resort to speed and 'wow factor.' Instead, he does it with note choice- just like Eric Clapton... and every single one of his solos 'burn with a quiet fire.'
Listen to the solos he takes on "Money." None of them are fast or furious like some Yngwie Malmsteen-type metal shredder... but by the end of his solos, you are completely exhausted. Blues-based, he forms a 'slow burn' series of solos that never astonishes the listener with speed, but 'tells a lyrical story' over the form of the piece. By the end, you just can't take another solo from him.
He relies on architecture, note choice and psychology to take you where he wants you to go. The whole band operates like that.
Even the compositional structure of "Money" is based on 12-bar Blues.... even though it's written over a crazy-azz 7-beat-per measure pattern.
They trade on their gifts of collaboration, cooperation... and the subordinance of individual ego to the good of the whole. The end result has always been greater than the sum of Floyd's individual parts... the quintessence of what a cohesive band should be.
And they pull it off without a hitch or glitch- Every. Single. Time.
That's why a Pink Floyd joint is so insanely effective... and why in 2013, The Dark Side of the Moon was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
That's Johnny my friend. I always liked the guy. Not to say that like I was something special. I am just gald a lot of people came to understand how good and special he really was.
As I said earlier, he is in about every HOF possible, but he is mostly associated with Country, but he was a running buddy with Elvis in the early days....back when rock and country were close knit. There is a reason why Elvis is in the CHOF, even though he is called the "King" of rock.
Around 62 or so, each followed a different road, but they both started in the same place, and neither was afraid to go back for a visit.
You will like this link....Johnny Cash all the way IMO.
All this talk about Pink Floyd yet, no mention of the original Syd Barrett? I know he was part of the band before they got mega and their sound is entirely different once Waters took control of the band and Gilmour joined and came into his own as a songwriter. But, afterall, Barrett is who "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here" were written about.
All this talk about Pink Floyd yet, no mention of the original Syd Barrett? I know he was part of the band before they got mega and their sound is entirely different once Waters took control of the band and Gilmour joined and came into his own as a songwriter. But, afterall, Barrett is who "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here" were written about.
The early acid test type days of Barrett's' Flyod was a different beast. The early live recordings I've heard sound nothing of the band just a couple years latter.
The early acid test type days of Barrett's' Flyod was a different beast. The early live recordings I've heard sound nothing of the band just a couple years latter.
No, they don't.
Syd, as with PigPen era-Dead, was a key member and arguably the leader back then. Once Roger and David took control (as with Jerry & Bobby) the sound changed dramatically. But, those early Floyd recordings and their legendary gig at the' 14 Hour Technicolor Dream' in 1967 were revolutionary in terms of where they took pop music. "Interstellar Overdrive" is a monster tune but, it has almost nothing about it that is "pop". Even at their most conceptual, later/mature Floyd had a masterful sense of "pop", which is probably why they exploded into the charts.
All this talk about Pink Floyd yet, no mention of the original Syd Barrett? I know he was part of the band before they got mega and their sound is entirely different once Waters took control of the band and Gilmour joined and came into his own as a songwriter. But, afterall, Barrett is who "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here" were written about.
I am a huge fan of Pink Floyd and I knew/know all about Barrett and his story w/Floyd. I loved the early albums, but I think Floyd's sound improved after Barrett left. The Meddle album is a good example of that and Echoes is one of the greatest masterpieces ever written.
I had been planning on making a thread about Syd Barrett, schizophrenia, and Floyd. But, since you asked.......here is an article that I have in my Favorites about the situation:
Quote:
SYD BARRETT, FOUNDER OF PINK FLOYD BAND, SUFFERER OF SCHIZOPHRENIA, PASSED AWAY THIS WEEK
Read more... Schizophrenia Advocacy · Schizophrenia Personal Story
Syd Barrett, a founding member of the band "Pink Floyd" and one of the most legendary rock stars to develop a mental illness - most likely schizophrenia (triggered, it is said, by significant drug use as well as the stress and pressure of his career), died Friday from complications related to diabetes. He had been living in a cottage in Cambridge, England, where he had lived a quiet life for the past three decades. He was 60 years old.
While there has been some confusion in the public's mind about the mental illness Syd Barret suffered from, most of his band members and close associates have identified his mental illness as schizophrenia, and the mental health professionals that we've talked to also believe that he suffered from schizophrenia.
He seems to have had the genetic predisposition to schizophrenia, and and also experienced some of the noted environmental factors that have been linked in research to increased risk of developing schizophrenia. Comments by Roger Waters and others suggest that Syd always had "odd thoughts" - a factor that has been linked to a biological predisposition for schizophrenia. He also suffered from a highly stressful childhood (his father died suddenly when Syd was a child), and by his early-twenties he was in a high stress career and he was using a wide array of street drugs - especially cannabis and LSD. Syd was also highly creative - and psychological studies indicate that highly creative people share an elevated risk of serious mental illness (see this story on Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, another sufferer of schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder).
In his late teens and early twenties, when schizophrenia usually starts in men, Syd began to show the progression of symptoms that typically define the brain disorder - including increasingly odd thoughts, and odd behavior, and then later psychosis, (delusions and "visions"), bizarre actions, paranoia, disorganized thinking, catatonia and social withdrawl. These symptoms that Syd's band members and friends describe him going through are all key symptoms of schizophrenia. Later in life Syd also developed diabetes - another common problem for people who have schizophrenia, frequently accelerated by the sedentary life style that is common for people who have schizophrenia, and by some of the antipsychotic medications.
Unfortunately, much of the public and Press do not recognize the typical symptoms of schizophrenia and have mis-labeled his disorder as a "psychedelic drug-induced breakdown" or "nervous breakdown" - terms that have long since been replaced by well-defined medical terms like schizophrenia. (It seems that public mental health education has a long way to go). Most of the world's news writers seems to have "glamorised" Syd Barrett's mental illness, or completely glossed over something that ended his career just as it was getting going.
A Pink Floyd band member who recognized and spoke about Syd's mental illness was Roger Waters. Pink Floyd's bassist Roger Waters said Barrett's use of LSD compounded an existing condition [though schizophrenia researchers now say that people have a biological predisposition to schizophrenia, and that it is triggered by environmental factors and stresses]. Waters told VH-1's Legends in 2002: "There is no doubt those [street drugs] are very bad for schizophrenics ... and there is no doubt that Syd was a schizophrenic."
For more information, see the very good VH-1 Pink Floyd/Syd Barret documentary videos that are frequently available on Internet video sites. In these videos the band members describe Syd's behavior and if you compare it to the defining symptoms of schizophrenia, you can easily see the correlation, as Roger Waters has so accurately identified.
Interestingly, in the VH1 video interviews the band members talked about how Syd Barrett's personality and social skills changed as the disorder progressed (for example many of his band members talk about how Syd seemed to stare a lot, or "look right through them"). Coincidentally, a few months ago a researcher focused on schizophrenia (Demian Rose, PHD MD - of the University of California, San Francisco Medical School) gave a talk about these changes seen in people who develop schizophrenia - and used Syd Barrett as an example of this change(the section on Syd Barrett is about a few minutes into the video, after a short introduction on Social Cognition) - click on the arrow directly below the video window below.
Syd Barrett's musical career lasted barely seven years - from 1965 to early '72. But Barrett will go down in history as one of the most uniquely inspired creative talents to have sprung up from the pop revolution that gripped Britain in the late 20th century. Newspaper stories have called him "the golden boy of the mind-melting late-60s psychedelic era, its brightest star and ultimately its most tragic victim."
Born Roger Keith Barrett in 1946, the musician adopted the name Syd at age 15. He started the band that would become Pink Floyd in 1965, taking the name from two American bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, and, in typically whimsical fashion, titling the group's first album after a chapter from his favorite book, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, released at the height of the Summer of Love and driven by Mr. Barrett's songwriting, singing and otherworldly guitar solos, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (1967) influenced generations of musicians who followed in its wake; among the many who covered his songs were David Bowie, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins, Phish, Widespread Panic and Robyn Hitchcock. With its sonic invention and surreal lyrics, the album surpassed even "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" as an aural evocation of the psychedelic experience, and in England, Mr. Barrett became a superstar who personified the Swinging '60s.
Biographers of the band revel in the stories, some probably false, some true. At a concert at the Winterland, in San Francisco, he opted to detune his guitar during Interstellar Overdrive until the strings fell off. Other nights he simply stood on stage in a catatonic stupor staring straight ahead. A music magazine reported that Barrett once stood on stage and played the same note—middle C—for the entire duration of a concert, which lasted a couple of hours long.
With regard to taking drugs, Gilmour would later say: "Syd didn't need encouraging. If drugs were going, he'd take them by the shovelful.'
By the beginning of 1967, LSD had come to rival cannabis as Barrett's drug of choice at Earlham Street. Lindsay Korner, girlfriend of Syd's at the time has said that also in 1967 "it got a bit crazed. [By Christmas] Syd had started to act a little bonkers, schizophrenia had set in."
The Observer reports that "By the autumn of 68, he was homeless. Periodically he returned to Cambridge, where his mother Win fretted, urged him to see a doctor, and blindly hoped for the best. In London, he crashed on friends' floors - and began the midnight ramblings which would continue for two years."
Gilmour, a childhood friend from Cambridge, was invited to join Pink Floyd in 1968 to back up Barrett on guitar, but the founder's deterioration continued and within months Gilmour replaced him in the band. After two haunting solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, which show the last flickering light of his genius, Barrett was gone. He withdrew from public view entirely in 1974. He was 28 years old.
After brief stay (though some reports say he spent upwards of 8 years) in a psychiatric hospital, Mr. Barrett was cared for by his mother (and then later his sister Rosemary), and he rarely left home (all of which are common situations where a person has schizophrenia).
Pink Floyd would pay tribute to Mr. Barrett (and include mental illness as an ongoing theme) on its best and most successful albums, pondering the causes of mental collapse on "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973) and "The Wall" (1979) and speaking to him directly in the songs "Wish You Were Here" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," which featured Waters' lyrics urging, "Come on you raver, you seer of visions/Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner and shine!"
Without overtly admitting it, Waters wrote of Barrett: “Now there’s a look in your eye/ Like black holes in the sky.” It echoed the sentiment of famed Brit folk producer Joe Boyd in June 1967, who seeing Barrett for the first time in months noted a change. “He just looked at me,” said Boyd, who had produced Pink Floyd's "Arnold Layne" single. “I looked right in his eye and there was no twinkle, no glint. You know, nobody home.”
Syd Barrett's absence only fueled fans' fascination, however, and over the years, he became the subject of numerous books, fanzines and Web sites. As is common for people with schizophrenia - Barrett shunned social contact.
Newspaper reports say that Mr. Barrett's former bandmates were haunted by the question of whether they could have helped their friend if they'd only been more attuned to his mental problems and drug abuse. Sadly, Roger Waters says that they tried to get Syd to see a therapist but were unsuccessful (as is very common with schizophrenia). Given the knowledge of early treatment benefits we have today - there is much that could be done now.
"Could we have saved the day? Could we have prevented Syd from going off the rail? I suppose this is the issue exercising me the most," Mason said in 1995. "But we are not really talking about four lovable moptops here -- we are talking about a bunch of poised individuals who were so busy pursuing their own ends that they weren't even capable of looking after each other." Jody Rosen, of Slate, had this positive approach to the legend of Syd Barrett:
Barrett spent his final years in his mother's house in Cambridge, England, living comfortably off the royalties that his former bandmates made sure he collected. Reportedly, his pastimes were painting and gardening, and he was often seen by neighbors on his bicycle. It sounds like a pretty nice life, actually... Few bands are as well-experienced as Pink Floyd in the impact that mental illness has on people - and we hope that they use that knowledge to help the millions of people who, like Syd Barrett, suffer from schizophrenia. Pink Floyd band members are in a unique position to educate a a vast number of people, to help raise a money for schizophrenia research and help others live the full life that Syd Barrett could not because of his illness.
We hope Syd Barrett's family, and the Pink Floyd band members (and other people he has inspired) will donate or help fund raise, to help other people with schizophrenia and fund schizophrenia research that works towards a cure. Ultimately, this type of funding could help guarantee that the many "crazy diamonds" around the world who share the disorder that Syd Barrett had, can live free of schizophrenia and contribute even more to society.
Instead of just reminiscing about Syd Barrett's best days - we'd like to see the many musicians who benefited from Syd's work hold a fund-raising concert to support schizophrenia research that might allow the many other diamonds in the rough to shine as Syd Barrett did, while at the same time reducing the stigma of mental illness. We encourage advocacy groups to work to make this happen. With the renewed interest in Syd Barret - now is the time. Why don't we have "Live Aid" concerts for schizophrenia? We see world famous musicians fund raising for poor people 8,000 miles away - but neglecting the mentally ill (and frequently poor) people that live 8 miles away. We think that helping both groups of people are equally valid.
If you agree with this idea - please try to forward the idea to Roger Waters (if you know a way to reach him) and the Pink Floyd band members. If they get enough messages, maybe they will do something positive in Syd's memory for others who suffer from schizophrenia, instead of just remembering the genius of Syd.
Another way to honor Syd's genius might to do a documentary or movie on his life - with an indepth look at his mental illness from the points of view of his band members, his family, friends and others - to get a true picture of the brillance and tragedy of Syd Barrett's life. Donate the proceeds from the film to a charity that does schizophrenia reasearch, or helps the mentally ill (most are not so lucky as to get royalty checks from popular bands on a regular basis).
More information:
Syd Barrett of the band Pink Floyd - background reading
The Madcap Gets the Last Laugh: A Remembrance of Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (1946-2006)
You shone like the sun - The Observer (Long Story on Syd Barrett)
Trubute to Syd Barrett (video done to "Wish you were here")
The Dark Side Of Pink Floyd
Learn more about the Causes of Schizophrenia
Wish You Were Here
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain. Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze? Cold comfort for change? And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here. We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year, running over the same old ground. What have we found? The same old fears, wish you were here.
Some Quotes about Syd Barrett from people who knew him well:
David Gilmour: Syd was a strange guy even back in Cambridge. Peter Jenner, the Floyd's first manager on Syd Barrett:"He'd sit around with copious amounts of hash and grass and write these incredible songs"
Peter Jenner: ... The acid brought out his latent madness. I'm sure it was his latent madness which gave him his creativity. The acid brought out the creativity, but more importantly, it brought out the madness. The creativity was there - dope was enough to get it going. He wrote all his songs, including the ones on his solo LP's, in a eighteen month period.
David Gilmour: I remember I really started to get worried when I went along to the session for 'See Emily Play'. Syd was still functioning, but he definitely wasn't the person I knew. He looked through you. He wasn't quite there. He was strange even then. That stare, you know?
Peter Jenner: Even at that point, Syd actually knew what was happening to him. 'Jugband Blues' is a really sad song, the portrait of a nervous breakdown. 'Jugband Blues' is the ultimate self-diagnosis on a state of schizophrenia.
JUGBAND BLUES (from 'Saucerful of Secrets')
It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here And I'm much obliged to you for making it clear That I'm not here.
And what exactly is a dream? And what exactly is a joke?
Nick Mason: Syd went mad on that first American tour in the autumn of 1967. He didn't know where he was most of the time. I remember he detuned his guitar onstage in Venice, LA, and he just stood there rattling the strings which was a bit weird, even for us.
John Marsh: On their first American tour the Floyd were being taken by some A&R man around Hollywood. They were taken for the classic tour of the stars' homes and so on. And they ended up on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. The band are looking around : 'Hey, made it, Hollywood,' and the A&R man's saying, 'Yes, here we are, the centre of it all, Hollywood and Vine,' and Syd's wandering around the place, wide-eyed, reckless and legged. 'Gee,' he says, 'it's great to be in Las Vegas.'
Lindsay Korner: (During the fall of 1967) it got a bit crazed. (By Christmas) Syd had started to act a little bonkers, schizophrenia had set in.
Duggie Fields: Oh, he went more than slightly bonkers, it must have been very difficult for him. I think the pressures on Syd before that time must have upset him very much, the kind of pressure where it takes off very fast, which Pink Floyd did - certainly in terms of the way people behaved towards them.
Peter Jenner: We tried to stop him going crazy. I put all my textbook sociology, all the stuff I'd read about psychology in action; we took him to R.D. Laing. Laing didn't say much. We tried to take what he said literally, we tried to use the inner meaning of what he was saying, we tried to change the objective situations. We moved him out of Cromwell Road but ... it was too late.
David Gilmour: He functions on a totally different plain of logic, and some people will claim, 'Well yeah man he's on a higher cosmic level' - but basically there's something drastically wrong. It wasn't just the drugs - we'd both done acid before the whole Floyd thing - it's just a mental foible which grew out of all proportion. I remember all sorts of strange things happening - at one point he was wearing lipstick, dressing in high heels, and believing he had homosexual tendencies. We all felt he should have gone to see a psychiatrist, though someone in fact played an interview he did to R.D. Laing, and Laing claimed he was incurable. What can you do, you know?
Peter Barnes: (on interviewing Syd) It was fairly ludicrous on the surface. I mean, you just had to go along with it all. Syd would say something completely incongruous one minute like 'It's getting heavy, isn't it?' and you'd just have to say, 'Yeah, Syd, it's getting heavy,' and the conversation would dwell on *that* for five minutes. Actually, listening to the tape afterwards you could work out that there was some kind of logic there - except that Syd would suddenly be answering a question you'd asked him ten minutes ago while you were off on a different topic completely!
Jerry Shirley: Sometimes he does it just to put everybody on, sometimes he does it because he's genuinely paranoid about what's happening around him. He's like the weather, he changes. For every 10 things he says that are off-the-wall and odd, he'll say one thing that's completely coherent and right on the ball. He'll seem out of touch with what's gone on just before, then he'll suddenly turn around and say, 'Jerry, remember the day we went to get a burger down at the Earl's Court Road?' - complete recall of something that happened a long time ago. Just coming and going [between reality and fantasy], all the time.
Jenny Fabian: Years later I found him again living up the road from Earls Court in a flat where he had room. Again he didn't speak much. He was sitting in the corner on a matress and he'd painted every other floorboard alternate colours, red and green . He boiled an egg in a kettle and ate it. And he listened over and over again to Beach Boys tapes, which I found distressing.
Roger Waters: (1992) I haven't seen Syd for 10 years...more than years probably. I don't know what went wrong with Syd because I am not an expert on schizophrenia. Syd was extraordinarily charming and attractive and alive and talented but whatever happened to him, happened to him.
There is no actual proof but, many believe his heavy use of LSD exacerbated or even brought on his mental health issues. He was, at the very least, an acid casualty.
I have both of Syd's solo albums, "The Madcap Laughs" and "Barrett". They are interesting pieces to the puzzle and certainly help complete the early Floyd picture. Quirky, whimsical British psychedelic folk and acoustic ditties that are a snapshot into his acid frazzled mind. But, enjoyable nonetheless.
I am glad you brought up ""Meddle"...this is probably my actual favorite Floyd album. This is also where I think things really started to take off and coincidentally when Gilmour came into his own as a songwriter.
Yeah, they addressed the connection of LSD and schizophrenia in the article. I don't think there is any conclusive proof that the former escalates the latter, but a schizophrenic should not be doing acid, at least in my "street" mind.
I think that it's worthwhile to consider what Clem wrote earlier about Gilmour's background in the blues and also consider Barrett's psychedelic influence and how that combination, along w/the genius of both Watters and Wright as songwriters as to how Pink Floyd developed such a unique sound, that no one has ever come close to.
I mean, the Alan Parson's Project kinda came close on one album, but that might have been more of him just using his time w/Floyd [when he produced one of their albums] than anything else. It was not sustainable.
I wanna leave y'all w/this...........it's a version of Echoes. One of the greatest songs ever written, in my opinion. It's long [over 25 minutes, yeah they played this on the radio...LOL] and I know most won't listen to it...........but, here it is and it might be best to open it in a new window and listen to it while doing other things, like blasting Trump or illegal aliens. LOL.
First concert? I think it was back in 2002 or 2003. I saw Autopilot Off (no idea who they were), Goldfinger (I knew them from a videogame), and Sum 41 (who I mainly went to see). The venue was the Tower City Ampitheater
I was 12 at the time, my cousin was 13, and my sister at the ripe age of 10. My Mom came as well because she didn't think my cousin and I were old enough to go on our own.
Boy, that music was loud! My ears finally adjusted, and I stood at the edge at the back listening to the music. Sum 41 came on, we heard some of the hits, but then we left as my Mom didn't want us to see strippers on stage taking off their tops... ---------------------------
Music became a huge part of my life. Much of my escape in my teenage years came from Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Disturbed (ugh, Nu Metal), Linkin Park, and other "metal" acts.
My second concert ended up a couple of years later. I saw the project revolution tour during 2004. The bill consisted of Less Than Jake (a band I love today), The Used (Eh), Snoop Dogg, Korn, and Linkin Park. The air smelled much different during Snoop Dogg, I asked my friend why it suddenly smelled like wet grass despite no rain, but I realized what the smell was; that became m first foray into learning what marijuana smelled like.
At the time I loved the show, but it's not my favorite show. ----------------------------
During 2009 I developed a huge soft spot for cover bands. I worked at Disney for a bit, and EPCOT rests as prime location for great bands. A Beatles cover band, named the British Invasion, rocked EPCOT 5 times a night. Many evenings consisted of listening to decent Beatles tunes, while they wore the garb from the albums, and ending the night with Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. Nothing beats fireworks, music, and lasers.
------------------------------
My love of cover groups extended to Toledo upon my return. A local dive bar, named The Omni, hosted free cover concerts every friday night. We weren't old enough to drink (I obtained from it till I was 21...recovering alcoholic father), but we went anyway. Some of the groups sucked (Guns N Roses group...), but others entertained; a Motley Crue/Poison group played a decent show, and a bunch of middle aged women kept ripping off their tops to our amusement. The singer, guitarist, and bass guitarist then adorned their microphone stands with bras. "Girls, Girls, Girls" played, and then strippers came on stage. They passed out "free passes" to a local topless bar; we didn't go.
The best act came from a Pink Floyd cover band. They nailed it! They played Meddle from front to back to start the show, then ran through Wish You Were Here, a few tracks from The Wall, and closed the show with a complete rendition of Dark Side of The Moon. I loved every minute of it.
I fell in love with Floyd at UT during the tail end of my freshman year of college. Many drives to and from Toledo to Cleveland and vice versa involved a series of Meddle-->Dark Side Of The Moon---> Wish You Were Here-----(sometimes)-----> The Wall.
Floyd still serves me well today. I love good prog rock. ----------------------------------
Last concert I saw was Angels and Airwaves. They're punk rock crossed with Pink Floyd. They put on a good show.
The early acid test type days of Barrett's' Flyod was a different beast. The early live recordings I've heard sound nothing of the band just a couple years latter.
No, they don't.
Syd, as with PigPen era-Dead, was a key member and arguably the leader back then. Once Roger and David took control (as with Jerry & Bobby) the sound changed dramatically.
I've not mentioned the Grateful Dead on this thread as they don't have the popular ear in America' music lore. You either got it, or you didn't. As to your statement, I agree whole heartedly. Listen to a song like Caution being performed around 1968. As Jerry garnered more influence songs like that fell by the wayside. Bobby ended up filling in with his brand of 'rock and roll' after Pig died. I think a real change came when CSNY came out with their first album in '69, then Deja Vu in '70. Suddenly just three months later the Dead release Workingman's Dead and their entire sound shifted. Listen to LiveDead, released in '69. Then put on Workingman's, released in June of 1970. To the unknowing you'd hardly speculate it's the same band.
As to my favorite concert I've ever seen. It'd be hard to say. I've seen hundreds of nights of music over the years. Between The Grateful Dead and Widespread Panic I've seen 40+ shows alone. Then there's Lolapaloozas and Bonarroos and countless, ongoing festivals I attend each year. Many holding moments in my memories that transcend time. The Dead melted rooms away as they played. Often times less music and more 'describing vast spaces' through instruments. Moments of clever musical genius crackling through the PA. Nights where Jerry brought me to tears. Widespread Panic holds a place too. They were the 'jam band' that bridged the musical gap to get many of my friends and family 'on the bus'. As the Dead lingo goes. Panic plays a southern psychedelia that scares hippies. My more 'rock and roll' buddies could appreciate it. I put my best friend in front of a PA at a Panic show in Murfreesboro, TN around 2000 or 2001. He's never been the same. That show is special to me for that reason. Next maybe is the first Bonarroo. All my siblings attended this event with me. None had seen Panic before. By the time Saturday night rolled around they all were hooked. My little brother and I can have a one word conversation with each other, Pigeons (a Panic song), and be taken back to that event. Both of us remembering that night and the joy we shared.
Yeah, they addressed the connection of LSD and schizophrenia in the article. I don't think there is any conclusive proof that the former escalates the latter, but a schizophrenic should not be doing acid, at least in my "street" mind.
I think that it's worthwhile to consider what Clem wrote earlier about Gilmour's background in the blues and also consider Barrett's psychedelic influence and how that combination, along w/the genius of both Watters and Wright as songwriters as to how Pink Floyd developed such a unique sound, that no one has ever come close to.
I mean, the Alan Parson's Project kinda came close on one album, but that might have been more of him just using his time w/Floyd [when he produced one of their albums] than anything else. It was not sustainable.
I wanna leave y'all w/this...........it's a version of Echoes. One of the greatest songs ever written, in my opinion. It's long [over 25 minutes, yeah they played this on the radio...LOL] and I know most won't listen to it...........but, here it is and it might be best to open it in a new window and listen to it while doing other things, like blasting Trump or illegal aliens. LOL.
Yeah I remember now Alan Parsons produced a couple of Pink Floyd albums.
Imagine, you’re 19 years old, and you’ve landed a job as an assistant engineer at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London. Among your first sessions? The Beatles’ last two albums, Let It Be and Abbey Road. Then, after being promoted to full engineer, you are assigned to work with a band called Pink Floyd on a project called Atom Heart Mother, followed by Dark Side of the Moon—the latter of which earns you the first of nearly a dozen Grammy nominations. Not a bad way to start out, is it?
Also I experienced Pink Floyd in Denver at old Mile High stadium. June 1994.
Set list...
Astronomy Domine Learning to Fly What Do You Want From Me On the Turning Away Take It Back Coming Back to Life Sorrow Keep Talking One of These Days Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) Breathe Time Breathe (Reprise) High Hopes The Great Gig in the Sky Wish You Were Here Us and Them Money Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 Comfortably Numb
Encore: Hey You Run Like Hell
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
Sadly I never got to see Floyd. They always ended up in town when school and lack of money seemed to be a barrier too steep. Last summer I worked a festival for a bluegrass band called the Yonder Mountain String Band. Saturday night they brought on a keyboardist friend of mine, Asher Felero, who's played keys in a PF cover band called The Floydian Slips. With him on stage they went on to perform the entire Animals album. Quite a performance. I built the pig head projection screen seen on the stage, along with the most of the props you see in the crowd footage.
The Pink Floyd show at Blossom Music Center in '73 turned into a free concert. A couple days before the show a radio station announce that 1500 tickets where going on sale the day of the show at Blossom. 1000's of people showed up and stood in line at the ticket booths. Blossom Music Center officials announced no tickets would be sold and told them to go home. Well they didn't. They crashed the fence down in a couple places and stormed in. One member of Pink Floyd mentioned it is a free show now, and welcomed the stowaways, then continued on. What a show!
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
Other notable concerts...too many to list though. I kept ticket stubs for most
In order... Ann Margret in Vegas Elvis in Vegas Uriah Heep Ten Years After Sha Na Na Blue Oyster Cult Steely Dan Spirit The Eagles Frank Zappa and the Mothers Ned Nugent and the Amboy Dukes Santana Jeff beck Crosby Stills Nash & Young Rod Stewart Lynard Skynard Kiss Rush Evis Costello Rolling Stones Jimmy Buffet Van Halen Jefferson Starship Bruce Springsteen Fleetwood Mac Pablo Cruise...LOL The Police U2 Rage against the Machine "Beck" Hansen Oasis Foster the People
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson.
I've not mentioned the Grateful Dead on this thread as they don't have the popular ear in America' music lore. You either got it, or you didn't. As to your statement, I agree whole heartedly. Listen to a song like Caution being performed around 1968. As Jerry garnered more influence songs like that fell by the wayside. Bobby ended up filling in with his brand of 'rock and roll' after Pig died. I think a real change came when CSNY came out with their first album in '69, then Deja Vu in '70. Suddenly just three months later the Dead release Workingman's Dead and their entire sound shifted. Listen to LiveDead, released in '69. Then put on Workingman's, released in June of 1970. To the unknowing you'd hardly speculate it's the same band.
Country rock definitely became very hip in the late 60's. Gram Parsons had a huge influence on many but, even early Byrds were very jingle jangly with folk/country. It seemed as more hippies left the city the more country became en vogue with the younger counter culture. Several went on pilgrimages to Nashville to cut records. Pig was very invested in the Blues and R&B while Jerry came from that bluegrass thang. So, it makes sense that once Pig was ill and becoming less of an influence on the band that "Captain Trips" would pick up and move into a direction that kept a blues foundation but, also borrowed from all forms of American music. The Dead are easily THE quintessential American band.
GFR was initially managed and produced by Terry Knight.
I have the Terry Knight & The Pack album and Farner sings some vocals on it and I believe (it is not immediately in front of me) Brewer also plays on it. Farner is most definitely credited on the back.
I saw them in London before they exploded into fame. Hammersmith Palais....1994, I think (maybe '93). Their first two albums were great, in particular their 1st. Shame everything sounded the same afterwards. They were particularly massive in Britain. Like, seriously stadium massive.
Did you know that he actually wrote out traditional full conductor's scores for lots of those tunes? Every note for every instrument. Including dynamic variances, individual note attack indications, and specific tempo markings. Every single sound depicted in ink on paper. Think about that, when you listen to something like "Igor's Boogie."
Such incredibly complex and ingenious writing.
Igor's Boogie" sounds as if it's written atonally, but actually it's an example of bi-tonality: writing the piece in two contrasting but complimentary keys at the same time. He also uses this approach where rhythm and meter were concerned: melody written in one meter/accompaniment written in another- AND at a faster tempo.
What's so astonishing is that because Igor's Boogie is completely written down, the piece can always be recreated exactly as per the composer's intent. Just like Stravinsky, Shostakovich or Varese. The biggest trick: finding musicians who are good enough to actually play the stuff right.
Yup. Just like the Big Boys he idolized. Frank was one of 20th c's Big Boys.
I saw Zappa at The Front Row in Cleveland in ...hmmmmm........1984 or '85. I got married in '85 and it was before that. It was a "fun" concert.
And for anyone who hasn't been to the Front Row in Cleveland..........man, what a great place. Probably the best venue that I have ever been to. I also saw BB King, Albert King, George Benson, Roberta Flack, Luther Vandross, and Bill Withers at the Front Row.
As to the rest of your post............I ain't even going to pretend to understand what you are talking about. Way over my head, bro.
Lots of folks I know got into Zappa back in the '70's because his commercial stuff was so [ahem] controversial at the time. Dinah Moe Humm, Jewish Princess... they loves all his 'naughty' stuff for all the usual adolescent reasons. I was always more into his serious stuff, which he was always doing on the side.
There are college composition/theory classes that dedicate an entire section to Zappa's composition techniques. A whole semester of FZ- for credit!
The whole time I was in school, I always participated in the New Music department's projects: New Music Ensemble, New Music Festival, Student Composer's Forum Ensemble, etc. It was a blast to take a break from the 18th and 19th c, and wade through something that had never been heard before by anyone. Something where the ink was still drying, and the composer was there to give it to you you fresh from his brain. That's some exciting [stuff], bro.
(Some of it is crazier than a bedbug. On one tune, this gal had to point the mouthpiece of her french horn into a mic, and sing into the bell, while pressing down the keys to her instrument! Creepywildazz sound that I can't describe in words.)
No, Zappa's a prince in 'modern classical music' circles. Perhaps not one of the kings, but mostly because he didn't stay in academia- but certainly a prince... and considered important in the late-20th c writing fraternity. Rock instruments got used, but there was some serious writing going on there.
I saw Zappa at The Front Row in Cleveland in ...hmmmmm........1984 or '85. I got married in '85 and it was before that. It was a "fun" concert.
And for anyone who hasn't been to the Front Row in Cleveland..........man, what a great place. Probably the best venue that I have ever been to. I also saw BB King, Albert King, George Benson, Roberta Flack, Luther Vandross, and Bill Withers at the Front Row.
As to the rest of your post............I ain't even going to pretend to understand what you are talking about. Way over my head, bro.
Which makes me think of another topic inside this topic... Favorite venues. I've seen shows all over the country. Red Rocks is stunning. As stunning as everything you read. The Gorge in Washington state is gorgeous but only at sunset. It's a grueling, sunbaked, high desert wasteland, devoid of all natural shade, all day. But man sunset is breathtaking. Buckeye Lake outside of Columbus holds a special place in my heart. Harkening back to my Dead days. Out here us a small 5000-6000 person natural amphitheater on a lake, nestled in the hills outside of town. It's called Horning's Hideout. It's a hidden gem and a second home every summer for the past decade plus. The Palace at Auburn Hills in Michigan and the the Pyramid in Memphis were built for modern sound systems. They aren't just boxes with poor acoustics like many old sports arenas and such. Then there's the smaller and every smaller halls, clubs, and bars. The list could be endless.
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