Pink Floyd Research Paper free essay sample

Then just as quickly as I was swept away, I was eerily back in my room where I was writing this paper. When I thought â€Å"what was roger waters thinking while writing the lyrics, and how did the unused sessions of the collaborated written music sound, did David Gilmour like a different guitar riff than waters, or were they unanimously in agreement? †. These were the strikes on my mental match that started the unstoppable Floyd fire which set my mind ablaze. Pink Floyd over the 48 years of its existence has had five members in the group(all of which have been inducted in the rock amp; roll hall of fame), with its founder being Syd Barrett (some argue roger waters had founder status as well, but I dont know because it wasn’t â€Å"Pink Floyd† until Barrett came up with the name). The four original members of Pink Floyd all met in London while going to school for their degrees. We will write a custom essay sample on Pink Floyd Research Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Syd Barrett, the original lead guitarist, met up with three men who were studying at the London Technical College for Architecture. These three were Roger Waters, the bass player, Rick Wright the keyboardist and finally a drummer named Nick Mason. All of the members of the band were originally from Cambridge apart from Rick Wright, who was from London. In fact Waters and Mason were friends at school and had spent most of their teenage life together. Waters and Barrett were childhood friends. Waters had usually visited Barrett and watched him play guitar at Barretts mothers house. Mason said this regarding Barrett: In a period when everyone was being cool in a very adolescent, self-conscious way, Syd was unfashionably outgoing; my enduring memory of our first encounter is the fact that he bothered to come up and introduce himself to me. Starting in 1964, the band that would become Pink Floyd underwent various line-up and name changes such as The Abdabs, The Screaming Abdabs, Sigma 6, and The Meggadeaths. In 1965, Barrett joined them as The Tea Set (sometimes spelled as T-Set), Barrett created the name The Pink Floyd Sound on the spur of the moment when he discovered that another band, also called the Tea Set, were to perform at one of their gigs. The final name is derived from the given names of two Georgia blues musicians whose records Barrett had in his collection, Pink Anderson and Floyd â€Å"flipper boy† Council. Pink Floyd (as they are called now) originally consisted of students Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright. Pioneering the Pink Floyd’s sound was Syd Barrett. Pink Floyd first gained popularity performing in Londons underground music scene during the late 1960s. In early 1967, Norman Smith began working with a new group, Pink Floyd, producing their first, second, and fourth studio albums The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, and Ummagumma. By mid-1967, they had developed an unmistakably psychedelic sound, performing long, loud compositions that boasted accents of hard rock, blues, country, folk, and experimental electronic music. Adding a slide-and-light show (one of the first in British rock), they became a sensation among Londons underground as a featured attraction at the UFO Club. Under Barretts creative leadership they released two charting singles called â€Å"See Emily Play†, And â€Å"Arnold Layne†; Another success is â€Å"The Piper at the Gates of Dawn†, the debut album by Pink Floyd, and the only one made under founding member Syd Barretts leadership. David Gilmour joined as a fifth member in December 1967. After two albums (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets), Barrett self-destructed due to mental instability aggravated by drug use, Barrett left the band 4 months later in April 1968; Gilmour filled the musical void left by Barrett. First a brief stop off in 1969 with music from the Film †more† which is the first full-length soundtrack album, and third studio album by Pink Floyd (Released on 13 June 1969 in the UK and 9 August in the US). More contains some acoustic folk ballads, a genre that appeared by a hair on later works. It also contains some of the bands heaviest recordings, such as The Nile Song and Ibiza Bar, as well as several instrumental tracks, featuring their experimental and ground breaking visionary approach. This is Pink Floyds first full album without founding member Syd Barrett, who was ousted from the group in early 1968 during the recording of their previous album, A Saucerful of Secrets. It is one of the two Pink Floyd albums to feat ure David Gilmour as the sole lead vocalist (the other being 1987s A Momentary Lapse of Reason), and it is also the first album to be produced by Pink Floyd without assistance from Norman Smith. Now into the Seventies, with bassist Roger Waters providing more of the songwriting and direction, Pink Floyd became one of the most influential rock bands of all time. It was a preoccupation of Pink Floyd’s interest in space that would later surface in songs like â€Å"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun† (from A Saucerful of Secrets) and the group’s masterwork, Dark Side of the Moon. With guitarist David Gilmour on-board as Barrett’s replacement, Pink Floyd’s lineup remained constant for the next 15 years. In the wake of Piper, they recorded psychedelic soundscapes such as â€Å"A Saucerful of Secrets† and the double album â€Å"Ummagumma†, which had one disc of live performances and one of individual works by each band member. Laid-back but experimental, Pink Floyd kicked off the Seventies with the, albums â€Å"Atom Heart Mother† (1970) and â€Å"Meddle† (1971). Waters became their primary songwriter and lyricist. Pink Floyd achieved critical and commercial success with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979) and The Final Cut (1983). The times were ever changing as were the feelings and emotions within the band. Richard Wright left Pink Floyd in 1979, during the sessions for The Wall. Wright was basically forced out of Pink Floyd. One story holds that Waters had even gone so far as to threaten to destroy all the working tapes if Wright didn’t leave. Another quotes David Gilmour as saying that Wright wasn’t contributing much of anything, and hadn’t been for a couple years, partially due to â€Å"a bad cocaine habit. † Wright himself has stated that he â€Å"left† the band, but that’s almost definitely him putting his own spin on the situation. Then again, just about everybody seems to put their own spin on Wright’s leave. In 1985 following not far behind Wright and Barrett’s lead was Roger Waters. After recording of â€Å"The Final Cut† was finished Waters was pretty much gone, and by the time â€Å"The Final Cut† was released he was very distant from the rest of the band. David Gilmour and Nick Mason continued as Pink Floyd and Wright subsequently joined them as a paid musician. September 19, 1987: A reunited Pink Floyd (also referred to as Dehydrated Floyd, because of the absent Roger Waters), releases ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason,’ their first studio album since 1983? ‘The Final Cut. Then in 1994 The Division Bell is released, the fourteenth and last studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in the UK by EMI Records on 28 March 1994 and in the US by Columbia Records on 4 April. Two years later in 1996 Pink Floyd (including all 5 members) was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, After nearly two decades of bitterness, the band reunited in 2005 for a performance at the global awareness event Live 8. Barrett died in 2006 and Wright in 2008. In 2011, surviving members Gilmour and Mason joined Waters at one of his The Wall Tour shows at The O2 Arena in London. As of 2013 they have sold more than 250 million records worldwide, including 74. 5 million certified units in the United States. Now onto my favorite part of this research paper, this is listening. I was supposed to pick 5 songs and I did, but not without problems in choosing which 5 songs. I felt at first, that the songs had to communicate the different years of Pink Floyd you know? I wanted to demonstrate and define hippie/psychedelic rock and discuss how Pink Floyd embodies hippie values. I also wanted to track Pink Floyds shift from hippie/psychedelic rock group to progressive rock group. I finally wanted to discuss in depth the progressive rock movement and how Pink Floyd fits the definition of a progressive rock group. But ultimately I thought, keep it simple josh. So I will give you differentiating styles in explaining their music, my top five Floyd. At my number five is â€Å"Welcome To The Machine†. This song starts off with a buzzing completion sound, which becomes constant alongside a chugging motor or washing machine murmur. Then in simultaneous synchronicity a guitar (acoustic) with steel strings strums a pattern of four chords before I hear â€Å"Welcome my son, welcome, to the machine† being belted out. The sound of a press and depress steam machine sounds off in this time as well. Then the lyrics start following a question and answer scheme. They begin answering their own questions, as if they can picture who their talking with and know what they’re going to say. In the context of my life and the song, I believe the phrase â€Å"Welcome to the machine† simply put means welcome to life, to the day in day out grind. The song demonstrates (like most of Floyd work), that melody can be achieved and maintained with guitar, bass, erratic synthesizers, and even industrial tool samples. Coming in at a prestigious number four is â€Å"Nobody Home†. â€Å"Nobody Home† follows Is There Anybody Out There? on â€Å"The Wall† album answering the question first and foremost on your mind. â€Å"Nobody Home† is on the groups concept album turned movie â€Å"The Wall†. The song was written after an argument between Gilmour, Waters, and co-producer Bob Ezrin during production of â€Å"The Wall†. In which Gilmour and Ezrin challenged Waters to come up with one more song for the album. Waters then wrote Nobody Home and returned to the studio two days later to present it to the band. It was the last song written for The Wall. On the 30th anniversary of The Wall episode of the US radio show In the Studio with Redbeard, Gilmour revealed that Nobody Home was one of his favorite songs from the album making waters triumph over their challenge all the more sweeter. Nobody Home enters with (to me) a sorrowful feel to the piano chords after the sounds of a T. V. a lone murmur heart beat wanders in the foreground and we hear the first vocals which echo slightly and float on â€Å"Ive got a little black book with my poems in. Got a bag with a toothbrush and a comb in When Im a good dog, they sometimes throw me a bone in. † saying he has little then waters deepens it later with a sense of achieving these and better things but still, nobody’s home. The vocals touch on different aspects of being on tour says waters and others speculate that the lyrics: â€Å"I got nicotine stains on my fingers I got a silver spoon on a chain Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains†. Are said to have been written specifically about Floyds pianist Richard Wright, who was allegedly struggling with cocaine addiction at the time. Even more say they are reminiscent of Syd Barrrett and his fragile mental state during 1967. This is one of my personal favorite songs and was hard to rate at four because the way it’s helped me throughout hardships. To me â€Å"Nobody Home† is played when feeling lonely and reclusive is king. Coming up on the peak we have number three, â€Å"Comfortably Numb†. Bass, crash, and drum bass all start in a rhythmic splash. Rising outta thin air is this cosmic feeling synth followed by an echoing â€Å"hello† and with that the song takes shape. With light sax in the foreground its smoky emergence settles and a one sided conversation with a doctor ensues. There are inner questions of personal reflection with similar feeling experiences and an overwhelming feeling that can only be described as â€Å"Comfortably Numb†. The song is one of Pink Floyds most famous, and is renowned especially for its guitar solos. In 2004, the song was ranked number 314 on Rolling Stone magazines list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2005, it was the last song ever to be performed by Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason together. â€Å"Comfortably Numb† can best be enjoyed at night in a dark room, so you imagination can run wild, Or in moments of great stress, as to paint a vivid picture of your situation. What’s that I hear (hear, hear, hear†¦)? Its number two, â€Å"Echoes†. Now there is the original â€Å"echoes† from â€Å"Meddle† and a shortened version from a compilation album entitled â€Å"Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd†; I will be referring to the shortened version, as the 23:31 running time on the original seemed a little steep. So I wrote what the music evoked in my mind what I pictured is what I’m writing. The beginning and throughout I get the feel of a cave scene with stalactites’ hanging down. Condensation is slowly dripping one at a time off of them into a sparkling clear spring. I’m walking through this cavern and there is only natural light, its shining at the end of my tunnel. As I get closer the drips get faster, the music gets more triumphant and the beat drives on. Just as you approach it the Horns are set ablaze and sound off N’sync with each other (like â€Å"bye, bye, bye† haha jk). You finally see where the light comes from and it’s beautiful. A cavern of crystal that sparkles, as it carries the echoes of the chiming horns and built up drums. As you look left and right, the distorted guitar holds swaying chords as you navigate left and right. As the rhythmic beat starts to resonate. You bask in the vocals of a futuristic voice accompanied by an experimental rock chord scale with a western overtone; then like a dream you’re swept away in the wind effects and ascend back where you came from with a slowly rising string and key outro. That is the way I experienced â€Å"Echoes†. My number one is without a doubt â€Å"Wot’s†¦ Uh the Deal? †. This is a song from Pink Floyds 1972 album, Obscured by Clouds and features multi-tracked vocals by David Gilmour, and lyrics by Roger Waters. It was never performed live by the band. However, David Gilmour, along with Richard Wright, performed it at several shows on his 2006 On an Island tour and it appears on the 2007 live DVD, Remember That Night. In the beginning it’s the picking pattern that automatically sets the entire mood to low tone Floyd with a trailing piano being played as backup. To me the lyrics depict someone who is not yet welcomed into this â€Å"promised land† that he can so visibly see an yet throughout the song he tries to ask to be let in â€Å"show me where the key is kept†, but no entry. It isn’t until he finds a girl and a great girl that is worth settling down with â€Å"With her by my side; and if she prefers we will never stir again† That someone says â€Å"The Promsiedland† that he finally is the man on the inside. But through all this the Promised Land is offered by welcoming them in â€Å"Cause theres no wind left in my soul and Ive grown old†. This to me means if I discovered how to solve this big puzzle of lifetime proportions; and I wasted most my life doing it, then I want to share my knowledge so maybe you don’t have to waste your life. Such was Pink Floyds songs and ideals; they have given me more than I could ever measure. Pink Floyd has given us all timeless music that I will later describe as the soundtrack to my life. Music, it’s what I’ll pass on. Pink Floyd it’s at the beginning of all my experiences and the will serenade the end†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Works Cited http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Wots _Uh_the_Deal%3F http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Comfortably_Numb http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Nobody_Home http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Pink_Floyd#Discography http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Soundtrack_from_the_Film_More http://listverse. com/2012/02/06/10-facts-and-fibs-about-pink-floyd/ http://en. wikipedia. rg/wiki/The_Piper_at_the_Gates_of_Dawn http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Pink_Floyd#Formation http://classicrock. about. com/od/bandsandartists/p/pink_floyd. htm http://www. rollingstone. com/music/artists/pink-floyd/biography http://www. keno. org/classic_rock/pink_floyd_bio. htm http://pinkfloyd. htmlplanet. com/History/index. htm http://musicnmusician. blogspot. com/2012/12/the-fam ous-pink-floyd. html http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Peter_Jenner http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Pink_Floyd http://classicrock. about. com/od/bandsandartists/p/pink_floyd. htm http://rockhall. com/inductees/pink-floyd/bio/