Pink Floyd had much more humble beginnings than the amazing band we know today. It started out as a band called Sigma 6 which included George Roger Waters on guitar, Nick Mason on drums, and Richard Wright on keyboard. The band played R&B although the members did not particularly like it. Because of this Sigma 6 failed to become successful. In 1965 then band changed its name to The Abdads. They also brought in Clive Metcalf on bass and backup vocalists Keith Nobles and Juliette Gale.
Later on they changed their name to The Screaming Abdads and The Architectural Abdads. In 1966 The Architectural Abdads disbanded and George Waters changed his name to Roger Waters.
Later that year, Sigma 6 was recreated. This time the band included Roger Waters on bass, Nick Mason on drums, Richard Wright on keyboard, Bob Close on guitar, and Syd Barret also on guitar. With Syd’s influence, the band changed their name to The Pink Floyd Sound, named after Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Before the band could record their first single, Arnold Layne, Bob Close left the band. Shortly after Arnold Layne left, they changed their name to Pink Floyd and recorded Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. While recording this album, Pink Floyd got to know The Beatles very well because their studies were just down the hall from each other.
Around early 1967 Syd started to have problems with LSD. Syd used LSD to augment his creativity and songwriting, but the drug made Syd go insane. Towards the end of that year, the band was considering replacing Syd with David Gilmour because he became too hard to deal with. David Gilmour had given Syd lessons on guitar during high school, and was a friend of both Syd and Roger. At first, David would cover for Syd during concerts, correcting his mistakes and filling in when he started playing along to a different tune. At practice, Syd would go off and do his own thing, even kicking the amps, while everyone else was playing the songs properly. After a bit of that, David started to play instead of Syd while Syd wrote songs backstage. However, this did not work out, and as hard as they tried to keep Syd in the band they could not. After he left Syd produced some solo albums with the help of Pink Floyd. Syd was only in one album, but he molded the style of the band into the psychedelic rock which we know and love today.
In 1968 Pink Floyd did the soundtrack to the move More. After that they released sever albums including Ummagumma (slang for sex), Atom Heart Mother, and Relics. Atom Heart Mother features a 23 minute (I know that’s wrong…) title track played along with an orchestra. To support their album, they toured with the orchestra. While Relics, a sort of greatest hits album, was being produced by Joe Boyd Pink Floyd was working on Meddle. Meddle also featured a 23 minute song. In 1972 Pink Floyd did the soundtrack to The Valley Obscured By Clouds. It was from this that they got the name of their next album, Obscured By Clouds. Once they were done with this, they produced a video of a private concert in Pompeii, Italy. The video was called Live At Pompeii.
Pink Floyd had written a 45 minute collaboration of songs known as Eclipse which they played live. Eclipse was about society shaping, controlling, and ultimately destroying life. Eclipse became the much revered Dark Side Of The Moon. Unfortunately, Medicine Head released an album by the same name before Pink Floyd released their and the name could not stay. However, Dark Side Of The Moon did not become popular and Pink Floyd wrote and ending song and then released the album in 1973 as Dark Side Of The Moon.
Dark Side Of The Moon sold so well, that it is estimated that it stayed on the charts for a total of 14 years. One in twelve people own a copy and it sold then second greatest amount of copies, second to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. In 1990 it was voted by Australia to be the best album to have sex to. Another oddity is that it can be played along with The Wizard Of Oz and it matches the movie perfectly. When Pink Floyd was asked about this they gave unclear answers but mainly said that there was no intentional relation. However, it is known that Waters, who wrote most of the album, enjoyed making soundtracks to movies and it can be argued that it is goes along with the movie much to perfectly to be a coincidence.
After Dark Side Of The Moon Pink Floyd made a tribute to Syd Barret, Wish You Were Here, with Syd being the crazy diamond mentioned in the album. Syd came to the recording to congratulate them on their success with Dark Side Of The Moon, but they didn’t recognize him. Wish You Were Here describes the happy begging of ones life, and the inevitable downfall into autonomy and unhappiness. After the success of Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd made another album: Animals. The album was deeply influenced by George Orwell’s work, Animal Farm. In Animals, the Sheep (commoners) were led around by Dogs (industrial leaders) and Pigs (tyrants).
In 1978 the band got together to decide on their next album, which would become The Wall. Roger had much too many songs to put into the album, which was based on his life, so he had to get rid of most of these. The left over songs later became the album Spare Bricks. Roger became angry at Richard because he felt that he was not contributing to the band. Roger threatened to cancel The Wall if Richard did not leave the band. Richard did get to tour with them, but he was not part of their next album, fully departing from Pink Floyd in 1983. With new hired players, the band finished off Spare Bricks, but due to tensions between the members, it was renamed and released as The Final Cut and they did not tour.
In 1984 Pink Floyd disbanded and the artists went down their own paths, producing solo albums. When Gilmour and Mason tried to start the band again, Waters filed a law suit against them. He lost the suit, but he did get ownership rights to The Wall and The Final Cut since they are about his life, and he wrote most of the material. In 1986 Gilmour, Mason, and Wright made another album (A Momentary Lapse Of Reason) along with over 20 other people as Pink Floyd. In 1993 they released The Division Bell and after the tour they played Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety for the first time in 20 years. In 1996 they were brought into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Today the band members have a good relationship. They get along, but Roger is still mad at the rest of them for reuniting the band. Syd seems to be on good grounds with the rest of the members, but he did not show up for Gilmour’s 50th birthday. But whatever happens, the legacy and the genius of Pink Floyd will live on through their music and in the hearts of their fans.
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