All in all you're just another vote in the POLL! The Pink Floyd ballot poll thread (ILM Artist Poll Thread #49) - VOTING CLOSED

http://www.quartzcity.net/ilx/pf_poll/intro-greenpyramid.jpg

Before going any further, please get your set and setting squared in the space-time perception of your choice. (it's 2:00am here in Glendale and I'm listening to More. "Main Theme" just started).

So here we go. Put on some Floyd and come up with your TOP 20 PINK FLOYD TRACKS. Put them in order. Feel free to describe how much each track rules. Email them to me at quartzcity at gmail dot com by midnight Pacific Time on MARCH 11 2014.

Standard ILX poll allocation in effect: 1:40, 2:36, 3:33, 4:30, 5:28, 6:26, 7:25, 8:24, 9:23, 10:22, 11:21, 12:20, 13:19, 14:18, 15:17, 16:16, 17:15, 18:14, 19:13, 20:12.

Pink Floyd rules so much that you may want to include the following optional lists:
- Your top 10 Syd Barrett solo tracks
- Your top 10 Gilmour/Waters/Wright/Mason solo tracks. Feel free to include anything from Zee, Fictitious Sports, or Mason's CD of car engine noises if you dare.
- Your top 5 Pink Floyd bootlegs/live shows. Could be either omnibus boots like Total Eclipse or any of the live recordings, but I'll combine different releases of the same show.

Contention points:
I feel that both sections (parts I-V and VI-IX) of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" should be combined into one SOYCD vote instead of splitting the votes. On the other hand, I think the three "Another Brick In The Wall"s should be separate. I've always thought of them that way, but if completely out of my tree please say something. Hell if I know what I'm going to do if someone votes for "The Hero's Return part 2."

...and go!

Have I missed anything?

Helpful list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_recorded_by_Pink_Floyd

Very excited for this one :)

Top 20? That's great! Have to make some difficult choices!

Feel free to include aneverything from Zee, Fictitious Sports, or Mason's CD of car engine noises if you dare.your ballot won't be counted

fixed

agree that the Brick in the Wall tracks are disparate enough to be counted separately, but i won't have room for any of them.

really excited about this poll. my very favourite PF songs kinda already stand out in my mind, but ranking them is going to be extremely difficult.

I agree with Elvis Telecom's positions on Shine On and Another Brick in the Wall.

And the POLLS ate into his brain!

What about the stuff listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unreleased_Pink_Floyd_material Is that in-game?

I agree with Elvis Telecom's positions on Shine On and Another Brick in the Wall.

― how's life, Thursday, February 27, 2014 7:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i know this is a totally dick move going into a poll thread and loudly complaining about the band being polled so i'll keep it short and only do it once. i've never liked pink floyd. i didn't like them in junior high when some goth kid was explaining to me how deep "the wall" was (see - it's a metaphor for LIF). their lyrics are faux-sophisticated, the songs are mostly long + tedious, + waters is a POS. nb i did get some satisfaction from listening to dark side alongside wizard of oz while heavily drugged a few months ago but that is the most joy i've ever gotten out of this band. i do not begrudge anyone voting for them, and like i said, i promise not to make complaining about them a habit + gum up the works. but consider this my ballot: fuck this band forever.

good to know

their lyrics are faux-sophisticated

to loosely quote Minor Threat: at least they're fuckin trying.

This one's for you, Mordyhttp://www.ilxor.com/s.png.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDlxCP0fhsI

well-played pp

good thing the lame kids have left so we can talk about how much this band RULES, now that they're gone let's break out the hash

just want to remind everybody to take a listen to "Paintbox" before your final ballot

this poll rules

Floyd never changed my life or anything*, but they've produced some great material and I'll def be voting.

* In fact I hated them for a while when Brick Pt 2 seemed to play hourly on local radio...

I just hope the Barrett era doesn't end up walking this. The Waters era rules and I'll be repping for it throughout this thread. The Gilmour era... nah.

trust that "Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up" & "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" are to be counted separately?

is stuff like the zabriskie point sessions elidgible or is it considered a bootleg (or would i be the only person voting for these tracks anyway)?

you def won't be the only person voting for those

they RULE

yes they do!

as far as Zabriskie, there were 3 tracks officially released on the soundtrack, but the entire "sessions" could be voted for as a boot if I understand correctly.

lobbying post for voters not to forget Obscured by Clouds, an odd record I've come to love over the years

let's be fair, it wouldn't be a pink floyd poll without someone saying that they sucked

Brain Damage/Eclipse. 1 song or 2 songs?

I'm thinking two.

agreed

definitely

'Time' for the win. probably my all time favourite ever rock song.

ok as a card carrying member of the PINK FLOYD RULES club I am ashamed to admit that I have never listened to Animals until today

& it RULES wtf was I waiting for all these years

oh duuuuude

yeah Animals is awesome, I love it

I was listening to Piper on the way into work, sleeping on a dandelion etc

So if Brain Damage/Eclipse is 2 songs does the same go for Happiest Days of Our Lives and Brick 2?

uh oh

I always think of Eclipse as the outro to Brain Damage. I don't know, separately they only feel like half a song and I probably wouldn't vote for them.

Can't believe you didn't go with "How should I complete the POLL?"

*deletes bookmark"

I don't think many people would vote for Happiest Days of Our Lives by itself so I don't think it really matters if you merge it with Brick 2 or not

xxp

What about In the Flesh?/In the Flesh

Brain Damage/Eclipse is one awesome song. This is not Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid, people.

I would vote for it as a single song. No preference about Happiest/Brick 2 though.

Nobody ever turns off the radio after "Brain Damage" and before "Eclipse" and thinks they've heard a complete song.

just want to remind everybody to take a listen to "Paintbox" before your final ballot

Yes! There's a good chance this could be my #1.

PINK FLOYD RULES

are you guys gonna be doing this every 5 minutes for this whole thing

no

sweet

Every 2 minutes.

PINK FLOYD RULES!

OK I'm finally going to participate in a ballot poll. Psyched about this one.

PINK FLOYD RULES
PINK FLOYD RULES
PINK FLOYD RULES
PINK FLOYD RULES
PINK FLOYD RULES
PINK FLOYD RULES
PINK FLOYD RULES
PINK FLOYD RULES
PINK FLOYD RULES
PINK FLOYD RULES

<3

"Pigs on the Wing" should count as one, but only if you're voting for the 8-track version with the Snowy White solo.

Obscured By Clouds is such a sweet mellow album. could vote for "Free Four", "Wots...Uh The Deal", and "Stay", and the title track too I think.

yep I think I may have room for all of those

as far as Zabriskie, there were 3 tracks officially released on the soundtrack, but the entire "sessions" could be voted for as a boot if I understand correctly.

That's basically what I was thinking, though "Violent Sequence" could be a vote for "Us And Them" since it later officially appeared in the DSOTM immersion box.

Need a consensus on "Vegetable Man" and "Scream Thy Last Scream." - both were unreleased, but I would like to include them since they were both completed.

so do I just put "zabriskie point sessions" as one vote?

so do I just put "zabriskie point sessions" as one vote?

Yes.

Looking forward to voting in my first ILM artist poll. Will have to dust off Relics, Obscured by Clouds and A Saucerful of Secrets to revisit some of the stuff that isn't etched into memory.

What about In the Flesh?/In the Flesh

― silverfish, Friday, February 28, 2014 4:53 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, that's a tough one. Only a question mark to distinguish the two. That fact alone might justify combining them, to avoid any confusion in the ballots? But like the three parts of 'Another Brick in the Wall', they're kind of different beasts. Although I suppose it could be argued that 'In the Flesh?' and 'In the Flesh' are two different versions/performances of the same song, albeit with different lyrics and context.

I'm voting for the Blondie song.

In the Flesh? / In the Flesh are 2 separate songs

Hard at work on my ballot right now, zoned out, blasting fucking "Mudmen" really loud. God, I love this band so much.

More contention points... "Obscured By Clouds" is on my list, but "When You're In" isn't.

heaping the love on the album Saucerful of Secrets this afternoon. on a generous day, i think i could include about half the songs on here.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun will be somewhere on my ballot. And some very, very hard decisions will be made. I'm glad there's only a song poll, since a number of their songs are quite long, and define the albums they preside on (Saucer Full of Secrets, Atom Heart Mother, Echoes, SOYCD, Dogs), which would make an album poll almost feel redundant.

I'm also all for having SOYCD be one song, Brain Damage/Eclipse being one song, but nothing else. Though I would not mind if we just collectively threw our hands up and strictly voted for each track separately, regardless because at least that's easier to tabulate.

What about the stuff listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unreleased_Pink_Floyd_material Is that in-game?

― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Thursday, 27 February 2014 15:28 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can I have an answer to this please?

I'd throw a vote in for Brain Damage and Eclipse to be included as one.

Just a personal thing I think, always considered it one piece, and one without the context of the other just seems bizarre to me.

Can I have an answer to this please?

It's fair game. "Moonhead" may end up on my top 20.

Brain Damage and Eclipse are two songs in my head

I will vote for Brain Damage->Eclipse as one song. doesn't make sense otherwise imo

Maybe CDs/MP3s have ruined me. I will offer the caveat that while it's possible to listen to Eclipse without Brain Damage, you can't really listen to Brain Damage without Eclipse.

I heard it/them for years on the radio before I knew they were supposedly two separate and distinct songs.

First time I heard DSOTM was when my step-dad played it for me when I was 8 (he was 23.) Thought it was pretty cool, but the weird giggling and the lunatic laying somewhere on the grass kinda freaked me for a little. But it all got better when Eclipse came on.

So yeah, there was a time when I'd skip Brain Damage or just kinda tune out during it. I got my wits about me by the time I was 11, but there's still a distinction in my brain between the two songs.

(DSOTM also the first CD I ever owned.)

was gonna post a floyd gif to back up my point but, uh, I think it's too early to go there

how did I forget how awesome Saucerful of Secrets is

RULES

So is it just gonna be a judgment call when it comes to voting for those "of a piece" songs?

I'm leaning towards "Brain Damage/Eclipse" as one song, after reading these arguments.

VG otm. "Saucerful" and "Set The Controls" definitely on my ballot.

Grady, were you asking about "zabriskie sessions" for the track votes or for the bootleg album votes? cuz if the former, I think Elvis gave you the wrong answer.

official tracks:

Crumbling Land
Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up,
Heart Beat, Pig Meat

bootleg album tracks:

http://www.discogs.com/Pink-Floyd-A-Total-Zabriskie-Point-Of-View-The-Complete-Collection/release/3225898

if I understand correctly, any of these individual songs could also be voted for in a tracks ballot, as per Elvis' ruling on unreleased songs

this is good because I might vote for "Rain in The Country"

sorry for pedantry

ah, thank you! yeah i am more concerened with specific tracks, that seemed like a strange answer

345-way Tie

(1.) ALL OF THEM - 164 votes, 164 first-place votes

THEY ALL RULE

I'm not sure that all of Ummagumma, which I'm currently listening to, does in fact rule.

pplains otm

the live part rules xp

Live Ummagumma disc is tremendous.

Also, Pompeii "Echoes" rules supremely over the studio version, which is fine, but doesn't bring the funk in the midsection.

oh yeah, the live disc definitely rules

the studio disc has its moments (David Gilmore's songs aren't bad and I've always enjoyed Several Species of Small Furry etc.), but overall I think there is a good reason why today was the first time I listened to it in probably 10+ years.

if I understand correctly, any of these individual songs could also be voted for in a tracks ballot, as per Elvis' ruling on unreleased songs

this is good because I might vote for "Rain in The Country"

I realize I wasn't clear enough... Yes, the unreleased tracks are fair game.

Is anyone planning on voting for "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" as two separate and distinctly tabulated tracks? If not, let's treat them as one.

Three ballots in so far.

Never forget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw4sYDQesAg&feature=kp

would it count as trolling this poll if I voted for "One Slip"? because ~I might~

xp pvmic

def voting for "On The Turning Away"

Townshend's demo is slightly less bombastic:
http://youtu.be/oZGI7JdZBck
(and apparently Gilmour only used the lyrics, and set them to his own music)

xxp

the studio disc has its moments

Grantchester Meadows will be high on my ballot.

My best friend pimps for "One Slip." He exploits my love for Roxy Music.

One Slip has Tony Levin on bass

the fretless throughout the album is tasty: eg the little nudges in "On the Turning Away"

"On the Turning Away" isn't miles from "Hey You" (fretless again?) but no weird Waters vocal interlude is a plus

'momentary lapse' was terribly calculated (ugh the cover), but as a 14yo it was pretty much what i wanted -- glacial synths, big comfortably numb solos, no waters awkwardly muttering about anzio. i'm not too likely to vote for it, but i shan't disown it

happy to say i have never heard anything from the division bell tho

iirc, Gilmour only revived "Pink Floyd" because his solo sales were disappointing, and he (correctly) reasoned that he'd sell a lot more under the Floyd name. It's not like he had a burning desire to work with Mason or Wright -- not that he worked with them on Momentary Lapse for more than 10 minutes anyway.

I feel like Division Bell is a bridge too far for me.

Yeah I'm kind in the same boat as mookie w/r/t Momentary Lapse, 'Learning to Fly' was the first Pink Floyd song I knew and the boy I had a crush on at the time made ma copy of the album on cassette <3 lol. Doubtful I'd vote for it, lot of much better stuff to fill the 20 slots

*me

glacial synths, big comfortably numb solos[

I think of this as a genre---Queensyrche, Mike and the Mechanics, eg---about which i am, shall we say, ambivalent

presumably you are not 14 years old?

I've also never listened to The Division Bell but I'm gonna give it a try. I like High Hopes

"High Hopes" may just squeak in on my 20.

i sort of shudder at the thought of giving momentary lapse a fresh listen before voting but i suppose i should.

iirc i did like "one slip" at the time (though it would be a couple years before manzanera meant anything to me) and also the guitar on "sorrow" but i hated "learning to fly" then and don't expect to like it now.

oh jesus this is terrible. might be better without lyrics.

okay "on the turning away" has some nice playing but the lyrics are balls and it's just "comfortably numb" lite. weird to me that there are thousands of guitar dudes out there chasing this tone.

i kinda like that one too :/

fwiw i can live with "sorrow" though again please stop singing words

coincidentally heard Learning to Fly on the radio yesterday. actually sounded... bearable. i'll have to listen through MLOR just for old time's sake. absolutely none of the songs will make my ballot though.

hey i can liveblog the division bell too if you guys want

there but for the grace of god etc

i got plenty of time for the DB actually.

http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2014/02/16/17-truedetective2.o.jpg/a_560x375.jpg

it's just "comfortably numb" lite. weird to me that there are thousands of guitar dudes out there chasing this tone.

it's like i don't even know you

It's really hard to think of most of the Dark Side of the Moon as being separate tracks, as the instrumental pieces are so well orchestrated in how they segue from one piece to the next.

Speak to Me/Breathe/On the Run
Time/Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Us & Them/Any Color You like
Brain Damage/Eclipse

And really Us & Them to Eclipse to me runs as one big piece really well.

Time you got the clocks which breaks up things. You flip the side on the LP and/or the cash register kind of breaks it up at Money, but man the rest just goes.

u forgot breathe (reprise)

also you are generally rong, no offense

Division Bell has some great space-rock production (I love the first minute of "Keep Talking," for example), but the songwriting and those ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ATROCIOUS vocals sink it. Their worst album.

i don't know, i was really drunk at the time

btw i'm gonna name my next cat 'dick parry'

weird to me that there are thousands of guitar dudes out there chasing this tone.

During the recording of About Face, Gilmour swapped out his Floyd-era effects and amps for a "modernized" chain of Boss effects and those 80s-era Fender amps and (gack) Mesa Boogies. The same rig continued into AMLOR where the main guitar was one of those headless Steinbergers.

Gilmour has mentioned that he'd like to do a new mix of AMLOR with "the 80s mixed out of it." Maybe some distant reissue...

per the (amazing) propeller heads at gilmourish it was fenders and a solid-state gallien-krueger for the recording. the mesas didn't come out until he toured on it (so you can hear them on A Delicate Sound of Thunder). he never gave up the strat/muff/hiwatt thing tho.

btw tbqh i'm totally coming around on Boss pedals lately. simple, cheap, easily replaceable, no screwdriver required if you run batteries and they sound plenty good enough for any room I'd ever play. I'm tired of playing the boutique game maaaaan.

I recently made myself a playlist of my favourite post-Piper/pre-DSOTM pastoral psyche Floyd songs, my ballot's probably going to be pretty heavy on that stuff.

Anybody remember Gilmour sharing musical guest duties with Buster Poindexter on SNL? Cause I just found the video, headless Steinberger and all...

http://www.jukebo.com/david-gilmour/music-clip,ah-robertson-it-s-you-ft-snl-band,53x8m.html

More Steinberger action here w/Kate Bush: http://youtu.be/Lk7AVm0Ome0

And more 80s Gilmour w/Townshend http://youtu.be/LeXf90OGTHE (actually, Gilmour is pretty great in this)

both great songs! keep 'em coming! really enjoy gilmour in his "hey is that somebody's dad up there?" phase

steinberger is kinda hilar but also fits his style and tbf is zero percent cornier than a strat

My favorite Gilmour solo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxYpsB_jdH8&feature=kp

Random thoughts:

Never been a huge Syd stan. Interstellar Overdrive will probably be my highest-ranking Piper vote.

I don't know if I can vote for anything off Dark Side. The Wall at least has bits and pieces that haven't been completely eroded by exposure for me.

Conversely, am likely to vote for everything off Wish You Were Here, with possible exception of title track (see erosion, exposure).

"Never been a huge Syd stan. Interstellar Overdrive will probably be my highest-ranking Piper vote."

same for me. I LOVE the Syd era singles, though. I don't enjoy listening to Piper, though, and I've tried so many times: yesterday again. & the reason I'll (probably) vote for Interstellar Overdrive is because it was the go-to song for high school garage jams with people we didn't know that well...probably b/c of the Camper Van Beethoven version, which everyone knew well. lol @ suburban Atlanta around 1990.

i'm probably going to vote like crazy for stuff that's been eroded by exposure. overplayed for a reason!

I know, but I can live a long time without hearing "Us and Them" or "The Great Gig in the Sky" again. (Except of course that I can't...)

You Can live a long tome.

I'm going to vote for my favorite songs. I find that's the easiest way to approach these polls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7XgVJonYs

this is going to be VERY high on my ballot

I got a bootleg of the early Floyd singles & related ephemera about a decade ago & this one in particular memorexed me. sinister lope -> AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. the best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7XgVJonYs

ah shit I meant maxell, contact high from listening to that again, it's not my fault

My "shortlist" has 40 songs. Slight problem.

I'll make up for Syd shortages in other ballots.

"Come in Number 51" is absolutely the best goddamned thing EVER. It's probably good for me to rewatch that every now and then. Funny how these things work though because as much as I dig that and similar I've got NO time for Floyd circa '72 and beyond. Won't be taking part in the poll, just wanted to pay my respect for their stuff that truly (IMHO)does rule.

no way dude you gotta vote for it! our votes will together...maybe get it on the countdown?

you mean the final poll when it's been whittled down? sure thing

this is the final poll, vote now or never

hey guys what did roger waters tell the witch doctor who asked for a second helping of dinner?

"dine on, you crazy shaman!"

Anyone who votes for Roger Waters' cover of "Across the Universe" should get a permaban:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3lWCZApDY0

I really like this version of "Wish You Were Here" with Stéphane Grapelli.

Yeah, that's a hoot.

Gilmour has mentioned that he'd like to do a new mix of AMLOR with "the 80s mixed out of it." Maybe some distant reissue...

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, March 1, 2014 12:56 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's a few hundred albums and songs I'd like to hear with "the '80s mixed out of it". That would be a good thread BTW, '80s albums that would be excellent if they didn't have that cheezy '80s production.....

IIRC, the remaster team claimed Mason had come in and redone the drums, and they were also going to harvest Wright's keyboards from live tapes.

I think most of my ballot is going to be Meddle + Animals + DSOTM

in fact I'm going with EZ Snappin's method and my ballot = my favorite songs, rip the bandaid off it goes BOOM, DONE

Surprisingly little DSOTM on my final list.

cmon man

though to be honest I am kinda with earlnash, it was hard for me to pull out single tracks from DSOTM as I think of it as one great big ~experience~

maaaaaaaan

after it's all done we should do a quick sub poll of best album covers, because fuck man they've had some awesome ones

today is where I say "man" alot, obv

I'd think the "eighties" production actually strengthens Gilmour's songs: the echo gives them a grandeur. Otherwise these things are nullities.

"Come in Number 51" = "Careful With That Axe, Eugene." Please don't split votes between them.

I would vote side 1 of DSOTM if I could, but it feels wrong to extract songs from it - I love "Breathe," but it seems incomplete without the two tracks that follow.

"Embryo," anyone? There's a version on this 1970 concert which I am just seeing for the first time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nluPDDofsE4

though to be honest I am kinda with earlnash, it was hard for me to pull out single tracks from DSOTM as I think of it as one great big ~experience~

maaaaaaaan

Maaaan, this post is so OTM.

I had to suck it up in the end, because my ballot felt v weird without DSOTM being represented

I have a few, but very few. WYWH got shafted.

"Cirrus Minor" FTW.

Ballot sent.

I'd think the "eighties" production actually strengthens Gilmour's songs: the echo gives them a grandeur. Otherwise these things are nullities.

I like the massive sequencing throb that runs through "Until We Sleep." Should have been an action movie back then.

there's all these sort of pastoral placid pretty things fighting for space at the bottom of my ballot - Cirrus Minor, If, Stay, A Pillow Of Winds... I only now realize how much they did this kind of thing.

"A Pillow Of Winds" will be near the top of my ballot. Pastoral Floyd is totally my bag.

You must also please remember "Cymbaline."

"Delicate Sound of Thunder became the first rock album to be played in space, as Soviet cosmonauts took it aboard Soyuz TM-7. They left the cassette box on Earth to save weight. The members of Pink Floyd were present at the launch. The double LP was also the band's only album to be officially released in the Soviet Union by the state-owned label Melodiya."

are there killer tapes of Soviet bands from that era trying to sound like latter-day Pink Floyd?

Dam a top 20 is going to be hard! And I go no further than Animals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pFV5yjx2XI

1st draft-44 tracks. Heavy on the early singles. Latest song is from the Wall. Non-LP track that's a shoe in- Embryo.

embryo didnt make the cut for me but its so good

greatest of floyd moments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM0AiThBAt0

fyi after fairly complete review I'm putting my ballot together and pulling for "nobody home" or "when the tigers broke free" as the Sway of this poll

^both of those on my ballot FWIW

...which I had assumed was the prime contender for #1 in the 'loneliest voter' rankings. That's still probably the case, but maybe it'll be closer than I thought.

Anyway, VOTED

I won't be emailing any ballot to Elvis, but i will attest...

Dark Side ... is one of the most over-rated albums ever.

The Wall is even worse in its epic adolescence.

Meddle is their best album in my view, and "One of These Days" is, by far, their best individual track.

...not really...

the Floyd are best with nuance and mood; few complete tracks can compete with the superior individual moments that they attain within so many particular moments from their fine catalog.

good talk

I can't seem to find the edit of "Another Brick Part 2" that I heard on the radio in 1979-80. Apparently, the 45 starts with drums/guitar comping, but the edit I used to hear started with the "oooh ooh ooh" bit after "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives." When does "Another Brick" start on the CD?

(also, best single they ever did, despite/because of Ezrin doing an end-run around them and saying, "Fuck you guys, you just made a disco single! Ha ha ha!")

cd single starts, I gather, where the 45 does: right into the beat. "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives" ends with the scream.

could vote for "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives" but I hate brick part 2. not as much as I hate "Young Lust" (what a vile song), but still.

top 5 most hated floyd songs:
young lust
brick part 2
money
the dogs of war
seamus

I think I just hate bluesy floyd

I also kinda hate "Have a Cigar", maybe replace seamus with that

i also hate brick 2. but i love what gilmour does on it. what to do, what to do....

I was listening to The Wall on the way into work today

I know lots of ppl hate it but I can't help it, I really do like it a lot even with all of the bombast and spine-crushing cynicism.

I talked about listening to it again on another thread, after thinking I would never feel the need to listen to it again.

Same complaints with it that I had with hearing the Use Your Illusion albums for the first time. What is with all the sound effects and unnecessary chatter? Not so much Jeri Hall's part as the groupie or the TV being on to old WWII movies, that's kinda cool. But the way Waters or Ezrin or whoever actually goes "Ooh, ouch!" in some bad overdub following the line "hurt the children in any way they could." on The Happiest Days.

is the final cut worth spending some time with before voting? it's the one album i've never really listened to

doubtful

I'd say it's worth a listen. I listened to it for the first time in years the other day, and it held up surprisingly well.

I can't seem to find the edit of "Another Brick Part 2" that I heard on the radio in 1979-80. Apparently, the 45 starts with drums/guitar comping
Indeed it does. Have you tried the version on the A Collection of Great Dance Songs comp?

Classic rock station I worked for played Happiest Days/Brick Pt 2 as one cut.

Which was weird since Happiest Days starts with a quiet fade-out of Brick Pt. 1.

I would enjoy The Wall much more if it where a single album. I'm not sure what I'd cut though.

Indeed it does. Have you tried the version on the A Collection of Great Dance Songs comp?

I did, and it was the same as the 45. I'm wondering if my local station just made its own edit.

And yeah, every time I've heard it on a "classic rock" station, it's started with "Happiest Days."

maaaan if u can't pick up what The Wall's putting down ur just jaded.

Yes it's bombastic. Yes it's adolescent. Yes it's monstrously indulgent. It's also pretty self-aware and probably still the closest thing to gesamtkunstwerk to come out of rocknroll. Deals with exactly the same powderkeg of generational and class as UK punk, just with more introspection, more articulate airing of grievances, and more kick-ass guitar solos.

as far as the sfx goes, hey, they tried a lot of stuff. The cash register in "money" has always struck me as too on the nose but I'm not throwing dark side out with the bathwater.

telephone POLL from mrs floyd to mr floyd will you accept the charges?

but hey I'm unapologetic in rating Imperial Floyd and won't be voting for anything to do with Piper so /rant ymmv etx

as far as The Abridged Wall goes, I wouldn't want it without Vera Lynn

oh and yeah, The Final Cut isn't the greatest album ever but it has its moments. if I can listen to Piper again y'all can give it a spin ;-)

The cash register (and the rest of the FX on DSoTM) works ok, but I think the FX on The Wall got too clever at times. Like Waters was sitting around the studio with time on his hands and was thinking, Huh, what if we added THIS to the mix.

Sent. Can you confirm you got it?

this would be a good abridged Wall I think:

In The Flesh?
The Thin Ice
Another Brick in the Wall Part 1
Mother
Goodbye Blue Sky
Another Brick in the Wall Part 3
Goodbye Cruel World
Hey You
Is There Anybody Out There?
Nobody Home
Vera
Comfortably Numb
Run Like Hell

how long is that? single album I think. I guess you could add Worms & The Trial if you wanted that theatrical side but my final cut makes sense without it

That's pretty much all the wall you need. I could never get into that album but an abridged version might've helped.

needs 'bring the boys back home' imo. it'll fit

yeah that was my last cut

Yr final cut lol

Looks good Euler. I'd add Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 between Mother and Goodbye Blue Sky.

*before Mother. 14 tracks 46 minutes, a good album length.

oh you kids today... just grab yer cans and a little weed and sit back and enjoy the ride maaaaan.

heads remember when a double album was a thoughtful feature:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=172286

The Wall is the sort of album which becomes a worse experience with weed.

haha i can imagine that actually. wouldn't want to watch the film under any kind of drug influence certainly.

My dad would listen to The Wall when he was pissed off, it gives me bad vibes. Pretty good album, though.

friend of mine in high school convinced me that it would be a good idea to watch the wall on acid. we made it until the worms. that was an awkward trip.

surely he meant Laser Floyd. common mistake, happens more often than you think.

For those of you who are thinking about voting for Careful with that Axe may I remind you of this superior version off Zabriskie point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7XgVJonYs

Live in Pompeii is the best version of all that I've heard but I don't think live versions of the songs are allowed in the poll are they?

I didn't vote for albums on my ballot since the op doesn't say anything about them. Should I send an album ballot as well?

It's the same damn song with an arbitrary title on a bootleg. Vote for "Careful" and you're covered.

Are you speaking about the Zabriskie Point version? It was actually re-recorded for the film.

I know it was re-recorded, but it's essentially the same tune. Since we aren't specifying versions it seems like a vote splitter. Otherwise we have this, the Ummagumma and single b-side all breaking the total into smaller parts.

the massive popular appeal of this band eludes me. I like some stuff (nothing post-'72 really) but every time I hear something of theirs on classic rock radio or something I'm like... "really? huge numbers of people are into this glacially paced sad-sack tuneless blah-fest? huh."

Well, then tell Elvis to change my vote for Eugene!

hopefully he can tally them all up like on the end-of-year when people vote for specific remixes but they all count as one.

Yeah the mass appeal is kinda weird to me too. They should be on the level of Rush or something.
But then you put Meddle on and you remember "this rules"

i mean, i love most floyd, but i do agree that it's kind of weird how insanely popular they became. they're obviously hugely influential among most rock musicians.

the massive popular appeal of this band eludes me. I like some stuff (nothing post-'72 really) but every time I hear something of theirs on classic rock radio or something I'm like... "really? huge numbers of people are into this glacially paced sad-sack tuneless blah-fest? huh."

― How dare you tarnish the reputation of Turturro's yodel (Shakey Mo Collier)

It's the massive appeal of The Wall and Dark Side which I find strange, most of PF 'fans' I know are only familiar with those two and WYWH, it's shameful.

You can tell everybody bought The Wall out of inertia and of how ambitious it all seemed at the time... it might just be one of the best marketed record/experiences in rock history. Half of DSOTM borders on lounge, bourgeoisie music, it's grossly overrated but it's a fine record.

Everything from Piper to Meedle is worth a listen and Animals and WYWH have their moments too.

In my ideal world Piper and Meedle would be the 'classic' PF albums.

I still haven't listened to The Wall yet for this poll, and will ffwd past Brick 2 when I do. Just thinking about it is sandpaper-on-eyeballs.

I'm down with everything from More through Final Cut and I have no idea why they're so popular. Like, Roger Waters is still filling stadiums and I swear if I bought two tickets I wouldn't know another soul who'd be interested.

Maybe it's the same people who watch "two and a half men"?

mystery.gif tho probably the theatrical aspect of the live performances has something to do with it...

yeah my post pretty much referring to their commercial peak, ie the Wall and DSOTM. they're kind of a slog, with no real pop hooks (well okay, the discofied chant of Another Brick is pretty catchy), lots of loooong, sloooow songs about generally depressing material... I guess audiences in the 70s were just ready for epic bummers

the longevity is what surprises me, but again as a fan i can't front, Meddle through the animals.. the sound is warm and sensuous, great minimal tunes/harmonies, the natural evolution from wacked out psych to soft focus stoned rock, it's a special vibe.

something about gilmour's voice. it's really something, imo.

Lol 'the animals', i chopped 'the wall' off my post after review

yeah my post pretty much referring to their commercial peak, ie the Wall and DSOTM. they're kind of a slog, with no real pop hooks

Money, Time, Brain Damage, Run Like Hell, Young Lust all full of pop hooks off the top of my head.

I know I have heard all of those, and yet only the first one has a melody line I remember

perhaps listen to them first before you start yr usual handwavey buzzkill idk

Sent. Can you confirm you got it?

Moka - arrived A-OK

Sent mine yesterday...did you get it?

possibly already posted in thread but just in case - The Story of Wish You Were Here vid has some great interview bits. I always forget how refreshing it is to spend time with these guys -- a lot more introspection and less mythmaking than the usual...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGd1eiLKY_8

That WYWH vid was amazing. Thanks!

By looking at that video I just realized I didn't vote for Jugband blues.

It's awfully considerate of you to make it clear..

wtf is that, Mark? who cares?

or are you just quoting some Floyd song...

quoting "Jugband Blues"

sleeve, I'm going to go ahead and assume you didn't vote for "jugband blues" either...

Am I gonna have to vote for "Jugband Blues" 20 times? Sheesh!

(resists snarky Eagles joke)

Gonna try to vote in this but would really want to revisit the albums before doing so. It has been ages since I have listened to a full Floyd record. We'll see if there is time. March 11 isn't so bad for a deadline ....

I could've voted for "Jugband Blues" but then I would've had to leave off "Scream Thy Last Scream"...

Xps Should I not mention that in one of the old amg reviews the writer claimed that Hotel California and The Wall were versions of A Star Is Born for the Me Generation?

lol OK that's pretty good

I dug out my "Oh by the way" box in advance of this poll, but only got as far as "Saucerful" before running out of time.

sent! already regretting not finding a spot for Paintbox.

also, On the Run. that's some urgent sounding shit.

there are two separate parody songs on youtube titled Another Dick in the Mall.

the way i listen to DSOTM these days: listen to the first three tracks, skip the four monsters in the middle, and play out the final three tracks.

http://pad1.whstatic.com/images/thumb/5/58/Read-a-Ruler-Step-1-preview.jpg/550px-Read-a-Ruler-Step-1-preview.jpg

Don't forget about "Fearless"

oh yes, please lord, don't forget about fearless, people

i forgot about fearless

noooooo!

Fearless is high on my ballot

A friend of mine in high school was a stone Pink Floyd fan, but never went beyond DSOTM/WYWH/Animals/The Wall (it's possible he thought those and AMLOR were their only records). I played "Fearless" for him and he refused to believe it was Floyd, insisted that it couldn't be Floyd.

lol

Very high on my ballot; my appreciation for it was cemented by the Low cover.

I have not forgotten Fearless

Hah my ballot, if I can get to it, will be heavy with "Meddle" tunes.

heavy meddle

I remember pretty well (The Wall came out when I was 11) that the pre-Dark Side albums seemed mysterious and vaguely dangerous. It wasn't explicitly stated, but only the kids on the fringes were familiar with the earlier stuff. I knew there were other albums, but it seemed risky to investigate them. Hard to relate to now, but The Wall introduced a cloud of hard-to-articulate unease if you were a certain age. Maybe on a continuum with Jim Morrison?

fearless def on my ballot

xp My understanding at the time was that they were vaguely boring. Didn't want to risk my album-buying dollars on accidentally stumbling on more twee songs about gnomes and shit.

the pre-Dark Side albums seemed mysterious and vaguely dangerous.

This is otm. None of the "classic rock" crowd at my high school who got into Floyd via Lapse ventured beyond DSOTM (not including the stoners who were already huge fans, one of whom I think legally changed his name to Syd).

I borrowed A Nice Pair from one such stoner, and was pleasantly surprised at the near-Who levels of violence on the first record (despite "Astronomy" being the version from Ummagumma, which I didn't realize until years later). I dug Saucerful, but didn't really know what to make of it; I could sort of make connections with some of Sonic Youth's records, and in retrospect, it was an early stepping stone to getting into Sun Ra's work.

we knew piper (we definitely knew piper) and we knew there was stuff in between but basically it was dsotm on and really to a huge extent it was the wall. this is late 80s and the wall already felt as legendary as abbey road or zoso despite not even being ten years old.

like we knew the word 'ummagumma' but we did not yet know the meaning of 'ummagumma'

I was a teenage rockist (mid-to-late 90s), and as much as I loved most of the albums from the Gilmour period, my more punk friends and I were convinced that Piper and the early singles were the real Floyd, maaaaaaan, though we made an exception for Meddle; later on, thankfully, I got over myself to a certain extent.

The Wall was the first record I ever bought with my own money, I was 13 when it came out and couldn't have been a better demographic fit. I was def into Meddle and Atom Heart Mother in high school, probably also Relics but those early records weren't really readily available until the CD era except for Ummagumma and A Nice Pair.

I think I mentioned this on some other thread, but I got a bunch of cool points in high school when my mom escorted some of my friends and I to the movie, we needed a "parent or guardian" in order to get in.

balls tom imo. in an age of infinite access it's hard to remember the domineering influence of rock radio, which basically established floyd as:
• DSOTM
• WYWH (minus "diamond")
• 5 tracks from The Wall ("comfortably numb," "another brick pt. 2, "hey you," "young lust," and "run like hell" iirc)

plus add to that the challenge of actually even finding pre-DSOTM material in your local record store.

damn u autocorrect BALLS OTM

voting for this in the gilmour solo poll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkDmAGVkEiU

iirc Pink Floyd laser shows feature songs from DSOTM, some edit of "Diamond", "Wish You Were Here", and The Wall

THE CANON according to laser shows is obv the final word

I mean, a very similar situation exists for Fleetwood Mac, so it's not that crazy...

they have fleetwood mac laser shows?

Before Pink Floyd, apparently.

http://www.laserium.com/goodbye_griffith/Fortune-020218.html

teenage me:

* loved "one of these days" but thought everything else on meddle, "echoes" particularly, was kind of boring
* thought "dogs" and "atom heart mother" and "careful with that axe eugene" were about the weirdest creepiest music imaginable
* didn't get what the big deal about syd barrett was, he was some crazy guy who sang goofy songs about gnomes and scarecrows?

remembering how high school me went to see the wall on acid when it came out with a buncha friends where i sat next to a chick i had a crush on and watched film COMPLETELY catatonically.

Did you go out of your way looking for a bad trip or what?

lol feel like watching the Wall on acid is some kind of stoner rite of passage and yet it really is a terrible film to watch on acid

I used to watch The Wall as a teen and think, Boy, this must be what it's like to do acid!

And then I did acid and thought, Boy, I hope no one ever mentions The Wall to me ever again!

I finally listened to The Wall for this poll and couldn't stop shaking my damn head. I got no patience for Roger's E-Z Self Psychotherapy Hour. (see also Final Cut)

xp lol

lol pp

I'm convinced that The Wall / Final Cut era was Waters giving the middle finger to all the Floyd=drug music folk. Those records are bummer mind fuck enough sober.

pp that was perfect

Did you go out of your way looking for a bad trip or what?
multiple xplosts:
ha! the movie was new that week so none of us knew what to expect and i was a ignorant 16 year old at the time- the odd trip just happened. kinda like the time i got my only tattoo, while on mushrooms. a friend worked a needle and india ink into my arm. we were both in a ska band (hey! it was 1984) and was gonna do "ska for jah", but stopped @ the "s" 'cuz it took so bloody long and i wasn't drunk (again 16 year old hijinx). i was a stupid drug taking little **ck, but we had fun

as someone who knows almost nothing outside of The Wall, Dark Side and the famous 60s hits i'm looking forward to reading the results as far as the late period goes. are there any shoo-ins for Top 20 from the post-Waters period?

are there any shoo-ins for Top 20 from the post-Waters period?

― piscesx, Wednesday, March 5, 2014 6:23 PM

NO

I'll stan for "High Hopes" but I wouldn't call it a shoo-in.

more like poo-in amirite

as someone who knows almost nothing outside of The Wall, Dark Side and the famous 60s hits i'm looking forward to reading the results as far as the late period goes. are there any shoo-ins for Top 20 from the post-Waters period?

LOL hell no, but there will definitely be stuff from Meddle, WYWH, and Animals

Have a feeling 1968-1972 is going to place high.

Speaking of that era, we're counting all suites as one unit here, right (à la "The Narrow Way", "Atom Heart Mother", "Grand Vizier's Garden Party", etc.)? Damned if I know how to separate 'Breast Milky' from 'Funky Dung' anyhow. I do have preferred sections of "Sisyphus" tho fwiw.

All one unit.

19 ballots in so far.

David Gilmour's birthday today.

I hear he blue lights off his cake without a hitch.

Damn, Dark Side really does hold up well. Personally I'm rooting for Obscured by Clouds, as it's a little overlooked gem. Title track is so freaking cinematic.

I'm assuming "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" will be no. 1

Turns out I had only voted for 19 songs so in the end I could cast vote for Jugband Blues! Joy was had.

Obscured by Clouds (title track) is Floyd at their most krautrock

it's even better live (first 15 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeHFuwL3jh0

Delicate Sound of Thunder versions of "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell" are better than the originals, because I like Guy Pratt's singing more than Waters'.

Ok, forgive the bummer rant here, but I'm really wrestling with this poll and would prefer to put this here than in the results when everyone will be stoked.

I was very excited about this poll, but I'm finding re-listening to all this a surprisingly turgid experience. A number of the criticisms of the band made in the 70s—that they were noodling, plodding and poor instrumentalists—are now resonating with me for the first time.

To be clear, I made peace with the shortcomings of the post-DSOTM stuff long ago. However brilliantly orchestrated it is (and it is), the power of the music has been ossified by 30-40 years of letter perfect live renditions. It's not just "I've heard them too much" (tho I have). Nor is it that the live recordings are utterly lifeless (tho they are). Rather, it's that the lack of band's instrumental prowess (and Gilmour, as good of a guitarist as he is, writes out his best solos) had put the productions and arrangements of DSOTM and WYWH in particular unnecessarily (and perhaps unfairly) under the microscope as they have proven to have no life of their own in live or otherwise alternate settings. Put another way, if hear another hagiographical piece on Dave's four note chime in "Shine On," I may shoot you all.

Now, this would naturally lead me back to pre-DSOTM material -- pre- and post-Syd. But these songs pose a related but perhaps separate set of problems.

I've always associated the pre-DSOTM era with a more adventurous spirit than the later records. This was clearly a band that was still searching for its identity – which isn't something I generally hold against developing artists. Often, artists do some of their most interesting work during this period.

But here their lack of instrumental facilities fail them in a different way. They more clearly betray their blues roots during this era – and it isn't pretty. Mason and Waters plod horribly. Wright, who had his moments as a songwriter and singer, fades into the background with his Hammond. And Gilmour isn't writing his solos yet – and it often feels kind of harmlessly noodly.
As a result, epics like "Interstellar Overdrive" "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" and "Set the Controls"—epic space outs for me when I was a kid—now just feel dominated by remedial blues explorations.

The biggest loser in this for me is Meddle, the popular consensus as the best thing they did between Syd leaving and DSOTM "Fearless," per the folks upthread, evokes great memories for me—laying in my room at twilight during the summer after sophomore year—but seems oddly faceless now. "Echoes" seemed like such a tremendous journey when I would watch Pompeii or put it on my (first!) CD player – but now represents everything I can't connect with about this era: carefully orchestrated but sonically far less adventurous than I remember, backed by plodding rhythms and melodies that are so easy on the ears they no longer stick.

Where does that leave me?

Well, I always had a soft spot for Richard Wright's material -- and I still do. And some of the best stuff on Animals and The Wall still holds up. And, me today sort of admires the conflation of Waters' personal and geopolitical paranoia on The Final Cut – certainly more now than I did in 1988. But I'm not sure any of it, barring a few songs here and there, are "classic."

I'm trying to figure out why I'm having such an unpleasant reaction – and part of me wonders whether my ears in 2014 have just become that much more exposed to artists who, frankly, do these sorts of things better. In 1988 I wasn't really aware of Soft Machine, Tangerine Dream or Can.

Is anyone else struggling like this?

my only struggle is whether i honor the choices of my youth or those of my current dotage. either way, i won't have trouble coming up with a list of 20

p sure yr ears are broken, naive teen idol. get thee to an ear shop

:)

20 was easy!

though now I'm realizing all the good stuff i forgot to vote for

whoa. from 2012. waters spends an hour in the studio with stern... some really good stuff imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U84Sy8S0f6I

i'll attempt a defense, as it seems like there are too few people willing to seriously defend floyd in this day and age.

if one is going to floyd looking for prog virtuosity, they're going to inevitably be disappointed. compared to many of the other bands of their day, their actual musical and songwriting skills are fairly basic. this is particularly true of the rhythm section. one of the most hilarious things i have read about floyd is that the bass & drums track to the half-hour orchestral-choral suite "atom heart mother", for technical reasons, had to be recorded in one take. there are few rock rhythm sections i would trust less to do such a thing than waters/mason.

atom heart mother, though, is to me a prime example of the strengths of this period. when the band decided to do the then-typical "choir and orchestra composition" the arranger they got on board was ron geesin, who proceeded to have the choir sing nonsense about breakfast foods. my personal bias is that i'll take this over Serious Orchestral Statements a la deep purple or the nice any day of the week. that is to say, what pink floyd lacked in chops they made up for in eccentricity. floyd for me are a great example of "greater than the sum of its parts" music, because the overwhelming sense of what I get from this era is not memorable melodies but simply atmosphere. that they achieve this while still remaining on such a melodically rudimentary level is, i think, even greater testament to their success.

really, one could make an argument that this era of floyd should barely be listened to as music. probably this is why floyd's stuff is so legendarily stoner-friendly- there's barely any intellectual content in their work, at least not in this period. it's very "turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream" sort of music.

Good defense.

excellent work there rushomancy

I totally get where you're coming from, NTI, although I would characterize their work as instrumentalists more as lacking distinction rather than lacking instrumental prowess. I think there are a number of wasted opportunities among the musicians: Nick Mason seemed to be working towards a rampaging neo-Elvin Jones style (via Ginger Baker), and was on the verge of a potentially epochal breakthrough in marrying that approach to solid funk -- on the Pompeii, but not the studio, "Echoes" -- but suddenly became a faceless plodder. Rick Wright was fairly successful at recontextualizing some of Sun Ra's keyboard ideas in the beginning, but then slipped into the Background Keyboardist role (as you noted). Waters went from being excited/exciting as a bassist to seemingly resenting having to lug this thing around. Gilmour was never more adventurous than when he first joined, but even in 1972 (Pompeii "Echoes" again) he was still willing to go off the rails in his solos. After that, he was strictly a dullsville British Blues Guitarist (with a few notable exceptions).

I don't think it was necessarily a lack of facility, but more that the level of risk-taking as instrumentalists decreased steadily over the years.

what pink floyd lacked in chops they made up for in eccentricity

this is legit, I think, but is also one of the reasons I find their popularity a bit befuddling. Atom Heart Mother was a number 1 record for chrissakes. Personally I equate some of their eccentricities more with laziness than anything else, which I'm not particularly interested in.

Well that's Roger Waters for you, businessman first, musician second.

I see their playing moving steadily toward concision, Nick Mason turning into Ringo Starr, Gilmour's solos growing melodically expressive rather than experimental (I can probably hum a dozen note for note) without abandoning their heady atmospherics or groove.

That's the thing about Gilmour his solos were basic but meaningful, not just a bunch of notes to prove how fasts he can move his fingers. His solos are easy but memorable.

Atom Heart Mother does not rule as much as the Floyd usually does

I guess "Fat Old Sun" is ok

I love Atom Heart Mother. For a long time it was my favorite Floyd album.

Well that's Roger Waters for you, businessman first, musician second.

― Moka, Friday, March 7, 2014

floyd def would have been better without waters

http://media.giphy.com/media/3CiQFH24AoRtC/giphy.gif

ugh that one give me a headache

I will post some bullshit to bump it up

anyway I am going to post a Gilmour gif series for me because we should not forget that he was a pretty handsome fellow in his day

i hope this one does not give me, or you, a headache

http://k41.kn3.net/A31781753.gif

iirc gilmour did some modeling before he went full-time with music.

it's weird how as they age gilmour gets less good-looking and waters gets more so. wonder if we could pin down the exact date when they crossed...

Are you asking when the tide started turning?

After Live Aid, obv.

Set and spike. Nice work!

I totally get where you're coming from, NTI, although I would characterize their work as instrumentalists more as lacking distinction rather than lacking instrumental prowess. I think there are a number of wasted opportunities among the musicians: Nick Mason seemed to be working towards a rampaging neo-Elvin Jones style (via Ginger Baker), and was on the verge of a potentially epochal breakthrough in marrying that approach to solid funk -- on the Pompeii, but not the studio, "Echoes" -- but suddenly became a faceless plodder. Rick Wright was fairly successful at recontextualizing some of Sun Ra's keyboard ideas in the beginning, but then slipped into the Background Keyboardist role (as you noted). Waters went from being excited/exciting as a bassist to seemingly resenting having to lug this thing around. Gilmour was never more adventurous than when he first joined, but even in 1972 (Pompeii "Echoes" again) he was still willing to go off the rails in his solos. After that, he was strictly a dullsville British Blues Guitarist (with a few notable exceptions).

I don't think it was necessarily a lack of facility, but more that the level of risk-taking as instrumentalists decreased steadily over the years.

I was thinking today about their most WTF instrumental moments.

One has to be the "funky" clavinet section on the second half of "Shine On." As a kid, I always thought it sounded like some horribly inappropriate disco venture -- today, I was surprised to find time hasn't dissuaded me of that belief.

I was thinking today about their most WTF instrumental moments

The whole of "Another Brick in the Wall pt 2" must be one. That genius disco beat.

Zabriski songs so good: the bass on "Unknown Song" / "Rain in the Country" is so malevolent. who's playing slide? actually a lot of the guitar on this sounds like Jerry Garcia, except for the occasional bit of "Brain Damage" that pokes through. very much sounds like the Dead's live shows from 68, 69.

23 ballots submitted so far. 97 tracks have votes.

Keep them coming!

anyway I am going to post a Gilmour gif series for me because we should not forget that he was a pretty handsome fellow in his day

I've been pulling aside pictures for the results rollout and there are an ample supply of Gilmour cheesecake photos.

:D

I knew I could count on you

As I continue to try and reconnect with this stuff, I'm finding myself a bit drawn to the 1972-73 period where they were taking DSOTM on the road. I'm listening to a pretty decent boot of a radio show in Tokyo in '72, where if nothing else it's interesting to hear the band start with a quasi-fusion Rhodes jam and evolve it over time into something like "On the Run."

Any other suggestion for live boots from the period? Some of these have dreadful sound.

Animal Instincts

oh wait sorry i didn't read the "this period" part it's 77

I'm planning on contributing a ballot, but I'm going to have to re-listen to some stuff, cos all the non-Barrett Floyd still sounds like mush to me.

Hollywood Bowl (9/22/72), Boston Music Hall (3/14/73), and most importantly, Earl's Court (both 5/18/73 & 5/1/73)

Time to make ballot now.

yes

London at Rainbow Theatre the 4th night 20-02-1972 is the true jam IMHO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HJ8ZDzVuZY (my upload)

Also 15-1-1972 Germany(checkout the CWTAE version) is amazing and Chicago 28-04-1972.

Forgot to mention of course all are pre-DSOTM 20-02-1972 obviously the earliest and is the most immature.

I'm glad there's a bit of negativity itt and I hope there's plenty in the poll, I kinda feel like that should be intrinsic to discussion of pink floyd even if it's against the RULES

they're a pretty important band to me personally, I once started a "fave member of pink Floyd" poll (my only ilm thread I think) and I could easily come up w 25 songs of theirs that were among my favourite ever, but I'm still abstaining from this cause I think a key aspect of them & why they're so as the okc kids say fun to think about is that they were often pretty shit, especially when they allowed themselves to be taken over by an idiot racist narcissist

Also there's the whole thing of I didn't do a ballot for Madonna or miles I'm not gonna do one for fuckin Floyd

Not grokking any of that logic, but whatever. Ballot sent.

Yeah, someone needs to put on some Obscured By Clouds.

Heck, everyone needs to.

gotta admit this poll has been brutal in unexpected ways... so hard to think of the floyd in terms of "tracks"... had more difficulty coming up with a "#1" than in any other poll. if there's been an option to evenly distribute all points among 20 tracks i would

also i'm kinda diggin "radio kaos" COME AT ME BRO

i don't hate it

always liked it too, best post-Floyd record imo

As far as this poll goes, my votes are going to be pretty well evenly distributed between DSotM, WYWH, Animals and The Wall. There's a reason why they're the most popular canonical Floyd choices.

taken over by an idiot racist narcissist

Wait, Eric Clapton was in Pink Floyd?! When did that happen?

pros & cons of htchhiking iirc

lol my ballot is probably mostly going to be pre-dark side and final cut, welcome to my world

especially when they allowed themselves to be taken over by an idiot racist narcissist

― Andreass Twerckmeister (wins), Sunday, March 9, 2014

wait what?

no seriously what?

idk the fascist posturing in the wall gets more gross to me as i get older so i'm with wins on this

also the tarfumes post upthread is one of my favorite things i've ever read about floyd, perfectly explains why i don't have time for them after meddle except in isolated incidents (and the final cut bc as they became a less instrumentally intriguing group waters became a crack songwriter imo)

idk the fascist posturing in the wall gets more gross to me as i get older so i'm with wins on this

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Sunday, March 9, 2014

it's supposed to be gross! but even if we decide it's in poor taste or no longer so cool like i dunno sixteen candles or w/e i'll need more than "but but but In The Flesh" to arrive at "everybody knows waters is a racist"

or were we talking abt syd?

we all know that gnome was really a racist code word

Sent!

(Hardest one yet)

31 ballots in. 110 tracks nominated. The only spoiler so far is that everyone's ballots RULE - very cool to see where everything is falling.

Desperately need to comment on this thread.

Hey Elvis, when is the rollout scheduled to start? It's also worth noting for people who haven't submitted their ballots yet that the voting period ends tomorrow at midnight.

After that, he was strictly a dullsville British Blues Guitarist (with a few notable exceptions)

Hard to comment on this without knowing what exceptions you have in mind (Comfortably Numb?) but Gilmour is a GREAT guitarist with never a dullsville moment imo

I don't think it was necessarily a lack of facility, but more that the level of risk-taking as instrumentalists decreased steadily over the years

Don't think Waters-era Floyd were ever the go-to band for instrumental risk-taking but that is no kind of argument against them imo, they had other compensating factors imo

oops one or two too many imo's there, yuk

Have I just missed it, or does Animals never get played on classic-rock radio?

The songs are too long for the way radio works these days.

I was pretty drunk last night & didn't express myself too well but "idiot racist narcissist" is not something I thought would be a bone of contention, ok so we'll give him a pass for yelling the word coon for kicks in a stadium rock song cause he was IN CHARACTER as the cunt rock star he plays in real life but then you have deranged mutterings about "nips" & "wily Japanese", disgusting "almond eyes/yellow thighs" fetishism, he calls yoko ono a bitch for literally no reason in the middle of a song followed by a clip of someone going "herro"

I mean maybe you guys aren't as well versed in the catalogue as me but cmon the guy is a shit how is this even up for debate

I suppose it's a fair point. But
"Not Now, John" is parody?

Sorry, train bumped. My point was going to be, seems a fair thing to question – the Yoko example particularly struck me as well. But I'd tread more carefully on TFC – a lot of that seems to be him voicing the anxiety of the British working class, "Not Now, John" in particular.

The nips bit in final cut is not in character as a comedy commoner, also I think with that sort of thing I'll give you a pass once as a songwriter but when it becomes a pattern I'll question it, and waters is such a ludicrous figure to me that he gets no benefit of the doubt

Like his "anguished" bellow is the terriblest most ridiculous sound in music I can't believe people take him seriously "driving me INSAAAAAA" ha ha fuck off you silly old twat

Waters is a lifelong socialist and I refuse to believe that the nips line is anything other than an in-character, heavily ironized moment

It is possible to be socialist and racist

There's nothing ironic about "herro"

I've also never heard The Final Cut but I am listening right now for the first time. I HAVE heard both Radio KAOS and The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, wtf is wrong with me

are we counting "Us & Them" and "The Piano Sequence" / whatever else it's been called on bootlegs together? it helps that it was labeled as "Us & Them (Rick Wright piano demo)" on the Immersion box. so I hope so! o/w I will vote for both.

waters is the kind of lifelong socialist who also supports the countryside alliance

or the kind of lifelong arsenal supporter who still puts 'you'll never walk alone' on Fearless

^gets it

Kinda assumed this would be the default position of Floyd fans actually, I mean roger waters has written at least two concept albums about what a cunt roger waters is (but he didn't have a dad u see) I'd have thought it uncontroversial to agree w him

Hard to comment on this without knowing what exceptions you have in mind (Comfortably Numb?) but Gilmour is a GREAT guitarist with never a dullsville moment imo

"Comfortably Numb" is definitely one exception, as is "Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2." My favorite Gilmour playing is on Ummagumma (the live disc), Saucerful, and the Pompeii "Echoes." As for post-DSOTM, his playing on WYWH and Animals really drags those records down for me; he seems bereft of ideas, and never ventures beyond his comfort zone.

Don't think Waters-era Floyd were ever the go-to band for instrumental risk-taking but that is no kind of argument against them imo, they had other compensating factors imo

Yeah, I could definitely see that. I should note that I don't hate post-DSOTM Floyd, and that I'll still defend The Final Cut, but it's frustrating that they never again tried to exploit their more risk-taking strengths as musicians (although, they really seemed to loosen up live, cf. Oakland '77). It's not that I think Waters-era Floyd is bad, just that it could've been better.

From Waters' last facebook post:

I give heartfelt thanks, to those of you who chose to go online and stand with me, in declaring their opposition to colonialism, occupation, racism, dogma, bigotry and narrow national self-interest, in favor instead, of internationalism, self determination, truth, reason, justice, understanding, discourse, liberty, peace and love.

Well they disowned most of their early funny stuff as floundering frippery didn't they? Xp

Lol ok "racism: I'm dead against it, peace and love peace and love" case closed

Did they? I honestly don't know, although I thought they all at least really dug what they'd done with Syd.

(xp)

Like his "anguished" bellow is the terriblest most ridiculous sound in music

Haha, I was searching for a Roger Waters solo cut to put in at No. 20. I can't remember which song it was, but there's some song out there off of P&CoH or KAOS where it segues seamlessly from one of those EEE-YAAAESSSAAAWWWWWW! into a David Sanborn saxophone solo.

Ummagumma & atom heart especially iirc, but they definitely used to claim that post-syd pre-moon they hadn't found their direction. Gilmour returned to atom heart tho so he obv changed his mind xp

I remember hearing a radio interview with Waters in which he dismissed Atom Heart Mother as "rubbish", and of course the Waters-era band never (or hardly ever?) played anything pre-Dark Side, although the Gilmour-led version of the band played "Astronomy Domine" in 1994.

Sanborn is on hitchhiker, with clapton & kamen - the lethal weapon dream team! Xp

how did I not know about this

19367 Pink Floyd is an asteroid that has been named in honour of the English musical group Pink Floyd. It was discovered on December 3, 1997. It is in a 3.82-year elliptical orbit around the sun. Its previous perihelion passage occurred on December 23, 2004 at 9h00 UT.

There is little information on the physical properties of 19367 Pink Floyd. Its diameter remains uncertain; range of 3 to 6 km is probable.

19367 Pink Floyd's maximum brightness is estimated to be 1/14958 of the brightness of the faintest objects that can be seen with the human eye

Haha they hated being called "space rock" now a space rock is named after them

It's too bad Waters wasn't more keen on those records, although he did play "Set The Controls" on his solo tours.

and of course the Waters-era band never (or hardly ever?) played anything pre-Dark Side

They did "One of These Days" on their '74 tours, "Echoes" on their '74 and '75 tours, and CWTAE once in '77. That's pretty much it.

Ah ok, thanks. He played "If" on the Radio KAOS tour as well.

one thing all this Floyd listening these last two weeks has brought out is that I am a massive Rick Wright fan

Gilmour was playing "Wots... Uh The Deal," "Fat Old Sun," and "Echoes" on the On An Island tour.

Twelve hours and 10 minutes left to send your ballot in

when does rollout start?

oof, I thought it was end of day tomorrow. in that case let me ask again:

are we counting "Us & Them" and "The Piano Sequence" / whatever else it's been called on bootlegs together? it helps that it was labeled as "Us & Them (Rick Wright piano demo)" on the Immersion box. so I hope so! o/w I will vote for both.

me too, midnight dates always confuse me

when does rollout start?

The bonus polls (bootlegs, solo, Syd) will roll out tomorrow and then I'll just start working through them. Ballots are pretty diverse so it'll probably be the top 50 tracks

are we counting "Us & Them" and "The Piano Sequence" / whatever else it's been called on bootlegs together? it helps that it was labeled as "Us & Them (Rick Wright piano demo)" on the Immersion box. so I hope so! o/w I will vote for both.

I'm counting them together.

can we count all of pink floyd as one song y/n

where it segues seamlessly from one of those EEE-YAAAESSSAAAWWWWWW! into a David Sanborn saxophone solo.

I was mistaken, by the way. The anguished segue happens on The Gunner's Dream. So no Sanborn.

Dude, that's a great moment on that song.

"the gunner's dream" is badass as hell, nearly on my ballot

haha the bit I quoted is on that song too

btw i'm gonna name my next cat 'dick parry'

― mookieproof, Saturday, March 1, 2014 5:54 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is my favourite post itt

voted!

38 ballots, 114 tracks with votes

Elvis, do you want me to change the thread title to reflect that the poll is closing tonight?

Yes please!

ballot sent! my first ilx poll!

lol @ pink floyd's 'related artists' in spotify

Sent! I just listened to the stuff I had laying around. I was able to observe how kinda sorta throwaway soundtrack stuff (Nile Song, Ibiza Bar) would be foundation material for another band's legend.

46 ballots in. They all RULE (seriously!)

wow it's gonna be a real party!

we'll need to dust off the oil slide projector

I had one of those as a kid! A toy version of a psychedelic oil slide projector. The slides were little disks that worked like a lava lamp using heat from the projector's light bulb. I didn't quite understand yet what it was supposed to be used for, and accidentally sat on and broke one of the slides which left a stain on the sofa that remained for the next 15 years.

47th ballot just sent!

I always end up waiting until the last moment in these polls and quickly put something together, obviously completely forgetting about many great songs. Anyway, I voted at least.

feel like at this point I can admit that much as I wanted to I couldn't deny brick pt2 a spot on my ballot. great solo plus there was real wtfness in the floyd dropping a surprise disco track even if it was a bit plodding.

It's hard to convey how pervasive disco was in the late '70s, so much so that everyone from the Stones to Barry Manilow to the Beach Boys to KISS felt they had to dip their toes in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enzNePWJvI4

First ballot poll I ever participated in... it ruled.

I kind of surprised myself with my choices--2 tracks from Final cut on my shortlist... but I didn't have the nerve.

This is one of the few polls in which i have no idea what will be in the top 5. i.e. there's no critical consensus at all what the best song from DSOTM is. I also don't know how the relative rankings of the Barrett vs. Waters eras will play out.

http://www.quartzcity.net/ilx/pf_poll/waters-gong.jpg

Some last minute listening by the fireside confirmed I like Richard Wright a lot more now than I did as a teen. VOTED.

Just submitted my ballot. God that was hard.

http://www.quartzcity.net/ilx/pf_poll/ani-gong.gif

Roll out tomorrow...

You are fast! Thanks for the quick results.

psyched

I got my vote in under the wire last night. wish i'd had more time to explore the catalog but i gave myself a day to listen to a bunch of Floyd and throw together my ballot.

Perfect gif

I kind of surprised myself with my choices--2 tracks from Final cut on my shortlist... but I didn't have the nerve.

That gif is hilarious.

bang a gong, get it on.

thanks for spotting that. (xxxpost)

damn forgot to vote, will be rooting hard for "Great Gig in the Sky"

what was the final ballot count?

Do you mean... The final cut?

the Final Cut, as it were

DAMMIT YOU ALWAYS DO THAT

Did not make this deadline, which sucks (in my head I had till the end of today). Will be following the rollout for sure though!

I think a measure of a good/great poll is finding totally new stuff to like in an artist I thought I had passing familiarity with, and this one was one of the best. A song I barely knew two weeks ago was my #1, and a song I'd never heard two weeks ago was my #5. I'm excited for the results.

Come in Poll #49, your results are up (Pink Floyd ballot poll results)

Since I don't dare say it in the results thread, I will here:

"Dogs of War" has aged surprisingly well – much better than a lot of AMLoR. For a song I couldn't stand 25 years ago, today it sounds like a purposeful nod to Floyd's blues roots. The lyrics aren't nearly as frightening as I remember and the Tom Scott solo break is actually kind of awesome.

Ok, carry on...