[jatinder]

Animals was/is about the animal-like nature of people - hence the songs Dogs, Pigs On the Wing and Sheep.

The Wall was semi-autobiographical - it's part of a trilogy - Wish You Were Here, The Wall and The Final Cut.

WYWH was about the disillusionment that Waters was beginning to feel with the music industry - this culminated in the Animals tour of 1977, when he felt that the fans were more interested in "attending the show" rather than (hearing) the music. There is a famous "Waters spitting on fans incident" here - this was the spark for The Wall. (Waters came to the conclusion that there might as well be a brick wall between the band and the audience.) WYWH also had the (first?) song relating to his father who died during World War 2.

The Wall deals with the walls that people build around themselves and the fact that when they reach that stage, their worst nightmare (breaking down the walls) is the only thing that came save them.

The Wall is partly autobiographical in the sense that it deals with the walls that Waters built around himself to cope with his fathers death and disenchantment with the rock and roll life.

The Final Cut is about the war, its effects on the survivors and the (then) current aggressive patriotism in the UK.

--Jatinder


BTW: If any one wants MPEG copies of The Embryo and Fat Old Sun - then drop me an email. They're 15Mb and 20Mb respectively. Does anyone know of a more compact format to store them in other than MPEG. Thanks.

 

[Neruda]

Want to see an interesting analysis of the Wall? Read this, in it's entirety (you should see the movie to understand it better): http://members.surfsouth.com/~breezy/

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I just wanted to throw in my vote -- I have a hard time deciding between _Animals_ and _Wish You Were Here_ as my two favorite albums of all time. _Animals_ is more guitars-y, and _Wish You Were Here_ is more synth-y (although neither to the exclusion of the other), and so they make a nice pairing. Actually, at one point during the writing of _Wish You Were Here_, they were originally going to be released as a double album -- most of the material for Animals had already been written -- but it was decided to go ahead and release an album, already. If they _had_ released it as a double album, it is that fictitious double album that I like to think of as my favorite album of all time.

I like _DSOTM_, but it just has a slow spot in it (opening to "Us and Them") and a spot that I just don't like as much ("Any Colour You Like"). Don't get me wrong, I still like it, just...not enough to make it anywhere near the number one spot.

 

[coolvij]

Hey neruda, i checked out that Wall analysis, and it is pretty good. a 45-min. read, and boy, do i want to get that album now, lol.

Right now, there are 4 albums i want to get ASAP- in this order:

- Wish You Were Here
- Animals
- The Wall
- Giant Steps (coltrane

Headwize has sure affected MY musical tastes - at 12, when i first got here, i didn't even KNOW who the heck Pink Floyd was...

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by coolvij Right now, there are 4 albums i want to get ASAP...Headwize has sure affected MY musical tastes - at 12, when i first got here, i didn't even KNOW who the heck Pink Floyd was...

First of all, thanks for the laugh.

Be sure, also, to find a way to hear "Echoes" -- one of my favorite single tracks by Pink Floyd. It's half of the album _Meddle_, so I'm sort of recommending you get that, but that's the track to hear ("One of These Days" is also good).

Also, to all you Pink Floyd fans -- check out Porcupine Tree! Highly recommended. _Stupid Dream_, _Lightbulb Sun_ and the recently released _Recordings_ are all good vocal albums; and the live album, _Coma Divine_ is a very good sampler for their earlier stuff, and is surprisingly high fidelity, as well.

 

[mcbiff]

Am I the only one who DOESN'T like Pink Floyd? Whenever I hear one of their songs on the radio I turn the volume way down. I find their music to be pretentious, boring and downright horrible. Ah well, every one is entitled to their own opinion. But I can't be the only one who feels like this, right? RIGHT?!

I find it to be the same as with U2, whenever I say I hate U2 people look at me like I'm mad. I'm not mad, I promise. I just can't see why everyone likes U2/PF when to me there's absolutely no redeeming quality to either band. Most other bands I can see why people could like, but not these two. Of course, all this is just my opinion. I do find it very strange though.

 

[jude]

Quote:

Originally posted by mcbiff Am I the only one who DOESN'T like Pink Floyd? Whenever I hear one of their songs on the radio I turn the volume way down. I find their music to be pretentious, boring and downright horrible. Ah well, every one is entitled to their own opinion. But I can't be the only one who feels like this, right? RIGHT?!

Neruda, cover your eyes! Don't read it! Oh, you read it already? Everything'll be fine, man. Put that down!

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by mcbiff Am I the only one who DOESN'T like Pink Floyd?

Yes!

Quote:

Originally posted by mcbiff I find it to be the same as with U2...

Nope, on this we agree. And funnily enough, I recently read an article by a guy who went to the exact same concert that I went to (the article was about crowd control, I believe), and cited it as a reason.

I also hate U2 because of what they did to Negativland.

 

[porky_pig_jr]

If you're curious, get 'Piper at the Gate of Dawn'. This is what Pink Floyd were *with* Syd Barrett.

My personal opinion: 'Wish you were here' is their most cohesive and balanced album, probably their top. Without any fat, bloat and self-indulgence of the later albums. Don't mean to offend any hard-core fans. This is 'non-fan' perspective.

 

[DanG]

I also hate U2. Not because of any particular album, but just because I really don't like their "music." Then again, I find myself time and time again passing over my 90's rock collection for my classical and classic rock CDs.

I have also recently come to the conclusion that Wish is Pink Floyd's best album. In a way, I feel like it has the depth of Dark Side with the superfluous fat whittled away. When I listen to it, it just seems so clean and direct; no aberrations (I really don't like "Us and Them" and the long passages between the main music of "Time") take away from the message. And the music comes across as a story, I feel.

But I should mention one thing: the first time I heard Pink Floyd (and it was on a CD, not on crappy old radio broadcast), I hated it too. But now I'm a huge fan of Floyd, probably because I just listened to them more. Same thing happened with Led Zeppelin, and hopefully the same thing will happen with The Doors (once I get myself to try

).