i think that pink floyd were definitley one of the best, if not the best band in the world. beats me why they were never really widespread. a really innovative style, confined to not just plain old rock, but with plenty of imagination, really served them well. i mean listen to a floyd album and the sounds you hear are completely different from what you hear anywhere else.
anyone's got a different contender for best band?

I'm a big Pink Floyd fan myself. Only being 17, I just got into them 2 or 3 years ago, but I really enjoy their music. Their evolution over the years is really intriguing. I read their biography too, by Nicholas Schaffner, I think. Let's see, if I remember correctly, I own Piper, Meddle, Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, and Momentary Lapse. My favorite would have to be WYWH, followed by Dark Side and Animals.

As for my contender for best band, I'll nominate Tool. They're my personal favorite -- creative, artistic, evolutionary, progressive, moody. While all of these qualities can be found in the Floyd, I believe Tool has a driving quality in their music (especially recently on Lateralus) that is unique to their band.

On another note, I also think Maynard writes better lyrics than the various Pink Floyd writers. Maynard's lyrics are, in different instances, inspiring, provocative, questioning, squeamish, and always emotional. As for Pink Floyd, Syd's lyrics were often rambling and meaningless, while David's were inconsistent and average for the most part. I think Roger wrote some awesome lyrics, though, especially on Dark Side. What a work of art!

But anyways, yeah, Tool is the best band in the world.

The Wall movie was freakin amazing!

i agree with both of yall, pink floyd and tool are simply 2 of the bands band ever, and well for up and coming bands that i think will have a huge impact on the future of music im going with the band "dredg" if you havnt heard them i suggest you check them out

Pink Floyd Rocks!!!
Who's seen the dark side of oz?
I have The Wall, Dark Side Original, Dark Side 2001, Animals, and I had Momentary Lapse of Reason but it got lost in the shuffle somewhere. One thing I did that was pretty cool was play both Dark Sides at the exact same time. Pretty cool. :)
Lately, I'm listening to The Wall more often than the other I suppose, but Dark Side will always have a special place in my heart. I miss Momentary Lapse of Reason :( . For people who might be suspicious of the newere Dark Side, I'd say it's worth its' while, especially if you have the original dark side down to perfect memory and can appreciate all the nuances.
I desperately need to see The Wall :mad:

Likewise. ive been desperate to see the wall for quite a while but've just not been able to do it for some reason or the other. heard it freakin amazing. anyone seen it?

i actually got to see the wall in a theatre. it was very nice. I've seen bits of the dark side of oz. very strange.

Floyd is my favorite. other bands that i think would get nonimated for best band ever, Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, and aparently everyone likes Tool.

it's all a matter of taste.

Pink floyd!!!!!!!

David Gilmour is my favorite guitarist ever. What a soulfull sumbitch. That brother rocks. He's not the fastest, no.. but his style appeals to me more than any other.

So yeah, the floyd! Awesome.

Pink Floyd is the most innovative band in the history of music! I wish there were other bands with the same sound, but they were just so original. If anyone knows of any bands like Floyd, please let me know. BTW, See-saw is one of their best songs.

Floyd have always been sensational, either in the studiio or live. I first saw them live at the 'Bath Festival' in 1971 when Sid Was still with them. Have seen them 4 more times over the years, but never 'TheWall' live:m:

If you really like Pink Floyd, check out thier material before they released Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Once Darkside of the Moon came out, they had enough money to make any type of music that they pleased. Of course they are awesome, but you have to realise that alot of the sound engineering and effects could have been done by any band with thier kind of money.

Anyway, thier stuff before Piper shows that they had raw talent, and that is what matters. They became one of the few bands from the psychedelic era to survive the advent of heavy metal and the sorts.

I don't know about bands like Pink Floyd, but I saw Mercury Rev doing an old Black Sabbath song called Planet Caravan, sort of like a cross between set the controls and careful with that axe eugene, sounded verry pink floyd to me, don't know about their other stuff though...

Originally posted by druiaghtagh
Floyd have always been sensational, either in the studiio or live. I first saw them live at the 'Bath Festival' in 1971 when Sid Was still with them. Have seen them 4 more times over the years, but never 'TheWall' live:m:

Um...Syd Barrett left the band in 1968. By 1971 he was living at home with his mother, where he would stay until she died. I think during that time he attempted one more solo album, but he was too far gone by then to produce anything even remotely salvageable.

FireMinstrel -- Perhaps you've done so already, but I think you'd enjoy reading Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey, by Nicholas Schaffner. Seeing as you know some Floyd history, the book mentioned is full of even more interesting tidbits about one of the greatest bands ever.

syd barrett was thrown out of the band in '68. he was taking LSD by the shovelful and just used to stand on stage playing one note on his guitar all night. the last song he wrote and sang for floyd was jugband blues, a rather sad farewell.....''what exactly is a dream? and what exactly is a joke?''

he came back to help them out on the recording of Shine on you Crazy Diamond in 1971.

Originally posted by airavata
syd barrett was thrown out of the band in '68. he was taking LSD by the shovelful and just used to stand on stage playing one note on his guitar all night. the last song he wrote and sang for floyd was jugband blues, a rather sad farewell.....''what exactly is a dream? and what exactly is a joke?''

he came back to help them out on the recording of Shine on you Crazy Diamond in 1971.

The first part's rght. Shine On was recorded in 1975, Syd came to the studio uninvited wanting to play. He had no idea the song was about him, which is rather a spookey coincidence. He didn't play on it but commeneted that it sounded 'rather old'.

A couple of good 'Syd' books Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond and Lost In The Woods

Have any of you read this interview?

Set The Controls Interviews Ian Barrett (http://www.pink-floyd.org/barrett/ianintw.htm)

WYWH was made in '75? some of Syd's solo albums were pretty good too. real good psychedelic stuff. pink floyd has evolved really well, if you listen to all their albums you can actually listen to them changing as a band. but after DSOTM all the band members themselves say that the unity and cohesion was no longer there.

floyd probably was too waters dominated, not that i'm complaining..... all his songs are bloody good.....but would have been nice to hear more mason or wright songs

Already replied to the subject of the book before, but my post got erased! :(
I do own the book- my favorite rock bio I own.
So Brian Eno wanted to work with Syd, eh? Wow...that could have been incredible...

Originally posted by FireMinstrel
Um...Syd Barrett left the band in 1968. By 1971 he was living at home with his mother, where he would stay until she died. I think during that time he attempted one more solo album, but he was too far gone by then to produce anything even remotely salvageable.

Originally posted by druiaghtagh
must bemy memory playing tricks, i stand corrected

Aha! - A topic about my favourite band ever. :D

The Floyd sure have a very unique sound, unmatched ever since. Although the really early stuff doesn't really flick my switch.

I posess all Floyd albums, with Comfortably Numb being my top track (it gives me shivers every time i hear it!).

I also have a huge boxfull of memorabilia (programs, t-shirts, guitar picks, lp's etc etc) and i have also been fortuonate to have seen Gilmour & Waters' solo gigs with Waters' bieng simply amazing - get the 'In The Flesh' gig on DVD if you haven't already.

Although the P.U.L.S.E gig in '94 in London has to be my fave Floyd gig.

Hope they do one more...!!!

...Shine On Folks...! :D

The story of Syd showing up at the studio is actually quite tragic; it's in Schaffner's book. I forget what album they were working on, but one day they're at the studio recording, and there's this slovenly guy hanging around, not doing anything, just sort of watching. Roger says he broke down in tears when he realized it was Syd, who, in a rare moment of remembering who he was, happened to wander down to a studio he knew on the day they were there, looking for his band. He was too far gone to record anything by that time. The old boy looked twenty years older and was about a hundred pounds at least overweight; considering that he'd been about thirty or forty pounds underweight at least while playing with the Floyd, I can only speculate on what the rest of the band went through that day.

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd ... it's hard to fit them into their proper place in the pantheon. I tend to think of Pink Floyd as the brightest, but neither the best nor most important. To me, they're all those things, but in a proper historical context, The Beatles were probably "better" and more important, and The Who, at least, gets a possible vote for "better". Who can explain the Stones?

:m:,
Tiassa :cool:

beatles, the who........ they all made standard rock or soft rock stuff. sure, all their songs were really really good, but i place floyd higher, simply because of the variety of topics covered, and the range of sounds present in a song, the ideas, and ofcourse the guitar. i mean, i get a bit tired listening to songs of love all day, and how we need to be together. i mean floyd did the first concept album ever in DSOTM---- on what drove people insane.

one of the best floyd albums ever is animals...where waters classifies people as 'dogs'-- power hungry monsters, 'pigs'--selfish idiots and 'sheep'-- naive simpeltons. to come up with the ideas they did and make so many amazing songs and albums, make them the best band ever. again i say.... listen to jugband blues-- it was syd's last song with floyd, and a really sad farewell. whenever i hear it i feel terrible for syd.

"It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here,
And I'm almost obliged to you for making it clear
that I'm not here." -Syd Barrett, Jugband Blues

"He came into the studio," recalls Rick Wright, "and no one recognized this person. I remember going in, and Roger was already in the studio working. I came in and sat next to Roger. After ten minutes, Roger said to me, 'Do you know who that guy is?' I said, 'I have no idea. I assumed it was a friend of yours.' He said "Think, think.' And I kept looking at him---and I suddenly realized it was Syd!" Waters, by his own account was, "in fucking tears" upon divining the identity of "this great, fat, bald, mad person."

Another visitor from the past, Andrew King, thought Barrett looked like nothing so much as a chef at some Middle American burger joint. King tried to break the ice by asking his former star client how he'd put on so much weight. "I've got a very large fridge in the kitchen," Syd explained, "and I've been eating a lot of pork chops." Barrett then reportedly let it be known that he was now ready for the Floyd to make use of his services once again.

As his ex-colleagues applied themselves to the onerous task of mixing "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," replaying it over and over, Syd fell silent, giving no sign of understanding that he was the hero of this stirring tribute. Finally, when they asked for the track to be played yet another time, he interrupted: "Why bother? You've heard it once already."

Barrett subsequently joined the others at the EMI canteen for the Gilmours' wedding reception. After unnerving unsuspecting guests---some of whom mistook him for a Hare Krishna fanatic---with his maniacle laughter and penetrating stares, Syd vanished into the night without saying good-bye.

The following day, the Floyd left for America without him. None of them has ever seen him since.

Source: Saucerful Of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Oddyssey

Syd on Syd

"I don't think I'm easy to talk about. I've got a very irregular head. And I'm not anything that you think I am anyway." -Rolling Stone, December 1971 (http://www.pinkfloyd-co.com/band/interviews/sb/sbrs71.html)

thanks evilpoet :) wouldn't mind some more if you have the patience. :D i was surfing this site, and the webmaster whatever had talked to syd's close relatives.... his sister i think. syd sits and paints these days....... although it gets tough because stupid fans steal his pantbrushes as souveniers. gilmour ensures that syd gets all his royalties...... his share of theprofits of albums he was on.....or which have been rereleased.

about jugband blues i was thinking of the last 2 lines.....
''and what exactly is a dream,
and what exactly is a joke?''

"What exactly is a dream?"
-Syd Barrett

"A dream is a wish your heart makes..."
-Cinderella

"And what exactly is a joke?"
-Syd Barrett

"A joke is often the hole through which truth whistles."
-Japanese proverb

"In Cambridge, tucked away on a cul-de-sac in his little semidetached suburban home, the man who named the Pink Floyd follows a quiet, solitary existence.

Among his everyday hobbies and pastimes, only the unfinished canvases---painted in a style that is, to say the least, abstract---give any indication that this is an individual of any exceptional sensibility. The rest of Roger Barrett's time is whiled away tending to his beloved garden and his coin collection; watching TV and reading (everything from Shakespeare to the daily newspapers to books on home improvements and mathematics); and endlessly redecorating his cozy Shangri-la. He has not touched a guitar in years, and the only music he ever listens to is jazz and the classics---never pop or rock 'n' roll.

This portly, balding, middle-aged man is not entirely unaware of that other life he led as "Syd", or of the ongoing fascination with his extinguished alter ego's work and legacy. But any lingering memories are rarely accompanied by any trace of pleasure and satisfaction---with the exception, however perverse, of America, which he is tickled pink as an old sailor to have gone so far as to visit. As for the rest, it was a difficult and demanding life that he would never again wish upon anyone, least of all himself.

Yet Syd's Floyd records continue to bring in more that enough to subsidize Roger Barrett's modest pleasures and needs; he rarely buys anything, and money in the bank means nothing to him. Occasionally, moreover, he does think about his old friends Dave, Rick, and Nick---and Rog.

Any Syd freaks so presumptuous as to track him down, however, are likely to find their faces on the receiving end of a slammed door; Roger Barrett would in any case have absolutely nothing to say to them. While his family and few friends are grateful that he is "getting better" with each passing year, it remains painfully difficult for him to relate to or communicate with other human beings on almost any level. But though he seldom ventures beyond the parameters of his English garden, the man who was once Syd is settled and reasonably content---and almost determinedly ordinary as he shuffles through his simple daily routines.

Sometimes, he even dreams that he will soon be well enough to hold down a nine-to-five London office job, and commute every day into the big city."

Source: Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey

poor syd. in a way it's good though. he seems to be content at least.

And that book was written in 1990. 13 years later, the 9-to-5 job never happened...it really is sad.

Two good Syd Barrett books:

Crazy Diamond Syd Barrett and the Dawn of Pink Floyd (Mike Watkinson & Pete Anderson) 168 pages.

Lost In The Woods, Syd Barrett and The Pink Floyd (Julian Palacios) 344 pages.

"Lest the awe should dwell--And turn your frolic to fret--You
shall look on my power at the helping hour--But then you
shall forget!" -The Wind in the Willows

Originally posted by EvilPoet
"Lest the awe should dwell--And turn your frolic to fret--You
shall look on my power at the helping hour--But then you
shall forget!" -The Wind in the Willows

Oy?