Pink Floyd: Better Than U2

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discothequeLP

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U2 is my favorite band of all, and will always be.



But Pink Floyd is better. Their albums are works of art. No other albums can compare to The Wall, Wish You Were Here, and Dark Side of the Moon. Hell, Pink Floyd even made Dark Side of the Moon a soundtrack to the Wizard of Oz!



I've seen this before, but...



Pink Floyd > (insert deity here)
 
Pink Floyd is the only band that can hold a candle to U2. U2's better, though.

God > U2 > Everything else.
 
Of course, this is all very subjective, and we could too easily get into an argument about which is "better". I will say that I "grew up" with Pink Floyd, in that I remember when all of their albums came out, bought them, and went to their concerts. (I was in the 5th row centre for the Dark Side of the Moon Tour--I never saw so much pot!! AND I still have my ticket stub!) Given that, I would still have to say, personally, that The Wall and Wish You Were Here never spoke to me the way U2 do. The Wall especially seems like it's just trying way too hard to be clever. It doesn't touch my soul and my heart, and not even very deeply my head. There's a coolness about Pink Floyd that, in the end, and especially as I get older, leaves me cold. I appreciate, maybe even crave, the warmth of U2.
 
The Wall onwards all sucked.....and the band was barely over a decade into their career when they released that mediocre album......not to mention some rather puzzling items like most of A Saucerful of Secrets and Ummagumma and you realize that Pink Floyd's discography just doesn't compare to that of U2.
 
I love Pink Floyd, but I can't compare them to U2. I think they are so different in so many ways. They are both great. However, while I love Pink Floyd, they don't grip me like U2 does. The lyrics of U2 are so versitile that they can be applied to so many different situations. I can't relate to Pink Floyd, but that is just me. Like Biff said, it's subjective.
 
i heard that if you put the joshua tree on mute and synch it with darkside of the moon really cool stuff happens!
 
Pink Floyd albums were better , but U2 made more albums , and they still alive and well ( as a band ) , but still Genesis did much more terrific albums , tours .
 
Actually, U2 haven't made more albums...

Anyway, Pink Floyd are the greatest band in the world. There isn't a single band (except Radiohead) that will over the years take their place. Pink Floyd were never afraid to break the mould or shock people with their original sound and fantastic ideas. All guitarists (The Edge, for instance) owe a huge debt to Dave Gilmour in one way or another, and Syd Barrett will always leave a scar on those who joined 'the lemming rush to Psychadelic Rock', Pink Floyd's 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' was an absolutely superb record and probably the best debut for any band, and the only record of it's time that manages to surpass 'Sgt. Pepper' in so many ways. A Saucerful of Secrets was absolutley superb as well, just listen to Part IV of the LP's title track, 'Celestial Voices'. Stunning.

I assume 2/3 of those who haven't heard 'The Final Cut' have simply followed suit and believed the popular myth that it is one of their worst simply because Roger Waters was almost taking complete control of the band and haven't actually heard the record in question! I challenge them to listen to that record and tell me that 'The Gunner's Dream', 'One of the Few', and 'The Fletcher Memorial Home' are not outstanding pieces of music.

1994's 'Division Bell' also had some of their greatest tunes on there, including the classic 'High Hopes', and the 1994/5 tours were the stuff of legend. So to simply cast off their Post-Wall albums is not a wise thing to do, if you don't like missing out on some works of absolute genius.

As you can probably tell, I am a MASSIVE Pink Floyd fan, and personally believe that U2 will never come close to them at any point in their career as I personally feel they will never have the ability (and have never had) the ability to write albums that one can put against 'Dark Side of the Moon' 'Wish you were Here' and 'Animals', three of the greatest records ever commited to vinyl! Until U2 come up with a piece of music that I can say is better than 'Shine on you Crazy Diamond', possibly the greatest song ever written, I will not change my mind...
 
You all knew I was gonna jump in here at some point...

discothequeLP said:
U2 is my favorite band of all, and will always be.

But Pink Floyd is better. Their albums are works of art. No other albums can compare to The Wall, Wish You Were Here, and Dark Side of the Moon.

You are 100% correct.

Hell, Pink Floyd even made Dark Side of the Moon a soundtrack to the Wizard of Oz!

No. No they didn't. It is 100% coincidence. Sure, there are some odd similarites but the Floyd did not ever intend it as a soundtrack for Oz.

I've seen this before, but...



Pink Floyd > (insert deity here) [/B]

That was my doing.

Of course, this is all very subjective, and we could too easily get into an argument about which is "better".

Agreed. Some people will ardently fight with you that Abba had a greater influence on music than Nirvana did.

I will say that I "grew up" with Pink Floyd, in that I remember when all of their albums came out, bought them, and went to their concerts. (I was in the 5th row centre for the Dark Side of the Moon Tour--I never saw so much pot!! AND I still have my ticket stub!)

Please don't drag drugs into this. This has been beat to death and then some. Pink Floyd is NOT a drug band!!! Some people unfortunately have made that connection and it has stuck :(

Given that, I would still have to say, personally, that The Wall and Wish You Were Here never spoke to me the way U2 do. The Wall especially seems like it's just trying way too hard to be clever. It doesn't touch my soul and my heart, and not even very deeply my head. There's a coolness about Pink Floyd that, in the end, and especially as I get older, leaves me cold. I appreciate, maybe even crave, the warmth of U2.

This is subjective as well. I am the opposite. The Wall and WYWH have touched me in many ways. I don't think that The Floyd have a coldness about them. WYWH is all about warmth. It's about the feelings that the band has towards Syd. Granted, it is a loneliness and absence theme, but in the end (especially the last few Hammond notes in SOYCD) it has a warmth, and a feeling of having found what you're looking for.

The Wall onwards all sucked.....and the band was barely over a decade into their career when they released that mediocre album......not to mention some rather puzzling items like most of A Saucerful of Secrets and Ummagumma and you realize that Pink Floyd's discography just doesn't compare to that of U2.

Have you ever heard anything post-Waters?? I don't think you have. Momentary Lapse of Reason, OK, that wasn't that great compared to DSotM or Animals, but it still eclipsed just about anything else coming out in 1987. And The Division Bell rivals just about anything in the DSotM-Wall era.

And I can't understand how you could possibly say The Wall sucks. Do you understand what it's about? Have you listened, really listened to the whole thing from start to finish? I don't think so.

In all, PF is so diverse and so experimental that they have such a varied catalogue. You have on one end of the spectrum "The Gnome" and "Point Me at the Sky", silly songs that are 100% psychedelia, and at the other end you have "One Slip", Take it Back", and "The Final Cut", introspective, slow-y songs.

PF has a much more diverse catalogue than U2 and all of it has proven to be strong, whether it's spacey soundscapes, silly psychedelia, hard driving rock, introspective ballads, or anything else.

apples and oranges. The strenghts of each are entirely different.

100% true.

Actually, U2 haven't made more albums...

Anyway, Pink Floyd are the greatest band in the world. There isn't a single band (except Radiohead) that will over the years take their place. Pink Floyd were never afraid to break the mould or shock people with their original sound and fantastic ideas. All guitarists (The Edge, for instance) owe a huge debt to Dave Gilmour in one way or another, and Syd Barrett will always leave a scar on those who joined 'the lemming rush to Psychadelic Rock', Pink Floyd's 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' was an absolutely superb record and probably the best debut for any band, and the only record of it's time that manages to surpass 'Sgt. Pepper' in so many ways. A Saucerful of Secrets was absolutley superb as well, just listen to Part IV of the LP's title track, 'Celestial Voices'. Stunning.

I assume 2/3 of those who haven't heard 'The Final Cut' have simply followed suit and believed the popular myth that it is one of their worst simply because Roger Waters was almost taking complete control of the band and haven't actually heard the record in question! I challenge them to listen to that record and tell me that 'The Gunner's Dream', 'One of the Few', and 'The Fletcher Memorial Home' are not outstanding pieces of music.

1994's 'Division Bell' also had some of their greatest tunes on there, including the classic 'High Hopes', and the 1994/5 tours were the stuff of legend. So to simply cast off their Post-Wall albums is not a wise thing to do, if you don't like missing out on some works of absolute genius.

As you can probably tell, I am a MASSIVE Pink Floyd fan, and personally believe that U2 will never come close to them at any point in their career as I personally feel they will never have the ability (and have never had) the ability to write albums that one can put against 'Dark Side of the Moon' 'Wish you were Here' and 'Animals', three of the greatest records ever commited to vinyl! Until U2 come up with a piece of music that I can say is better than 'Shine on you Crazy Diamond', possibly the greatest song ever written, I will not change my mind...

Exactly correct in every way. Shine On is the greatest song ever written. Period.

i meant that U2 made more A+ albums then Floyd

Untrue. Look at the facts. The undisputed "great" Pink Floyd albums (the one everyone agrees were absolute masterpieces) are DSotM, WYWH, Animals, The Wall, and The Division Bell. (I think there's more but this is what's generally agreed upon)

For U2, it's The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and possibly War/The Unforgettable Fire and ATYCLB.

If you went up to the random person on the street I bet you they could name more Pink Floyd than they could U2.
 
While I can't really compare U2 to Pink Floyd, I'd say that if you took the best work of both bands Pink Floyd's albums have always felt much more consistent and "whole" to me. I wouldn't give A+ to any U2 album, but I would to The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Animals and Dark Side of the Moon.

Personally I find that there's a strong feeling of coldness and isolation to Pink Floyd's landscapes, but at the same time their songs seem to rebel against it with violent bursts of emotion.
 
Re: Re: Pink Floyd: Better Than U2

DaveC said:
Untrue. Look at the facts. The undisputed "great" Pink Floyd albums (the one everyone agrees were absolute masterpieces) are DSotM, WYWH, Animals, The Wall, and The Division Bell. (I think there's more but this is what's generally agreed upon)

Um...untrue. What you stated was pure opinion and by no means undisputed fact. In my opinion, if you were to ask the general population what the absolute masterpiece PF albums were, you'd most likely get (at the most) 3 as a general consensus - WYWH, DSotM and The Wall. For the PF fan, Animals and Division Bell may be just as high up there, but we're talking general population. As we all know, fans view albums differently from the general population - a fan's masterpiece may be joe consumer's background music.

If you went up to the random person on the street I bet you they could name more Pink Floyd than they could U2.

I'm not so sure about that.
 
Rock will always win out over prog. Pink Floyd had its moments but much of it is self-important rubbish. There's plenty of skill sure, but very little joy or life affirming fun to it.

Perfect example is the Final Cut - Roger we can tell you're a fine musician but enough sour grapes about the war already...
 
Re: Re: Re: Pink Floyd: Better Than U2

Diemen said:


Um...untrue. What you stated was pure opinion and by no means undisputed fact. In my opinion, if you were to ask the general population what the absolute masterpiece PF albums were, you'd most likely get (at the most) 3 as a general consensus - WYWH, DSotM and The Wall. For the PF fan, Animals and Division Bell may be just as high up there, but we're talking general population. As we all know, fans view albums differently from the general population - a fan's masterpiece may be joe consumer's background music.

as part of the general non-pink floyd-worshipping population, i'll say that i've never heard animal or division bell.
 
Fo me U2 is the music of the heart and Pink Floyd is the music of the soul, I wouldn't feel as happy in my music loving life if I didn't have both. Oh yeah 80's Metallica and Megadeth are the adrenaline that keeps the blood flowing. :drool:
 
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both bands take me to a place I love...ii I had to only ever hear one of them againU2

U2 and Pink Floyd
both magnificent
for me
U2 has Bono and his voice and the strength of their songs
and
Pink Floyd have David and his guitar and the strength of their songs
:heart: :bow: :applaud:
bravo to both bands.
 
Exhibit A for the prosecution, your honor

IWasBored said:


as part of the general non-pink floyd-worshipping population, i'll say that i've never heard animal or division bell.

Thanks for illustrating my point there, IWB. :)
 
The man on the street says U2/The Stones or the Beatles, those training to be pschologists say Radiohead and Floyd, shine on (class song) doesnt make me jump up and down, WTStreetsHNN does.........................................
 
um, u2 is definitely not the best band, nor is pink floyd, radiohead, etc.

that distinction belongs to the one and only 'mike and the mechanics'.
 
Elvis Presley said:
coke is better than pepsi

:|

yeah but u2 finally threw away their shananigans from the 90's and are making beautiful soul ballads now, elvis.

oh wait, wrong thread. or is it?

i don't know. do you? :sexywink:
 
I think they are both unique in their own ways. But then again I don't know a lot about Pink Floyd. "The Wall" is a great piece of art, but I am not big on it. I could name so many U2 songs I enjoy, but maybe because I know them more. But yes, Pink Floyd does have works of art!;)
 
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brettig said:
Rock will always win out over prog. Pink Floyd had its moments but much of it is self-important rubbish. There's plenty of skill sure, but very little joy or life affirming fun to it.

:up: :applaud:

Thank you, brettig. I've always felt Pink Floyd lacked passion and soul. I grew up with them, had their records, but they did not hold up for me over time. Today I would not be able to listen to a Pink Floyd record all the way through.
 
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