Pink Floyd Thread

[cobl04]

Bookmarked.

So sad that Rick Wright passed away. I reckon we were about six months to a year away from some reunion shows.

The emotional weight he lent to songs like Time and Echoes is very underrated.

[OpenG180]

Originally Posted by djerdap

It deserves to be posted here:

This is wonderful. Thanks!
Sometimes i think that Echoes is the apex of the 70's musical creation. Exaggeration?

[iron yuppie]

Originally Posted by cobl04

So sad that Rick Wright passed away. I reckon we were about six months to a year away from some reunion shows.

The emotional weight he lent to songs like Time and Echoes is very underrated.

Agreed. The synth work on Shine On is just as moving.

Have you heard his solo album Broken China by any chance? It is definitely worth a listen.

[OpenG180]

Rick is looking a lot like George Martin in that clip.

[OpenG180]

Originally Posted by iron yuppie

Agreed. The synth work on Shine On is just as moving.

Have you heard his solo album Broken China by any chance? It is definitely worth a listen.

I'll have to download it now. From what i read, it's a very interesting album.

[cobl04]

So what do people think of this news?

Pink Floyd Announce The Endless River, Their First Record in 20 Years | News | Pitchfork

Bit of sensationalising from Pitchfork, given it's unreleased tracks. I haven't heard Division Bell.

[iron yuppie]

I used to love Division Bell, but my opinion on it has dwindled considerably over the years. I can't see what amounts to a collection of castaways being terribly interesting, but I'll definitely listen to it anyways. With Gilmour and Wright involved, there's bound to be a handful of pretty instrumentals at least.

[RockNRollDawgie]

Very strange indeed. A thread about Pink Floyd with little or no mention at all
of Syd Barrett. My favorite Floyd album is, and will continue to be, The Piper At The
Gates Of Dawn.
Although, the first album I heard was "Meddle."( Another one of my favorites)
It was in high school. I had cut school with a girl from my art class. We both
did some "chemical refreshments" and she put in a tape of "Meddle" in her
car. By the time "Echoes" started, I was hooked. I went out and bought "Meddle"
the next day and worked my way backwards and bought their entire music catalog.
By the time I reached "The Piper At That Gates Of Dawn," I instantly fell in love
with the songs of Syd Barrett. It's a shame he self-destructed.

[MrPryck2U]

Originally Posted by iron yuppie

I used to love Division Bell, but my opinion on it has dwindled considerably over the years. I can't see what amounts to a collection of castaways being terribly interesting, but I'll definitely listen to it anyways. With Gilmour and Wright involved, there's bound to be a handful of pretty instrumentals at least.

I kind of feel the same way. Division Bell was a solid album, but I'd rather hear something "new" from Floyd. Not a bunch of B-Sides from 20 years ago that they're actually calling a new album.

[cobl04]

There's quite a few news outlets who are making out as if this is a new album. Buzzfeed implied that the band was recording a new album. Frustrating.

From the official website:

Pink Floyd can confirm that they are releasing a new album, The Endless River, in October 2014. It is an album of mainly ambient and instrumental music based on the 1993/4 Division Bell sessions which feature David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright. The album is produced by David Gilmour with Phil Manzanera, Youth and recording engineer Andy Jackson. Work is still in progress, but more details to come at the end of the summer.

This has me a bit more jazzed.

[DaveC]

To me this is similar to when Opel was released and they called it "new material from Syd Barrett", although it was a collection of cleaned up outtakes. A few good moments to be sure but certainly non-essential.

Nothing gets the music press going more than calling it "new" Pink Floyd, to me it will always just be a collection of studio out takes. There's nothing wrong with that, but let's call it what it is.

At this point I'm a bit relieved that this isn't truly new material, because honestly with Rick out of the picture it would be a David Gilmour solo album under another name. I don't really care for much of his solo stuff so I don't think I would enjoy it.


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[phanan]

It seems that Gilmour and Waters have a more cordial relationship now. Perhaps Waters could add some lyrics to these pieces and create some new material that way.

With this approach, all four members would be involved with one last PF project.

[DaveC]

Originally Posted by phanan

It seems that Gilmour and Waters have a more cordial relationship now. Perhaps Waters could add some lyrics to these pieces and create some new material that way.

With this approach, all four members would be involved with one last PF project.

Pigs will fly before Waters ever works in a studio with Gilmour again.

[phanan]

I remember you saying something along the same lines before they got back together for the Live 8 performance...

[DaveC]

Originally Posted by phanan

I remember you saying something along the same lines before they got back together for the Live 8 performance...

I was skeptical and (thankfully) proven wrong about that.

But spending a few hours together rehearsing and playing one four-song live show is an entirely different beast than having to spend days/weeks together in a studio arguing about what level the 2nd slide guitar should be at. Even that was difficult and a bit tense according to Nick.

If you've read Inside Out, Nick Mason says basically the same thing, that by the time of the Wall tour the four of them (well, three if you don't count Rick on the Wall tour) avoided each other at all costs and essentially never saw each other. The studio is where most of the acrimony that actually split the band came about, and even then they tried to record their parts separately so that they would spend as little time together as possible.

I will say it again - you will never have Waters and Mason and Gilmour collaborating on an album together. That much I am absolutely certain of. One single song, maybe, but that I think would be something in the vein of David providing a solo and Nick a backing track for a "Roger Waters featuring David Gilmour & Nick Mason"-type single and them giving the proceeds to charity.

I honestly just think they're tired of working with each other. They don't need the money anymore, they're old men, and they don't want to put up with the grief and stress that would be involved. I can't say blame them, I'm tired of the vast majority of the people I work with and I've only been here since January.

[cobl04]

I really felt that, before Rick Wright died, that there was going to be a reunion. Not a new album, but I really thought they would reunite for a relatively harmonious world tour. At the time Roger Waters to me really seemed to be letting go of a lot of the hatred he'd built up, he performed on stage with David Gilmour, and I distinctly remember an interview or two where he floated the idea of getting the band back together. He actually seemed more keen than Gilmour. And then Rick Wright passed away and it nixed any chance of a reunion.

[bono_212]

That seems to be the general thought, from what I've noticed, that they almost got back together, right before Wright's death.

[DaveC]

I think a lot of the tension was on David's end rather than Roger who usually gets all the blame. From my understanding Roger was trying to take total control of the band and effectively turn the others into session players who simply played whatever Roger told them to. David resented that as he felt (rightly so, IMO) that he had made a large enough contribution since joining in '68 that he should not be just told "here's the sheet music, play along". I think Roger just wanted it his way or the highway and David (and Nick to a lesser extent) was the one who pushed back which caused a lot of the issues. If Gilmour and Mason had simply gone along with Waters I am certain that Radio KAOS and Amused to Death (Pros/Cons was already ready for release as a Roger solo album by the time things fell apart) would have been "Pink Floyd" albums just for the selling power that existed behind the PF name, and AMLOR/Div Bell just wouldn't exist at all.

That's why I think most of the apprehension around a reunion of any kind seemed mainly to come from the Gilmour camp. In fact in Inside Out Mason recounts the whole idea as coming from Roger and Bob Geldof before Live 8, and David was the one who needed all the convincing.

Like I said, I just get the sense from their interviews that they've moved on in their lives, and don't feel that anything that comes out of a tense recording session would really be worth it. They certainly don't need the money.

To be honest I think an album of genuinely new "Pink Floyd" songs would well and truly be awful. I'm sure it would probably sell a TON, but it would suck. I'm happy with High Hopes being the last "real" song on the last "real" Pink Floyd album, it seems like a very appropriate closer.

[cobl04]

You sort of seem to be implying there that Gilmour should have just gone along with it, which is ridiculous. He, Wright and Mason were crucial members of the band and no fucking way should they have just swallowed their pride and done what Waters told them to.

[DaveC]

Originally Posted by cobl04

You sort of seem to be implying there that Gilmour should have just gone along with it, which is ridiculous. He, Wright and Mason were crucial members of the band and no fucking way should they have just swallowed their pride and done what Waters told them to.

Oh lord no, I didn't mean to imply that at all. If anything I think Gilmour is even a big underrated in terms of his contribution to the band and to the techniques of electric guitar. I basically learned how to play lead guitar by figuring out how to play David's (as well as The Edge and a few other guitarists like Page, the Beatles, and Clapton's) parts and playing along with the recordings. The day I figured out how to play the riff from Run Like Hell completely by ear was one of my proudest moments when I was learning.

Of course David owes an enormous debt to Syd (basically everything he played on Saucerful and before as well could have rather easily been written by a lucid Syd) but he took the foundation that Syd laid and built a fabulous output on top of it that's all his own.

I can't say enough about Gilmour. So no, he absolutely should have stood up for himself, if not more so, as I think The Final Cut would have been much better with more guitar and less maudlin.

I agree that all four band members were utterly crucial, and removing any one of them (pre-1983, anyways) would have destroyed their output. Even Mason, especially in the early (65-72) years, is completely irreplaceable, the same way that U2 could never just stick another bass player in Adam's spot and have it be remotely close to what it is now and has been, even though Adam's bass parts could be played probably just as well by a 16 year old with a few weeks' practice.


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