pink floyd

A very influencial and ground breaking band, formed in the 60's. Named after two bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, Pink Floyd's main lineup included Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason. Though, the original lead guitar and frontman was the genious Syd Barret, who was replaced by Gilmour around 1968, due to his excessive LSD use. Pink Floyd was one of the first, if not the first (to do it as much as they did), band to begin to experiment with unusual/electronic sounds. This helped to give them their otherwordly sound, and gave them the label as 'Space Rock' or 'Psychadelic' music. In 1973, two years after the release of 'Meddle' (one of their more melodic albums), 'Dark Side of the Moon' debued (which was actually performed live once, a year before) reached #1 on the charts in the USA, and remained on the charts for an astonishing 741 weeks. 'Dark Side' has sold well over 30 million albums to date. 'Wish You Were Here', the next album, was basically a tribute to the long departed Syd Barret, followed by 'Animals'. Both albums brought the ideas of social insecurites and fears, the same seen in 'Dark Side of the Moon' to a more full frontal view. 'Another Brick in the Wall' considered to be the best concept album of all time, came next, this time the album was based on the walls people build around themselves to protect them from the cruelty of society and life. There was also a movie made to illustrate the album, with no spoken dialouge, just the album playing throughout. In the 80's, the band broke up after Water's leave (mainly due to him becomming a megalomaniac of sorts, and wanting too much control over the band. This did not sit well with David Gilmour in particular). Even without their main songwriter, they did get a top 5 album ('A Momentary Lapse of Reason') The band has only played together with the original lineup (discounting Syd Barret) once since the break up, at the Live 8 concert in July, 2005. Some of the major Pink Floyd hit songs include- Time Money Wish You Were Here Comfortably Numb (Which, as a side note, was NOT written about being stoned. It was about a time when Roger Waters had a sickness when he was a child, and it caused him to have the symptoms mentioned in the song.)