drug-oriented band?

[Jack Dempsey]

Well i think if you were not taking drugs in the 60's or 70's in the music business you were in the minority. I also think that continues today in most walks of life. Look at bands like the Libertines etc.Back to the question I do think Floyd's early music was influenced by drugs going about at the time.

[nosaj]

When I think about CWTAE and OoTD, I often think of them as total trippy experimental freak-out songs; Let's blow their minds. Paranoia! Fastforward to the Wall, and for me RLH is kind of an update of the total freakout, but not as drug oriented (coincidently there is an interview with Roger on this website that has him explaining that Pink gets a neddle in Comf Numb, and does the show under the influence, including Run Like Hell). So, I would say a little drug experimentation and sound and sound system experimentation in the early days led to a broader field and over lapping fields of experience to draw on later in life. On the run has a similar paranoia feel. If Roger did LSD once, felt paranoid and watched Syd in a paranoid state, then he could recognize the power and even common universal sensation in political terms. Although, one could say trippy things remained a part of the corporate sound of the band. You gotta appease the fans. Well really, the music has remained quite trippy, even TFC is trippy if you ignore the lyrics, but the lyrics are anything but. So they grew up, but remained quite exploratory in sound scapes. They grew by continuing to explore various lyrical and musical textures, yet cannot really cease being them. But there is no reason to believe that ultimately they are a drug oriented band - still they may actually tease that part of their fans sensibility, even on TDB.

[rickm]

Next you'll be telling me there is no Tooth Farie!

That pile of brown goop in the Money video was cake mix.

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There is a HUGE difference between drug influenced and drug addiction. I enjoy an occasional walk through the park, but I don't sleep there.

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Pink Floyd's music can be enjoyed in many states of mind-I especially liked the Ummagumma-Meddle period for the pushing of musical bounderies. I never tripped before enjoying these albums but found endless facination with the sky afterword...

Rick

[Meddler]

Pink Floyd's music helps you open your mind... some say drugs do the same thing- when you combine the two, well lets just say "Look out"

(I'm still trying to clean up!)

[calebgoat]

damn straight

as far as i am concerned pink floyd are indeed a drug orientated band.
a recent article in rolling stone about dark side of the moon used the blurb "behind the classic stoner album" and when the floyd were on the cover of Uncut magazine last june the cover blasted "waters, gilmour, mason and wright on the ultimate stoner classic". when mainstream press is associating drugs with floyd to that extent they have to be drug orientated. i got into floyd through my love of weed. of course my floyd obsession eclipsed my little habit but the point is regardless of how much drugs they actually did the perception of them in the mainstream is one of a drug oreintated band. i say why not? that way, by saying i love listening to floyd i am saying a whole lot more without incriminating myself

[seamusz]

That may be but the fact remains that THE BAND did not use drugs as the center of their band. The perception of the genral media means jack squat.

[nosaj]

Pink Floyd has been good at leaving this question unanswered.

I was lead to believe that Nick Mason's book on PF was stopped by David Gilmour (he's a dad you know - and when Pompeii was re-released in 1988 or so, he mentioned that he was embarassed because his kids would see it - "really, you can trust me" ...), because there was - and I really don't know about the quality of this rumour - mixtures of lsd and heroin in use...yikes, what's that like?

OK whatever...

Listen to the KAOS tour at Wembley Stadium, and what Jim Ladd says in regards to a Syd Barrett song..."what's that, a flash back" (audience roars - obviously some english folk who understand the reference)...exploiting a segment of the market? Were you there when Pink Floyd (copyright1987) performed ON The Run? - the sounds and the visuals...what was that about? Or ending with Run Like Hell? - see Roger's views on ending a show with a quiet number (from 1970 to the present)

Clearly they cringe at their past AND its perception, BUT they also exploit it - on the one hand, its not them anymore, on the other hand it is a part of the history of the band (David Bowie does not regret his experience with drugs, but does not condone its use, even suggesting its bad - but he'd do it again - the times I guess ).

There are actually people who love Keith Richards because of the lifestyle he represents and the drugs AND that he's still alive . I don't think PF represents that lifestyle at any stage of their careers, nor have they ever seemed to endorse it - but has a drug thread or subtext that continues to this day, though I think drugs are a thing of the past for them.

I don't care about the truth on this question, I know it is an element that works for them, and I find the "psychedelic" element good, in so far as the late sixties and early seventies benefitted from a lot of academic work in regards to perception being published - the times were ripe for perceptual experimentation; which does not mean everybody was taking drugs then...most people are in a matrix of experiences where hind-sight brings the truth, but who cares about the past when facing our future?

-we are racing toward the future, looking through a rearview mirror...

nostalgia...hi I'm nosaj

[Sir. Psychedelic Soul]

To quote David Gilmour "Course were not,you can trust us!!!"
This is a bad misconception about the Floyd,apart from Syd of course,but the fact is The Beatles were a more drug oriented band than Pink Floyd.

oh yeah riiight!!!!!!!! when gilmour says that his eye's are all red and he looks like he's about to fall asleep and he's even talking like he's coming down from a high.....