PINK FLOYD ARE/AREN'T A PSYCHEDELIC ROCK BAND!

[J Ed]

just in case anybody ever gets bored with that other thread

sometimes I tell people Im into Floyd, and they give me a smug knowing look and say "of course you are, we all guessed you were a braindamaged burnt out acid casualty, and your choice in music officially confims it"
to which Ill either say "but this is outrageous! harrumph, how dare you suggest such a thing, I shall consult my attorney" or "judge me on my productivity and contributions to society, not my choice of intoxicants, ... man", depending on how confident I am I could pass a urinalysis test at any given moment

but them Floyds do have that reputation dont they?
do they deserve it or not?
and what the heck is a psychedelic rock band anyway?

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

"We were third on the bill to Big Brother & The Holding Company and Richie Havens. When Big Brother went on I couldn't believe it. I was expecting something way out and it was bluesy country-rock. I was amazed. I expected them to be different. It was kind of 'chunka chunka chunka...' with Janis Joplin singing the blues. I was expecting something really extraordinary and mind blowing and tripping?" Roger Waters.

A lot of blues acts used psychedelic artwork but not quite psychedelic sounds. (Hello Cream! Hello Ten Years After! Hello virtually any band that wasn't Greatful Dead and Country Joe & The Fish!)
They didn't get it as bang on as Jimi Hendrix did. I would say as a live band Pink Floyd were psychedelic. Their records saw that grounded by Norman Smith.

If Pink Floyd aren't a psychedelic band then... perhaps Gong were?
I voted yes. Syd pretty much lived it by accident an his management were too soft to stand up for him. (As I have been led to believe)

[danielcaux]

The Floyd was a psychedelic english rock band from 1966 'til 1967. After that year they evolved into a Krautrock pop band, with some prog elements here and there. Then it came Dark Side of The Moon, and at that point I don't longer know how to classify them. Progressive pop perhaps.

But yeah, the Syd years pretty much define how a real psychedelic rock band was supposed to sound. All those californian hippies were waaaay to much into country and blues. If that is what psychedelic means then I guess Floyd only really became psychedelic with Gilmour's arrival, paradoxically, during the More/Zabriskie Point years.

Problem solved!

[mosespa]

Pink Floyd are Psychedelic as Pfuck, imo.

To me, the label "Psychedelic" is less about a particular style of music and more about the effect that the music can be said to have.

Upon it's arrival, it was said that psychedelic music was music specifically crafted to simulate and even enhance the drug experience. Some artists denied it, others admitted it and still others said "man, we're just making music that interests us, allows us to express ourselves and at the same time push some boundaries; call it whatever you want to."

I don't think that there's any band more closely related to the drug experience than Pink Floyd. Perhaps the Grateful Dead, but I have to say that I know of at least one guy (being me,) who passed through the drug culture loving PF and not really considering The Dead as being "essential" to the experience.

But I don't know a single Dead fan who wouldn't listen to DSOTM while engaging in whatever recreational pharmaceuticals they happen to prefer.

I'm not that keen on The Doors, either...but I digress.

PATGOD is one of the quintessential psychedelic albums; I don't think anyone here would argue that.

Whether or not Pink Floyd "tried" to create psychedelic music afterward is anyone's guess. They said that they weren't tailoring their music to that end, but I'm sure they were well enough aware of that segment of their audience to make sure that they kept them happy, too.

[Flying pig437]

They were in the early days. Not sure if AHM is or Meddle. I'd say from OBV onwards they were a fairly conventional rock band writing fairly conventional music. Or put in other words the songs were structured and didn't evolve out of jams a'la the true psychedelic stuff like IO SFOS and CWTAE.

[Flying pig437]

The Floyd was a psychedelic english rock band from 1966 'til 1967. After that year they evolved into a Krautrock pop band, with some prog elements here and there. Then it came Dark Side of The Moon, and at that point I don't longer know how to classify them. Progressive pop perhaps.

But yeah, the Syd years pretty much define how a real psychedelic rock band was supposed to sound. All those californian hippies were waaaay to much into country and blues. If that is what psychedelic means then I guess Floyd only really became psychedelic with Gilmour's arrival, paradoxically, during the More/Zabriskie Point years.

Problem solved!

I'd say most of Syd era Floyd was pretty conventional musically i.e structred songs of 2-3 mins. duration. I'd even go so far as to say the only psychedelic thing Syd ever played on was IO. Then again lyrically he was very psychedelic.

[nosaj]

Pink Floyd worked "psychedelic" into their music all the way to the end...think about all the siound collages.

[J Ed]

Whether or not Pink Floyd "tried" to create psychedelic music afterward is anyone's guess. They said that they weren't tailoring their music to that end, but I'm sure they were well enough aware of that segment of their audience to make sure that they kept them happy, too.

Id say they most deliberately did exploit that expectation
they got one song they breaks down into abstract electronic weirdness based on a dogs howl, with the word "STONE ... STONE ... STONE" repeating for about 5 minutes
they got another song that for years opened either the 1st or 2nd set with the opening line "breathe, breathe in the air" ... folks if youve never been to a Pink Floyd concert, trust me when a set begins half the audience sparks up and the half that dont involuntarily consume more 2nd hand pot smoke than they ever breathed in before in their lives ... and then they switch on them damn VCS3s and the Azimuth Coordinator!
or check out this cartoon Roger used in his 1984 tour ... (looks alot like the old Heffalumps and Woozels animation from Winnie the Pooh) ... at 3:40 Reg the Dog smokes a doob in front of his impressionable young pups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MOuIz2CFGE

I'd say most of Syd era Floyd was pretty conventional musically i.e structred songs of 2-3 mins. duration. I'd even go so far as to say the only psychedelic thing Syd ever played on was IO. Then again lyrically he was very psychedelic.

its the most experimental freeform thing that got recorded and released ... from my understanding, Syds Floyd live was mostly like that and not much at all like the Piper album
Id still say Syds freakout guitar solos on those "conventionally structured" 3minute toons were very pyschedelic, but again we're going to need a definition
from what I understand, a lot of what the SydFloyd were doing in 1966 were based on rumours of what was going on in San Francisco, before any of them had a chance to see the scene over there for themselves, and they ended up inventing something altogether different
also, I think a song can be psychedelic even with a conventional structure, as long as it has a certain type of sound, eg Lucy in the Sky ... I cant define that sound though
in the mid80s punk era bands put out neopsychedelic albums that mostly had 3 minute songs but had that sound, eg Siouxie's A Kiss in the Dreamhouse or XTC's SkyLarking ... somehow everybody who heard these two albums recognised they were going for a psychedelic sound


just for example, heres what the EverReliableWikiEtc says:

As a musical style psychedelic rock often contains some of the following features:
* electric guitars, often used with feedback, wah wah and fuzzboxes;
* elaborate studio effects, such as backwards tapes, panning, phasing, long delay loops, and extreme reverb;
* exotic instrumentation, with a particular fondness for the sitar and tabla;
* a strong keyboard presence, especially organs, harpsichords, or the Mellotron (an early tape-driven 'sampler');
* a strong emphasis on extended instrumental solos or jams;
* more complex song structures, key and time signature changes, modal melodies and drones;
* surreal, whimsical, esoterically or literary-inspired, lyrics.

well that could describe just about anything couldnt it?
alot of crossover with the progressive rock definition, though, but I think Floyd music may be better described by the above

[Massed Gadgets]

I would say Pink Floyd definitely started out as a psychedelic band (at least as far as their studio recordings with Syd went). Piper, as someone mentioned above is considered one of the quintessential psychedelic albums of the 60's. But even by their very eclecticism on post-Syd albums, you could still say they were psychedelic. But I think they pushed beyond the boundaries of psychedelic rock into other more diverse areas and styles as well. Floyd were one of those bands who seemed to be able to do almost any kind of music. While other psychedelic rock bands of the 60's sputtered and flamed out or changed their sound to more conventional pop or hard rock, Pink Floyd continued to push those boundaries, constantly redefining what rock music in general was, and that's what made them so special.

[LSD]

I don't think that there's any band more closely related to the drug experience than Pink Floyd. Perhaps the Grateful Dead, but I have to say that I know of at least one guy (being me,) who passed through the drug culture loving PF and not really considering The Dead as being "essential" to the experience.

But I don't know a single Dead fan who wouldn't listen to DSOTM while engaging in whatever recreational pharmaceuticals they happen to prefer.

I have to agree that Pink Floyd and psychedelic go together like cereal and milk. (It is breakfast time here, sorry) But if you for one minute don't think that Deadheads passed PF by on a regular basis, well ...

All I can say is ... Pittsburgh must not be like the rest of the world.

I know a bunch. I'm not saying they wouldn't have listened to DSOTM - but it wouldn't have been common. Not around here, anyway.

[svor]

Then it came Dark Side of The Moon, and at that point I don't longer know how to classify them. Progressive pop perhaps.

(imagine violin pupil on the day of first lesson)

For any given (significant) band in history you can put some link to other... just to compare it's music to something familiar.... except Pink Floyd. They are unique, in all (let's say 3) phases of their work. They were psychedelic, progressive, sometimes pop, sometimes folk... but unique. And all that just because of one thing - perfect COMBINATION of (mainly) Roger and Dave, and (the rest of percentage ) Rick and Nick...
(sorry if I made the whole history of Pink Floyd that short)

P.S. Of course DSOTM and WYWH are the best rock albums of all times, maybe the only albums which you can even dare to compare (hey, it rhymes! ) with the best of classical music.

[AlbumShirtGuy]

The Syd era was totally psychedeic.

[my breakfast.]

They invented British psychedelia, the heavy Hawkwind stuff. They also influenced the krautrock genre. I was schooled in Hawkwind's Space Ritual before I heard the Grateful Dead's Live/Dead. The lack of primal drumming and heavy stuff was surprising!

[danielcaux]

To me, the label "Psychedelic" is less about a particular style of music and more about the effect that the music can be said to have.

...I don't think that there's any band more closely related to the drug experience than Pink Floyd.

What does that exactly mean? That their music is inherintly psychedelic (mind manifesting/liberating)? Or just that there are a bunch of drug users that like to get high while listening to them?

For me no kind of music is inherently "mind liberating", you could perfectly listen to Beethoven or Miles Davis on LSD and have an equally dramatic trip as any Floyd related trip.

Psychedelic Music for me is just a style, and IMO Pink Floyd left behind that style around 1968. Even Barrett left it too around the same time.

[Idisaffect]

Most people seem to disagree on the meaning of words when those words are applied to music. For example, no two people in the entire world can agree on what "Emo" means, or if it's even a real word. "Prog" Rockers can't even agree on what key or time signature to play in (why do you think there are so many changes in a typical prog rock song?), never mind what the word progressive might actually mean.

Some observers have referred to pink floyd as a psychodramatic band. I see their point.

One listen to DSOTM will tell you that pink floyd, at least in 1973, dabbled with psychophysiological music. I'm glad they did. I think they were quite successful.

I've heard it argued (not without the influence of certain herbs, I hasten to add) that the floyd are a psychopathological band. Listening to The Wall, I can't disagree.

A girl I know thinks that pink floyd is a psychoactive band. They certainly have a way of affecting the listeners mental processes.

You'd be unlikely to meet someone who would classify pink floyd as a psychosexual band. They just don't sing about sex very often. Rick Wrights lyrics notwithstanding.

I've yet to meet anyone who would NOT call the floyd creators of psychosomatic music. The band itself is the physical symptom and the cause of this symptom originates in the emotional state of the band's leaders.

There are those who refer to pink floyd simply as a psychogenic band. Considering the current climate of music snobbery it's very brave of them, really.

It could be argued that the floyd are playing psychometric music. I will leave that argument to those of you who enjoy measuring and testing stuff.

Conclusion:
It's obvious to me that Pink Floyd is a Pterodactyl band.
Pink floyd is an extinct flying reptile. Glorious in their time but never to be seen in the flesh again.



Footnote:
Most pink floyd fans have not heard the rare, yet still obtainable, Allen's Pterodactyl Breakfast (1970), which is actually quite a bit "trippier" than the song Allen's Pyschedelic Breakfast from Atom Heart Mother.