Influences on Pink Floyd

General discussion about Pink Floyd.
scarecrow
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by scarecrow »

The Show Must Go On seems to reference the main melody and harmony arrangement of Simon and Garfunkel's 'Only Living Boy in New York', right?

I don't know whether Simon and Garfunkel were necessarily a significant influence, but I think Simon's writing precedes Waters' conceptualising around themes of alienation, commentary on psycho-societal strains, existential angst, disintegrating interpersonal relations etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5biEjyXNa2o
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by scarecrow »

I'm mildly curious whether the title Let There Be More Light references this film about soldiers' experiences of PTSD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiD6bnqpJDE

That would fit with Waters' interests, but maybe not and although the film was made in 1946 it was apparently unavailable for thirty years?

Some good lyrical analysis here https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-let-there ... ght-lyrics

And here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_There_Be_More_Light
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space triangle
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by space triangle »

These two guys? Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Barrett was a fan of blues artists. They maybe influenced Syd more than with their names?

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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

This is just speculation, since it includes the line Rabbit run, run rabbit, rabbit run by. It was recorded at Abbey Road at the same time as Piper, and was the last Hollies album to feature Graham Nash (for 15 years or so). He quit the band after a big argument in the studio, while none other than David Gilmour was sitting around playing backgammon. The rest of the band didn't like "Marrakesh Express", so he jumped ship and immediately formed Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and not as immediately, Young).

https://youtu.be/yIBUU_52lxE
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space triangle
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by space triangle »

An obvious influence on Pink Floyd's David Gilmour when he wrote 'Fat Old Sun' were Kinks, and their song 'Lazy Old Sun'.

David Gilmour: ''"Maybe I ripped it off subconsciously. Who knows. They never sued me."

David Gilmour: “I remember,”thinking at the time,‘What have I ripped this off? I’m sure it’s by the Kinks or someone’ But since whenever it was – 1968, ’69 – no one has ever yet said, ‘It’s exactly like this.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnXjxtfKFDM
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

space triangle wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 5:59 pm An obvious influence on Pink Floyd's David Gilmour when he wrote 'Fat Old Sun' were Kinks, and their song 'Lazy Old Sun'.
Other than the title, are there any other similarities between the two songs?
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space triangle
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by space triangle »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 7:28 pmOther than the title, are there any other similarities between the two songs?
I'm wondering about it, as well. Is it just the song title, or...? I dunno, for sure. To me, the songs don't sound too much similar.
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

I know Gilmour has mentioned that The Kinks had also used the sound of church bells on a track - and it's actually the same recording of church bells as "Fat Old Sun", since they were all using the same sound library. I believe it's also the same recording used on "High Hopes", but I'm sure that was intentional - just as Gilmour had used the same recording of his "seagull" sound effect (of his wah pedal plugged in backwards and self-oscillating) from "Echoes" on both "Is There Anybody Out There?" and "Marooned".
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by raisemyrent »

Holy. Great thread. Some of them, especially at the beginning of the thread, are pretty clear influences to me.
Great find on the lost for words video; where does that come from? I didn’t think it was released or even existed. Didn’t Jon Carin even question the authenticity of the version included in the later years? Hard to believe there’s what looks like a pulse rehearsal, professionally shot video for it.
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:01 am A definite influence on "Two Suns in the Sunset", and more.

https://youtu.be/sPYsMM1FvXs
scarecrow
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by scarecrow »

This recently reissued thing is strangely really similar to the opening of Echoes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNaGqqaKaG8

Apparently recorded at home by Langhorne in 1969, but The Hired Hand movie didn't come out until 1971, maybe just a coincidental similarity...
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by Keith Jordan »

I thought I was listening to Echoes! <.8.>
Jimi Dean Barrett
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

scarecrow, that is an immense find! I'm still thinking "What the...?"!
<.8.>
scarecrow
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by scarecrow »

Ha, yeah, it is amazing quite how similar the very beginning phrase is...

And that afaik nobody online has highlighted the similarity before. I was trying to think of whether/ how the Floyd could have heard this between it's recording and before the Hired Hand movie release in 1971.

It strikes me as the sort of thing which could be on their radar, maybe in terms of honing their own soundtracking craft through listening to contemporaries. And whilst Bruce Langhorne and this album have a slightly obscure, cult status, he was part of the 60s Greenwich Village/ Dylan wave and apparently the actual Mr Tambourine Man.

If the band actually did directly pilfer this (rather than say, it being a thing lodged in the subconscious), I don't really mind, in the sense that it's kind of just a jumping off point for the Echoes suite, right?

Or could this have travelled in the other direction? I think Echoes was developed during early 1971 in the studio with those high octave piano notes as the starting point?

https://www.theguardian.com/arts/friday ... 16,00.html
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space triangle
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Re: Influences on Pink Floyd

Post by space triangle »

So, Roger Waters has no reason to be angry at A.L. Webber for ripping of from 'Echoes' for his 'Phantom of the Opera'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlhUob7ZERI

We cower in our shelters
With our hands over our ears
Lloyd-Webber's awful stuff
Runs for years and years and years
An earthquake hits the theatre
But the operetta lingers
Then the piano lids comes down
And break his fucking fingers
It's a miracle