Crazy Diamonds

A Tribute to 30 Years Pink Floyd

By Steven Van Impe

In 1984, it was front page news in Great Britain: Roger Waters had left Pink Floyd. Many thought that this was the end of the group. Roger had been responsible for the greatest success of the group : The Wall, which gave them a new image and greater popularity throughout the world. He had also written the lyrics of The Dark Side Of The Moon, the album that made the great break-through in America. But only some seemed to remember that Pink Floyd had already survived the loss of a key member, in the early beginning: after only two years, the band had to give up their founder, Syd Barrett, who had become too unstable. Most of the Pink Floyd albums are based on these experiences of loss and sorrow. This article is a recapitulation of the history of this unlucky band.

Table of contents

The Syd Barrett Era

1. Early Singles

In 1966, Syd and Roger came back to London from Cambridge University. They had featured in a couple of ephemeral university groups, and had a little experience in respectively song-writing and guitar-handling. In London, they gathered a group which they named Pink Floyd, and they started with small concerts. They engaged Richard Wright for the keyboards and Nick Mason for drums and percussion. Soon they were spotted by a manager, Norman Smith, who managed (that's his job) to get them a concert in the UFO-club, the famous underground club in London. They did pretty well, and started to record singles. The songs by Syd Barrett were appreciated by the younger generations, and soon they had a top-ten notation: Arnold Llayne reached number six in the ranks. (Numbers one through five were probably occupied by The Beatles.) They had some other successes, among which See Emily Play. They were invited to do some radio-interviews, and even participated in a TV-show.

Every successful group is finally spotted by some large record company, and EMI thought they could use the Floyd. They were engaged and invited to use the studios at Abbey Road for an album.

2. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

And thus they produced their first album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, next to the studio where the Beatles were recording Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Rick Wright, who didn't use to think much of pop music, changed his opinion because of this Beatles-stunt.

For the Piper, they used songs from singles and new songs, most of them written by Syd Barrett. It was a tremendous success, they were invited for radio sessions and TV-shows, even from the German TV. But by this times, Syd had begun to use drugs. He took so many, that he came in a kind of constant stoned situation. Sometimes, on a concert, he just stood there, without moving, without even moving his lips with the playback songs. They had to engage a kind of stand-in, and that was David Gilmour. Dave had been a close friend of the group, and he had been on most of their concerts. At that time, he was working as a truck driver. Nick addressed him after a concert, asking him if he would like to join them, because there were some problems. Dave accepted.

 3. Exit Syd, Enter Dave : Saucerful of Secrets

So from the on, Pink Floyd had 5 members. David became the second lead singer and guitarist, while Roger took the bass guitar. Syd Barrett seemed to cheer up a bit, because he had less responsibilities, but in fact it was a nightmare to the rest of the band. Sometimes he said he had written a new song, and then the band was enthusiastic, and asked him if he could teach them. So Syd played it for them, and it was a great song. But when they tried it in group, Syd changed it, every time they restarted it seemed to be another number.

In this situation, they recorded their second album, A Saucerful Of Secrets. Most of the songs are written by Waters and Wright, the instrumentals are done by Roger, Rick, Nick and Dave, without Syd. Only one of them is by Syd: Jugband Blues, in which he seems to realise it is over for him.

One day he came into the studio, and said all they had to do was to give him two saxophone players, and the band would become bigger than the Beatles. That was the last drop, and on the next concert they left Syd at home. They wouldn't see him for 7 years.

Peace And Quiet - Part One

1. From Ummagumma to Meddle

After the resignation of Syd Barrett, the group was a bit at a loss what to do next. They weren't very good at writing songs, so they started to improvise numbers, which they recorded, remixed, put together and played again. This explains why there are so many large instrumental songs in this period of time: A Saucerful Of Secrets, Atom Heart Mother Suite, One Of These Days and Echoes. But together with Syd the band had not only lost their text writer, but also their managers, who had thought that without Syd, there was no band. So they took whatever job they could get, and got involved in the movie business. They had already done the music for a movie with Syd, La Vallée, in 1968. The songs of this movie were gathered in an album called Obscured By Clouds. They had liked the job, and soon they started for another movie, called More (1969). Especially Dave Gilmour and Rick Wright liked it very much, and they would later arrange the next movie: Zabriskie Point (1973). They made lots of songs for this picture, but only a couple of them were used by the director. In this movie, there is a scene of buildings and tv's exploding very slowly. Dave thought it was a marvellous effect they could use in their shows, and he kept it in memory.

In 1969, they brought out Ummagumma, which consisted of two parts: a recorded live concert with previous works, most of them Syd Barrett's, and a studio album with new work. For this second part, every member of the group had got half a side of a long-playing record, which he could fill with his own ideas. It was very experimental, and as most of them would later admit, very bad music.

In 1970 there was Atom Heart Mother, with the magnificent Atom Heart Mother Suite, which starts as a classical number, with brass parties who are later joined by drums and guitars. It also has a choir. On their tourney, which even went to America, they had to take a whole symphonic orchestra with them. Nick Mason tells that they had to record the whole Suite in one piece, because EMI was switching from 8 to 12 tracks on their recording tapes, and they weren't sure if they could mix them without problems. Nick concludes: "except for the choral singers, I wouldn't go for it again !"

The next year, in 1971, they decided to go easy with the next album. So they only did some improvisations. Originally, the songs were called Nothing, part 1 through 36. For the first number, One Of These Days, they needed two bass guitars, but one of them was very old. So they sent out a roadie to fetch a new one, but after five hours of waiting (!), they decided to go along with the old one. The result can fortunately only be heard by more experienced ears.

The first side of the record has five numbers on it, the second side only one: Echoes. It is a modest kind of Atom Heart Mother Suite, without the classical orchestra. Echoes is important because in the last chorus, we can hear the melody that will later be used for Breathe, one of the songs of The Dark Side Of The Moon.

 2. A Turning Point : The Dark Side Of The Moon

The Floyd took a year's rest, in which they didn't make a new album. They would continue doing this, with growing intervals. At present, the interval between to albums with new works is 6 years.

After this year, they started working on The Dark Side Of The Moon, one of their greatest successes. It assured their breakthrough in America, where it stayed in the top 200 for 14 years.

This album is in many ways completely new: it is the first album where the Floyd used a central theme (going crazy), it is the first one with samples, it is the first one that was almost completely planned before they started working on it.

It had everything to be the perfect album: great music, a great show, and... a great cover. This cover is designed by Storm Thorgersson, who had already designed some covers for them and from then on continued doing so. Storm had made several designs, very complicated and great-looking, and he had displayed them all over his room. When the group came in to make their choice, they all went to this cover. Storm was rather upset, because it was so simple, it had cost him only five minutes, while he had worked for hours on the others. In fact, he had just copied it out of a physics book. But the band had decided: it would be this cover. And it also proved to be very popular: still, this T-shirt is the best-selling of all the PR-products.

Today, this album appears to Roger as the beginning of the end: they had reached America, they couldn't do better, so what was the point at trying to ? Besides, it had made clear that there was something going on between the band and the public. The Floyd had always known that they weren't very spectacular on stage, so they used big shows to keep the fans busy. For example, in On The Run, a song in The Dark Side Of The Moon, all lights suddenly went out, and two spotlights catch a fighter aeroplane that flies over the public, burning, and the crashes on the stage. The public went mad with enthusiasm.

On the other hand, the American public wasn't like the European: they only came for the numbers they wanted to hear. So when the band tried to play one of the slower songs, like Us and Them, the fans weren't listening, but they were screaming and yelling to play their favourite songs (mostly Time and Money). Especially Roger couldn't stand it, and he started yelling back, and he actually spat on a member of the public. (This he would later use in the text of another song, Dogs, in the Animals album).

 3. Remembrance : Wish You Were Here

Now that they had accomplished their dreams, everybody thought about Syd Barrett: what a shame it was, that he wasn't with them anymore. They expressed these feelings in their next album, Wish You Were Here (1975). The you in the title, which also appears in the texts of the five songs, refers to Syd. The first number, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, part I, is still played as the first song of almost every Pink Floyd concert. It is a great opening song: first we here a long keyboard-chord, that lasts for three minutes. After one and a half minute, there is the first guitar, that breaks through the keyboard sounds. After the three minutes, when the keyboard fades away, we hear the second guitar: four very simple notes, with a tremendous impact. Those four notes, which accidentally fell out of David's guitar, as he tells us, start a snowball-effect: they are repeated a couple of times, a little faster, and are then accompanied by the drums. Hereafter, the song is going, and every member of the band has made his appearance. The fact that they still play it, expresses the feeling that Syd Barrett is still considered as the fifth member of the group.

As a matter of fact, Syd did reappear: while the group was recording the Wish You Were Here album, he suddenly appeared in the studio. Nobody recognised him, until suddenly someone stumbled: "My G-d, it's Syd!". The members are still quarrelling about who spotted him first.

Syd, who had always been a handsome fellow, had changed radically: he had become fat, bald, and he had lost the light he had always seemed to have in his eyes. (This last expression comes from Lost for Words, a number of the Division Bell album, which proves that the band still thinks of Syd a lot.)

Syd sayd that he wanted to see back his old pals now that they had had their first great success. But he also pointed out that he didn't want to join the band again, and that he didn't want to talk about the past. This is what his answering machine still replies to journalists. As a consequence, the band haven't seen him since that day at Abbey Road.

Rick Wright: "I still hope that one day, he will walk into my room and say: Hi Rick, I'm ready to play in the band again."

The Wish You Were Here album is certainly the most powerful album the Floyd ever made, because it expresses the feeling of the loss of a great friend very intense.

The Roger Waters Era

1. The beginning of the end : The Animals (1977)

In the Animals show(1977), the Floyd works with inflatable scenery: they made a giant inflatable pig, which appeared suddenly over the stage, accompanied by the smell of dung. This pig was also used to create the cover, where it flies over the Battersea power station. There is a really funny anecdote linked to this cover.

They had made sure nothing could go wrong: they had attached the pig to thick ropes, and had even hired a sharp-shooter. But the pig wouldn't fly. The next day, they tried again, but because they had a lower budget, they didn't hire the shooter. The pig went up, escaped and flew away.

It was spotted by several pilots above Heathrow airport, bringing great confusion to the air traffic, and flew away eastwards. At dusk, it landed in Holland, near a farmer who was bringing in his cows. The farmer took the pig with him, and locked it up in a barn. He warned the police, who were informed of the fugitive airpig, and so it came back into possession of the group. No, it wasn't a commercial stunt.

About this period, the feeling of unity the band had had in the previous years, began to crack: they had accomplished their dream of going to the States, and made two very good albums. They had felt the feeling of emptiness in the Wish You Were Here album, which wasn't very popular with the general public. Roger had always written most of the lyrics, because he was good at it, but now he started to feel it as his natural duty, while the others could write the music, and perform. Especially Rick Wright felt this very firmly in Animals where he thought Roger was pushing him away from the process of creation. But for Pink Floyd, every member had always been equal: there was no appointed text writer, or singer, everybody could do it. Only people from outside weren't allowed. Now Roger became the only writer, and the only singer. The five numbers on Animals are all from his hand, except for Dogs, where David Gilmour managed to co-write some lines.

There weren't only cracks in the group: the band with the public, that had weakened in the previous stadiums, was totally lost: the public didn't listen at all, they were screaming. Roger couldn't stand it, and after the show, he announced that he wanted to build a wall on the stage, between the band and the public.

 2. Alienation: The Wall (1979)

At first, everybody thought it was a joke. But Roger was serious. Then they thought he was going nuts, like Syd, but when he started with the project, they all agreed that it was a great idea. But it was a nightmare: Roger wanted to do it all by himself, and from the 26 numbers only 3 are co-written by David: Young Lust, Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell.

It was a great show: during the concert, a wall was built of 50 meters of length and 10 meters of height. David says there was but one great disadvantage: because everything was planned, he didn't have the opportunity to do some improvisations, what he liked so much. So in 2 of his numbers, he managed to get some time. The most striking one is Comfortably Numb, where he climbs the wall and starts to play.

The main theme of The Wall is the alienation between people, but there are also other messages: these become clear in the video (1980).

First, there is the mother-figure who is always carping at her little boy, who is called Pink Floyd, but actually symbolizes Roger Waters (which marks the fact that Roger = Pink Floyd).

We find out that the father was killed in the war (so was Roger's father, Eric Fletcher Waters). Pink is a singer in a rock group, and he has to cooperate with the fascist-like government. Instead of swastika's, they use crossed hammers. At first, Pink doesn't seem to mind, or even likes it. Later, he starts to feel annoyed, when he sees the effects, and finally he turns against the Worms, as they are called, and is convicted for showing feelings. Note that there is a connection to 1984 by Orwell, where feelings are also condemned. In the last number, The Trial, we find another literary link, to Kafka's Trial. There is a link to Aldous Huxley in the lyrics of Goodbye, Blue Sky:

Did you, did you, did you see the frightened ones?
Did you, did you, did you hear the falling bombs?
Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter,
When the promise of a brave new world,
Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky?

 Another theme is the wife: he meets her in a brothel of an unknown town, marries her, and uses her 'to put through the shredder in front of his friends' and 'to beat to a pulp on a saturday night'. And then he is surprised when he tries to reach her on the phone, that there's a man who answers the phone, and who keeps hanging up !

But the well-known Another Brick In The Wall, Part II song expresses yet another theme: the schoolmasters who were always doing their best to humiliate little Pink in front of the classroom.

 3. The Final Cut: The Final Cut

By this time, Roger had completely lost his group sentiment. The next album, The Final Cut, was completely written and produced by him alone. He thought of it as a sequel of The Wall, and mixed in songs that were refused for that album. He used recording tapes as a hostage for money from EMI. It was terrible, and it wasn't how a band should work together at all. Rick Wright couldn't stand it, and he left the band. This was the final cut for Dave and Nick: Roger had to leave. They managed to work him out shortly after the album was ready. But he hadn't finished with them yet: he sued them, and tried to prohibit them from using the name Pink Floyd, or the songs he had written for the band. He lost the trial, but for safety, David Gilmour later started a new company: Pink Floyd 1987 inc.

The Final Cutis a sequel to The Wall, and it is also autobiographical. There is less of a real story in it, but it is more than just songs constructed around the same theme.

We first hear some stories from the war, yet we can't figure out which one: there are images from both World Wars. The Second would be more logical, because that's the one Roger lost his father in. But the story is told from the viewpoint of a veteran, who mentions the poppy fields, the foreign fields, so we can easily associate with Flander's fields. But then there is the song Southampton Dock, beginning with the words "they disembarked in 45".

After the description of the war, we hear the veteran was One Of The Few to return, and he became a teacher (also known from The Wall). He is married, but can't talk to his wife about his experiences, he is afraid she would leave him. He is also afraid she will gossip about him in the Rolling Stone music magazine, which is another autobiographical note.

Then we get descriptions of the post-war world, with the Cold War feelings. This song is a great example of this:

Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert

brezhnev took afghanistan
begin took beirut
galtieri took the union jack
and maggie over lunch one day
took a cruiser with all hands
apparently to make him give it back

 As you can see, there are no capitals: even 'i' is written small. The 'maggie' in line 4 is, of course, Margareth Thatcher, who is adressed several times throughout the album.

And in the very last song, Two Suns In The Sunset, Roger gives his pessimistic view on the future: he describes the beginning of the Third World War, with an atom bomb being dropped on the country.

D. Peace And Quiet - Part Two

1. Signs Of Life: A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

In 1987, three years after the split, David, Nick and Rick brought out a new album: A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. The first (instrumental) number on the album is Signs Of Life, which refers to the fact that this were the first signs of a new life for the group.

It is a new life in many ways: Pink Floyd without Roger Waters wasn't what it used to be. Dave Gilmour had to adapt and become the main lyrics writer. This didn't work out great: the lyrics aren't what they used to be, and there are always co-writers, who do not belong to the band: Ezrin, Samson, Moore, Carin, Laird-Clowes, ... The only song on the Momentary Lapse Of Reason album that is completely written by David alone is Sorrow. This was originally meant to be a poem, but he later made music for it. Every single fan is grateful he did so, because it is one of the best songs from the post-Waters Era.

Another difference is the fact that love-songs are starting to appear, not like the usual ones, they never have a name in it, and they are more about the bad sides of love: One Slip and Yet Another Movie in A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, and What Do You Want From Me and Take It Back in The Division Bell.

There is a third difference, in the sequence of albums: the Floyd now brings out an album with new songs every six years (A Momentary Lapse Of Reason in 1987, The Division Bell in 1994). The year after this album, they bring out an album with a mix of the tour they had with the previous albums.

These Live albums are of very high quality, but one wonders if they hadn't rather made the studio albums sound better (Sorrow on studio album sounds awful, but on Delicate Sound Of Thunder and Pulse it is great). This seems to be a commercial trick: because they don't play every number on the live concerts, you are forced to buy the studio album. Because you want quality, you are forced to buy the Live album. The Floyd makes double money.

 2. Live Shows: Delicate Sound Of Thunder

I have explained before how the impressive light shows eventually led the split of the band. But even after the split they continued to use them, and there wasn't time for improvisation either, what David Gilmour found such a pity, although he was 'the boss' now. But they couldn't do without the show anymore: the fans were used to them.

On the other hand, Nick Mason explains, they know they aren't 'Mister Stage'. They want the public to see something, so it wouldn't get bored. And indeed, if you see a live show, the show itself is great, but the band on the stage doesn't do much. The action comes from the hired co-musicians, who do the second guitar, the bass guitar, the second keyboards, the second drums, the saxophone and the backing vocals.

Not only are the Pink Floyd the Masters of Light Shows, they are even the inventors. They were the first to use light effects on their concerts, they invented a very primitive stroboscope, and they made improvised light effects to go with the improvise music they used to play in those days. More recently, they develloped the multi-coloured stroboscope.

They also invented the quadrophone sound system (not Dolby Surround, just quadrophone). Nick Mason used to have a little joystick on his drumset he could use to swing the sound around the public, focusing the sound in the back, in the sides, or somewhere in the middle of the public, who couldn't believe what they were hearing.

For their present shows, they use a large round screen that hangs above the set, where they project video-images on. A second, even larger (half) circle of spotlights is drawn all over the set, and also in front of it are light projectors. There are a couple of laser projectors and mirrors all over the set.

The concert's lights and sound effects are directed from a control-tower that is located in the middle of the public. This is where the video-projectors are, and the mixing panel.

 3. Roger Revisited : The Wall In Berlin

After their first two albums, they thought they had expressed to Roger enough that they could do without him. But so did Roger. This became clear when he announced in public that he would organise a concert in Berlin of The Wall, on the place were the Berlin Wall had fallen some weeks ago. The numbers would be played by Roger Waters, his new band (The Bleeding Hearts Band, a name from The Wall) and every musician that wanted to participate. The money would go to the International Foundation for War Victims.

The show was even bigger than the regular The Wall shows: the wall was 500 meters long and 20 meters high ! The musicians were supported by the Berliner Philharmoniker, a world-famous symphonic orchestra. For a number which required mute players, the Russian Army in East Berlin offered their help ! The show was shown live world-wide on no less than 30 TV-stations, under which even the Japanese. The one-night show was attended by over two million people. There were many famous guest singers: The Scorpions, Sinnead O'Connor, Brian Adams, ...

The show starts with a great opening: The Scorpions arrive on the stage in a white Limousine, and start doing a very good interpretation of In The Flesh?, but after that, it goes wrong: the next number, The Thin Ice, is by Sinnead O'Connor, who can't remember her lines. When the next number, Another Brick In The Wall, Part I, is about to begin, the public is shouting RO-GER, RO-GER, RO-GER, and he has to come at the stage, and wave at them, to keep them quiet. Waters takes over, and starts somewhere in the middle of the song. But when everybody finally starts to play the right notes, the number was finished.

Fortunately, everything is all right when the most popular song starts: the combination Happiest Days Of Our Lives - Another Brick In The Wall, Part II. From now on, everything goes just fine. The stage-builders start constructing the wall. Soon, only a couple of gaps were left open, and with the last notes of Goodbye, Cruel World, the wall was closed. The public can't see the band anymore. The next numbers are played behind the wall, most of the time with only the singer in front of the wall.

At the end, after The Trial, the wall completely collapses, which is a spectacular sight. From behind the ruins, a stage is lifted with all the invited artists on it. They start singing: The tide is turning, a new song Roger had written.

E. The David Gilmour Era

1. A Great Day For Freedom : The Division Bell (1994)

David has his response to Roger: he composes a song called A Great Day For Freedom, about the fall of the wall. But he has also some songs that summons reconciliation. It's a strange album. The number of co-writers reaches a climax: Take It Back is written by four people: Gilmour, Ezrin, Samson and Laird-Clowes. But there is also High Hopes, the best song from the album, with a very strong and surrealistic text and video-clip nobody understands so far.

 2. Hey You: Pulse (1995)

The year after the studio album, they bring out the live album: Pulse. There are a lot of great surprises.

On the last concert, in Earls Court, Pink Floyd plays the complete Dark Side Of The Moon album for the first time since 1973.

The opening number is, as always, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, but this time it is an adapted version: it is in fact Part I, but the lyrics of Part II are also sung.

The second number they play is Astronomy Domine, a number by Syd Barrett, it was the first number of their first album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1976).

The Floyd used to play only three numbers of The Wall: two of the numbers by David Gilmour (Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell), and of course Another Brick In The Wall, Part II. This isn't because they like it, but because it is known as THE Pink Floyd song. They try to make their versions sound awful, and they do a great job at doing so.

But now, apart from these numbers, they also play Hey You, without any reason but to show Roger once more: we can do just fine without you. Besides, the version from Pulse is much better than the one from The Wall.

And then finally, the camera focuses on the hand of David Gilmour when he plays the two greatest guitar solo's in history: the openings to Sorrow and Run Like Hell.

 3. The Future : High Hopes

The past of the Pink Floyd wasn't very happy. We hope the future will be better. Perhaps Syd and Roger will come back some day, perhaps the chain of misfortune will continue, and David Gilmour becomes like Syd or Roger, or worse. Maybe some new members, Bob Ezrin, Jon Carin, ...

Or maybe the Pulse album was a kind of goodbye. They played their favourite album integrally, they played their very first album song, they played an extremely strong last encore.

Every fan hopes the new path, started with High Hopes, will continue. But we can't deny the fact that the Floyd aren't juniors anymore. Anyhow, I wish them many more years to come !
This text © 1996 by Steven Van Impe. Lyrics included © Pink Floyd and Roger Waters.