For decades, Pink Floyd have been hailed as masters of the prog rock genre. Yet, doing so actually disregards their singularity as a band, the otherworldly splendour of their sound, and that, in reality, the best way of categorising their music is as simply Pink Floyd. The group continued to metamorphose and push themselves into new fields until the end, are not easily characterised like some of their generation’s most prominent acts, and while they undoubtedly have some key attributes, they also have discernible chapters.
One man who knows this better than most is founding member and drummer Nick Mason. In 2018, he formed his outfit, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, as a vehicle for performing Pink Floyd’s early, psychedelic-leaning material. Not only is he inextricably linked to the pioneering band’s sound, being their rhythmic ballast throughout all of their various innovative turns, but he’s also acutely aware of the reality that the group are greatly indebted to rock ‘n’ roll in its most unadulterated form.
While Pink Floyd’s shuffling psychedelia of the early, Syd Barrett-led chapter can be dubbed as the spacey 1960s answer to Bo Diddley – due to the frontman’s open deference to the American guitarist and appropriation of his classic rhythms – according to Mason, there’s another pioneer of the rock ‘n’ roll sound who left an indelible mark on him, Pink Floyd, and alternative music at large. That is the ‘Father of Rock and Roll’ himself, Chuck Berry.
At face value, Berry’s punchy, tongue-in-cheek sonics appear distinct from Pink Floyd’s, even in their more blues-indebted early chapters. However, to Mason and the band, Berry was significant in that he influenced everyone of their generation and beyond, and transformed R&B into its successive, culture-altering form: rock ‘n’ roll.
Speaking to Channel 4 after Berry died in 2017, Mason explained just how consequential the controversial ‘Johnny B. Goode’ artist was. “He (Berry) meant a great deal,” he began. “He’s one of the great icons of rock and roll. To explain that, you should just think about the fact that virtually every guitar player in the United Kingdom can play at least three Chuck Berry numbers. It doesn’t matter whether it’s The Beatles, The Stones, Radiohead, whatever, his music has been an influence on all of us for the last 50 years.”
“(He had) this ability to convert what was the American R&B thing into what became real rock ‘n’ roll,” the drummer continued. “There’s Chuck Berry, someone like Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis; they still stand for something in this day and age. If you compare it to someone like Bill Haley, Bill Haley is so much just about the ’50s, but Chuck Berry is relevant today.”
It might seem a strange point, given the differing musical palettes of Pink Floyd and Berry, but it’s true. Not only are the British band perhaps more related to pure rock ‘n’ roll than they are prog rock, but they, like everyone of their generation, no matter the sound, will always be steeped in the music and spirit of Chuck Berry. It’s what they did with the blueprint which is truly astounding.
Editors’ Picks
- 1960s Music
- Bo Diddley
- British Bands
- Chuck Berry
- Guitar Influence
- Nick Mason
- Pink Floyd
- Prog Rock
- Rock and Roll
- Rock History
