There’s something particularly unique about the story of Pink Floyd. From deeply complex internal dynamics to the shimmering contours of their creative arc, many aspects of their story continue to fascinate, with David Gilmour, Roger Waters and the rest of the group unwittingly writing one of the most lauded epics in the annals of rock.
The group’s music is undoubtedly singular, and it is afforded an extra dose of magnetism by the fact that the quartet were always distinct from their so-called ‘rockstar’ peers. Just as many of their most prominent colleagues were getting lost in egotistical, hedonistic abandon, Pink Floyd were resisting the heady spirit du jour and creating their best work, as 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon, and its 1975 follow-up, Wish You Were Here, attest to. They are mature, sobering meditations on life and its inherently haphazard nature.
As one would expect from an outfit who were so musically singular, their members are also resolutely unyielding in the personal sense. While this would somewhat ironically lead to the fraught departure of creative leader Roger Waters in 1985, it is also what allowed the band to chart their own course, unimpacted by the movements of others, and broadly speaking, the zeitgeist.
A part of being so defiantly original was that the group were all immensely objective too, possessing a heightened self-awareness that musicians so seldom do. It is this that allowed them to keep honing their sound over the years, pushing out of the surreal psychedelia of their early days into the pristine sonic and philosophical ruminations of the mid-1970s.
This realism is something that frontman and guitarist David Gilmour recently espoused when speaking to NPR. Discussing the difficulty of following up the era-defining The Dark Side of the Moon with Wish You Were Here, he compared the latter to “the difficult second album”.
He explained: “We were in a very strange place. You know, the ‘difficult second album’ thing springs to mind. It wasn’t a second album or anything, but it was the second album after having the knock-your-socks-off, fulfill-all-your-dreams sort of album, right? The Dark Side of the Moon. And there was a lot of lethargy in the studio, a lot of sitting around trying to get ourselves up into getting back to work properly.”
Gilmour then revealed more about the great pressure of following up their masterpiece with what felt like the dreaded second album. He admitted that the band’s wildest dreams had been realised by the 1973 record, and that to navigate reaching the summit, they had to seriously decide whether it was the money or music that they were in it for. Of course, it was the music. No wonder the follow-up was such a resounding success.
Editors’ Picks
- 1970s Music
- British Rock History
- Classic Rock
- David Gilmour
- NPR Interview
- Pink Floyd
- Progressive Rock
- Roger Waters
- The Dark Side of the Moon
- Wish You Were Here
