Pink Floyd-What was the most important aspect of their albums?

1)Their music
2)Their lyrics/themes
3)An important combination of both.

Would Pink Floyd be as popular, groundbreaking, and legendary to both a large number of fans and critics if their songs were stripped of their concepts and the lyrics were more of an afterthought.

-Musically they were amazing-David Gilmour IMHO is one of the greatest guitar players ever . Rick Wright had a unique sound coming up with the perfect keyboard parts and sounds. Nick Mason while not what I would call a virtuoso on drums came up with perfect supporting drums with style of it's own. Roger on bass had a somewhat aggressive minimalistic style but again perfectly fit the music. Together they created a totally unique sound that has stood the test of time.

-Lyric and theme-Roger Waters, especially in the 70's came up with some great lyrics and concepts for their music that seem to resonate with many decades later. Albums such as Dark Side of the Moon, Wish you Were Here, The Wall and to a lesser extent Animals are often cited as landmarks in rock music as far as conceptuality. Songs such as Shine on you Crazy Diamond, Wish you Were Here, Us and Them, Time, contain lyrics that have described as resonating with many in discussing thoughts, feelings and ideas of everyday life.

 

As usual discussion/explanations are welcome! I'll chime in vote later.

 

I like their early music more than the later stuff. So, yeah, music.
The live Ummagumma version is great and wish they would put more of it out

 

Both, and Dark Side of the Moon is a great example of an album where a profound lyrical theme and sublime music are combined into a perfectly harmonious whole.

 

Bringing psychedelic music to the mainstream.

 

Their lyrics mostly bring me down, particularly on DSOTM through TFC.

 

Love the Syd-era, later stuff less so.

 

I am rolling the red carpet to welcome rockledge to the thread...... but before he does, to make him feel welcome, please add option 4 to the poll: "only and exclusively David Gilmour's guitar".

 

I think voting anything other than both music and lyrics is being short-sighted as their success would not have been realized with only music or lyrics being predominant.

 

I voted both lyrics and music. Dark Side of the Moon had excellent music and marvellous lyrics about life, mental illness, mortality. Wish You Were Here was a wonderful follow up with its allusions to Syd Barrett. As I mentioned in another thread, I truly think Pink Floyd were the best band of the seventies because they had the complete package- Waters' thought-provoking lyrics and Gilmour and Wright's excellent musicianship.

 

Yes, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. In many cases, it's difficult to cleanly separate the music from the lyrical/thematic content.

I think I know where this thread is coming from, but I think it does a bit of a disservice to Waters' contributions to label him primarily as the lyricist. The fact is, though he was not a virtuoso musician, he wrote a lot of the songs and the music as well and was integral to the development of their sound along with the others.

 

I have never engaged PF on any kind of deep lyrical level, and since I'm not a musician I can't comment on their playing (and anyway, most bands sound good in the studio just because you can do a million takes until you get something right, LOL). I bought the three records of there's I own because I liked the songs on them in a superficial, commercial sense, i.e., tunes like "money" and "confortably numb" and "wish you were here" were/are good catchy pop to me.

That said, I do appreciate "dark side" and "wish you were here" as albums as well, there's no real filler so I can listen to them straight through. The Wall has more good songs than "Wish", but it also is sprawling so listening to it all the way through twice (when I got it on vinyl in 1980, and on CD in 2000) was enough, LOL.

 

Big fan of their early stuff, pre-DSOTM. For us who got that on the spot it was the novelty of it all that made the connection, something fresh and exciting. They were a great part of creating the new "psychedelic" genre, the British part - grounded in melodic entertainment and Music Hall which they twisted and turned to something totally different... lyrically as well as musically. So yes - it was an important combination of both.

 

I agree. I always felt Waters was pivotal to the band's "charisma", if you will. When he left Floyd was never the same band.

 

Yes, it sure wasn´t but... The Waters era (from 67 to 82) is the band's peak era too and not only because of Roger Waters, although his contribution is obviously huge.

They were young, matured and peaked in those years. Whatever they produced afterwards (either Waters solo or under the PF name) didn't come close to what the band achieved in their golden years. And it's not just because of Roger Waters. It has to do with age, creativity, life cycles, personal interaction, etc.

It is pointless to try to isolate one factor to explain everything about band dynamics and their output.

I said something similar in a Stones thread by the way.

 

This.

 

Pink Floyd sound engineer, Nick Griffiths: "Dave made people enjoy it and Roger made them think".

I have nothing to add to that.

 

I agree wholeheartedly. This poll was much more simple in idea though.It's less about credit vs your overall listening experience. I've seen in other Pink Floyd threads where it was stated that lyrics were not important to their music. To which I wonder how anyone could listen to DSOTM-The Wall without taking into account their lyrics. DSOTM and SOYCD aren't considered 2 near the top of the list in rock concept albums without a theme and lyrics to tie them together. Heck even Meddle has "Echoes" which has great atmospheric lyrics to go along with the fantastic music. "Grandchester Meadows" is another early gem.

 

Could never escape the feeling that a lot of "classic" Floyd albums are padded out with instrumental interludes because they could only come up with at most half a dozen songs (Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals).

 

True. That one is primarily about the music and atmospherics, but Roger penned some very eloquent lyrics, perfectly suited for the song, that helped to take it to the next level.

When it comes to these kinds of questions, I'm primarily a music guy, sometimes regarding words as secondary or even dispensible, but I've always felt that Waters was one of the sharpest, most thoughtful lyricists around, despite his occasional excesses. Think about a track like "Comfortably Numb". Gilmour's musical contribution is extraordinary, no question, but the words he sings there are so poignant and impressionistic, perfectly capturing that sense of detachment. A near perfect union of music and lyrics.

 

It's funny you should say that because in terms of concept I would think of Animals as the most potent.

 

The artwork

 

Their music makes me incredibly sad.

 

While agree both were important, I think the Music is the more important of the two. Sure, the band wouldn't have had the impact they did with DSOTM and what followed it (up through The Wall), without Roger's often striking and timeless lyrics. BUT, without the Music, it wouldn't have mattered how great the lyrics were.