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

The music, that's why I find their post 'Wall' stuff inferior. The music was so forgettable.

Case in point, the yawn inducing 'Endless River.'

 

yes.

i would add animals. when i think of an album where the lyrics, the concept, the music all work together so brilliantly, animals is the first album by anybody that comes to my mind.

 

But that was practically all music and you prefer the stuff when they had their core lyricist.

 

their attitude -- the original hipster/anti-hipsters

 

Understand what you're saying, but that's really just a coincidence. It wasn't the fact there were was only one track with vocals on that album that bothered me, it was that the music was so meandering and didn't have much by way of stucture or melody. If I tried my hardest I couldn't come up with a lick of melody from that album I can recall in my head.

 

With Syd, music and lyrics together - without him simply the glorious juxtaposition of a beautiful instrumental passage with a major chord where Gilmour and Wright come in singing in harmony with the lyrics obscure or indecipherable!

 

Well the poll choice of both was literally as it was worded-they are both an important combination. Not necessarily equal. I wouldn't argue the lyrics are more important or equal but do play a pretty big role in their music. The premise as stated in the OP was would Pink Floyd's music be as well received as a whole if there wasn't any thought put into their themes/lyrics-more an afterthought.

To me the lyrics/themes push already awesome music into an even higher level-like important icing on the cake. Without that IMHO Floyd still would be a very popular band but one that wouldn't necessarily resonate with almost everyone as they do now. I mean Shine on You Crazy Diamond without any story of Syd and reflective loss in general?

 

For me it's their music. Even if they packed an album in a black plastic bag....oh wait....they already did

 

I would go for music over lyrics on any band, but sometimes lyrics add that little extra to the song. DSOTM is a case in point.
Concertos, symphonies, jazz. Lot of great music without lyrics.

 

I've always felt like the most important aspect of Pink Floyd, was that their career kind of had an arc, or two distinct phases to it. But to my mind, it doesn't really correspond to before/after Syd, or to the rise and fall of Roger Waters, which is where most people seem to mark the lines. In my version, FIRST PHASE, Pink Floyd had a period of intense, psychedelic acid freakouts, that evolved over time, culminating with dark, sinister, "bad trip" things like "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" and "One Of These Days" .... this peaked somewhere around Live At Pompei, which is just really excellent, trippy stoner stuff. It's high intensity, loud volume, and very dark -- almost sinister in places. Pink Floyd always loved a freakout, from the very beginning, but they got darker as the years went on.

THEN from that low point of sorta fried acid burnout, they turned and focused on tranquil, MELLOW music that listeners could groove out to, and cool out their addled heads...there had been traces of it in their albums before, but that "soft" or introverted side of Pink Floyd really gave rise to your Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals, etc....this is where the tempos slowed down, the band's interest in audio quality and innovation came to the fore, the music became more minimal, and the lyrics began to take on more weight. But still you had long periods of music with absolutely NO LYRICS at all.

It just so happens that this second period, the '70s, pretty much coincided perfectly with people's needs for escapism and release. To me the phenomenal appeal and success of "Dark Side Of The Moon" is directly related to escapism, to turning off the blood and gore on the TV news and in films and media....Vietnam, Watergate, energy crisis, etc. You put on the headphones to get away from it all, you listen to the album all the way through.... it's chill-out music. There is a specific reason that "Laser Floyd" was such a big hit at planetariums everywhere for so long... it is calming and pleasant, and has nothing to do with the real world!

So in the frame of the original question, I would say music was more important than the lyrics. But it was really the "escapism" of it as a total package, that attracted so many people and gave Pink Floyd such a huge appeal. If you are sitting around the dorm room with your buddies, timing "Dark Side Of The Moon" to line up with the third lion roar of "The Wizard Of Oz," you are certainly NOT busy thinking about the current news of the day or the humdrum of your dreary everyday life, that's for sure. You're also probably not frying your brain like an egg, with a daily dose of acid, either.

 

Rick Wright's keyboards and Gilmour's guitar. Probably in that order.

 

Sounds > Lyrics

In general, but especially with Pink Floyd

 

The lyrics and themes were a plus, as it provided the music "conceptual continuity" in Zappa terms.

 

Other:

David Gilmour's voice and guitar playing

 

They were rubbish after Bob Klose left anyway

 

I really think Pink Floyd's lyrics were "great" only on Animals, and then only because Gilmour and Wright managed to keep them buoyant despite their voluminous wordiness. Syd's lyrics to Piper at the Gates of Dawn were amusing and fun. The rest, despite having some good moments, tended to veer uncomfortably toward cynicism and self-pity, and benefited strongly when the music was powerful. At their worst, like during the dreariest parts of The Wall, even the music couldn't save them. That said, I'll take Waters over Gilmour as a lyricist any day.

Pink Floyd would never have gotten any better than the somewhat ghastly Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking if the music hadn't been there to pick up the slack. So I voted for "combination".

 

It has to be the music or non-English speaking people wouldn't like them so much.

 

I find it kind of funny that a band that went to great lengths to be anonymous is debated so much on who is most important. The Floyd machine knew how to set up the mysterious nature of their image. The guitar playing, bass work, drums, keyboards, album covers, flying pigs, building walls, crashing plans, lasers and Mr Screen made Pink Floyd who we love.

 

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

They were there at the right time when the world was searching for music with depth, both musically and lyrically. Same music today and Generation I-Pod would complain about the songs being too long...linked...too slow....

 

"Animals"...it's all there.

 

Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis

 

I'll say I'm a bit surprised to say the least by the results. I just assumed a lot more people listen to Floyd for the whole experience inlcuding it's lyrics and not JUST a vehicle for their music.

 

The guitar of Gilmour! And his voice.

 

Music

 

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