Alternative Weekend: Focus on ‘Pink Floyd'

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Introducing #alternativeweekend. Post an article that highlights THREE great songs that are either progressive or alternative and use the tag #alternativeweekend or use the ‘Focus on’ series if you like. There are no rules, just make your own!

If you have a short story or something to offer regarding an opinion on your songs, then share it with us!

Of all the bands I have said my piece on, I haven't covered these guys who were one of the most imaginative creative forces of the 1970s.

I was late on the bandwagon, and yet I was not. A friend intrigued me to the band in the mid-'80s, in the form of 'Wish You Were Here' which stuck in my head and made me a partial fan.

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Earlier in the decade, I had picked up a second-hand copy of 'Dark Side of the Moon' which had not reverberated with me at all. All I could hear was, 'Money' and little else.

…'too much Saxophone in this for my liking I thought'…

Several tracks from different albums have sections that are very trippy and can go on a little too long for my liking.

Having a micro-dot or tab of acid may well help, but for most of us who are listening to the songs while 'down' they tend to go on a little.

Pink Floyd – Echoes (Meddle – 1971)

It wasn’t until 2008 when I made a conscious decision to go through the back catalogue that things started happening.

I ditched all the weird earlier stuff with Syd Barrett and jumped straight into ‘Meddle’.

The album as a whole didn’t really hit me, that’s was besides ‘Echoes’. It does sound very dated and stuck in a time period, but it had that something that kept me captivated.

The song does get weird in the middle and is one of two halves. Like I said above, being out of your head while listening helps a lot.

Pink Floyd – Time (Dark Side of the Moon – 1973)

Oh, what to pick from their most successful album ever in terms of units sold. After ignoring this album the first time around, it really got under my skin in the later years.

What I can say is there are no duff tracks, though there are some trippy ones again similar to Echoes.

I can't say I'm taken with Time's extended intro or buzzing alarm clocks but when it gets going it hits the mark.

David Gilmour for the first time shows his aggressive vocal edge, something we would hear again in ‘The Wall’ many years later.

Pink Floyd – Welcome to the Machine (Wish You Were Here – 1975)

From the serene commencement of ‘Shine on you Crazy Diamond (Part One)’, I was hooked on this masterpiece.

Considering this album was so popular you don’t tend to hear the songs often anywhere.

I remember walking into Blockbuster several years ago and hearing ‘Welcome to the Machine’, looking at the bloke behind and counter and expecting a hippie.

He looked quite normal and born after 1975 which was a surprise.

I shouldn't be surprised as @dismayedworld, my 16-year-old daughter is a huge fan. Perhaps she takes after her dad.

This song takes off from where 'Any Colour You Like' finishes but enhances the trippiness even more. It's always great to listen too, but best on acid.

Pink Floyd – Dogs (Animals – 1977)

Animals was yet another album I ignored until around 2008. I clearly remember where I was driving on my first listen of this track.

Funny how you remember such things?

The guitar work of David Gilmour hooked me from the start, though like Echoes it has a section in the middle best reserved for when you are completely off your head.

The second part of Dogs features Roger Waters on vocals. Though some may think Gilmour and Waters sound quite similar I hear distinct differences.

Pink Floyd – Hey You (The Wall – 1979)

The ‘opera’ from Pink Floyd does take some getting used too. It’s madly depressing so don’t listen to it when you are feeling low.

Rather than explain what ‘The Wall’ signifies, I would say be patient with this one. It tells a story and is one of those concept albums that proved popular in the seventies.

Why did I not pick Comfortably Numb? It’s much more well-known and is a classic? Maybe so, but I have played it to death and don’t want to hear it anymore.

‘Hey You’ bespokes a mood of melancholy from the moment it begins, and contains some decent guitar work as it draws near the conclusion.

If by any chance you have not heard these songs, then where have you been all your life?

Pink Floyd are an unmissable band, frequently emulated and rarely matched.

Well, perhaps Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson come closest.