Thursday, August 4, 2011

Pink Floyd by Riw Wtb

The following post comes from one of my other blogs called Rock Music and More... It's actually two articles on the band Pink Floyd from two separate posts on the blog.

Pink Floyd is one of my favorite bands of all-time and I wanted to share these articles with everyone one more time. If you wish to see some of the articles at rock Music and More you can at:  http://rock-music-more.blogspot.com/

Pink Floyd - The Wall

1973's "Dark Side of the Moon" was a turning point for Pink Floyd, both in sales and musical growth. "The Wall" released on November 30, 1979 became a classic upon it's release. This was their crowning moment. It just didn't get any better than this. It went on to become one of the Top 30 biggest selling albums worldwide having sold over 30 million copies to date.

The album  delivered a theme of isolation and loneliness in it's songs. Pink Floyd asked Is there anybody out there? Was this a cry for help. In the song "Another Brick In The Wall", the author (Roger Waters) is tormented by his schooling in 1950's Britain. The school was extremely controlling and as Waters said, rebellion was needed. To escape the loneliness Waters built a wall around himself.

"Another Brick In The Wall (Part Two)" was released and the song immediately rose to #1 in more than ten different countries around the world as well as Top 3 in several others. The song brought out a sense of unity as the chorus shouts "we don't need no education". It was a means of speaking out against discipline as a means of control. The North London Islington Green School students provided the school choir type vocals. The choir included 23 kids aged 13 to 15. They were overdubbed 12 times to give them a larger and haunting choral sound.

Two other singles were subsequently released "Run Like Hell" and "Comfortably Numb". Both received heavy airplay while "Comfortably Numb went on to become an all-time classic and has been covered by many acts including radically re-arranged Bee Gees disco styled version which reached #10 in the UK in 2004 by Scissor Sisters.

Roger Waters vision was that of a momentous musical experience. The result was well beyond the band's wildest expectations. The album was one in which multitudes of people felt a type of identification in the philosophical statements in the album. It was a connection with the dark side of loneliness and isolation.

Many musicians from various musical genres participated in the making of the album. Bruce Johnston (Beach Boys and Rip chords), Toni Tennille (Captain and Tennille) both contributed background vocals in a few songs. Lee Ritenour (guitar) and Jeff Porcaro (Toto, drums ) were only a few of many uncredited musicians who participated in the recording of "The Wall".

The double album, Pink Floyd's 11th studio album includes many classic tracks such as "Mother", "Goodbye Blue Sky", "Young Lust", "Hey You", "Is There Anybody Out There" and "In The Flesh".

The album is created to be listened to as an album instead of a set of individual songs - although each song holds up well on it's own strength and as a thematic whole.

In 1982 the spectacular British film, "The Wall", which incorporated live action and animation was released and based on the classic 1979 album "The Wall". All the songs from "The Wall" were featured in the movie with the exception of "Hey You" and "The Show Must Go On".







Pink Floyd - Soundtrack from the film More

Their first full length soundtrack release and their third album. Released on July 27, 1969 Pink Floyd was still in the beginnings of making their mark on the musical landscape.

"More" is one of two Pink Floyd albums to feature David Gilmour as it's sole lead singer, the other is 1987's "A Momentary Lapse of Reason". It was their first album which they produced themselves without any assistance from an outside producer.The album contains several acoustic folk ballads with a few hard rock songs. they also experiment musically on several instrumental tracks. The sole single release "The Nile Song (Europe and Japan release only) did not make any charts. "Green Is The Colour", "Cymbaline" and "Cirrus Minor" are highlights on the album.





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