The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 497

Number 497

Pink Floyd

"Sorrow"

(1987)

Genre:Prog Rock

which is your favourite ... er album?

Twenty years since I have seen Pink Floyd perform, they promised they would be back in 5 years back then. That's a LONG 5 years. With David Gilmour now 62 years of age, I'm starting to think that me seeing PF again are pretty slim. Pink Floyd are the genuine deal when it comes to being a world famous rock band, they are comparable to none. You can compare Rolling Stones to Beatles, Metallica to Megadeth and U2 to Duran Duran (in their hey-day) but when it comes to PF, they own a style and legend all on their own.

Now, hey, do you remember the gigantic inflatable pig that use to feature in Pink Floyd's concerts? Well just recently it escaped and floated away for 2 days! Here's the link about it escaping & the link for its recapture. Enjoy! Oh and while I remember, I have a message for David Gilmour ......

Your 5 Years Is Up !!!!

art by

PamelaKaye

Pink Floyd is the premier space rock band. Since the mid-'60s, their music relentlessly tinkered with electronics and all manner of special effects to push pop formats to their outer limits. At the same time they wrestled with lyrical themes and concepts of such massive scale that their music has taken on almost classical, operatic quality, in both sound and words. Despite their astral image, the group was brought down to earth in the 1980s by decidedly mundane power struggles over leadership and, ultimately, ownership of the band's very name. After that time, they were little more than a dinosaur act, capable of filling stadiums and topping the charts, but offering little more than a spectacular recreation of their most successful formulas. Their latter-day staleness cannot disguise the fact that, for the first decade or so of their existence, they were one of the most innovative groups around, in concert and (especially) in the studio.

art by levydesign

In the 1980s, the group began to unravel. Each of the four had done some side and solo projects in the past; more troublingly, Waters was asserting control of the band's musical and lyrical identity. That wouldn't have been such a problem had The Final Cut (1983) been such an unimpressive effort, with little of the electronic innovation so typical of their previous work. Shortly afterward, the band split up -- for a while. In 1986, Waters was suing Gilmour and Mason to dissolve the group's partnership (Wright had lost full membership status entirely); Waters lost, leaving a Roger-less Pink Floyd to get a Top Five album with Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987. In an irony that was nothing less than cosmic, about 20 years after Pink Floyd shed their original leader to resume their career with great commercial success, they would do the same again to his successor. Waters released ambitious solo albums to nothing more than moderate sales and attention, while he watched his former colleagues (with Wright back in tow) rescale the charts.

art by cbaseggio

Pink Floyd still had a huge fan base, but there's little that's noteworthy about their post-Waters output. They knew their formula, could execute it on a grand scale, and could count on millions of customers -- many of them unborn when Dark Side of the Moon came out, and unaware that Syd Barrett was ever a member -- to buy their records and see their sporadic tours. The Division Bell, their first studio album in seven years, topped the charts in 1994 without making any impact on the current rock scene, except in a marketing sense. Ditto for the live Pulse album, recorded during a typically elaborately staged 1994 tour, which included a concert version of The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. Waters' solo career sputtered along, highlighted by a solo recreation of The Wall, performed at the site of the former Berlin Wall in 1990, and released as an album. Syd Barrett continued to be completely removed from the public eye except as a sort of archetype for the fallen genius. ~ [Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide]

See, not all reviewers are fans of the music they critique. However, I think Mr Unterberger is not being entirely fair with his summation. Put it this way, Mr Unterberger is more grand in his praise for Pink Floyd as long as Roger Waters in the lineup. I like to think of Pink Floyd as a unique sound and not necessarily just the voice of a singer ~ crowbarred

For more Pink Floyd visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 #138

For David Gilmour see Number 923

For Rolling Stones see Number 689 & Number 767

For The Beatles see Number 587, Number 894 & Number 947

For Metallica visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 #033

For more Metallica visit Mellow Mix Vol 2 #136

For Megadeth see Number 981

For U2 see Number 661

For more U2 visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 #038 & #129

For Duran Duran see Number 764

For more Duran Duran visit Mellow Mix Vol 1 #133

What does Rolling Tone'd think of Pink Floyd?

Is this still really Pink Floyd? That seems to be the question, as it has been since Roger Waters left the band in 1985 to dip deeper into the sci-fi soup. Waters has since missed no opportunity to slag his former band mates as incompetent fakes. He would suggest that he was Pink Floyd, although judging from his overwrought, concept burdened solo albums, that notion should be put to rest. What is of concern is whether the music of the post-Waters Pink Floyd stands up to the band's best work – The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall and Meddle. Unfortunately, A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and the live Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988) were only sporadically successful at achieving the stunning aural power of Pink Floyd's previous work. Their new album, The Division Bell, ironically enough, seems to cry out for someone with an overriding zeal and passion – in short, a nettlesome, overbearing visionary like Roger Waters. ~ [RS 684 - June 16, 1994] taken from Division Bell review as their is no Rolling Stone review for Momentry Laspe Of Reason. But you get their drift. Not good either.

Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '497th Song of all Time' was "Buddy Holly" by Weezer. Weezer has appeared in The Definitive 1000 at Number 656.

Other songs with reference to Pink Floyd #554, #601, #640, #646, #651, #792, #827, #923, #957, #968, #974, #975

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (Ah, crowbarred....) the Album ranked at (....you sure amuse us, keep up the good work making us look good)

This song has a crowbarred rating of 75.4 out of 108

Sorrow - Pink Floyd
Uploaded by Randy_Rowland