Pink Floyd

What can a guy like me say about this HUGE band. No doubt about it: these people took Rock further and higher than anybody else. There´s no one who can be compared to them. Some will say that The Beatles are a bigger band but those who say so haven´t really listen to Pink Floyd. For me, listening to them is like going into a music therapy. Some argue that their music is depressing, but in my case, it helps me to feel better when I´m feeling down.

For me there´s no guitar player like Gilmour. He may not be the most technically gifted but no one can express as many things as David with a single note. His solos are from other galaxy.
And talking about galaxies, no one can create them as Richard Wright with his keyboards and synthetizers. He would transport to places no one else could.
Waters is the big brain behind all these, but without the interpretations of David and Richard, Pink Floyd wouldn´t be what it is.
Finally, I don´t consider Nick Mason to be a great drummer but well, you can´t have the best guitar player, the best composer, one of the greatest keyboard players and the best drummer of all times in the same band, do you?

I´m not really into the Barret era. I prefer the 70´s. Meddle is the first album in which all the experimentation of the previous years begins to settle into more "common" songs. Even though complexity is always there, I think that they manage to work it out and make music that everyone can listen to. The highest point of this album is Echoes (see the video at the bottom).
The dark side of the moon has a completely unimportant record, but at last a record, which is being in my MP3 player ever since I bought it in 2005. The only time in which I erase it was once that I was listening to Pulse and the reason, as you can imagine, is that they played the entire Dark side of the moon in that concert.
Wish you were here has their best song, Shine on you crazy diamond.
Animals has the only prove found so far of the existence of god: the guitar that appears in Dogs in 3:41 and last for the next minute and a 15 seconds. Men, that minute and fisteen seconds should be the definition of music in an acustic encyclopedia.
Finally, The wall, well, this is the summun of conceptual music.
You may say that they set a kind of school in music.

I would like to soy that it was pretty amazing to see the 3 remaining members the other day at London in The Wall presentation by Waters. I would love to have been there, but well, Argentina is a bit far from London. I share some videos of this historic moment.

Confortably Numb - Gilmour joins Waters in his The Wall Tour

Outside the wall - Gilmour, Mason and Waters together

Shine on you crazy diamond

Echoes - Gilmour and Wright showing what can two musicians do after playing for 35 years together.

Basic formation:
Roger Waters (base guitar, vocals, chorus)
David Gilmour (guitar, leading voice)
Richard Wright (keyboards and synthetizers, chorus)
Nick Mason (drum)

Former members:
Syd Barret
Bob Klose

Discography:

5 de agosto de 1967  - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
29 de junio de 1968 - A Saucerful of Secrets
27 de julio de 1969 - Music from the Film More
25 de octubre de 1969 - Ummagumma
10 de octubre de 1970 - Atom Heart Mother
30 de octubre de 1971 - Meddle
3 de junio de 1972 - Obscured by Clouds
24 de marzo de 1973 - The Dark Side of the Moon
15 de septiembre de 1975 - Wish You Were Here
23 de enero de 1977 - Animals
30 de noviembre de 1979 - The Wall
23 de marzo de 1983 - The Final Cut
7 de septiembre de 1987 - A Momentary Lapse of Reason
30 de marzo de 1994 - The Division Bell


Related sites:
Pink Floyd (http://www.pinkfloyd.com/)
Roger Waters (http://www.rogerwaters.com/)
David Gilmour (http://www.davidgilmour.com/)

A fans site I check now and then: http://www.pinkfloydz.com/

Wikipedia says:

Pink Floyd were an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially successful and influential rock music groups of all time. They have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

The band originally consisted of university students Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and Syd Barrett. Founded in 1965, they first became popular playing in London's underground music scene in the late 1960s. Under Barrett's leadership they released two charting singles, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play", and a successful début album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour joined Pink Floyd in 1968, several months prior to Barrett's departure from the group due to the latter's deteriorating mental health. Following the loss of their principal songwriter, Pink Floyd bassist and vocalist Roger Waters became the band's lyricist and conceptual leader, with Gilmour assuming lead guitar and sharing lead vocals. With this lineup Pink Floyd achieved worldwide critical and commercial success with The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall.

Wright left the group in 1979, and Waters in 1985, but Gilmour and Mason (subsequently joined by Wright) continued to record and tour. Waters resorted to legal means to try to keep them from performing as Pink Floyd, but the dispute was resolved with an out-of-court settlement which allowed Gilmour and Mason to continue, and which also released Waters from his contractual obligations to the band. Two further albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell followed. Following almost two decades of acrimony, the band reunited in 2005 for a single performance, at the charity concert Live 8. Surviving members Waters, Gilmour and Mason reunited for one of Roger Waters' Wall Tour shows on May 12th, 2011 at the O2 Arena in London; Gilmour performed "Comfortably Numb" and the three members performed together for "Outside The Wall".