While I certainly regard Pink Floyd as a very worthy band I am not a die-hard fan.What I honestly feel is that Floyders, whether it be Barret-led Floyd or waters -led Floyd or Gilmour-led Floyd , were impeccable masters of special effects, the electronic drums, mad laughters, ticking clocks, ringing money etc, .AND it was this side of them that attracted the fans.The Pink Floyd’s main highlight is the way, the manner in which they presented their songs, not their compositions or creative(!) melodies.
I have listened to all the songs from all their albums and will review them chronologically with a non-worshipping approach, NOT as a Pink Floyd fan.
Pink Floyd derive their name from Pink Anderson, the blues musician and Flyod council.’’The Piper at the gates of Dawn’’, their debut album , is the magnum opus of the psychedelic rock music.Most songs written by Syd Barrett, It showcases two sides of Psychedelic experimentation.Both the bright , glittering and fun side of LSD , and the shadowy, dangerous underbelly with the undertones of chaos.
The album start’s off with the best song in the set, ’’Astronomy Domine’’, The introductory microphonic voices, the cool guitars, echo effects and mantras on astronomy make it a revolutionary and intriguing (Imagine !how they managed such sounds in 1967?).
’’Lucifer Sam’’ , a catchy song , is one of the bestsongs I the album.Its an ode to Syd Barrett’s siamese cat.’Matilda mother’’is a tender bed-time story telling number , with the re’frain’oh mother , tell me more’ reflecting the psychology of the child.’’Bike’ is also a charming track with ringing clock symphony and duck cackling .’’Flaming’’ is a ok song and is about riding unicorns and travelling telephones...Except for the Jazz piano melody in the first part , ’’Pow R T OC H’’ is a boring lengthy number with unnecessary screaming.’’Take up thy stethscope and walk ’’is just tripe and not music.
AND now the most celebrated track ’’Interstellar overdrive’’, it showcases Syd’s impulsive and captivating guitar.The music at the end of the song where they imitate motor cooling down is real coo....l stuff.
The ’’Genome and ’scarecrow’’ are Gothic themed pop songs which are dull and dated.May be these songs showed the ’little child’ side of Syd.
’’Chapter 24’’is Syd’s intellectual side, it has lyrics of the 24th chapter of Yi-sing, the Chinese sacred book of divination.
Overall these acid-fuelled psychedelic songs are a indispensible listening.All Pink Floyd fans will realise David Bowie’s appraisal when he said ....’’after Syd Barrett there was no Pink Floyd’’.