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Dark Side of the Moon/Wish You Were Here


Foolonthehill

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Until recently, I never really gave Wish You Were Here enough credit. It is just as emotional as Dark Side if a little more subtle in its expression. I'm finding that it's a great one to listen when feeling depressed, angry, or frustrated. It doesn't have the huge climaxes of Dark Side but it seems to express a more intimate kind of emotion. Just thought I'd post this since I've considered Darks Side to be by far their best until recently but am now developing an apprectiation for Wish You Were Here's quiet power. Anyone else have any opinions to share on this?

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If I am sad, mad, depressd or just out of sorts, Pink Floyd is always who I turn to. Their music just calms me somehow.

I like both the above mentioned albums but when it comes to PF I just love it all. Their old stuff is fantastic as well. I will be nomanating an old Floyd song for the next ten btw :grin:

PF is my #1 favorite group and I listen to them almost daily :grin:

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"Wish you were here" is an awsome song :thumbsup:

it's also pretty much the only one that I like at all :P , granted I don't know too much anyway...

so, no johnny you're not the only one, I just don't really see the need to post in threads about bands that I'm not too fond of ;)

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I have always preferred 'Wish You Were Here' to 'Dark Side of The Moon' although they are both amazing albums - and that preference is from back in 'the day' when I bought them both on vinyl when they were first released.

Anybody here old enough to remember the color of the plastic that covered the graphics of the first vinyl releases of WYWH?

And yes, I am a big fan of the earlier, more experimental albums 'Atom Heart Mother' and 'Meddle', too.

And while 'Animals' was good, I really did/do NOT like 'The Wall' - probably Floyd's most popular album after DSOTM.

:) Steve

"the virginiaprograsser"

'Newgrass, Prog & More!' Freeform Web Radio & Interviews

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AC/DC are more of a comedy rock band, over-exaggerating their sound most of the time. BUT...

I HATE PINK FLOYD. No, ladies and gentlemen, my name is not Johnny Rotten. And my motives for disliking this greatest symbol of the Seventies (second only to Led Zeppelin, it seems) differ greatly from those of the Sex Pistols. The Pistols and their kinsmen hated Pink Floyd because of their pretentiousness and overbearing complexity, and in this, it seems, their hate was purely conventional - in fact, they just experienced the same kind of things that they felt towards any other mature or non-mature prog rock band. Me, I have nothing against prog rock in general. But I do have something against Pink in particular.

What I honestly feel is that the Floyders are probably the most overrated rock band in man's history. Certainly, they are worthy. A very worthy band - even me, who's not a fan, could go on speaking of their advantages for hours. (I just don't want to because thousands of people have done so already). But the kind of praise given to them, the endless sell outs, monster radio hits, unrestrained critical and fan worship - none but the Beatles received as much, and even the Beatles don't seem to receive that much nowadays. The Beatles traditionally hold number one, see, so lots of people who get tired of the Beatles being number one start dismissing them as 'pop crap' or 'shallow' or 'dated', and praise Floyd instead. Ladies and gentlemen, let's all be cool-headed! If you want to really know who is first and who is second, be cool-headed! Okay, of course, it's impossible to tell who's first and who's next just because any judgement of the kind would be highly subjective. However, I'll still go ahead and try to explain why I don't like Floyd and at the same time give them a rating of B when I even gave Led Zeppelin a C.

There is one major defect about Floyd - whether it be Barrett-led Floyd or Waters-led Floyd. These guys are very average musicians and so-so songwriters. Let's face it, the group never had a true musical virtuoso. Waters' bass playing is just okay, Wright and Mason don't qualify above your average session musicians, and Barrett's talents, you must admit, weren't in the sphere of picking the guitar. As for Gilmour, well, I just don't like the guy's guitar - I consider it generic and soulless. All of his 'classic' solos are so mathematically precise, counted out and adjusted that it almost makes me sick. He's no Steve Howe, and he's not even Steve Hackett. He's Dave, like we all know him: slow, meticulous and calculated. He's got some truly great guitar passages in his backpack, but he also has a lot of pointless noodling, and he often selects the kind of generic highly distorted, yet not really 'heavy' guitar tone that I can't call anything but 'musical dentistry'. Sorry, Dave.

Neither could they make really creative melodies (a flaw which they share with Yes). In their Barrett days, when they relied on Syd, their songs were crazy and atmospheric, but not quite structured or memorable, except for a pair of hooks now and then. In their Waters days, when they relied on Roger, their songs were careful and... atmospheric. But still, the melodies were always kinda iffy. On the early albums they used to rip off everybody, starting from Simon & Garfunkel and ending with the Kinks, and they didn't exactly clear up even with their classic mid-Seventies hit albums.

No, even if you're willing to argue with me that the Pinkers actually wrote tons of classic melodies, you'll still have to admit that it isn't their songwriting that's the main attraction in Pink. The main attraction is the way, the manner in which they present their songs. While I certainly cannot call Floyd the most talented band in rock history, they were certainly the greatest experimentators on this planet of ours. From the early feedback and electronic drums experimentation to the mad laughters and ticking clocks on Dark Side to the shiver-sending spooky atmosphere of The Wall, they were always the impeccable masters of special effects - and it was certainly that side of them that attracted most of the audience. They were simply unpredictable. That said, I shouldn't have given them more than a C in the general rating. However, since I'm a great fan of unpredictability (and I do believe that only unpredictability and total irrationalism can save modern music from ruin), I'm willing to raise the rating to a B. Simply because there are so many Pink Floyd tunes around that normally don't deserve a lot of attention, but still get it since they are so groovy, if the word 'groovy' is applicable to Floyd music.

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I was turned on to Dark Side in high school so it became a favorite due to many reasons of the day I was turned on, but I favor Wish You Were Here. I will listen to it more often than I do Dark Side. In fact I will let it play over and over and just get lost in every moment of the album. Truly a masterpiece of classic rock.

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I admire the arguments pushed by the rest of the article, but this is just not true. Yes and Pink Floyd were probably two of the best song writing bands of the 70s. They weren't strong in terms of being catchy, but they're pretty much unrivaled in terms of writing melodies.

And on the topic of the guitar playing, I find that sometimes a huge, classically influenced prog rock solo with a million notes a minute isn't needed. David Gilmour does the simple stuff well. I'll admit that his soloing does get a bit repetitive however.

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