When it comes to bands from the 1960s and 1970s, Pink Floyd is the one that altered the most and evolved into their style over time. They evolved tremendously over their time together, and it wasn’t until they moved on to more intricate and layered concept albums that the band truly came into their own. Now, no rock fan in the world hasn’t heard of them, but getting there was a wild voyage.
Jimi Hendrix spoke out on Pink Floyd on occasion, describing their music as relying on presence rather than sound. “Here’s one thing I despise, buddy,” he stated while describing the new emerging environment in which Floyd was involved. “while these cats say, ‘Look at the band. They are playing psychedelic music! All they’re doing is flashing lights and playing ‘Johnny B Goode’ with incorrect chords. “It’s terrible.”
The trio admits to writing some poor songs, particularly after Syd Barrett left. As Roger Waters and David Gilmour attempted to encapsulate his sound, they created ‘Point Me At The Sky’, a piece that has since been widely regarded as one of the band’s weakest outings and, as Waters puts it, “One notable failure when Syd left the band”. Pink Floyd took some time to find their stride. They had some success because their brilliance as musicians and live performers was evident, but it took years before they put something together that they knew they could believe in and that they hoped would push them to legendary status.
This came with their album Dark Side of the Moon, which has subsequently been hailed as one of the best albums ever recorded. When questioned if they realized it would be as successful as it was, Waters responded that he always knew the band was on to something. It’s unclear whether he expected the record to reach such heights, but when he showed a first pressing to his wife, her reaction was all he needed.
“When we finished making it, I took a quarter inch home and played it for my then-wife, and she burst into tears,” he remembered. “I thought, okay, she feels the same way I do. We finally cracked it. So, at that point, which was 1973, I felt, we’d been at this since 1965, so it was eight years later, and throughout those eight years, we’d perfected our craft to the point where we’re capable of producing a piece of work that is homogeneous, well-crafted, and well-put together.”
It’s difficult to say whether any of them expected it to become such a famous album, because no one can truly predict such great success in anything they accomplish. What they did know was that they had created something to be proud of. “You know,” he said. “If we were cabinet makers, we could stand back now and look at that cabinet, or the chair, or whatever, and go, you know what, that is well made” .
