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Background

Members:
David Gilmour (1968–present)
Nick Mason (1965–present)
Richard Wright (1965–81; 1987–present)
Former members:
Roger Waters (1965–85)
Syd Barrett (1965–68; d. 2006)
Bob Klose (1965)

Origin: Cambridge, England Flag of England
Genres: Progressive rock, Psychedelic rock, Experimental rock, Space rock, Electronic music
Years active: 1965–present (on indefinite hiatus since 1996)
Labels: Tower (US: 1967–69), Harvest (US: 1969–73; Europe: 1969–84), Capitol (US: 1967–74, 2001–present), Columbia (US: 1974–2000)

Discography

Studio albums:

1. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - (1967) - #6 UK; #131 U.S.
2. A Saucerful of Secrets - (1968) - #9 UK; didn’t chart in the U.S.
3. Music from the Film More - (1969) - #9 UK; #153 U.S.
4. Ummagumma - (1969) - (Double album) - #5 UK; #74 U.S. (Platinum)
5. Atom Heart Mother - (1970) - #1 UK; #55 U.S. (Gold)
6. Meddle - (1971) - #3 UK; #70 U.S. (2x Platinum)
7. Obscured by Clouds - (1972) - #6 UK; #46 U.S. (Gold)
8. The Dark Side of the Moon - (1973) - #2 UK; #1 U.S. (1 week) (15x Platinum (Diamond))
9. Wish You Were Here - (1975) - #1 UK; #1 U.S. (2 weeks) (6x Platinum)
10. Animals - (1977) - #2 UK; #3 U.S. (4x Platinum)
11. The Wall - (1979) - (Double album) - #3 UK; #1 U.S. (15 weeks) (23x Platinum (Diamond))
12. The Final Cut - (1983) #1 UK; #6 U.S. (2x Platinum)
13. A Momentary Lapse of Reason - (1987) - #3 UK; #3 U.S. (4x Platinum)
14. The Division Bell - (1994) - #1 UK; #1 U.S. (4 weeks) (3x Platinum)

Live albums:

* Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988) (live) #11 UK; #11 US Platinum
* P*U*L*S*E (1995) (2CD, live) #1 UK; #1 US 8X Platinum
* Is There Anybody Out There? (2000) (live) #15 UK; #19 US Platinum

Major compilations:

* Relics (1971) (A-sides, B-sides, album tracks 1967-69) #34 UK; #152 US
* A Nice Pair (1973) #36 US -The Piper at the Gates of Dawn - A Saucerful Of Secrets (album)Gold
* A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981) (compilation) #37 UK; #31 US 2X Platinum
* Works (1983) (compilation) #68 US
* Shine On (1992) (boxed set) Platinum
* Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd (2001) #2 UK; #2 US 3X Platinum

Vinyl singles (1960s):

* 1967 (March 11th): “Arnold Layne” / “Candy and a Currant Bun” (#20 UK)
* 1967 (June 16th): “See Emily Play” / “The Scarecrow” (#6 UK, #134 U.S.)
* 1967 (November 18th): “Apples and Oranges” / “Paint Box”
* 1968 (April 12th): “It Would Be So Nice” / “Julia Dream”
* 1968 (December 17th): “Point Me at the Sky” / “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”

Other:

* Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London (1967 documentary film soundtrack, featuring 2 tracks)
* “Give Birth to a Smile” (song featuring (uncredited) all four members from Roger Waters and Ron Geesin’s Music from “The Body”, 1969)
* The Man and the Journey (1969 aborted live concept album)
* Zabriskie Point (1970)
* Masters of Rock (1974)
* London ‘66-’67 (1995)
* 1967: The First Three Singles (1997)
* The Committee (1968) (Unreleased soundtrack from the film, The Committee)
* The Early Singles (Distributed with the Shine On box set)

Soundtracks:

* Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London (1968)
* More (1969)
* Zabriskie Point (1970)
* Obscured by Clouds (1972)

Top 20 singles:

* 1967: “Arnold Layne”;/”Candy and a Currant Bun” (#20 UK)
* 1967: “See Emily Play”/”The Scarecrow” (#6 UK, #134 U.S.)
* 1973: “Money”/”Any Colour You Like” (#13 U.S.)
* 1979: “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)”/”Young Lust” (#1 UK, #1 U.S.)
* 1979: “Hey You”/”Comfortably Numb” (#19 U.S.)
* 1987: “Learning to Fly”/”On the Turning Away” (#1 U.S. Mainstream Rock, #55 UK)

Introduction

Pink Floyd are an English rock band that earned recognition for their psychedelic rock music, and, as they evolved, for their avant-garde progressive rock music. They are known for philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative cover art, and elaborate live shows. One of rock music’s most successful and influential acts, the group has sold over 200 million albums worldwide, and an estimated 73.5 million albums in the United States alone.

Pink Floyd are one of the heaviest-bootlegged bands in history, with bootleg recordings of the band numbering at least in the hundreds. Collectors of these bootlegs often call them RoIOs, or Recordings of Indeterminate/Illegitimate Origin. The vast majority of these are audience recordings of their various concerts, as only a few studio outtakes and soundboard recordings have leaked to bootleggers. The most popular exceptions are the unreleased Syd Barrett songs “Scream Thy Last Scream” and “Vegetable Man”, but there are others as well, such as “Lucy Leave” and a cover of Slim Harpo’s “I’m a King Bee” both from the first incarnation of the band. Many bootlegs before the 1990s featured singles such as “Candy and a Currant Bun” that had not been released on compilation discs, but these disappeared when the The Early Singles disc in the Shine On box set was released. Collecting bootlegs is usually easy, as the internet has made bootleg sales for profit largely pointless. Organizations such as Harvested have made a hobby of cleaning up and remastering bootleg recordings and issuing them to traders for free.

The hundreds of audience recordings vary in quality from excellent (concerts in 1994 and 1988) to abysmal (the era between 1967 and 1971). Audience noise is often absent, because audiences of the band in their early days were very quiet. There are sometimes recordings of standout quality in a period of otherwise low-quality recordings; an example is the Electric Factory show in late 1970, which was nearly soundboard-quality during a period when most other recordings were extremely poor. (Audience recordings would not regularly be as good as the Electric Factory show until 1988). Other standouts include the “Fireman” source of the Hollywood Bowl concert in 1972, in which a complete rendition of the pre-release “prototype” Dark Side of the Moon suite was played; the 9 May 1977 show in Oakland from the same source, which includes the last performance of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” to date; and an excellent recording of the 24 April 1975 show in Los Angeles, taped by the legendary taper Mike Millard, containing the best-existing versions of Dick Parry performing a saxophone solo in “Echoes” and the prototype “Raving and Drooling” and “You’ve Gotta Be Crazy”, which would eventually become “Sheep” and “Dogs” respectively.

to be continued …

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 10:01 pm and is filed under Bands & Artists, Pink Floyd, Rock ages, Rock history. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.