Image credit above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd
I've always enjoyed looking at the timelines for rock bands in Wikipedia. Many morph over time to include musicians that join and leave such as Joe Walsh joining the Eagles. Multiple pages need reviewing to follow some musicians and note the interweaving influences, like Eric Clapton progressing from The Yardbirds to Cream to Blind Faith while Steve Winwood moved from Spencer Davis Group to Blind Faith to Traffic. Today may be the first day I looked at the page for my favorite all-time band, Pink Floyd, see above.
They were a solid four musicians for a good decade after their initial experimentation, jelling with Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and David Gilmour after Syd Barrett could not continue. Their unraveling began with The Wall, and arguing and legal battles brought into question who Pink Floyd would be going forward. Each continued solo artistry, and Gilmour, Mason, and Wright periodically created works and performed under the Pink Floyd name. I expected to find other musicians who provided repeat support listed on the timeline, but alas only the original five.
Pink Floyd in January 1968, from the only known photoshoot during the five months that all five members were together.
My initial exposure to Pink Floyd was from the album Meddle a year or two after it was released. In our yearly high school gymnastics show, each performer would typically pick background music from albums of "elevator music" provided by the school but we were allowed to provide our own music. One of my friends with older brothers got set up with the coolest instrumental I had ever heard for her uneven parallel bars routine. Imagine a gymnast flying through the air to "One of These Days."
Pink Floyd had the privilege of playing in the Pompeii amphitheatre in October 1971. The site was closed to visitors for six days. The live perfomance was recorded without an audience. Echoes / Live at Pompeii is my favorite video of theirs. Forty-five years later, David Gilmour's band was the only other act to play there, this time to an audience of a couple thousand.
The Dark Side of the Moon was the first album of Pink Floyd's that I owned, the one that awakened me to their talent, and the beginning of my following. It helped propel Pink Floyd to international fame and they charted for 962 weeks in total. David Gilmour reflected in one interview that when the album was complete and they listened to it, they knew they had created something significant. The entire Dark Side of the Moon album is provided to YouTube by Pink Floyd with this being one from the playlist.
It's hard to find sources for audio clips. Even the Internet Archive site "shares" its clips as iframes. "Wish You Were Here" is from the album of the same name, another masterpiece, perhaps my favorite.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V), from the Wish You Were Here album, is a tribute to founding member Syd Barrett, who was asked to leave the band due to an almost constant state of drug use and his resulting cognitive decline. He was a dear friend to the original members and the state of his mental health was heartbreaking. The album cover's graphics reflect the themes of absence and emptiness. Interestingly, Roy Harper performed the lead vocals on "Have a Cigar," a criticism of the music business, because no-one in the band could achieve the tone they wanted. Richard Wright and David Gilmour note this as their favorite Pink Floyd album.
It's hard to decide which of the animals, Dogs, Pigs, or Sheep, is my favorite on Animals, another themed masterpiece. This video is of Pigs (Three Different Ones).
The Wall is a rock opera grown from the band's, especially Roger Waters', mixed feelings from their developing stardom. The song Comfortably Numb (below) is a technical masterpiece analyzed by Rick Beato as having the perfect blend of (dark, minor) Roger Waters and (heavenly, major) David Gilmour along with orchestral accompaniment and incredible guitar solos.
The Live 8 Concert was organized by Bob Geldof to encourage G8 nations to pledge to double the 2004 levels of aid to poor nations by 2010. On 2 July 2005, Waters, Gilmour, Mason and Wright performed together as Pink Floyd for the first time in more than 24 years at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London.
David Gilmour returned to Pompeii to do the first ever live concert at that venue 45 years after their original performance.
David Gilmour and Nick Mason created and performed the song Hey, Hey, Rise Up in the name of Pink Floyd to benefit Ukraine. The backstory appears in Rolling Stone and Wikipedia.
Even w3Schools suggests uploading videos to YouTube and then embedding. But to show the use of the video element, I'm including the crowning moment to all this Pink Floyd stuff.
