Rocco D’Ambrosca: 03/07/2006
Pink Floyd is one of the greatest and most enduring rock bands of all time. They masterminded the Diamond album The Dark Side of the Moon and the 23 times Platinum The Wall. Pink Floyd wrote beautifully creative, structured albums, perfecting the concept album with The Dark Side of the Moon and continuing this trend for the remainder of their career. Pink Floyd filled their albums with their influences of the time period they wrote in, British societal/political references and Roger Waters’s own personal influences.
As a British rock band in the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s Pink Floyd experienced things very specific to that time period that influenced their music. One of the first things that were a major influence to the band was swinging psychedelic London. Pink Floyd was as much a contributor to this music scene as the scene was an influence on them. The scene was filled with free love, extensive use of cannabis and LSD, and the psychedelic music influenced by that usage and the emerging changes in society. This change in culture and the rise of the counterculture and the hippie movement can be attributed to the growth in the British economy after the continued rationing after World War II throughout the 1950’s. Amid this scene of swinging London was Pink Floyd.
Pink Floyd was formed in 1965 right as the psychedelic era was reaching its peak started by the Beatles. The band was originally called The Pink Floyd Sound with members Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason. Syd Barrett was the leader, lead vocals, lead guitar, and chief songwriter. Roger Waters played bass guitar with Rick Wright on keyboard and Nick Mason on drums. As a band they started off playing covers of R & B hits such as “Louie, Louie” that was expected of most bands early on. They soon became known for their psychedelic numbers with very long extended solos. One of their songs “Interstellar Overdrive” could be as long as sixteen minutes when played live and was a psychedelic freak-out that was played at clubs such as the famous U.F.O. Club in London.
Syd Barrett a naturally very unique and eccentric person had these personality traits amplified by his use of LSD. Their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn which was released on August 5, 1967, was extremely whimsical, with lyrics about scarecrows, gnomes, bicycles and fairytales. These very strange songs I believe can not only be attributed to his own bizarreness but also to his extensive use of LSD. At that time in London and in the U.S., LSD was perfectly legal and was widely used by many. While the rest of the band dipped their feet in the psychedelic pool, Syd dove straight in, head first. This heavy use was very prevalent in lyrics in the song “Bike” from their first album. The song included the lyrics such as “I know a mouse and he hasn’t got a house; I don’t know why I call him Gerald; He’s getting rather old but he’s a good mouse” (Barrett) and “I’ve got a clan of gingerbread men; Here a man, there a man, lots of gingerbread men; Take a couple if you wish, they’re on the dish.” (Barrett). This use of LSD was a product of his time period, an influence of psychedelic swinging London.
Syd’s use of LSD influenced by his time period also ended up being a major deciding factor in the future direction of the band. When their first album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was released the bands popularity jumped to the next level. The band had a hit single “Arnold Lane” and was being asked to play many important gigs including an appearance on the British show “The Top of the Pops” an English version of “American Bandstand.” This jump in popularity put a lot of stress on the band and was hard work to keep up with. While all of this was going on Syd was continuing to trip more and more on LSD to the point where he was doing it 3 or 4 times a day. He was falling off the edge and was about to take the band with him.
The band had their first American tour in 1967. During this tour Syd’s mental health was truly realized. First the band was being taped so that they could be played on air later. During the rehearsal Syd was fine but then every time when they were about to go on he would freeze and just stand there staring into space. At other times during gigs he would stand there and detune his guitar strings and just hit random strings. If Syd was allowed to keep this up he would ruin the bands’ chances for success.
The solution to the bands problem was David Gilmour. David was an old friend of Syd’s from school where the both of them would play guitar together during lunch time. So in January 1968, David was brought in to play and sing Syd’s parts. Syd still toured with them for a time but one day they decided not to pick him up and just like that Syd was out of the band. Now with out a leader they had to find their feet. They spent the next four years from 1968 to 1972 experimenting with different musical ideas until Roger Waters emerged as their new leader and decided to have that band start writing concept albums, something that never would have happened if they didn’t lose Syd because of his influence from psychedelic swinging London.
Pink Floyd made many British political and societal references in their music, including using some as the entire concept for some of their albums, with their perfection of the concept album. Roger Waters was very interested in creating albums with a central theme and forced this view on the rest of the band. The best examples of their use of British political and societal references can be seen in The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals.
The Dark Side of the Moon is the most critically acclaimed of all Pink Floyd’s works and stayed on the Billboard Top 200 for an unprecedented 741 weeks (including 591 consecutive weeks from 1976 to 1988) which set a world record and made it one of the highest selling albums of all time. The album is a concept album filled with the life struggles that the band was going through at the time they wrote it living in England. They discuss themes of Time, Money, Death, Society, and Insanity.
In the song “Time”, Waters talks about how time passes us by when we are young and we don’t realize it until we get older. But, the lyric, “Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way” (Waters) stands out as a political reference to the tendency of the English government. At one point in the country’s history they were the dominating country with colonies in America, Africa, China, and India. Today they only have their own country and have lost all of their old territories while we have become the dominant country. Recently the majority of Europe converted to the Euro while England kept their same old currency, thus hanging on to something of their past that made them English. Also, they are the only country in Europe and the vast majority of the world to drive on the left side of the road, but yet again they hang onto this custom. I believe that with the world changing and everything unifying in Europe they are “Hanging on in quiet desperation” (Waters) to the things that make them English and are proudly not changing them.
Wish You Were Here is a tribute to their old friend and leader Syd Barrett. However, in between the tracks dedicated to Syd are songs criticizing the changing music industry in England at the time. The second song on the album is the first to address this changing music industry. The song “Welcome to the Machine” reflects how bands at that time were expected to work as machines in the recording studio and just turn out music for profit, which unfortunately is still happening today. The lyrics of the song, “Welcome, my son, welcome to the machine. Where have you been? It’s all right, we know where you’ve been. You’ve been in the pipeline, filling in time” is a great example of how the band was welcomed into the machine of the studio to pump money through the pipeline and fill up time on the tape.
The following song “Have a Cigar” continues with the supposed words of a record executive who cares nothing about the band but to make money, starts with false promises just to get them to sign a deal, “Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar. You’re gonna go far, you’re gonna fly high, you’re never gonna die, you’re gonna make it if you try; they’re gonna love you.” (Waters). The executive then goes on to say “Well I’ve always had a deep respect, and I mean that most sincerely. The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think.” (Waters) and then goes on to contradict his lie of really liking the band by saying, “Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?” (Waters), proving that he knows nothing about the band because no member is named Pink. One of the last things that this executive says is the best criticism of the music industry and the type of record company executive the band was used to dealing with, “We’re just knocked out, we heard about the sell out. You gotta get an album out, you owe it to the people. We’re so happy we can hardly count.” (Waters). This executive says to them that they owe it to the people to make a record when he really just wants their money and proves this by blurting out that he and the company are too excited to count the money they’re making off the band.
The band’s third concept album Animals is by far their best album to include British political and societal references. The album is somewhat of a homage to Animal Farm by George Orwell. Each of the animals in the album fits a stereotype of a character in society. The dogs are corporate scum that steals from people just to make money, the pigs are the oppressive government, and finally, the sheep are the average Joe who knows nothing and follows blindly.
The song “Dogs” on the album has many references in it to the corporate executive the dog is supposed to represent. The lyrics greatly compare the actions of a dog to a corporate executive with, “You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you’re on the street, you gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed. And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight, you gotta strike when the moment is right, without thinking.” (Waters). Those lyrics show how a corporate executive like a dog will pick out the easy meat and then when the moment is right will pounce and take the kill, just like an executive looking for weak customers to exploit. The lyrics continue to dig in deeper on corporate executives with, “You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to, so that when they turn their backs on you, you’ll get the chance to put the knife in.” (Waters), further showing their dog like nature and Pink Floyd’s great referencing to British politics and society.
Roger Waters as chief songwriter had a very heavy influence in the lyrics and message that Pink Floyd sent in their music. As stated before Roger Waters was obsessed with the concept album and when he wasn’t filling these albums with political or societal commentary he was filling them with personal messages from his own personal influences. The biggest influence on Roger Waters was the death of his father when he was very young.
Eric Fletcher Waters, Roger’s father, fought in World War II and was killed in action at Anzio, Italy in the allied landing there. His father’s death almost haunted him his entire life and was referenced several times on multiple albums. The best example of Waters’ father’s death being an influence on him in a song, is the song “When the Tigers Broke Free” which is in The Wall movie released in 1982 but not on the album released in 1979. He references his father’s death best in this lyric of the song, “And kind old King George sent Mother a note when he heard that Father was gone. It was, as I recall, in a form of a scroll, with gold leaf and all. And I found it one day in a drawer of old photographs, hidden away. And my eyes still grow damp to remember, His Majesty signed with his own rubber stamp.” (Waters). In this lyric he shows his anger and resentment towards the English government, specifically referencing King George, for allowing his father to give up his life for his country. Waters is even further angered that King George didn’t even bother to sign it himself, but rather used a rubber stamp. This type of anger and resentment towards the government would surface several more times in other albums and then onto his solo works after he left the band.
Roger Waters continued this devotion to his lost father with his last album with Pink Floyd, The Final Cut. The albums full name is The Final Cut – A requiem for the post war dream which was dedicated to his father, Eric Fletcher Waters. In the first song “The Post War Dream” Waters puts his fathers death up on a pedestal to the point of comparing his father’s death to Jesus’s with the lyrics, “Tell me true tell me why was Jesus crucified, is it for this that daddy died?” (Waters). Later on in the album the song “Southampton dock” describes the day his father left for war. This album is filled with many of Roger Waters’s personal reflections and thoughts and is seen by many as a Roger Waters solo album rather than a Pink Floyd album. Waters took complete control over the project forcing the rest of the band to work on it for him. This album was the final cut for Waters as this would be the last he worked with them before leaving the band.
In conclusion, Pink Floyd filled their albums with their influences of the time period they wrote in, British societal/political references and Roger Waters’s own personal influences. Pink Floyd is still one of the greatest rock bands of all time with many multi platinum albums. Their albums are the result of the influences of their career starting with the rise and fall of Syd, Waters’s take over, and the societal/political events that they reference in their music.
Works Cited:
Barrett, Syd. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. LP. EMI, 1967.
Waters, Roger. The Dark Side of the Moon. LP. EMI, 1973.
Waters, Roger. Wish You Were Here. LP. EMI, 1975.
Waters, Roger. Animals. LP. EMI, 1977.
Waters, Roger. The Wall. MGM, 1982.
Waters, Roger. The Final Cut. EMI, 1983.
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