Page 35 - Seniors Today Dec 2019

These were the words of the title song The Dark
Side of the Moon. Set with completely spaced
out music, it is still makes for great listening, no
matter how many times you have heard them
before.
After the great success of Dark Side of the
moon came “Wish you were here”. This has
some great work on saxophone and is quite
jazzy in its structure. This also become number
1 pretty quickly in the charts. All the songs
are laid back and have a lot of creative sounds.
“Shine on you Crazy Diamond” is a standout.
An interesting anecdote about this album is
that Syd Barrett appeared in the studios just
to see how the group was doing. But he had
changed so much in appearance that the band
members barely recognised him and it left them
disturbed.
This was followed by the Animals album. This
too did reasonably well at the charts but could
not measure up to the previous two albums.
Wall of fame
Then came the Wall. And this was supported by
Another Brick in The Wall (Part II). They were
conceptualised like a musical on the life of Pink,
an exotic character. Some characteristics of Syd
Barrett was also an inspiration for this Pink
character. The album concept was finally made
into a film with Bob Geldof playing the role of
Pink.
The Final Cut was the last album of the original
Pink Floyd, which was released in 1982. By then,
there were major disagreements between the
band members internally and they all started
Some say it isn’t final till it’s vinyl
35
Cover of Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd on a postage stamp
recording their own albums.
Between 1985 and 1994 David Gilmour tried
to resurrect the group in some form or the
other with albums like “A Momentary Lapse
of Reason” and “The Division Bell”. Both were
received with mixed reactions.
While each member pursued their own
careers, they did not appear together until July
2, 2005 when they appeared for a Live 8 air
concert arranged by Bob Geldof. This was most
enthusiastically received by the public.
After the death of Syd Barret in 2006, the four
members played a memorial concert to him
2007, which was perhaps the last time the four
played together. Richard Wright also passed
away in 2008 and that was the end of the group
completely.
Roger Waters did perform in Bengaluru a few
years ago to a large audience.
Even today, their music is played and
performed across the world and the music is
mesmerising a variety of audience. Their music
can be heard on numerous radio and internet
stations as well as in films and TV shows in the
background. Gilmour and Waters still continue
to perform sporadically. And Pink Floyd live on
in the minds of all their followers.
SENIORS TODAY | Volume 1 | Issue 6