Today is the 40th Anniversary of Mankind's Singularly Greatest Artistic Achievement

[Slowhand]

[BradM]

I've never been high so it's hit or miss with pink Floyd for me.

[mstng86]

Not sure how thats possible since I am pretty sure Zepp's Physical Graffiti didn't come out until 1975.

[Slowhand]

I've never been high so it's hit or miss with pink Floyd for me.

Of all of the Floyd albums, this is the one that least requires you to be high to understand, save for the Wall, which is a silly monstrosity. It does require a very intentional, focused, undisturbed and uninterrupted listening to get it, though.

[Slowhand]

Not sure how thats possible since I am pretty sure Zepp's Physical Graffiti didn't come out until 1975.

LOLZ. Was waiting for a Zeppelin cockgobbler to come in here. Pinnacle of rock and roll? Perhaps. Pinnacle of music? No.

[Trip McNeely]

The Floyd > *

One of the few artists to listen to in any setting/mood.

[03trubluGT]

I've never been high so it's hit or miss with pink Floyd for me.

The closest I've come is being silly drunk country cruising the Farm to Market roads in Ellis Co. while listening to this....

Good times....

[Vertnut]

Yada, yada, yada. It was fine. As a 13-year-old, ZZ Top's "Tres Hombres" (which came out the same year) got a lot more of my attention.

[Slowhand]

Yada, yada, yada. It was fine. As a 13-year-old, ZZ Top's "Tres Hombres" (which came out the same year) got a lot more of my attention.

This isn't a subjective discussion. It's objectively the greatest 43 minutes in music history. It's not even my favorite Floyd album, but that's not the question at hand.

[Vertnut]

right.

[idrivea4banger]

Plus it goes well with The Wizard of Oz. I made my son sit down and listen to the whole album last year.

[talisman]

[Rick Modena]

Of all of the Floyd albums, this is the one that least requires you to be high to understand, save for the Wall, which is a silly monstrosity. It does require a very intentional, focused, undisturbed and uninterrupted listening to get it, though.

No love for, Animals? Or Momentary Lapse of Reason an album I thought was kickass

[Slowhand]

No love for, Animals? Or Momentary Lapse of Reason an album I thought was kickass

I love all things Floyd (I'll bitch and moan about 'the Wall' all day, but it remains a brilliantly executed concept), but Dark Side is in a totally different realm. It is virtuosity exemplified in every aspect of music. Not a foot was put wrong on the whole album. Above all, it was crafted with the absolute purest of intentions. There's nothing contrived or fabricated about it. When you talk about streams of consciousness, Dark Side is the epitome of that in music, at least for anything this side of Monk/Davis/Coltrane.

As far the discussion of Floyd's albums, Meddle is far and away my favorite album of theirs, but part of that is its brilliance and part of that is what it means to me as to the time in my life when I discovered it.

I could flip back and forth on Dark Side or Wish You Were Here being next on my list, it just depends on the day. Dark Side is something I've grown up with my entire life; I remember listening to this shit on a tape in my bedroom when I was 6 years old and realizing that there was something special about it. Wish You Were Here, on the other hand, might be the most mature and composed album they put out.

Animals probably follows shortly after those two. It's raw, it rocks, and it oozes of Waters' emotion. Very funky at times as well. But that same quality of Waters oozing through is sometimes a little tiresome.

From there, I divide Floyd up into three distinct groups of albums that are tough to really rate:

Early, drug riddled: this includes Piper at the Gates of Dawn (which I don't care much for), Saucerful of Secrets (very underrated and riffy, but a little dynamically confused), and Atom Heart Mother (awesome, but abstract. see: Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast).

Soundtracks: Soundtrack from the Film More and Obscured by Clouds. Worth listening to, both of these, but not complete albums in any sense of the word.

Later, "please stop" Floyd: Momentary Lapse (the best of these albums, and actually pretty good, even for late Floyd), The Final Cut (never have gotten it ) and Division Bell (has moments, but just never fully clicks).

I've left out Ummagumma because it's weird. At some point in college I 'got' it, but I don't think I do enough drugs for that anymore.

Also left out the Wall because it really does bother me. I guess it shouldn't, and I'll absolutely provide that it's just brilliant (and I've seen the film more times than I can count), but it just annoys the piss out of me. "Young Lust", "Goodbye Blue Sky", and "Happiest Days of Our Lives" are tracks from the Wall that really do it for me, though. Shit, so does Run Like Hell. Fine, I like the Wall, I just hate all of the hubub that people associate with it.

And my Floyd nerd out is over.

[Slowhand]

Plus it goes well with The Wizard of Oz.

I want to hit you both in the face, metaphorically speaking. Partially because I hate the Wizard of Oz, and partially because this ranks up there with the cult of personality that surrounds the Wall as far as what bothers me about Floyd.