The Final Cut for me.
Pink Floyd – Greatest album?
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
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The Final Cut for me.
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Nice middle part of the trilogy with The Wall and The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking.
The Wall is my choice
(but I may be alone in that)
I love it but side 4 (remember that) is a bit weak.
Granted, but even a weak bit of Wall is better than an awful lot of albums.
The Wall is the greatest album of all time. There is obviously no need for any further debate on that subject. Regarding the Floyd, for me the Wall is closely followed by Wish You Were Here and The Final Cut (especially if listening with headphones).
Just listening to the Final Cut on headphones as I write. The guitar solo on Fletcher Memorial Home is Gilmour’s peak for me.
Meddle. There’s an argument to be made for DSOTM – the definition of a high quality album, under-rated through overexposure – but no: I’ll stick with Meddle.
Agreed – this is the correct answer. No need to meddle with history. Everything before this was leading to here, and everything afterwards was just slightly too polished for my money. The art school experimentation became toned down in favour of studio cleverness. I liked it better when it was still slightly bonkers. Those crows!
Obviously it’s DSOTM and to suggest otherwise is just being perverse, but my favourites in no particular order are:
Wish you were here – tough to follow DSOTM but manages it in style with its brooding paranoia
The Wall – best played end to end. Magnificent
Meddle – 20 seconds in and I’m back in the 6th form
Ummagumma – see Meddle
Soundtrack from More – worth it for The Nile Song
ASOS – good but I really like the live versions on Ummagumma
Animals – slight misstep but still lots of great moment.
TFC is the start of the Roger bleating which continues to this day.
Obscured By Clouds?
If it’s straight-up favourites we’re doing, I’d include Obscured by Clouds.
And More
And Ummagumma, along with Meddle, mentioned above.
Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Animals for me, closely followed by The Final Cut.
Saucerful of Secrets is my favourite, then probably Meddle and DSOTM. For a long time my only album of theres was Relics, and I still really love it. The Division Bell is up there too.
I have never personally liked the Wall, and struggle with Animals and the Final Cut.
At least Animals and The Final Cut are grown up albums. The Wall seems to be targeted at American teenage boys, admittedly a demographic with spending power.
Wish You Were Here
Incredible. Nine different albums mentioned already. I was going to say Meddle because it’s their best album, but I now think I’ll say Atom Heart Mother just to make it ten. It’s also a really good album.
Oh yes, AHM is brilliant.
I believe that Kaisfatdad saw the Floyd do “Atom Heart Mother” at the Bath Festival in 1970. Apparently, they came on at about 3 in the morning or something – hah!
Me too. Canned Heat took to the stage at dawn.
They performed a severely cut-down, slightly underwhelming version of AHM at a free Hyde Park concert in 1970. That was the second time that I saw them.
First time was at the RFH in ’69 which was much more interesting.
The last time was when they performed DSOTM & Wish You Were Here at Knebworth in ’75.
WYWH is my favourite Floyd album, though I haven’t played it in years.
I found Animals and The Wall rather disappointing and I haven’t bothered with anything else since.
Sacrilege time because it’s not a proper album, but Relics was my introduction and remains my fav. Piper a close second.
I prefer Big Big Train to Pink Floyd
Huzzah! New thread! New thread! New thread!
Oink Oink. Woof Woof. Baaaaaaaaaa….
Depending on the day, DSotM, WYWH or TFC. Hard to choose one. DSotM is obviously flawless perfection and TFC is the one I probably play most, but WYWH has Shine On You Crazy Diamond so just scrapes into pole position on the strength of that majestic piece of sublime musicality.
Animals, The Wall and even MLoR are great but I have to be in the right mood.
Meddle and Atom Heart Mother have both some very good songs and some tosh. They could be combined and added to, to make one superb album. It would go something like:
Grantchester Meadows
A Pillow of Winds
Fat Old Sun
If
Fearless
San Tropez
Summer ’68
Wots… Uh The Deal
What, no Echoes? Nope.
Obscured by Clouds and Endless River are interesting, but I rarely bother with them apart from the gorgeous but horribly titled Wots… Uh The Deal.
The others offer little beyond their anthropogenic value and should be regarded with haughty disdain by serious intellectuals and good-looking people.
As any fule knows, the only album PF made of any worth is Saucerful of Secrets. Downhill at a furious pace after that.
Back in the day , I saw PF playing in London (Electric Theatre, who knows?) – by far the best thing was the young lady pouring paint on the projector slide. Her see-through blouse….
Now read on dot dot dot.
Wish You Were Here
There’s one great song on The Wall, but little PF worth a listen after that album.
I can’t choose between Meddle and WYWH, so I’m calling it a draw.
I began with Floyd by hearing Echoes on the Saturday morning rock show with Alan Freeman. It seemed to be pretty much all I wanted from a piece of rock music. The lyrics were neither here or there. It had a beauty and strangeness and was mostly instrumental with a powerful groove that kicked in after a while. It just hits the spot for me.
I started with A Nice Pair then Relics then the Syd Barrett budget double. Then there was More. All good stuff but Meddle is the one I’d pick. Someone said to me it’s from the pre-DSOTM difficult Floyd. It still has that experimental, underground thing. After that something’s lost, never to come back but still of interest and quality.
Yes. This.
Me too, sir!
I vaguely remember seeing a film on World of Sport featuring lots of surfing with a soundtrack of Echoes. It would be sometime shortly after the release of Meddle. Can anyone confirm this?
Wish You Were Here is my favourite Floyd album.
This?
But probably not!
I seem to recall a high jumper too.
Yep, that’s the one.
Apparently, the last 23 minutes of the film was Australian surfing with Echoes as the music. I definitely saw it on tv, and I’m pretty sure it was World of Sport, as they tended to show more of the kind of sports that Grandstand didn’t bother with. I can’t imagine there was a whole 30 minute programme dedicated to it – just filler between the horse racing and bog-snorkelling or something similar.
I have a very clear – and so no doubt false – memory of the surfing/Floyd film.
World of Sport? Mmm, possibly? Dickie Davies? Mallen streak in his hair? Rallycross from Lydden Hill? No, that was BBC, Muddly Talker commentating. Wrestling! Jackie Pallo versus Kent Barker at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon? Ouch!
To keep the sports thread going, in the early 80s, Sportscene, the BBC Scotland equivalent of Match of the Day, used the intro to Run Like Hell as its theme tune. No, really, it did.
Wish you were here
Meddle
Obscured by Clouds
Dark Side of the moon is my most played but from when I was young Whippersnapper.
My tastes have changed since then and so too my choice of top 3.
Shine on you Crazy Diamond is their best ever song without question.
Nice recollection for Relics here. That too was my intro into the world of Floyd in the late 1970s on paper round money.
No way to choose, it keeps changing. I think everything from Ummagumma to Final Cut has been my favourite at some point.
Favourite Floyd SOLO album? Now there’s a question. Based on a recent listening epiphany (I just realised how much I love it), I’m starting to think it might actually be Is This The Life We Really Want?