Pink Floyd :: The Enigmatic Bliss

The Author’s perspective:

 

Well, the sound, the enigmatic feel, the music, the mystifying vocals and the incredible solos, its Floyd.

 

I’d like to talk about my favorite band, Pink Floyd. As I sat next to my computer my brain was hardwired with the sounds of pure cool. The soothing guitars, tight kick drum and bass line, and entrancing vocal harmonies built in me a template against which I would measure all music even to this very day. “The Dark Side of the Moon “,” Wish You Were Here and “The Wall” have each spent a rather long tour of duty in my winamp’s playlist.

 

As an ardent listener:

One thing that has always struck me about Pink Floyd is the existential nature of their lyrics. As a son, I am deeply touched by “Mother” from The Wall, a song that presents a dialogue between a son and his mother which turns out to be sort of a commentary on the role of the family in shaping children. Here is the first half of the song:

 

Mother do you think they’ll drop the bomb?

Mother do you think they’ll like this song?

Mother do you think they’ll try to break my balls?

Mother should I build the wall?

Mother should I run for president?

Mother should I trust the government?

Mother will they put me in the firing line?

Oooh is it just a waste of time?

 

It is the all too familiar need that all of us have to look to our parents to give us guidance and to explain this harsh world in which we live. Most of us initially trust that our parents both care about us and know what they are talking about. The mother responds:

 

Hush now baby, baby don’t you cry

Mama’s gonna make all of your nightmares come true

Mama’s gonna put all of her fears into you

Mama’s gonna keep you right here under her wing

She won’t let you fly but she might let you sing

Mama’s gonna keep baby cozy and warm

Oooh babe Oooh babe Oooh babe of course Mama’s gonna help build the wall

 

This song speaks of “building the wall.” That is, the dividing wall between all of us and the reality of the world we live in. The wall is created, perpetuated, and maintained in part by family, where children blindly trust their parents to guide them and give them explanations, and their parents pass down their own insecurities about the world and their place in it to their children.

 

Yet another example of this might be the song “Another Brick in the Wall [part 2]”, an amazing power ballad, the lyrics emanate from the

very heart of children who are frustrated from the teachers and the

administration of the school who keep making new rules and impose severe [read as physical] punishment on them. The song’s chorus is a breathing satire on their existence in the school as well in society.

“All in all its justa..nother brick in the wall,

all in all your justa..nother brick in the wall..”

 

A musician’s perspective:

“The Floyd sound” is the most apt description of the music that the band has created; it is more of an artwork which consists of a captivating amalgamation of blues, jazz and country music. “Progressive Rock” might be a suitable categorization of their music. The song “Shine on you crazy diamond” dedicated to Syd Barrett has a melancholic feel to it. The lyrics’ dealing explicitly with the aftermath of his breakdown whereas “Wish you were here” again dedicated to him has a delightful feel to it in spite of it dealing a similar theme, “absence”.

 

Floyd, when you’re High:

Listening to “Comfortably Numb”, I sometimes wonder, “Is this heaven or just a manifestation of it?” The feeling surpasses everything that exists physically and I am taken to a place which I can be best described as “ethereal”. The moment when Gilmour’s voice says “hello..is there anybody in there”, I am dispatched on a blissful voyage to unfamiliar places of this universe that I cannot even relate to in the state of sanity.

Watching the live concerts, especially PULSE is something out of the ordinary. The lavish stage setups combining over-the-top visual experiences with their music, create a show in which the artists themselves are almost secondary. Additional special effects in the concerts include lasers, pyrotechnics, and oversized balloons. I used to wonder about Floyd being called a psychedelic rock band when I had just started listening. It never struck me until I watched PULSE.

 

For me there’s music and then there’s Floyd.