How good were Pink Floyd?

As musicians, pretty average, instrumentally Gilmour was the most talented

They usually had a bunch of very talented session musicians on stage on theyre big tours

Lucky for them they had 2 great writers, first Barrett the Waters
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Depends how good your drugs were
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You could actually watch them clean and I saw them twice back in the day 1977, and 1980 in such a state.

Now if you were on LSD or other such substances you probably got an enhanced performance I don't know, but as the program stated "Their will be enough explosions to blow your mind".

The first time I ever saw laser beams used at a live gig, plus a plane crashing into the stage, an inflatable pig that blew up and quadrophonic sound with six huge speaker stacks. You didn't need drugs to blow your mind trust me.

Pink Floyd live at Stafford Bingley Hall 30-03-1977 was the greatest and best gig I've ever seen and I've seen a few including Oasis 15 times!!!
 
Listening to Dark Side of The Moon, wish You Were Here and Animals as a kid, I didn't need drugs, in fact maybe I started smoking weed to emulate the state of being I became listening to Floyd with a big set of headphones on my old piece of shit turntable. Still one of top three bands ever IMO
 
Phenomenal. Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and The Wall - 3 albums of the highest calibre. Whilst not that great vocally, in David Gilmour they had a wonderful lead guitarist, Richard Wright had an ear for adding some great harmony and melodies, Nick Mason was decent with the sticks and of course the catalyst was the craftsmanship, timing and creative talent of Roger Waters. The internal turmoil and rage in and around them just added to the dramatic tension that enveloped the band from the moment when they abandoned their best friend and founder in pursuit of material success.
 
-nibz- said:
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMrhRqK4iig[/video]
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As I said on this video on the OP has several unknown session musicians, not Nick Mason on Drums and another keyboard player as well as Rick Wright, not Roger Waters on Bass and 2 other guitarists

Pink Floyd as a band could never play as good as these, Gilmour just playing his usual Blues scale (which he is good at), and they always needed 3 girly singers on the 'harder to sing' songs

Probably the most overrated band ever, at least other huge bands like Led Zep, Yes, Deep Purple could actually play theyre music without help.

I once heard Roger Waters say that they developed the stage theatrics like laser shows and blow up pigs and aeroplanes etc to disguise the fact that they were a pretty shit band who sang out of tune.

Still, the dope heads dug them

I dont hate them or anything, I thought DSOTM was a great album, its just I dont think theyre great musicians, if you saw them play on theyre own without all the support guys and huge stage show anybody with half a brain would realise this
 
Mr Ed (The Stables) said:
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Depends how good your drugs were
Click to expand...

You could actually watch them clean and I saw them twice back in the day 1977, and 1980 in such a state.

Now if you were on LSD or other such substances you probably got an enhanced performance I don't know, but as the program stated "Their will be enough explosions to blow your mind".

The first time I ever saw laser beams used at a live gig, plus a plane crashing into the stage, an inflatable pig that blew up and quadrophonic sound with six huge speaker stacks. You didn't need drugs to blow your mind trust me.

Pink Floyd live at Stafford Bingley Hall 30-03-1977 was the greatest and best gig I've ever seen and I've seen a few including Oasis 15 times!!!
Click to expand...

I can't tell you how much it infuriates me that someone would even mention that average pub rock band in the same breath as Pink Floyd. Absolutely staggering. Were Pink Floyd even better than Shed Seven too?
 
Not for me you can still prog rock where the sun don't shine far to anal for me.
 
Mike D said:
Not for me you can still prog rock where the sun don't shine far to anal for me.
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Me too. Although the very early singles before they started having to use visual stunts to pad out their shows, were excellent.
'Arnold Lane' is a brilliant song.
 
Ancient Citizen said:
Mike D said:
Not for me you can still prog rock where the sun don't shine far to anal for me.
Click to expand...
Me too. Although the very early singles before they started having to use visual stunts to pad out their shows, were excellent.
'Arnold Lane' is a brilliant song.
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agreed mate they were a great little psych band in the 60's, See Emily Play was great, Syd was the man.
 
David Gilmour is a fantastic guitarist. There are many others out there who may be faster etc, but there are few that even come close to his level of expressiveness.

Richard Wright was a talented musician. I don't think you could say he was one of the greatest technically, but he had a fantastic understanding of harmony and knew exactly what was needed. The end of Shine on You Crazy Diamond is a good example of the dramatic tension he could bring to a piece.

Nick Mason never really shone for me as a live performer, but he wasn't bad. He did the job and no doubt also contributed a lot in the creative process in the studio.

Roger Waters is a shite bass player, however, he more than makes up for it with his song writing abilities, as well as his creativity in his experimentation with unusual recording techniques and early synthesisers.

The important thing is the end result. Pink Floyd created a lot of self-indulgent shite, but the likes of Darr Side, Wish You Were Here, the Wall etc. were masterpieces. If I wanted to listen to people purely for their musical talent, there are plenty of videos of people fret-wanking on YouTube.

Stuuuuuu makes a good point about Oasis - pub rock is pretty accurate in my opinion. There's no end of love on here for them, but nobody ever complains that as musicians, they are average at best.

Nimrod - your point about 'unknown' session musicians - that was a David Gimour solo performance - not a Pink Floyd one. The session musicians are all credited and all selected for their musical ability. The drummer (Steve DiStanislao) was working with Crosby Stills & Nash, and David Gilmour said he was 'too good not to nick'. The other keyboard player is John Carin, who has worked with post-Waters Pink Floyd and both David Gilmour on recordings and tours for many years and also with Roger Waters as part of his touring band. He has also worked with the likes of Bryan Ferry, Pete Townsend and The Who, and Kate Bush. The sax player is Dick Parry, who performed on Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and the Division Bell, and was a member of Joker's Wild with Gilmour before Pink Floyd. The bass player is Guy Pratt, who has worked with Pink Floyd since Roger Waters departed. The other guitarist should need no introduction - it's Phil Manzanera.

If you were in Gilmour's shoes, and you were embarking on a world tour, where you are performing your new album in its entirety, along with old favourites off DSOTM, WYWH and The Wall, you cannot do it on your own and you are not going to play along with a backing tape. Would you carefully select some of the world's best musicians, or would you ring John from the Nag's Head to see if he's got his bass back from Cash Converters yet?
 
Absolutely amazing band. Not done anything good since '79, but there aren't many bands that are relevant across decades. (Apart from maybe Bowie) Gilmour is in the top five guitarists.
 
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