My Journey into Pink Floyd

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At the time that Pink Floyd was getting a lot of attention I was living outside the US, and somehow I missed the entire phenomenon.  Then, early in the Eighties a friend played "Is there anybody out there?" for me, and I sat up and listened.

I think my main problem is that I don't listen to pop music (or Rock) on the radio.  When my daughter was old enough to listen to music, I began to pay attention to the songs she liked: The Cranberries, They Might Be Giants, Ani Di Franco, the Dave Matthews Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and so on.  But other than that, the only music I listened to on radio was classical music!  Yeah, I know: stupid.

I forgot all about Pink Floyd for a long time.  Somehow, Pink Floyd fans were not in my immediate circle, or at least if they were, they never said anything to remind me of the fact.  So by an amazing set of circumstances, Pink Floyd just passed me by.

Last week, my daughter's band Minstrel's Ghost (a band that is more than a decade in existence, but is now undergoing a rapid transition of its membership, and possibly on the brink of disbanding) was invited to play in an evening of Pink Floyd covers, and once again I was reminded that I liked their music.

Before I go any further, here's a video of their Last Reunion concert from 2005 (an important year for lots of things):

featuring three really awesome songs, maybe four, including Wish you were here.

Looking at the audience, you get the impression that Pink Floyd fans were . . . really nice, ordinary people.  They were clearly delighted to be at that concert, but were otherwise regular folks, hardly the sort of maniacs you would see at any other sort of rock concert.

For the benefit of anyone like me, unfamiliar with the Pink Floyd group and its (or their) music, and who, like me, need names on which to hang their concepts, the central members are Roger Waters, a founding member, who ended up playing bass, though he appears to be an all-round instrumentalist, and one of their main vocalists, the owner of a very expressive, cadaverous baritone, a little like David Bowie, but a lot more hoarse; and David Gilmour, the principal guitarist, and also a vocalist, with a wide vocal range centered around a tenor, but able to sing falsetto very high, as evidenced in the first song in the above concert.

I'll add more if I find anything to add!

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