h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Visit its Forum at http://www.h2g2.com/P29585 In the meantime I will copy an extract of something that I wrote about PF on my webpage:

As all Floyd fans know, PF is not about songs but about albums, complete albums/work. It is an art and not music as such ... they are the architects of most modern day music. One has to listen to their albums from start to end nonstop, as one song ties to the other making a whole concept.

To listen to PF is one thing; however to be into them and understand their music is another. Only a real Floyd fan can understand this and i am sure that all of those would agree with me 110%.

Pink Floyd was, is, has been and always will be one of the biggest bands ever. And one small note to those who know nothing about Floyd: Their album DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (1973) has sold more than 28 million copies worldwide, spending 800 weeks in the US charts. Statistically, it should be playing somewhere or other on the planet during every moment of every day ... at the moment it is played here !!!

"To listen to PF is one thing; however to be into them and understand their music is another. Only a real Floyd fan can understand this and i am sure that all of those would agree with me 110%."
Bollocks. -what pretentious twaddle. It's people like you who give the internet a bad name, propagating such nonsense! Floyd's music is great but there's nothing mystical or difficult to understand about it. You need to get out more! Open your mind, listen to the enormous range of great music that's been made across the genres over the last 40 years and GET SOME PERSPECTIVE!!!

Agreed. I can listen to DSoTM over and over, and over and over and over and over and over.. erm... again, yes. And do often. Its quite entertaining. I've found if you binge-listen to albums like 'The Wall' you get serious nightmares, etc. So I wouldn't reccomend it.

I must agree 100% with Mr Sonic, the pleasure is in the listening, not in the understanding, there has been a great deal of msuic written, that if you paid attention to what they were saying, you would probably take a large axe to your music system. Listen to it for the pleasure of the sounds, not for messages.
Yes made a very nice little earning from producing long and intricate pieces of music, if you have ever read the lyrics they make about as much sense as xnfkbvhsduifgwendvhiahadfvjoavikuujkl!!!!!!

Utter pubes.

Mr Healer's point is that there is nothing mystical about Pink Floyd - music OR lyrics! Yes it grooves, yes it touches the parts that only a fizzy apple and cherry chew can tickle, but NO! it has no deeper significance. Check out some of the other titles in your Brittania Music catalogue, my spotty friend.

NARF!

What a strange little being you are! How come you don't listen to music for pleasure anyway? I mean, f**k! Poems sound nice, but they don't ALL have to mean sth. I am of the opinion that LOTS of poets wrote stuff just to write, not to have "deeper meanings" interpreted onto them. Which is what happens. In fairness, if you look, you can interpret ANYTHING from lyrics or poetry. All you need is imagination.

If you want to think about music then do so, if not listen to other music or listen to it at face value, Suit yourself. But I can assure you that you'll miss out on the personal life of the people who wrote it.

The thing that really pi... me off is that all the people who dislike Pink Floyd are always going on about the 'mysterious' lyrics.
I mean Come On ! Dark Side was about Syd Barrett and nothing else. And so where Wish you were here and The wall.
If you know the influence of Syd on the early Floyd you suddenly see the lyrics as much more down to earth-ramblings of just another guy called Waters, and that's what I think makes the 60- and 70-Floyd so great to listen to, And I Haven't Even Said Anything About The Music !

Sorry, got carried away again...

By the way ; The Dark Side of the Moon is the first record anyone should listen to after smoking grass for the first time, and I know that for a fact.

I also know a couple of others...

How true(not the grass thing, I wouldn't know) Songwriters tend to write about things which influence them. Sometimes, if not most times, they hide their subjects in metephor, for fear of exposing their souls to the world. As you say, if you know what their world is about and listen close to what they say, it's amazing how much you can learn about their personality.

As far as PF albums being a "storyboard", that was true of most late sixties through mid-seventies groups. ZZ Top, CDB, Skynard,etc.. For true metephorical story telling, try Eagles, "Hotel California".

I don't know for sure, but it has always been my opinion that this particular album style started with the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper, and ended with disco. What a shame......I really enjoyed it!

The Lamb lies down on Broadway is about Rael from New York, who is quite a bastard...

Hotel California is about Hollywood/California/Western civilization/etcetera.

Dark side of the moon is about Syd Barrett and life in general.

And what about Graceland, Peter Gabriel I through IV, Tears for Fears, I can't understand why anyone would only listen to the music. Sure, the music comes first, you don't have to do anything specific except turn on the cd-player but are people really that lazy ?

TM

Yeah, I think they are. Either that, or they are afraid they might learn something from their entertainment. Either way, I think it sad they miss so much. To me the understanding is as entertaining as the sound. From what I can tell, I'm not alone.....but very close to being so.

It's a dying breed, that it is...
Hmmm I might have to start getting serious here at H2G2..

Ladies and gentlemen, I find it strange that we have carried this conversation to this. The initial argument was that 'wow, you got to listen to the lyrics man, they're far out, I'm goin to base my life on this', which was a little strong. Yes some lyrics can have meaning, a lot of music can 'move you' whether it be Bach or Zappa, my point was "shut up and listen to it for pleasure first, if yoyu happen to get anything else out of it thane great. But don't go all transcendental because somebody wrote something with meaning, hell Religions have been doing that for centuries. A little like that poor girl in Rickmansworth.

AMEN!!!! It's a sad state of affairs when all a person has to base their entire life phylosophy on are lyrics from something created only in the intrest of achieving wealth.

Vive la individuality, and freedom to screw up our own lives, and not live someone elses version of it

It may be a bit different in Holland(I just don't know) but according to a quite serious survey(I believe dating from 1981) a person who is 18 years old in The U.S.A. has spent :

1) 20.000 hours watching television
2) 15.000 hours(!!) in school/studying

and ofcourse...

3) 235.000 hours thinking about sex...

So what do you mean long live individuality ??? Do you know how many songs you have heard by the time you're 18 ? And everything influences you all you life, not even Albert Einstein claimed to have made it all up himself...


BTW, it's nice to have a forum with a little discussion ladies and gentlemen. Thank you.

TM.

Ones personality is like a pot of soup. It is the culmination of everything put in it.......but. One right ingredient can make it a magnificent meal; one wrong one and it becomes unpalatable even for a dog. The problem is with life, as it is with soup, you can never be entirely sure what effect the next ingredient will have.

Now THAT sounds somewhat more interesting. I'll have to think about that one(o no...).

Would anyone like to go first ? Hellooo is there anybody OUT there...?