Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd pushed the envelope in the mid-'60s and '70s with a cosmic sound that rolled reverb, screech, and feedback into long instrumental arpeggios. Led by virtuoso guitarist Syd Barrett, the band's live-on-tour combination of soulful lyrics and p...more

Pink Floyd pushed the envelope in the mid-'60s and '70s with a cosmic sound that rolled reverb, screech, and feedback into long instrumental arpeggios. Led by virtuoso guitarist Syd Barrett, the band's live-on-tour combination of soulful lyrics and palpable melody backed by psychedelic light shows rocked fellow Brits and guaranteed blockbuster status for debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Genius and madman stand cheek by jowl on the scale of creativity, however, and Barrett, already unstable, began a descent into darkness that made him and his music even more unconventional and boundary-defying. David Gilmore stepped in to replace him on vocals, and the maniacal foundation of the band was anchored by the new band dynamic. Bassist Roger Watters emerged as the band's next visionary and Pink Floyd's seismic Dark Side of the Moon broke them big-time into the American market. The Wall followed in '79, a hit with fans if not their critics, due in part to its lighter, more pop-trend sound. Momentary Lapse of Reason in '87 and The Division Bell in '94 were successful, post-Waters releases, demonstrating that the band could muster a good enough facsimile of their cutting-edge genre to please both devotees of their early music and a new generation of younger fans. Read more about Pink Floyd in Crawdaddy!: "Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" "Wouldn't You Miss Me: The Syd Barrett Surplus"...less