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FBG'S TOP 100 PINK FLOYD SONGS - #01 - Comfortably Numb from The Wall (1979) (1 Viewer)

I haven’t been in a Floyd mood lately, plus this thread moves fast, so that explains my lack of participation. Plus, while I appreciate the time put into the write ups, they are so long with all the reviews and links that I find myself glossing over them and just moving on.
 
I was hoping for a little more engagement and participation than me just posting write ups and one or two people making a comment. Not sure how to spark some discussion in here.

I'll get better as we progress. Much of the early stuff I'm not super familiar so I don't have a lot to add. But thank you for doing this. I am really enjoying the writeups and learning quite a bit along the way.
 
I was hoping for a little more engagement and participation than me just posting write ups and one or two people making a comment. Not sure how to spark some discussion in here.
I really appreciate all the work you’re putting into this. Most of what has been released so far has been new to me and has been fun to explore. The writeups have been fantastic.
 
I was hoping for a little more engagement and participation than me just posting write ups and one or two people making a comment. Not sure how to spark some discussion in here.

I'll get better as we progress. Much of the early stuff I'm not super familiar so I don't have a lot to add. But thank you for doing this. I am really enjoying the writeups and learning quite a bit along the way.
Same here. I have listened to every song posted. It has been a great way to learn about and experience many earlier songs that I had just not gotten into yet.
 
I was hoping for a little more engagement and participation than me just posting write ups and one or two people making a comment. Not sure how to spark some discussion in here.
I only get a chance to pop in late at night, but man I'm digging all the write ups. I told you when I sent in my list of 25 that it would be completely different if I did it another day, and that's so true. I think I reached a little with some of the shorter transition songs that maybe don't warrant the high ranking I gave them. But I think I'm happy with my 25 songs, I'd probably rearrange a couple of them if I had a redraft. Speaking of some obscure songs, I'll be checking out the Brit Floyd show in a couple weeks and I wonder how people would rate their setlist. While they're playing plenty of the expected songs, they're adding some pretty obscure songs from the later albums, including, What Do You Want From Me?, Yet Another Movie/Round and Around, Sorrow, The Gunner's Dream, Fearless, See Emily Play, High Hopes, and Not Now John. I'm going to guess that a couple of those songs didn't make anybody's top 25 list in this pool. Here's their Jacksonville setlist, it's been consistent this whole tour. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/brit-floyd/2023/florida-theatre-jacksonville-fl-4bb927fa.html
 
I was hoping for a little more engagement and participation than me just posting write ups and one or two people making a comment. Not sure how to spark some discussion in here.
I only get a chance to pop in late at night, but man I'm digging all the write ups. I told you when I sent in my list of 25 that it would be completely different if I did it another day, and that's so true. I think I reached a little with some of the shorter transition songs that maybe don't warrant the high ranking I gave them. But I think I'm happy with my 25 songs, I'd probably rearrange a couple of them if I had a redraft. Speaking of some obscure songs, I'll be checking out the Brit Floyd show in a couple weeks and I wonder how people would rate their setlist. While they're playing plenty of the expected songs, they're adding some pretty obscure songs from the later albums, including, What Do You Want From Me?, Yet Another Movie/Round and Around, Sorrow, The Gunner's Dream, Fearless, See Emily Play, High Hopes, and Not Now John. I'm going to guess that a couple of those songs didn't make anybody's top 25 list in this pool. Here's their Jacksonville setlist, it's been consistent this whole tour. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/brit-floyd/2023/florida-theatre-jacksonville-fl-4bb927fa.html
Brit Floyd is awesome - enjoy the show.
 
Roger Waters being investigated by German authorities for “dressing up in SS like costume” “and inciting hatred” during a German concert just blows my mind. I get that some people don’t like Roger, but that is peak ignorance there. Never heard of anyone not “getting” The Wall. It’s not really that subtle or hard to understand, is it? If anything, I always thought it was a bit heavy handed. I’ve seen him do that Pink bit 10 times and never thought the people cheering, including me,were like “yay, Nazis”. Crazy.
 
Roger Waters being investigated by German authorities for “dressing up in SS like costume” “and inciting hatred” during a German concert just blows my mind. I get that some people don’t like Roger, but that is peak ignorance there. Never heard of anyone not “getting” The Wall. It’s not really that subtle or hard to understand, is it? If anything, I always thought it was a bit heavy handed. I’ve seen him do that Pink bit 10 times and never thought the people cheering, including me,were like “yay, Nazis”. Crazy.
I can never quite wrap my mind around the fact that people didn't see Starship Troopers as satire when it was released, but that actually happened. Some people are really dumb.
 
I was hoping for a little more engagement and participation than me just posting write ups and one or two people making a comment. Not sure how to spark some discussion in here.
I have been following closely. There just hasn't been many songs I can add to so far. It's been a learning experience for sure with the write ups. Thank you!
 
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Roger Waters being investigated by German authorities for “dressing up in SS like costume” “and inciting hatred” during a German concert just blows my mind. I get that some people don’t like Roger, but that is peak ignorance there. Never heard of anyone not “getting” The Wall. It’s not really that subtle or hard to understand, is it? If anything, I always thought it was a bit heavy handed. I’ve seen him do that Pink bit 10 times and never thought the people cheering, including me,were like “yay, Nazis”. Crazy.
We live in a very strange world these days and it’s quite annoying.
 
Roger Waters being investigated by German authorities for “dressing up in SS like costume” “and inciting hatred” during a German concert just blows my mind. I get that some people don’t like Roger, but that is peak ignorance there. Never heard of anyone not “getting” The Wall. It’s not really that subtle or hard to understand, is it? If anything, I always thought it was a bit heavy handed. I’ve seen him do that Pink bit 10 times and never thought the people cheering, including me,were like “yay, Nazis”. Crazy.
I’m Jewish and thus very sensitive to the concern given this age of rampant anti-Semitism. That said, I also understand The Wall and its imagery. I do think that Roger is going overboard with his hatred of Israel, but I don’t want to make this political. I don’t like Roger, but still love his and PF music and will leave it at that.
 
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Roger Waters being investigated by German authorities for “dressing up in SS like costume” “and inciting hatred” during a German concert just blows my mind. I get that some people don’t like Roger, but that is peak ignorance there. Never heard of anyone not “getting” The Wall. It’s not really that subtle or hard to understand, is it? If anything, I always thought it was a bit heavy handed. I’ve seen him do that Pink bit 10 times and never thought the people cheering, including me,were like “yay, Nazis”. Crazy.
I can never quite wrap my mind around the fact that people didn't see Starship Troopers as satire when it was released, but that actually happened. Some people are really dumb.
True, but it really made me think about the relevancy of The Wall and Pink Floyd. The clip of Roger unloading a machine gun into the crowd in full on Fascist Pink costume makes him look like a lunatic. People just dumping on him on Twitter, seemingly completely unaware of any context or understanding of The Wall. On one hand, I suppose it’s good that people are still shocked by it, especially with a global rise in Fascism. But it also reminded me that a lot of people, including government officials apparently, don’t know anything about Pink Floyd these days and that is kinda sad.
 
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I was hoping for a little more engagement and participation than me just posting write ups and one or two people making a comment. Not sure how to spark some discussion in here.
Speaking of some obscure songs, I'll be checking out the Brit Floyd show in a couple weeks and I wonder how people would rate their setlist. While they're playing plenty of the expected songs, they're adding some pretty obscure songs from the later albums, including, What Do You Want From Me?, Sorrow, Fearless, See Emily Play, and High Hopes. I'm going to guess that a couple of those songs didn't make anybody's top 25 list in this pool. Here's their Jacksonville setlist, it's been consistent this whole tour. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/brit-floyd/2023/florida-theatre-jacksonville-fl-4bb927fa.html
Some of the tunes you mentioned were on my list or just off. The ones I left on my edit above are so good and big favorites of mine.
 
Roger Waters being investigated by German authorities for “dressing up in SS like costume” “and inciting hatred” during a German concert just blows my mind. I get that some people don’t like Roger, but that is peak ignorance there. Never heard of anyone not “getting” The Wall. It’s not really that subtle or hard to understand, is it? If anything, I always thought it was a bit heavy handed. I’ve seen him do that Pink bit 10 times and never thought the people cheering, including me,were like “yay, Nazis”. Crazy.

Bah. There are plenty of reasons to be offended by Roger Waters. Pretty much everything he's done or said since leaving the band pisses me off. But this ain't one of them. This is dumb.
 
While I was reading about the German police ridiculousness, I came across this. This is probably well known to this group of PF nerds, but it was new to me

Roger Waters to re-release Dark Side

And the stuff that really annoys me about present day Waters ... quotes like this:

When contemplating Dark Side, Waters seemed dismissive of his former bandmates, whom he called “Faux Floyd” “I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon. Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ c–p!,” he told The Telegraph. “Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it. So… blah!”
 
While I was reading about the German police ridiculousness, I came across this. This is probably well known to this group of PF nerds, but it was new to me

Roger Waters to re-release Dark Side

And the stuff that really annoys me about present day Waters ... quotes like this:

When contemplating Dark Side, Waters seemed dismissive of his former bandmates, whom he called “Faux Floyd” “I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon. Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ c–p!,” he told The Telegraph. “Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it. So… blah!”
Is it just me, or does this guy have a high opinion of himself. I may be reading into things a bit.
 
#55-T - Cymbaline from More (1969)
Appeared On: 3 ballots (out of 33 . . . 9.1%)
Total Points: 26 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 3.2%)
Top Rankers: @Mookie Gizzy @zamboni @Pip's Invitation
Highest Ranking: 14

Film Version, Extended Version, Live Version

Live Performances:

PF
: 141

Covers: Hawkwind, Hubert Laws, RPWL, Permanent Clear Light, Jacklyn Slimm, Aurisha, SLACKS

Considered the highlight of More the album, Roger Waters has said that Cymbaline is "about a nightmare." In fact, it would be incorporated into The Man suite later in 1969 in that context. A great song lyrically and musically, it seems that the nightmare is about being caught up in the music business machine, one of Roger's first songs about this subject. Roger likens the effort of putting together a rhyming lyric for a song to walking a tightrope, while 'the ravens' — those who want to feast off one's success and laugh at one's failure — watch every step hungrily. And when the ravens are 'closing in,' one's manager and agent are only worried about making more money. The lyrics of the third verse are more obscure, yet still striking. Dr. Strange was a popular comics hero at the time due to his mystical abilities rooted in ancient magics (such as the ability to traverse other dimensions and change his size at will), but his relevance to the song is unknown. Perhaps, if Cymbaline is about an actual nightmare, the third verse simply reflects the surreality and free association that occurs in dreams.

Unlike most More songs, the film version of this song is not the same as the album. It is a completely different recording, in a higher key and with different lyrics as well. Nick Mason's first wife is credited for playing woodwinds and flute on the song. Mason, by the way, contends to this day that the only reason he was invited to join the band was due to the fact that he owned a car (they were poor college age kids back then) and Roger wanted to use it all the time.

The live performance of the piece, which lasted into 1971, was something else entirely. It was used to very effectively demonstrate the band's quadraphonic sound system. Near the end of the song, the music would stop and a tape would play. The footsteps of a man could be heard, beginning at one corner of the hall, and appearing to walk full circle around the auditorium, the man opening and closing doors as he went. When the footsteps had gone completely round, the final door was opened, behind which lay an explosion — and the rest of the song. It was probably the most highly directional use of sound that existed at the time, though it loses its appeal on stereo or mono bootleg recordings. The Floyd continued their interest in directional soundthe rest of their time together.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 46
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 62
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): NR
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 37

Vulture Ranking (46 out of 165 songs): A standout from the More soundtrack, which works well in the party scene. Great melody! Nothing Shakespearian here, though; in fact, the lyrics could have been written by Christopher Guest, not Marlowe: Apprehension creeping / Like a tube-train up your spine / Will the tightrope reach the end / Will the final couplet rhyme. (It’s one of those “creeping” subways, I guess, and what exactly was the tightrope supposed to be doing?) But it’s a focused and memorable chorus, and sung powerfully. Ends with two minutes of noodling.

UCR Ranking (62 out of 167 songs): Try as he might, Waters couldn’t match Barrett’s ability to throw together fantastical and humdrum references and reveal a psychedelic dreamscape on the other side of the tunnel. Yet this nightmare (with bongos!) lands on some memorable imagery (“a tube train up your spine”) while exposing the songwriter’s worst fears: heights and ravens, music managers and agents. Plus, as a lead singer, Gilmour’s knack for nuance was already increasing.

Billboard Ranking (37 out of 50 songs): A sublime song about a nightmare: Over sweet-sounding Farfisa organ and lush bass and bongos, Gilmour sings “The ravens all are closing in/ And there’s nowhere you can hide,” before unveiling the song’s true villains: “Your manager and agent are both busy on the phone/ Selling colored photographs to magazines back home.” Welcome to the machine, boys.

Coming up, one of @Ghost Rider 's Top 10 selections.
My rank: 20

So I guess I'm the only one who had three songs from More?

I love the melody and the vibe of this one. It's mellow but creepy, and Gilmour's expressive vocal is attention-grabbing.
 
Daniel Johnston basically owes his career to this song. Good songcraft but also coming from the perspective of someone who's not entirely functional mentally. There was no market for that before Syd.

Another song that has a lot in common with The Who's quirkier early singles. They share a certain rumble about them. The subject matter is very odd, but the way the band sings and plays is no joke.


If we were allowed to combine this and ABITW2 -- which FM stations usually did back in the day -- the pair would have made my list. Separately, neither did. The bass is incredibly powerful and the lyrics perfectly set up the reasons why the kids would chant "we don't need no education" in ABITW2.
 
#52-T - Poles Apart from The Division Bell (1994)
Appeared On: 2 ballots (out of 33 . . . 6.1%)
Total Points: 28 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 3.3%)
Top Rankers: @Ghost Rider @Todem
Highest Ranking: 9

Live Performances:

DG's PF
: 26 (Bootlegging The Bootleggers, 360 Reality Audio Version)

Covers: Brit Floyd

Another song with lyrics written by Dave, Polly Sampson, and Nick-Laird Clowes. I forgot to mention before that Laird-Clowes opened for DG on one of his tours in the 2000's, performing as Trashmonk. The beginning of the song is said to be a reference to the way things turned out for Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, with things going awry for Syd and things turning out great for Roger.

I found a version with the song Surfacing from The Endless River conjoined. Not sure if that was once a thing or if that's someone's own creation. Endless RIver was a release of leftovers from The Division Bell sessions, so I suppose it's possible (but I haven't seen it described as such anywhere).

Gilmour utilized D,A,D,G,A,D tuning on Poles Apart, which was a new tuning approach for him, "The funny thing is that I didn't know it was such an established tuning -- I thought it was something new that I had invented. One day, I was on holiday in Greece and I had an acoustic guitar with me. I just decided to tune the bottom string down to D, and continued to experiment until I arrived at that tuning. Then I mucked around a bit and Poles Apart fell out of it a few minutes later."

Dave on The Division Bell: "I suppose you could say there's a theme throughout the album, which involves communication. Pretty much all the songs are connected to the theme of communication in some way or another. That's what we're trying to create, simply magic. It's as simple as that. Try to create magic, try to move people, move their hearts a little bit. I have already had vast amounts of enjoyment out of this record myself. I sit at home late at night and listen to it in all the stages it's been through, just a collection of songs, collection of tracks without words, collection of tracks with words, with melodies, without melodies, all the way through. I get home from the studio and I listen through to the progress that we've made, and as soon as we had a collection of pieces a few months ago we had a collection of pieces on tape over an hour long with pretty much all the tracks on it. I'd sit at home late at night after returning from the studio and listen to them and I really have got off on it, myself. Enjoyed it so much. You then just keep honing away at it, working those things to try and make them even better, make them have more point, more poignancy if you like, more heart. You can then only hope when you deliver it out that the pleasure that you've had will be shared by other people. I know nothing pleases everyone, but there will be people who will listen to this who will derive the same sort of pleasure that I have out of it, and that's something that makes me feel very good about this particular record."

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 109
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 78
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 99
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (109 of 165 songs): This is a song about being “poles apart”! Well-produced track, but its lackluster (and sometimes overly literal) melody and dopey (and sometimes overly literal) lyrics sink it. The song is credited to Gilmour, a guy from Dream Academy (which had the hit Life in a Northern Town), and one Polly Samson, Gilmour’s then-fiancée, playing the part of Jeanine Pettibone.

UCR Ranking (78 out of 167 songs): Is there any band more obsessed with their former members than Pink Floyd? It’s not like the Rolling Stones wrote a bunch of songs about Brian Joness in the ’70s. But even 25 years after he replaced Barrett in the Floyd, Gilmour was still singing about Syd (not to mention Roger, in verse two). Unlike some of The Division Bell’s nastier material, the acoustically rooted Poles Apart seeks sweetness in the sadness, expressing admiration for – and not just frustration with – Dave’s old mates.

Next on the hit parade, another track from The Division Bell.
 
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I will stand behind Poles Apart to the death. Amazing song on all levels. Everything comes together just right for this song to stick to landing like few other Floyd songs ever have. I knew it was a major winner right away when The Division Bell was released, and it has aged extremely well. The fact that it was played at the Floyd show I saw in Kansas City in 1994 (it wasn't part of the every night set list) just made it that much more special for me.
 
I will stand behind Poles Apart to the death. Amazing song on all levels. Everything comes together just right for this song to stick to landing like few other Floyd songs ever have. I knew it was a major winner right away when The Division Bell was released, and it has aged extremely well. The fact that it was played at the Floyd show I saw in Kansas City in 1994 (it wasn't part of the every night set list) just made it that much more special for me.
Different strokes. I find it mostly bland and vanilla, overlong, and a track that doesn't stand out. If we ranked 100 songs, this still would not have made my list. I think the tempo is too slow, which adds to the long and draggy element. The middle orchestra part section doesn't do much for me either. Not one of my Division Bell favorites. IMO, it needed the closing guitar solo several minutes earlier. Speed it up a smidge, get rid of the middle bridge, and I would be more into it.
 
Very small, relatively insignificant parts of songs can change my opinion of them. Poles Apart is one if those. I really like when the steel guitar is used outside of country music. I know Gimour isn't afraid to use it, but in Poles, it's very noticeable early in the song. It's the same reason I really like Led Zepp's Tangerine. That said, Poles Apart wouldn't sniff my top 50, but I do enjoy it.
 
Not sure if there's any Robyn Hitchcock fans in here, but it was always clear that he was heavily influenced by early PF. Turns out he's got a bunch of videos on youtube of him doing Syd covers. Here's everyone's favorite, Bike - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY56LRtrMAs and here's something a little more obscure, Syd's Dark Globe covered by Hitchcock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC-26AF3lnk
I've always dug his music and got a chance to see him live 3-4 years ago. He puts on a great show and is a funny guy. He didn't do any Syd tunes, but his own stuff is very Syd inspired too..
 
Not sure if there's any Robyn Hitchcock fans in here, but it was always clear that he was heavily influenced by early PF. Turns out he's got a bunch of videos on youtube of him doing Syd covers. Here's everyone's favorite, Bike - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY56LRtrMAs and here's something a little more obscure, Syd's Dark Globe covered by Hitchcock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC-26AF3lnk
I've always dug his music and got a chance to see him live 3-4 years ago. He puts on a great show and is a funny guy. He didn't do any Syd tunes, but his own stuff is very Syd inspired too..
I saw him earlier this year and thought he put on a good show, especially considering I wasn't familiar with any of his music. Someone I had heard about for years, but never checked out their music.
 
#52-T - Coming Back To Life from The Division Bell (1994)

Appeared On: 4 ballots (out of 33 . . . 12.1%)
Total Points: 28 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 3.3%)
Top Rankers: @FatMax @jabarony Friend of @PIK95 @PIK95
Highest Ranking: 15

Live Performances:

DG's PF
: 44 (1994)
DG: 67 (2001, 2004, 2006, 2016)

Covers: A26, Brit Floyd, Haricharan, Dakota, Midnight Garden Factor,

It is about a spiritual renewal on the part of the narrator. The narrator is addressing a specific person, although their actual identity is never made explicit, and criticizes this person for "hanging yourself on someone else's words"--in other words, believing what other people say about the narrator, rather than the narrator himself. The speaker then realizes that this person is a part of the past, and that the time had finally come to let him/her go and move on with their life. David Gilmour has been seen to cry during concerts when performing this song as it is an extremely emotional piece.

Like many of the songs on The Division Bell, the song could be seen as Gilmour addressing his ex-bandmate, Roger Waters. It would not be the first time that Pink Floyd had created a song that was generally-stated, but personal in nature (the entirety of the album "Wish You Were Here" was dedicated to their ex-bandmate, Syd Barrett). However, Gilmour has denied any but the most tenuous connections between the band's near-breakup and the lyrics of the album and he has said (as can be heard in the David Gilmour in Concert DVD) that the song was written about his wife, Polly Samson.

The song has been a staple in Gilmour's performances from 1994 to 2016. It was one of the songs performed on rotation during the 1994 Division Bell Tour, at every one of Gilmour's semi-acoustic shows in 2001 and 2002, at Gilmour's performance at the Fender Stratocaster 50th anniversary concert in London in 2004, and was played at most shows during his solo 2006 On an Island Tour. It became a staple of shows during the 2015-16 Rattle That Lock tour.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 111
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 95
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 30
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 42
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (111 out of 165 songs): Another minute or so of guitar noodling — reminiscent of, but much less dramatic than, the stuff on Shine On You Crazy Diamond — begins this tepid construction. It gets really irritating when the song takes on a sort of prancing rhythm. I hate that.

UCR Ranking (95 out of 167 songs): Gilmour has many strengths, but lyrics are not one of them – which is why he so willingly accepted the help of his girlfriend-turned-wife Polly Samson on Pink Floyd’s last two albums (as well as his solo discs). He gets off a few good lines without her help on Coming Back to Life” which was written about (and not with) Samson. The song is a lovely tribute and, even if it’s a little bit “lite rock” by Floyd standards, Gilmour delivers a glistening guitar break.

Louder Ranking (30 out of 50 songs): Arriving after a studio lay-off nudging seven years, the title of this Division Bell standout was apt (perhaps it also nodded to Gilmour’s cocaine-free lifestyle since meeting journalist, collaborator and future wife Polly Samson). The guitarist’s lead work was defiantly melodic in the era of Britrock, and there’s more to his open-hearted lyric than meets the eye (“The ‘dangerous but irresistible pastime’?” he mused in Q. “Oh, it’s sex, obviously. Sex and procreation…”).

Up next, IIRC, our first selection with 5 voters . . . featuring Funky Dung and more.
 
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Setlists from my three Floyd-related shows:

Pink Floyd (DG version), JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, PA 9/19/87

Set I:
Echoes
Signs of Life
Learning to Fly
Yet Another Movie/Round and Around
A New Machine Part 1/Terminal Frost/A New Machine Part 2
Sorrow
The Dogs of War
On the Turning Away

Set II:
One of These Days
Time/Breathe Reprise
On the Run
Wish You Were Here
Welcome to the Machine
Us and Them
Money
Another Brick in the Wall Part 2
Comfortably Numb

Encore:
Run Like Hell
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V

Pink Floyd (DG version), Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, PA 5/16/88

Set I:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V
Signs of Life
Learning to Fly
Yet Another Movie/Round and Around
A New Machine Part 1/Terminal Frost/A New Machine Part 2
Sorrow
The Dogs of War
On the Turning Away

Set II:
One of These Days
Time/Breathe Reprise
On the Run
The Great Gig in the Sky
Wish You Were Here
Welcome to the Machine
Us and Them
Money
Another Brick in the Wall Part 2
Comfortably Numb

Encore:
One Slip
Run Like Hell

David Gilmour, Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY 4/4/06

Set I:
Castellorizon
This Heaven
Smile
Red Sky at Night
Take a Breath
Then I Close My Eyes
On an Island*
The Blue*
A Pocketful of Stones
Where We Start

Set II:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V*
Wearing the Inside Out**
Dominoes***
Breathe/Time/Breathe Reprise
High Hopes
Echoes

Encore:
Wish You Were Here*
Find the Cost of Freedom*+
Comfortably Numb

* - with David Crosby and Graham Nash on backing vocals
** - Rick Wright was in DG's backing band
*** - Syd Barrett song
+ - CSNY song
 
#52-T - Coming Back To Life from The Division Bell (1994)

This song hit me square in the feels when it was released, and I still love it today. I spent a lot of time listening to it, wallowing in a prolonged period of self-pity after a tough breakup. It was sad and hopeful at the same time. I think that context sort of etched a place in my heart for this song, long after the pain faded. It's one of those songs that snap me back to a very specific point in my life, and though I didn't know it then, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I'm not surprised at all that it isn't more popular. It's personal to me, but not necessarily others. That's the cool thing about music ... one song can trigger a mental time machine. We all have those trigger songs, and they're all different. And most of the time, there's a good story to go with them.
 
I love Coming Back to Life so much. It's very nuanced with the pace, guitar notes, and vocals playing off each other beautifully, especially at the beginning of the tune before it settles into the groove. It also has a nice little DG solo at the end which is always appreciated by me. It also brings me back to a specific time period, when I was living in my fraternity house and dating my wife. I definitely thought it would be ranked higher here. FFA is slippin!
 
I love Coming Back to Life so much. It's very nuanced with the pace, guitar notes, and vocals playing off each other beautifully, especially at the beginning of the tune before it settles into the groove. It also has a nice little DG solo at the end which is always appreciated by me. It also brings me back to a specific time period, when I was living in my fraternity house and dating my wife. I definitely thought it would be ranked higher here. FFA is slippin!

Looks like we also experience it at about the same age (I'm about to be 48). I find that music in that era I seem to like a lot more, even today.
 
#52-T - Atom Heart Mother Suite from Atom Heart Mother (1970)

Appeared On: 5 ballots (out of 33 . . . 12.1%)
Total Points: 28 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 3.3%)
Top Rankers: @zamboni @Anarchy99 @jabarony @turnjose7 @Ridgeback
Highest Ranking: 16

Live Performances:

PF
: 152 (First Performance, Full Live Version, Final Performance)
DG: 1 (2008)
NM: 152 (Roundhouse)

Covers: Alex Bollard, Pink Tones, Echoes

The working title for this piece changed a few times during the composing and recording process. When the first main theme was composed, David Gilmour called it "Theme From An Imaginary Western". The first working title for the six-part piece was "Epic". Later it was changed to "The Amazing Pudding." This was used as the title of an independently produced Pink Floyd fanzine which ran from the mid '80s to the early '90s. In July 1970 it was called "Atom Heart Mother". The title was decided when Ron Geesin brought Roger Waters an edition of Evening Standard and told him that he would find the song title in the newspaper. Waters saw an article about a pregnant woman with a pacemaker powered by atoms. The headline was "Nuclear Drive for Women Heart", and Waters then decided to name the song Atom Heart Mother.

The suite was broken into 6 sections: Father's Shout, Breast Milky, Mother Fore, Funky Dung, Mind Your Throats Please, and Remergence. When PF debuted the Dark Side of the Moon for the first time in concert, due to technical issues, they could not complete the DSOTM section of the performance and pivoted to the AHM suite instead. Stanley Kubrick wanted to use this track for his film A Clockwork Orange, but the band refused permission.

After the album's release, reaction varied from one extreme to another, both from the band and the public. Gilmour: "It's funny, Leonard Bernstein came to one of our American concerts and he was bored stiff by Atom Heart Mother [Suite] but he liked the rest." Mason: "Atom Heart Mother is just a piece of music — there really isn't a very strong theme; it's very sectionized and a mood runs through it — it's not the story of the Bible to music or anything!"

Gilmour: "The trouble was, we recorded the group first and put the brass and the choir on afterwards. Now I think I'd do the whole thing in one take. I feel that some of the rhythms and some of the syncopations aren't quite right." Mason: "[It was] a specific exercise... it wasn't entirely successful, but I think some people were frightened we were going to stick with a choir and orchestra... it was just something that seemed like a good idea at the time. We'd all like to do it again. We'd all like to re-record it. It wasn't entirely successful but it was extremely educational."

Years later, when they were far more focused on more traditional rock 'n' roll, both Dave and Roger would be very critical of the Suite. Dave: "It was a load of rubbish, to be honest with you. We were at a real down point. We didn't know what on earth we were doing or trying to do at that time, none of us. We were really out there. I think we were scraping the barrel a bit at that period." And Roger has stated that he wouldn't object if the piece were "thrown into the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again."

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 163
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 104
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 33
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 37
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (163 out of 165 songs): This was the band’s fifth album. For the record, “Atom Heart Mother” doesn’t mean anything; it was taken from a newspaper headline. And the cow on the cover is a similar piece of absurdism. It’s just a cow. All that you can forgive. But this nonsense begins with faintly recorded horns as an intro into a six-part not-so-magnum opus. Are there passages that are vaguely interesting? Yes, but nothing to excuse the excessive length. These days the term “progressive rock” is generally used to denote ’70s aggregations that proffered hyper-noted assaults with lots of show-offy musicianship, abrupt stops and starts, and all other manner of awfulness. In the mid-to-late ’60s, though, the genre was pioneered by bands like the Nice (which featured Keith Emerson, later of Emerson, Lake & Palmer), the Soft Machine, and Pink Floyd, who were basically just poking around with what was possible. (King Crimson came along soon, too. There was even a time Fleetwood Mac, originally a blues band, was a considered a prog-rock outfit.) But truthfully, Pink Floyd guys never had the pure musicality, not to mention the vision, to pull anything like this together. About nine minutes in, in the part that I think is called “Mother Fore,” a stentorian choir comes in. It’s possibly the band’s most Spinal Tap–y moment. And in the next section, “Funky Dung,” the band lays down some hot grooves.

UCR Ranking (104 out of 167 songs): This might be the Floyd’s longest (continuous) musical suite, but it’s far from their best. The extra orchestration – brass, cello, choir – adds grandeur, but not style. Sure, it’s big and sweeping, but this kind of thing was better left to the Moody Blues. There’s more excitement in one of Richard Wright’s Dark Side keyboard flourishes than in all 23-plus minutes of this bad mother.

Louder Ranking (33 out of 50 songs): The title track to Pink Floyd’s first Number One album grew out of a chord sequence that Gilmour had written. “It sounded like The Magnificent Seven to me.” When Waters heard it he thought it had a “heroic plodding quality” that was worth pursuing. “We sat and played with it, jigged it around, added bits and took bits away, farted around with it until we got some shape to it,” Gilmour remembers.

At this point the piece was called The Amazing Pudding and the band road-tested it on their British and European dates at the beginning of 1970. They decided it would benefit from orchestral arrangements and a choir, so they brought in Ron Geesin, a classically trained musician who had worked with Waters on the Music From The Body soundtrack. The band played him the basic tape of the rhythms and chords, made a few suggestions and headed off for an American tour, leaving Geesin to it.

“It was a 25-minute piece, which was a hell of a lot of work,” says Geesin. “Nobody really knew what was wanted. And none of them could read music.” The band returned in time for the recording session. But nobody had thought to hire a conductor. Geesin volunteered for the job despite never having conducted an orchestra before. It was, he now admits, a mistake. “They were hard, uncaring types who weren’t going to tolerate anyone green or naïve.” Geesin, of course, ticked both boxes. He was put out of his misery when choirmaster John Aldiss showed up, realized what was wrong and took over.

The piece only got its proper title when it was about to be played on The John Peel Show. Waters saw the headline Atom Heart Mother in the Evening Standard above a story about a pregnant woman with an atomic pacemaker. And when designer Storm Thorgerson’s “totally cow” cover was accepted, the band gave some of the section titles a bovine twist, like Breast Milky and Funky Dung.
 
#52-T - Poles Apart from The Division Bell (1994)
Appeared On: 2 ballots (out of 33 . . . 6.1%)
Total Points: 28 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 3.3%)
Top Rankers: @Ghost Rider @Yo Mama
Highest Ranking: 9
Hey Anarchy, I like this song and it probably would have made my top 40, but I didn’t rank it in my top 25. Perhaps it was someone else.

(And I was excited to see my name as a ranker for the first time)
I have your list entered right. It was Todem that had Poles Apart ranked instead of you. You guys are next to each other in the spreadsheet, and I was wearing beer goggles.
 
See, now THIS is an overlong song. The main theme is nice, but it feels like hard work getting through this song in one sitting. It wouldn’t make my top 100.
 
Yeah AHM gets a bit ponderous, but I appreciate it nonetheless. I look at PF's pre-dark side stuff as a band trying to find its way. I've enjoyed playing each of these songs that come up in the rankings, but I still don't have a desire to listen to entire albums like AHM or Meddle in a single sitting.

Interesting that we are getting more Division Bell stuff here now. While I personally like the album as a whole, I guess I have to admit that, with time, I don't find the songs in isolation to be particularly memorable. But man, am I happy that the album came out when it did (junior in college at UW in Madison, WI). It got me a concert right at my doorstep at Camp Randall and it was fun to have friends get into PF who weren't necessarily fans to begin with. I'll get to my "Pink Floyd fan origin story" in due time...
 
#51 - Sorrow from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason (1987)

Appeared On: 4 ballots (out of 33 . . . 12.1%)
Total Points: 34 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 4.1%)
Top Rankers: @Ghost Rider @BroncoFreak_2K3 @Just Win Baby @Yambag
Highest Ranking: 15

Live Performances:

DG's PF
: 309 (DSOT, Venice, Knebworth, Pulse)
DG: 52 (Fender Strat Concert, Poland, Pompeii)

Covers: Sweet Little Band, Velocihamster, Old Fears Tribute Band, Andromida

Sorrow was written and composed by singer and guitarist David Gilmour. He has stated that although words are not his strong point, the song is one of his best lyrical efforts, even as the opening lines were appropriated from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

Dave Gilmour: "Sorrow was a poem I'd written as a lyric before I wrote music to it, which is rare for me. The river's a very, very common theme; rivers are a very symbolic, attractive way of expressing all sorts of things. It's the first thing I think I've written with the words first. Most of Sorrow got put down the day after I wrote it: the vocal of the verses, the background guitars, the drum parts and the lead guitar. The solo was done first take. I never got around to doing it again. The solo at the end was done on my boat studio, my guitar going through a little Gallien- Krueger amp."

Bob Ezrin explained how the sound was achieved for the guitar part at the beginning (which was, incidentally, later used for a NASA presentation): "We hired a 24-track truck and a huge PA and brought them inside LA Sports Arena... We piped Dave's guitar tracks out into the arena and re-recorded them in 3D. So the tracks that originally came from a teeny little Gallien-Krueger and teeny little Fender... sound like the Guitar From Hell." When drummer Mason returned from the weekend, only "some spit and polish" was needed. The studio track uses a drum machine and does not contain any actual drumming on it.

The AMLOR tour dates were the first for the band in 6 years. The tour ended up spanning nearly 2 years, almost 200 performances, and performed to 5.5 million people. Worldwide, the band grossed approximately $135 million, making A Momentary Lapse of Reason the highest-grossing tour of the 1980s.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 107
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 167 songs): 52
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 34
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 58
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): NR

Vulture Ranking (107 out of 165 songs): This is supposed to be the big statement on Momentary Lapse. You can tell by the big swells of muzak and the highfalutin lyrics: “The silence that speaks so much louder than words,” etc., etc. Again, we have the droney sounds with some Gilmourian ruminations up top, again going on for minutes. Then comes something like a beat, which on inspection comes from a poorly programmed friendly local synthesizer rather than, you know, the band’s actual drummer. Latter-day Floyd records sound so samey; Gilmour’s sometimes effective, but generally weak, voice can’t hold things together when there’s no actual artistic spark, however perverse, somewhere in the background. Docked ten notches for its excessively dreary (8:45!!) length, even by Pink Floyd standards.

UCR Ranking (52 out of 167 songs): Time has not been kind to Pink Floyd’s ’80s reboot – a David Gilmour solo album in all but name. But if you can get past the shoulder-pad synthesizers and the effects that put distance between the listener and Gilmour’s guitar, Sorrow rewards the effort. The lyrics, inspired by John Steinbeck, are arguably David’s best, circling a broken man dismayed by an even more broken world. The potent solos that open and close the song suggest a grim, unending struggle.

Louder Ranking (34 out of 50 songs): Borrowing his opening gambit from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath, Gilmour had penned the Sorrow lyric before the music (“Which is rare for me”). Yet the song’s stalking groove soon followed, spilling out during a weekend on the guitarist’s Astoria houseboat – and iced with an outro solo that’s arguably the best of the late period. For Gilmour, it was the proof of a viable future without Waters: “That, for me, was the moment when I thought we were all in the clear.”

We flip the list from Side A to Side B for the final 50 selections, with Careful With That Axe, Eugene slotted in the first spot. We hit up another AMLOR offering next, a song co-written by the keyboardist from a band called Slapp Happy.
 
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My ranking of Sorrow is off the live versions, especially the one from the original release of Delicate Sound of Thunder. The studio version is good, but lacks the oomph of the live versions.

I prefer most of the the songs on Delicate Sound of Thunder to the counterparts on AMLOR.
 
Comments on the highest Vulture ranked songs that we didn't rank . . .

Matilda Mother (24) from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn: One of the great early Floyd songs, and the hits just keep on coming on Piper. There’s something majestic here in the verses. The skeptical will note that the chorus gets whimsical and aimless, and doesn’t do the verses justice, which makes you wish Barrett had either (a) had a collaborator or a strong producer to help him take his songs to the next level or (b) done a Guided-by-Voices thing 30 years earlier, and just put out short songs with his limited number of undeniable riffs in them. Note that Wright has a songwriting credit here, but I bet it was the chorus.

Main Theme (42) from More: This really isn’t terrible, and it could be. There’s almost something reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann’s Taxi Driver opening. Things get a little aimless and some of the riff seems to have been lifted from Set Your Controls for the Heart of the Sun, but it’s a credible piece of music and works terrifically in the film itself.

Let There Be More Light (48) from A Saucerful Of Secrets: An early Waters track from the second album. He was still searching for a songwriting voice — which lord knows he eventually found. But there’s a rockin’ groove here at the beginning, and then things go south quickly. There’s a little homage to Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, but a lot of ******** about “flowing robes” and “mighty ships.” Still, for Floyd at the time, really not a bad song. Has drama and force and isn’t terribly produced.

Grandchester Meadows (53) from Ummagumma: Named after a spot near a river in Cambridge, where Waters grew up. This isn’t a terrible song. It goes on too long, of course, but there’s something sweet and lulling about it. The usual issues of tonal consistency for the band at this point, however, still apply.

Take Up They Stethoscope And Walk (57) from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn: Fairly rocking — a little Kinks-y, and little Who-y, and even some early space-rock-y sounds from Barrett, highly derivative of “Eight Miles High” but fine even so. This is a Waters composition, but it’s another one of those early Pink Floyd tracks that makes you wish you could have seen how Barrett would have kept the band in line had he stayed with them. One more thing. I know I sound a little puckish when it comes to Pink Floyd’s pre-TDSOTM work. But compare this to, say, “I’ve Seen All Good People,” by Yes. Yeah, it’s a suite; yeah, it’s whimsical; and yeah, you want to slap Jon Anderson. But it’s highly musical, undeniably catchy, everyone in the band is operating at full gear … and it sounds great on the radio to this day. Leaving aside a rare spin of “See Emily Play” on an oldies station, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a pre–Dark Side Pink Floyd song played on commercial radio.
 

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