And then there was Nirvana......

[The Outsider]

.......at least for a few hours while Roger Waters was playing at Madison Square last evening. I did become Comfortably Numb when it all got over in a rousing round of applause in the packed arena, immediately before which I was in a trance of the most stupendous bass composed for Another Brick in the Wall. Of course, it wasn't just about the songs or their arrangement for which I lack the literary glib and the nuance of music to describe. I am talking about the exhilaration of witnessing a magician bereft of his accomplices living up to his tricks with a flawless rendition of the The Dark Side of the Moon, the album which defines Pink Floyd. And don't you dare ask, Oh by the way which one is Pink, because that song was part of a hard hitting satire on America, UK, Iraq, and Afghanistan with the portraits of Bush, Blair, Saddam, and Bin Laden hanging on the same wall. The rendition of Time from the concert title album was breathtaking. The ringing of the alarm and the tick-tock-tick-tock were all rendered on the guitar in a breathtaking exhibition of brilliance. The conclusion of the song saw the chorus and orchestra revel in the atmosphere and fill it with their perfection. A few songs later came Money in which all the clunking and clinking of the coins was again brought about through a masterful control of the guitar. There were the stunning visuals of Us and Them portraying the futility of war and having some stunning lyrics like Down and Out where the lyricist after signifying many opposites puts this opposite as synonymous ie. when the fighting is over everyone is down and out. When the second half ended with I'll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon the audience was left clamoring for more which he gave in the Encore. The tribute to Syd Barrett trilogy in the first half was the show stealer with Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Have a Cigar, and Wish You Were Here played in succession. The amazing part was that Waters let the audience take control of Wish You Were Here, something which supposedly had not happened often in Floyd concerts of yesteryears. The concluding guitar piece of Have a Cigar was performed to perfection before the concert took a serious route towards The Fletcher Memorial Home and Leaving Beirut, again emphasizing the importance of the tour towards global peace. But just as the crowd was thinking this is not the typical Floyd concert, out came Waters with Sheep and the flying pig before the break. I ran a few hundred yards in the crowd to touch the flying pig, I don't know why perhaps never will but then all in all we are just bricks in the wall . And then one day you find Ten years have gone behind you No one told you when to run You missed the starting gun And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking And racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

[The Outsider]

PS : Do try to catch the tour if you like Floyd. He'll be over most of North America over the next month.

[Aditi]

I went to his concert at the Hollywood Bowl a few months ago....simply mindblowing stuff...I've been listening to Floyd since I was a baby and this concert was the experience of a lifetime!!

[The Outsider]

Wow!! I didn't know that he toured last year as well. I thought he was supposed to be in the Hollywwod Bowl some time in mid June and I was already scheduling a meeting for that!!

[Holysmoke]

Comfortably Numb is one of the best songs ever.

[Aditi]

Yup he performed in Hollywood and then at the Amphitheater in Mountain View a few days later...my bro went for that show. After that, he toured India and played in Mumbai....a bunch of my friends went and it was exactly the same show he played here. Would so not mind watching that all over again!!

[Dhondy]

Love it when you write like that, Shwetabh. Very nice read.

[Sooda]

Am I the only one who thinks Pink Floyd are a bit overrated. Ive tried, really have. Maybe they're a bit dated. Comfortably Numb is a great song, the rest...im not too sure about

[CC1981]

Greatest modern-day western musician IMO along with Phillip Glass and Bob Dylan. Have his entire collection and my favourite is Atom Heart Mother.

[Rahul]

You house-proud town mouse how harsh a ride you are... who played the lead?? Snowy White? i saw SW at the Red Lion on West Fourth, waaay before Roger made SW famous. But its Gilly who really makes Floyd FLOYD--the greatest slide guitarist (and super-lyricist) EVER (sorry, bonnie rait). too bad gilly and rog dont talk to each other. Arnold Layne rulz. some classic Gilmour wit (without which Roger is basically just that):

You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need. You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street, you gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed. And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight, you gotta strike when the moment is right, without thinking. And after a while you can work on points for style, like the club tie and the firm handshake, a certain look in the eye and an easy smile. You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to, so that when they turn their backs on you, you'll get the chance to put the knife in. You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder. You know it's going to get harder, and harder and harder as you get older. And in the end you'll pack up and fly down south, hide your head in the sand, just another sad old man, all alone and dying of cancer. And when you loose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown. And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone. And it's too late to loose the weight you used to need to throw around. So have a good drown as you go down, alone, dragged down by the stone. I gotta admit that I'm a little bit confused. Sometimes it seems to me as if I'm just being used. Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake off this creeping malaise. If I don't stand my own ground, how can I find my own way out of this maze? Deaf, dumb and blind, you just keep on pretending that everyone's expendable and no-one has a real friend. And it seems to you the thing to do would be to isolate the winner. And everything's done under the sun, and you believe a heart, everyone's a killer. Who was born in a house full of pain, who was trained not to spit in the fan, who was told what to do by the man, who was broken by trained personnel, Who was fitted with collar and chain, who was given a seat in the stand, who was breaking away from the pack, who was only a stranger at home, who was ground down in the end, who was found dead on the phone, who was dragged down by the stone.

PS: watch out for the real tribute album by gilly for Syd Barrett.

[varun]

Am I the only one who thinks Pink Floyd are a bit overrated. Ive tried' date=' really have. Maybe they're a bit dated. Comfortably Numb is a great song, the rest...im not too sure about[/quote'] Ahem..u're not alone :embaressed_smile:

[Rahul]

^^ thats an over-simplification. which Ver of PF is this comment based on??? (that's zigackly why it is an over-simplification, sorry, sooda).

[Rahul]

PS : Do try to catch the tour if you like Floyd. He'll be over most of North America over the next month.

am assuming you mean roger waters' version of Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd without Gilly is like SRT without his straight drive.

[The Outsider]

Am I the only one who thinks Pink Floyd are a bit overrated. Ive tried' date=' really have. Maybe they're a bit dated. Comfortably Numb is a great song, the rest...im not too sure about[/quote'] Overrated? Not a bit. Some of their really old albums take a bit of time getting into because a lot of it is psychadelic music and then some of their very last albums again might take a bit of an acquired taste because of the lengthy compositions of the songs but albums like Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall, and Animals should be very easy to develop a liking to.

[The Outsider]

am assuming you mean roger waters' version of Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd without Gilly is like SRT without his straight drive.

Haan, I meant Waters. Gilmour to ab bajayega nahin kabhi, certainly not with Waters. Lekin boss, try to catch it if you can I could hardly feel Gilmour's absence. The concert is the best prepared one I have been to. Sabse zyaada Dylan ne maari thi teen saal pehle.

[Rahul]

^^ not true. i saw them together for the G-8 thingy in 2005--i think the show was called Live 8. that concert series, in fact, is in the Guiness Book since it pumped up PF album sales by a ridiculous 1343%. again, roger didnt agree with gilly on how to use the money, gilly wanted to donate all of it to charity. also, gilly has indeed changed his stance (albeit at the ripe old age of 60) WRT Roger.

On Feb 20, 2006, Gilmour changed his stance on Pink Floyd's future when interviewed by Billboard.com stating "Who knows? I have no plans at all to do that. My plans are to do my concerts and put my solo record out." The tone of that statement seems to imply that either he has not ruled out any more one-off gigs or a farewell concert. Also 2007 will mark the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd as a professional recording and touring band and reports are out that some big occasion will go down to celebrate Pink Floyd's 40th anniversary although as things stand there are no plans to reactivate Pink Floyd at the moment. In December 2006, Gilmour released a tribute to Syd Barrett, who had died in July of that year, in the form of his own version of Floyd's first single "Arnold Layne". Recorded live at London's Royal Albert Hall, the CD single featured versions of the song performed by Floyd keyboardist (and Gilmour band member) Richard Wright and special guest artist David Bowie.

PS: chk out gilly's web site. simply amazing--and no, i do not have About Face.

[The Outsider]

Yeah, but after the G-8 show Gilmour has come out with statements like there is no chance of them getting back together and that he would prefer spending time with his family than touring. So I really doubt that a full fledged Pink Floyd tour will ever happen. Maybe an odd concert here and there for causes like G-8.

[Rahul]

^^ yeah, i agree. if u r a fan, chk this out: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PFArchives/

[Rahul]

BTW, did u actually get to touch the pink pig?? dayum!!!! here's the FIRST EVER pig: folklore has Roger as the designer.

The original Pink Floyd pig was designed by Waters and built in December 1976 in preparation for shooting the cover of the ANIMALS album. The forty-foot, Helium-filled balloon planned to be flown over Battersea Power Station on the first day's photo-shoot, with a marksman prepared to shoot the pig down if it broke free. However, the pig was not launched. On the second day, the marksman wasn't present because no one had told him to return, and the pig broke free due to a strong gust of wind (gaining a lot of press coverage). It disappeared from sight within five minutes, and was spotted by airline pilots at forty thousand feet in the air. Flights at Heathrow Airport were cancelled as the huge inflatable pig flew through the path of aircraft, eastwards from Britain, over the English Channel, finally landing on a rural farm in Kent that night. The pig was recovered and repaired for the resumption of photography for the album cover, but unfortunately the sky was cloudless and blue, thus "boring". However, the pictures of the sky from the first day were suitable; eventually, the album cover was created using a composite of photos from the first and third days. The pig that was originally floated above Battersea Power Station was called "Algie".

ANIMALS is my fav PF... simply, devastatingly, nihilistically brilliant. thats the phase where gilly and rog were experimenting with "SANKSHIPT"--laconicity at its best. i have that album cover blown up as a poster... gauri kills me on that but hey WTF?

[The Outsider]

BTW, did u actually get to touch the pink pig?? dayum!!!!

Yup!!!