Saturday 12th January
Despite my early input the band trundled on, recording obscure and interesting if pretty un-commercial music which is still worth a listen to. Poor Syd Barrett was squeezed out of his own band as he became more and more erratic, deranged and was too stoned to play most of the time. His place was taken by Dave Gilmour who used to be their roadie but was also a brilliant guitarist. Albums came and went without disturbing the charts or the general public greatly. However all that was about to change when in late 1972 they started recording a series of songs which seemed to hang together and became ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. This album was truly magical and still sells incredibly well, it has a haunting and timeless quality and feels as fresh today as the day they recorded it. It is not only a concept album about madness, but hangs together as if all the songs are really one piece of music, an ethereal beautifully paced almost elegiac work. It was also the first time they used their trademark sound-scapes between the tracks.
This was followed by the equally brilliant ‘Wish You Were Here’ (a debt to the departed Syd himself), the not so wonderful ‘Animals’ and in 1979 the overwhelming masterpiece ‘The Wall’ (everyone’s favourite nightmare and some incredible music). They could hardly top the brilliance of that one and their swansong really was ‘The Final Cut’ – a bitter wad of venom spat out almost single-handedly by Roger Waters. By then Rick Wright had left the band or been forced out by the over-demanding personality of Roger, who eventually left the band himself leaving the other two and the rejoined Rick Wright to soldier on through two more albums and ever more lucrative tours. Nothing recorded since 1994’s ‘The Division Bell’ though Roger still tours with his ever more brilliant live versions of Dark Side and The Wall.
It is as if the band themselves hit a creative wall with ‘The Wall’ and couldn’t really go on after that. Still, if that is it, it is still a remarkable legacy, and maybe better to go out on a high than keep trundling out new stuff that everyone knows will never compete with those Classic Albums.
