| The Musical Genius Of Pink Floyd And Falling Out |
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Pink Floyd seems to be a very different name for a British music band. Actually this band arose from the ashes of its predecessor Sigma6 in London in 1965. The erstwhile Sigma6 band members renamed their band the Pink Floyd Sound after two American blues artists Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.
It was after the induction of Syd Barrett their principal songwriter and lead guitarist into the band that saw it achieving a name for itself. Syd Barrett was a music genius, albeit with a self-destructive mindset. His great musical compositions not only revived the band's fortunes but also brought about a sea change in the pop music culture even in America. There have been two stages of the success of Pink Floyd; one is rightly called the Syd Barrett era and the other the post-Syd Barrett era. The Syd Barrett era curiously lasted only up to 1972, a total of just seven years, although he had already physically left the band in 1968. However, during this short period of time, the band climbed up the Billboards and into music lovers' minds all over the world, and especially in the US. The sixties have been known as the swinging sixties in the US in the world of music. This is primarily due to the influence of hallucinogenic drugs such as cannabis and LSD (lysergic acid diethyl amine) on music artists and music listeners alike. Syd Barrett in those days had a habit of taking these drugs. His tremendous, prolific, and heightened musical creativity is attributed to cannabis in the first stage and to an extent to LSD, although his talent was basically innate. The influence of the drugs caused Syd Barrett to create psychedelic music compositions in which the use of the distortion guitar was prominent with driving percussion and classically influenced organ playing. Some of the best creations of the Pink Floyd band in the Barrett era include the record breaking album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. This debut album is rated as number 2 on the all time best albums list. After this great work of musical genius Syd Barrett slid into schizophrenia. The effect of his family background and the difficult life he led in his childhood was the abiding influence on his musical career. The effect of increased intake of LSD on his body exacerbated the schizophrenic tendencies. The result was that Syd Barrett never could again reach the same level of musical creativity thereafter. Any other music band would have simply caved in after such a tragedy, but not the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. They grafted in David Gilmour as lead guitarist to replace the ailing Syd Barrett. Roger Waters then shifted to bass guitar and took up the task of principal songwriter for the band. In Nick Mason the band had one of the most dynamic and talented percussionists while Richard Wright was their keyboardist. It was after Syd Barrett had already left the band that Pink Floyd made a name for itself in the US with the all-time hit album The Dark Side of the Moon. It remained on the Billboard for 741 straight weeks a record never broken since. The influence of Syd Barrett on Roger Waters' musical compositions is obvious and the feelings of the band members for Syd are quite evident in all later compositions of the band. Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Wish You Were Here are examples of this. In late 1985, Roger Waters left the band because of arguments about leadership of the band with mainly David Gilmour. However, the latter continued with the other members and retained the band's prominence in the music world with Division Bell a record breaking album in 1994. Related Articles
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