Pink Floyd's Greatest 20 Tracks (p.4, 5-1)

[BirdsFan06050]

10. Happiest Days of Our Lives // Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2, The Wall



Written by: Roger Waters
Produced by: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Bob Ezrin

While HDOUL is a cult favorite amongst some of Floyd's fanboys, it really serves as a prelude to ABITW part 2, arguably the band's most commercially successful track. Waters' lyrics critiques Britain's education system for essentially churning out too many mindless zombies, for a lack of a better analogy, and thus hindering children's creative process. After all, how can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat! Moreover, while some may argue its simplicity is a bit disingenuous, musically, the song is stellar, featuring unconventional, pragmatic work from Gilmour on the guitar and a funky solo. Of course, the iconic "We don't need no education" chorus is almost universally recognizable and is representative of their impact on pop culture.

Live during "Is there Anybody Out There? Tour


9. Speak to Me // Breathe, Dark Side of the Moon



Written by: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright
Produced by: Pink Floyd

Soft, jazzy, and gentle, yet undeniably brilliant, Pink Floyd's opening to DSOTM is a simple although fitting collaborative work, in which all 3 of the band's core members produce remarkably effective results. Whether it's the heart beats or screaming sound affects that prelude Breathe, Wright's zestful organ, or Gilmour's bluesy work on the lap steel guitar, all of these core elements fuse to create a beautiful introduction that subtly explores the demise of individuality and challenges its listeners to live their lives to the fullest ("Breathe, Breathe in the air / Don't be afraid to care").

Reunion live version at Live 8


8. Mother, The Wall



Written by: Roger Waters
Produced by: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Bob Ezrin, James Guthrie

Arguably Waters' most personal piece, Mother is a bittersweet anthem to his own mother. For all the ferocity and anger featured on the album, this track manages to gets its point across both in a delicate and subtle manner. Likewise, the aching acoustic/electric guitar combo go hand-in-hand with the song's powerful lyrics. As applied to the story of Pink, his mother, while caring and loving in her own right, is overprotective, and the fear she instills into him only fuels and accelerates the building of his inner wall. Like the teachers seen in ABINT, Waters believes parents are too controlling, but I chose their respective rankings based on my ever-so slight preference to the sheer melancholy of Mother.

Live Roger Waters performance at Berlin Wall


7. Money, Dark Side of the Moon



Written by: Roger Waters
Produced by: Pink Floyd

The band's first hit single, it could argued Money solely drove the band to the top of the charts and thrusted them into the public spotlight. Pink Floyd had been an up-and-coming band for some time before DSOTM, but many felt they were too psychedelic to ever become accessible to the masses, especially in the states, but this track would forever change that. Waters' cool bass-line provides the song with a groovy intro before - Parry's saxophone and Gilmour's scorching guitar solo steal the show. Ironically, upon its release, the band achieved the very success and fame it denounced in the track. "Money is the root of all evil today", and, unfortunately, it could be argued that it drove the band into exile too.

Live at Earl's Court in 1974


6. Us and Them, Dark Side of the Moon



Written by: Roger Waters, Richard Wright
Produced by: Pink Floyd

Us and Them represents, IMO, Waters at his lyrical best, posing difficult, thought-provoking questions about humanity and its existence in the world without the overbearing political agenda. Furthermore, while the track's philosophical nature gives the song its wholloping emotional punch, the instrumental work by Wright is equally superb. Wright's beautiful, understated piano melodies, performed on the Hammond organ, strikes the perfect chord and helps create UAT's dark, ominous tone and innovative style. - Parry's saxophone further enhances the track's musical composition. Undeniably grim yet graceful in its execution, this track is in my mind one of their very best artistic achievements.
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[FlyLikeAJet]

If this thread doesn't have Echoes it will fail miserably
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[vike daddy]

we be gettin' to the good stuff now.
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[1BackInBlackFan]

Mother was a song that I really related to when I was growing up in a single parent household. It's one of my more favorite Pink Floyd songs.
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The cool high-flying Troy sig courtesy of Lysar529. Great work!

[roger murdock]

Top 5 will be Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Echoes, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb, and Time I would guess.

My order would be

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond
2. Echoes
---Small gap
3. Time
4. Wish You Were Here
-----enormous gap
5. Comfortably Numb

I'm guessing you go

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond
2. Comfortably Numb
3. Time
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Echoes
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[vike daddy]

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can
And no one calls us to move on
And no one forces down our eyes
And no one speaks
And no one tries
And no one flies around the sun

Cloudless every day you fall
Upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning
And no one sings me lullabies
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky.

^^back when the Floyd actually used poetry in their lyrics. instead of...

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.
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[BirdsFan06050]

The final five:

5. Wish You Were Here, Wish You Were Here



Written by: David Gilmour, Roger Waters
Produced by: Pink Floyd

Syd Barret's mental illness, and subsequent departure, gave Pink Floyd its inspiration and creative drive after they finally hit it big with DSOTM, enabling the band to display the raw emotion that is felt throughout this particular track, and the entire album for that matter. It's a brilliant artistic achievement by Waters, who attempted to savor and stymie Barrett's legacy from diminishing (more on this later in SOYCD). Waters' lyrics, accompanied by Gilmour's mellow acoustic guitar, combine to create a simple, yet heartfelt tribute to their band's founding member, and, more importantly, a dear friend. As satisfying as it was for the band to hit it big time, it came at a precious cost and, as the lyrics allude to, they're filled with the regret that Barrett can't be by their side to bask in their musical triumphs.


4. Comfortably Numb, The Wall



Written by: David Gilmour, Roger Waters
Produced by: Bob Ezrin, James Guthrie, David Gilmour, Roger Waters

The highlight track featured on The Wall, Gilmour had actually written the music to the song years before its initial conception, although Waters was inspired to write the lyrics while drugging himself up before a live show in Philadelphia during the In the Flesh Tour. Of course, as applied to the story of Pink, this is where the protagonist is driven to the brink of insanity with some assistance from a sinister doctor (There is no pain you are receding / a distant ship's smoke on the horizon), who has been instructed to "numb" Pink before his live rock concert. Nonetheless, the real star here is Gilmour, who showcases his majestic and sublime talents on the electric guitar with two elegant solos that many consider to be his finest individual work as a member of Pink Floyd.


3. Echoes, Meddle



Written by: Roger Waters, Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Richard Wright
Produced by: Pink Floyd

Thankfully, vike daddy has already brought awareness to the song's lyrical poetry, as this lengthy track has myriad of redeeming qualities. Pink Floyd themselves have credited Echoes as the single track in which the band found the artistic voice/musical composition that they had been searching and longing for, and their subsequent rise to stardom followed directly as a result (see DSOTM documentary). It's a brilliant collaborative piece, featuring significant contributions from all of the band's members. The song, in retrospect, is a mixture between the earlier, more improvisational-based Pink Floyd and their more avant-garde, philosophical music that is found on DSOTM. Waters' lyrics attempts to dissect the nature of humanity before Gilmour's muted guitar and Wright's organ take the reigns in the song's second half. Furthermore, Echoes features some classic Pink Floyd sound effects, including sirens, noises resembling whales, and high-pitched screams (this effect was created by Gilmour's wah pedal).


2. Time, Dark Side of the Moon



Written by: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright
Produced by: Pink Floyd

It's hard to pick one song from DSOTM and call it the best, as every song adds its own unique elements to the album as a whole, but obviously when constructing such a list, one has to stand alone above the rest, and Time is more than deserving of that recognition IMO. It's an awe-inspiring medley of poetry, art, and, yes, some classic rock-n-roll. Waters is in A-form here with his lyrics, and while I'd love to share a snippet of said lyrics, it wouldn't do the song justice simply to post one or two lines. Moreover, one of my absolute favorite aspects of the track is the chilling intro featuring Mason on the rototoms and alarm clock sound effects- a more than fitting intro given the subject at hand. Gilmour manages to produce a gorgeous solo, also one of his all-time best, for this track too. The song concludes with a follow-up to album's second track known as Breathe (Reprise).


Ticking away the moments
That make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours
In an off-hand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground
In your home town
Waiting for someone or something
To show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine
Staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long
And there is time to kill today

And then the one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun


1. Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here



Written by: Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour
Produced by: Pink Floyd

I'll be honest with you, I pretty much hold the top 2 songs in similar regards. While I absolutely love almost all of their entire discography, excluding a few albums here and there, I feel as though these tracks in particular really separate themselves from the rest of the pack given their superlative all-around qualities by a pretty wide margin. As for SOYCD, although commonly referred to as a tribute to Syd Barrett, which it partially is, much of the music was actually written years prior to DSOTM. Its bittersweet nature is what makes it such a dark and unique song, as while it's very much a tribute and recognition of Syd's direct impact on the band at heart (see the title of the track for proof), the band also regrettably admits that had Syd not left the band, they most likely would've never achieved such rousing success. Musically, the track features all of Pink Floyd's hallmarks condensed into 9 parts, including funky, understated work on the guitar from Gilmour, - Parry's spirited saxophone, and Wright's grandiose work on the synth (such as the much publicized funeral dirge). Pink Floyd's magnum opus.
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[Dogfeet]

No Gunner's Dream? Son I am dissapoint.

Overall good list and nice write-ups, but I would really have liked to see something off The Final Cut.

[BirdsFan06050]

[HeySteelers]

Really good work BirdsFan06050, and awesome thread. It is hard to come up with a top 25 list, for they have so many great songs.

My personal top 20:

1.) Shine on You Crazy Diamond
2.) Wish You Were Here
3.) Green is the Colour
4.) On The Turning Away
5.) High Hopes
6.) Echoes
7.) Maronned
8.) The Gold It's in the...
9.) Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast
10.) Coming Back to Life
11.) Breathe
12.) One of These Days
13.) Mother
14.) Raving and Drooling
15.) Time
16.) Comfortably Numb
17.) Embryo
18.) Atom Heart Mother
19.) Welcome To The Machine
20.) Sorrow
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[1BackInBlackFan]

I agree HeySteelers, when you have a phenomenal band like Pink Floyd it's difficult to come up with 20 songs when so many are outstanding and are well-deserved to be mentioned. Some very good ones were bound to be omitted but overall a very nice job. Personally my all-time favorite is Comfortably Numb.

Just wondering what you think of Learning To Fly? I've always liked that song.
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The cool high-flying Troy sig courtesy of Lysar529. Great work!

[Bohlmann20]

It's good to see Time as high as it is. I'm not much for rock music anymore, but that is one song that is . .. . . just gosh damn brilliant poetry.

[Broadway Joe]

Excellent writeup. I enjoyed every word of it!
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Thanks to Braylon4MVP for the sig!

[boondock]

Good stuff. The top 5, I whole heartily agree with, some slight order changes in my book. WYWH is probably my #1, with Comfortably Numb being #2.

A few that would make my top 20 that did not make yours are "Coming Back to Life", "Run Like Hell", and "Learning to Fly".
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