Whenever a band tries to do something experimental and cutting-edge, it can initially polarise listeners. While their legacy might eventually be revered, early reactions often include scepticism and rejection. When Pink Floyd began creating expansive concept albums and experimenting with diverse tones, many people found their music too avant-garde to appreciate. Interestingly, one of the sceptics was the band’s own David Gilmour, who initially felt their direction was too experimental to fully grasp.
Before joining the band, Gilmour played on the same bill as them during a local London gig. Gilmour was in a different group, and the early iteration of Pink Floyd was due to take to the stage as well. You may think that the way this story goes is that Gilmour saw them perform and immediately knew he had to join, but it’s the opposite.
“I felt pretty superior, I have to say,” he said, reflecting on the gig and feeling as though his band at the time were the best performing. “Sid was obviously very talented, and Rick was a good musician, but Nick and Roger were fairly pedestrian at that time. They were possibly, they were definitely a bit more original than what we were doing, but we were much slicker.”
Quite often, if you are watching bands for the first time, you will be more drawn to a group executing something simple flawlessly than one playing something complicated and original to a lesser degree of quality. Pink Floyd didn’t develop their sound overnight, so it’s likely that, in those earlier gigs, they were still struggling with executing what they were trying to do. Gilmour says his earlier band were a bit easier to digest.
“We could do all sorts of Beatles and Beach Boys things in wonderful harmonies and stuff,” he said, “We were a pretty good local colours band, and I think it would be fair to say they were trying to do something slightly different.”
Gilmour eventually joined Pink Floyd, and that was a big turning point for the band. He has always had an exceptional talent for the tone of his guitar and for altering the sound to fit an idea. This meant he was able to ground Pink Floyd’s sound more and could provide structure to the loose ideas that the band had been practising.
Putting together a band with a totally unique sound is always a slippery slope, and winning audiences over initially can take a lot of work. This is the issue that Pink Floyd had, to the extent that David Gilmour thought the outfit he was in prior were superior. Little did he know, the thing the group were missing was him.
