” Swirling, cosmic and enveloping” were the three words that the usually iconoclastic Pete Townshend used to describe Pink Floyd when he first saw them back in 1966. They were at the very start of their psychedelic journey, but their impact was profound and singular. Since then, they have gone on to become behemoths of classic rock, strangely avant-garde and yet also sitting pretty with Dark Side of the Moon firmly among the best-selling albums of all time.
It all began in 1961 when Syd Barrett’s father passed away a month before his 16th birthday. The grief this caused often seems underplayed in what followed. It was this moment that encouraged him to perform in the first place, as his mother thought it might help him recover. Within four years, Barrett had found some solace noodling around with friends, and Pink Floyd formed in 1965.
However, by January 3rd, 1968, David Gilmour had accepted a try-out to replace him. And a few weeks later, Barrett was in the front row of a gig at the Imperial College in London, almost motionlessly watching his old college friend play his licks. Nevertheless, the luminary still lingered on the welter of their work, his early impetus helping to propel the group towards a decidedly different identity from the rest of rock.
This sustained them as a singular force until 1985, when Roger Waters acrimoniously split from the band he had helped to form. They have battled on valiantly since then and remain one of music’s most notable bands. They spun the 1960s out towards a progressive haziness, and since then, that legacy has continued, never dropping from the Mount Rushmore of classic rock despite the controversies, calamities and casualties along the way.
Their odd trajectory, however, makes them hard to place. Ranking their work is far from a straightforward task, and this is why the band’s own opinions prove highly illuminating. With that in mind, we’ve collated the opinions of the various members to bring you the member’s own favourite Pink Floyd songs.
Pink Floyd members’ favourite Pink Floyd songs:
Syd Barrett – ’See Emily Play’
When he withdrew from the industry in a shroud of mystery, music took a backseat for Barrett. He no longer listened to Pink Floyd. When his sister bought him a new stereo in 2002, all he listened to was The Rolling Stones, Booker-T and classical composers.
He would, however, revisit the material of the band he helped to form one night at his sister’s house when he watched the BBC Omnibus documentary on them around the time of the Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd release. She reported that he didn’t make much of it, describing it as “a bit noisy”, but he did enjoy seeing his old landlord Mike Leonard who he called his “teacher”, and he also apparently enjoyed hearing his old favourite Floyd song ‘See Emily Play’.
David Gilmour
‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’
‘Wish You Were Here’
‘Comfortably Numb’
‘High Hopes’
‘The Great Gig in the Sky’
‘Echoes’
In 2006, with the 50-year anniversary of Pink Floyd still fresh, Gilmour sat down with Billboard and discussed his favourite songs that the band had mustered. “‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ are standout tracks,” he said, picking a duo from Wish You Were Here. Further rattling off, ”‘High Hopes’ from The Division Bell is one of my favourite all-time Pink Floyd tracks, ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’, ‘Echoes‘.”
However, perhaps the one he has the closest connection to, owing to his experience playing it, is ‘Comfortably Numb’. “It was a fantastic moment, I can tell, to be standing up on there, and Roger’s just finished singing his thing, and I’m standing there, waiting,” Gilmour recalls. ”Every night there’s this sort of ‘[gasp!]’ from about 15,000 people. And that’s quite something, let me tell you”.
Nick Mason – ‘Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun’
“I usually cite ‘Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun’ as my favourite Pink Floyd song,” Mason told GQ. “It’s fun to play and has interesting dynamics.” The drummer even recalled the wild origin, stating: “I know exactly where it came from in terms of the drum part, which was Chico Hamilton playing in a film called Jazz On A Summer’s Day.”
That record, as far as Mason is concerned, features one of the most unique moments of drumming ever recorded, and he has been inspired by it ever since. “He does a drum solo played with mallets. It’s beautiful, and so different to any other drum solo,” he said. “When I watch very technical drummers, I still find myself thinking, ‘I wish I could do that.’ And I probably could if I put my mind to it, and stopped messing around with cars,” he adds. But he’s more than happy to get close to it when he plays ‘Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun’ live.
Richard Wright – ‘Echoes’
While many of the group members had mixed views about ‘Echoes’, it stood out as a favourite for Wright. As a result, he tried to hone it to a heightened level. According to Gilmour, this gave it a singular power. “There’s something that’s specifically so individual about the way that Rick and I play in that, that you can’t get someone to learn it and do it just like that,“ he said.
As a result, when Wright died in 2008, Gilmour decided the retire the song from future setlist in tribute. Nevertheless, Wright still had a gripe over the beloved track, as he told Mojo: “The whole piano thing at the beginning and the chord structure is mine, so I had a large part in writing that. But it’s credited to other people of course. Roger obviously wrote the lyrics.“
Roger Waters – ‘Us and Them’
Waters has spent quite a lot of his time appraising Pink Floyd in quite a critical manner. However, he has been able to look back at harmonious periods with a level of joy and affection. He told Q that it all changed after Dark Side of the Moon. ”In those days, it was a band. I’m sure that at that point we all agreed about the same things, like, we’ll only play the new material. We won’t play any of the old material anymore. We’ll only do this album and the one before, and that’s it. There was a certain integrity and what was important was the work. And that is still exactly how I feel now, although I do confess I do old tunes onstage now,” he said.
In the 2003 documentary The Dark Side of the Moon, he even singles out his favourite track from his favourite period, stating: “I haven’t listened to the piece from start to finish in, I think, 20 years. It was fascinating to see how well it holds together. ‘Us and Them’ probably stands the test of time as well, if not better than any of the other songs on the record”.
