Pinkies On the Wing

Well, how can I ever truly nail down Pink Floyd? So much has been already said, so much water under the bridge with this band, so much animosity created between my brother and myself...! My favorite band for well over a decade and still one of my all-time bests. Corporate radio snuffed out so much passion for the pinkies but I've recently re-discovered a fresh love for the band. While the remastered versions are the most crisp, I'm still finding great enjoyment out of the twenty-year old cd's that I have that sound "older", if you know what I mean. Because it's late and I've had a long day, here goes:

Piper At the Gates of Dawn: Astronomy Domine/Astronomy Domine
A Saucerful of Secrets: Saucerful/Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun
Atom Heart Mother: Summer '68/Atom Heart Mother Suite
Meddle: Echoes/One of These Days
Dark Side of the Moon: Time/Time
Wish You Were Here: Shine On You Crazy Diamond, parts VI-IX/Wish You Were Here
Animals: Dogs/Dogs
The Wall: Another Brick >Happiest Days of Our Lives> Another Brick/Comfortably Numb
The Final Cut: The Gunner's Dream/The Final Cut
A Momentary Lapse of Reason: On the Turning Away/Learning To Fly
The Division Bell: High Hopes/High Hopes

omitted: Ummagumma (though pick up anything from the band on this particular tour - or those incredible Fillmore West bootlegs from April, 1970), Zabriskie Point, More, Obscured By Clouds, Relics, A Collection of Great Dance Songs, A Delicate Sound of Thunder, Works and Pulse. All of these are singles, live collections or 'greatest hits' bags that don't represent album productions of the band.
I am able to say that I have seen Pink Floyd in concert. April 16, 1994 at the Rose Bowl. To this day, I still have mixed emotions about the show. The Rose Bowl was as intimate as the Sea of Tranquility, the quadraphonic sound didn't work when sitting in the very back and so many of the songs were predictibly (sp?) performed. Two hours and twenty minutes didn't do it for me; I wanted an Echoes or some other mid-blower. However, I understand that one of these concerts was more of an "event" than a band performance. I also learned the hard way that performance does not equal improvisation, as so many of David Gilmour's guitar solos were rote. And yet, to this day, I can still see the color of people's clothing from the other side of the stadium when, during Comfortably Numb, the giant disco ball lit the entire Los Angeles basin up like a Christmas tree. That, and the circular screen throwing colored lasers on the band in kaleidescopic fashion. Since that show, however, my love for Pink Floyd has developed as one of album performance. Maybe the way it should be. Never the greatest of musicians, what I've learned the most from my love affair with this band is just how much space can create feeling and emotion, sometimes more than music itself. "It's the little things", right Cameron?

Just don't get me started about the summer of 1989 in Italy...