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Pink Floyd - where to start?

The RockThe Rock Posts: 1,439
edited January 2012 in Other Music
I've never listened to Pink Floyd. I know that will be offensive to some, but it's true!

So, where do I start?
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  • Digital TwilightDigital Twilight Posts: 5,642
    Dark Side of the Moon is as good as any to start with.
  • dimitrispearljamdimitrispearljam Posts: 139,720
    Digital Twilight wrote:
    Dark Side of the Moon is as good as any to start with.
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  • BinFrogBinFrog MA Posts: 7,309
    Digital Twilight wrote:
    Dark Side of the Moon is as good as any to start with.


    Yeah, I agree. Start with the tried and true, and go from there.

    After that I recommend Wish You Were Here.
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  • marcosmarcos Posts: 2,112
    I'm offended, not really, more jealous, Pink Floyd to fresh ears is awesome. My favorite is Wish You Were Here, it gets trippy like usual Pink Floyd but also kicks some rockin ass with Have a Cigar. You have to watch Live at Pompeii DVD as well, don't worry about the Meddle record, watch this instead.
  • BinFrogBinFrog MA Posts: 7,309
    marcos wrote:
    I'm offended, not really, more jealous, Pink Floyd to fresh ears is awesome. My favorite is Wish You Were Here, it gets trippy like usual Pink Floyd but also kicks some rockin ass with Have a Cigar. You have to watch Live at Pompeii DVD as well, don't worry about the Meddle record, watch this instead.


    (Aside from "Seamus", Meddle rules. But yes, LAP is a great dvd)
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  • marcosmarcos Posts: 2,112
    BinFrog wrote:
    marcos wrote:
    I'm offended, not really, more jealous, Pink Floyd to fresh ears is awesome. My favorite is Wish You Were Here, it gets trippy like usual Pink Floyd but also kicks some rockin ass with Have a Cigar. You have to watch Live at Pompeii DVD as well, don't worry about the Meddle record, watch this instead.


    (Aside from "Seamus", Meddle rules. But yes, LAP is a great dvd)

    I agree, great record, but you get a greater appreciation of the songs watching them rock out. Definitely worth owning but I would go with the DVD first then you will run out and buy the record is what I meant.
  • Digital TwilightDigital Twilight Posts: 5,642
    I love meddle.

    Wish you were here would be a great follow up from Dark side
  • F5AgainstOneF5AgainstOne New Hampshire, USA Posts: 1,462
    The Rock wrote:
    I've never listened to Pink Floyd. I know that will be offensive to some, but it's true!

    So, where do I start?

    How old are you? (I just can't understand how this is even possible)
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  • dimitrispearljamdimitrispearljam Posts: 139,720
    and leave Live at Pompeii for last..you need to get the band for listen that one..
    "...Dimitri...He talks to me...'.."The Ghost of Greece..".
    "..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
    “..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
  • DewieCoxDewieCox Posts: 11,429
    marcos wrote:
    BinFrog wrote:
    marcos wrote:
    I'm offended, not really, more jealous, Pink Floyd to fresh ears is awesome. My favorite is Wish You Were Here, it gets trippy like usual Pink Floyd but also kicks some rockin ass with Have a Cigar. You have to watch Live at Pompeii DVD as well, don't worry about the Meddle record, watch this instead.


    (Aside from "Seamus", Meddle rules. But yes, LAP is a great dvd)

    I agree, great record, but you get a greater appreciation of the songs watching them rock out. Definitely worth owning but I would go with the DVD first then you will run out and buy the record is what I meant.

    One thing though, you'd be missing the best song on there, Fearless. Still the best music dvd ever released by any band.

    Even though I'm probably slightly too offended with the op, I'll answer with DSOTM. If you dig that try pretty much anything from their run of Obscured By Clouds through The Wall.

    Obscured By Clouds may be their most accessible album.
  • jopetto75jopetto75 Posts: 397
    meddle
    until next time......
  • dankinddankind Posts: 20,839
    I would start at the beginning -- The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. If you regularly tune in to a classic rock radio station, you've likely heard Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here in their entirety and most of The Wall -- for a good reason, all of those albums are absolute face-melters -- but if you want to hear where it all began, a little Syd Barrett never hurt anyone (except for Syd Barrett).

    Love Meddle (even Seamus).
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  • JTHJTH Chicago Posts: 3,238
    No love for Animals here?

    To my ears, that's the most "PJ-like" of any Floyd album. I'm not sure why, though.

    Ah, fuck it. Start with Dark Side.
  • BinFrogBinFrog MA Posts: 7,309
    dankind wrote:
    I would start at the beginning -- The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.


    I love it but highly suggest not starting there.
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  • Mamasan23Mamasan23 Posts: 16,388
    I'd suggest Animals for sure. Piper is incredible, but sounds like a different band because of Syd. Like someone else said, you've probably already heard everything from DSOTM but it's a classic as is The Wall. If you do listen to Piper and dig it, then you should also check out Syd's solo stuff too.

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  • EdLawEdLaw Posts: 194
    I started off with Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, probably about a year and a half ago.

    Then I went onto The Wall (which I was briefly but totally obsessed with) and Animals. Then I went through the rest chronologically, I think.

    I absolutely love Pink Floyd now.
    And I planted my bolo knife in the neck of mad John Finn. I took his wretched life.
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  • tremorstremors Posts: 8,051
    My route getting into the Floyd went The Wall - Momentary Lapse of Reason :? (the then current album) - DSOTM - Wish You Were Here - Animals - Meddle - Piper at the Gates of Dawn

    If you take out Momentary Lapse of Reason that's actually a pretty damned good set of albums to be getting into. A better order for a new listener would be DSOTM, Wish you were here, The Wall, Animals, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Meddle..... (but you are allowed to listen to more than one album at a time these days I hear - in my youth, I could only afford one lp at a time)

    I also love the Final Cut - but that is probably best seen as a Roger Waters solo album
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  • marcosmarcos Posts: 2,112
    JTH wrote:
    No love for Animals here?

    To my ears, that's the most "PJ-like" of any Floyd album. I'm not sure why, though.

    Ah, fuck it. Start with Dark Side.

    Animals was initially my favorite, good rocking and it wasn't played out as much by radio, excellent choice. It's really hard to go wrong with this band's classics.
  • tremorstremors Posts: 8,051
    marcos wrote:
    JTH wrote:
    No love for Animals here?

    To my ears, that's the most "PJ-like" of any Floyd album. I'm not sure why, though.

    Ah, fuck it. Start with Dark Side.

    Animals was initially my favorite, good rocking and it wasn't played out as much by radio, excellent choice. It's really hard to go wrong with this band's classics.


    I've been thinking about Animals quite a bit recently, for various reasons, like seeing it mentioned on the forum, and seeing a nice copy of the vinyl in a shop (mine is scratched to hell). I think I am gearing up for a big Animals revisit. I think I overlooked it more at the time I discovered the Floyd because back then I was pretty perpetually stoned, and it didn't have quite the same impact as the other albums :lol: Now that I live my life stone cold sober I have a feeling that Animals is gonna have a bigger appeal. I have been through other phases of getting seriously into it - but I can feel another coming on!
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  • The RockThe Rock Posts: 1,439
    To answer an earlier question, I'm 25 years old.
    And I'm not exaggerating when I say I haven't heard a single Floyd album. So its literally all new to me so I'm quite excited.
    I think i'll just go chronologically.
    2006: London Astoria, Lisbon I & II, Paris, Verona, Milano
    2007: Wembley, Dusseldorf, Copenhagen, Nijmegen
    2009: Manchester
    2010: Belfast, Berlin
    2012: Manchester I & II
    2014: Leeds, Milton Keynes
    2018: Amsterdam I, Prague, Krakow, Berlin, Barcelona, London
    2022: Berlin, Budapest, Krakow, Amsterdam II
  • dCowboyPJdCowboyPJ Posts: 479
    The Rock wrote:
    To answer an earlier question, I'm 25 years old.
    And I'm not exaggerating when I say I haven't heard a single Floyd album. So its literally all new to me so I'm quite excited.
    I think i'll just go chronologically.

    no don't go chronologically. chances are you won't like the first few albums and be really turned off by the band.

    start at Dark Side
    > Wish You Were Here
    > Animals
    > The Wall

    After that I would venture to Meddle, and The Final Cut (which is basically a Roger Waters solo album)

    Animals is my fav Floyd album, followed by Wish You Were Here.

    Even though the Division Bell isn't a true Pink Floyd album its pretty good too.
  • Digital TwilightDigital Twilight Posts: 5,642
    dCowboyPJ wrote:
    The Rock wrote:
    To answer an earlier question, I'm 25 years old.
    And I'm not exaggerating when I say I haven't heard a single Floyd album. So its literally all new to me so I'm quite excited.
    I think i'll just go chronologically.

    no don't go chronologically. chances are you won't like the first few albums and be really turned off by the band.

    start at Dark Side
    > Wish You Were Here
    > Animals
    > The Wall

    :thumbup: Excellent idea
  • JTHJTH Chicago Posts: 3,238
    tremors wrote:
    marcos wrote:
    JTH wrote:
    No love for Animals here?

    To my ears, that's the most "PJ-like" of any Floyd album. I'm not sure why, though.

    Ah, fuck it. Start with Dark Side.

    Animals was initially my favorite, good rocking and it wasn't played out as much by radio, excellent choice. It's really hard to go wrong with this band's classics.


    I've been thinking about Animals quite a bit recently, for various reasons, like seeing it mentioned on the forum, and seeing a nice copy of the vinyl in a shop (mine is scratched to hell). I think I am gearing up for a big Animals revisit. I think I overlooked it more at the time I discovered the Floyd because back then I was pretty perpetually stoned, and it didn't have quite the same impact as the other albums :lol: Now that I live my life stone cold sober I have a feeling that Animals is gonna have a bigger appeal. I have been through other phases of getting seriously into it - but I can feel another coming on!
    It took me a while to get into Animals, probably because "Dogs" and "Sheep" are such long songs and they're not exactly what you'd call catchy.

    As for your earlier comment about listening to multiple albums at once, I'm not a big fan of doing that when being introduced to a band with large back catalog. To this day, I've still never been able to "properly" get into the early Uncle Tupelo stuff since I tried to dive into all of them at once after getting to like Anodyne.

    There are a few other bands I've done this with as well.
  • frazbafrazba Posts: 601
    JTH wrote:
    No love for Animals here?

    To my ears, that's the most "PJ-like" of any Floyd album. I'm not sure why, though.

    Ah, fuck it. Start with Dark Side.


    'Animals' is easily my favourite PF album, but I'm not sure it's a good one to start off with, I'm personally not a big fan of DSOTM, but either that or Wish You Were Here are probably their most accessible, and therefore probably a good place for a PF virgin to start.
  • frazbafrazba Posts: 601
    Oh, and don't ignore 'The Final Cut', I love that album.
    And definitely don't, as was suggested earlier, go chronologically, if you've never heard Floyd, you won't enjoy Piper or Saucerful, in fact Meddle is probably the first album you'd get all the way through.
  • tremorstremors Posts: 8,051
    JTH wrote:

    As for your earlier comment about listening to multiple albums at once, I'm not a big fan of doing that when being introduced to a band with large back catalog. To this day, I've still never been able to "properly" get into the early Uncle Tupelo stuff since I tried to dive into all of them at once after getting to like Anodyne.

    There are a few other bands I've done this with as well.

    Yeah, you're probably right actually. I still tend to play an album to death before I move onto the next one, even with music I know well, I seem to go through a phase of a certain album, then put it away for a while. Works for me. Currently in my life I'm enjoying going back through a lot of music that has meant something to me in the past, revisiting it - I'm getting a lot from doing this, but I don't seem to have as much room for new music. Unless I get into something on the radio, I just like going back through all my records at the moment. I digress..... Animals is on the list!
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  • Johnny AbruzzoJohnny Abruzzo Philly Posts: 11,604
    Perhaps start with Meddle, as it was kind of a preview of DSOTM. Just for an alternative point of view. Just skip Seamus. :lol:

    So... Meddle then DSOTM then Wish You Were Here then Animals then The Wall.

    Then go back and try out earlier stuff. I also quite like a few Division Bell songs, and On the Turning Away ranks among the Top 5 PF songs for me. (but the rest of Momentary Lapse of Reason is not so hot)

    (sorry I can't into Obscured by Clouds, although it's decent enough)

    I immersed myself in Pink Floyd when I was I think 19. Damn that was fun. :D
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  • dCowboyPJdCowboyPJ Posts: 479
    another good thing to mention is none of their albums sound the same. they still have that floyd feel to them, but each one is different.

    i'm also glad to see the Animals love around here! I find no one ever talks about it which is really too bad. i'm usually not a huge fan of super long songs but i never get bored of that album.
  • Echoes 001Echoes 001 Posts: 58
    Dark Side of the Moon is the best way to start, I remember when Division Bell came out and that really got me into them, at the time I think I was like 14, but then I picked up Dark Side of the Moon and was blown away. Right at the top of my favorite albums. Although one of my favorites Pink Floyd Songs would be Echoes from the album Meddle.
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  • CasCbusCasCbus Posts: 48
    I'm with some of the others...chances are you've heard some singles on classic rock radio (from Dark Side, WYWH, The Wall). I think you need to start at the beginning and see their evolution. I love all the stages (the last 2 albums not so much. Have their good points, but..) but I think it is important to really grasp their importance on music, is to hear where they started. The Live @ Pompeii DVD is amazing, watch that as well.
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