Careful With That Axe, Eugene!

For those who haven't figured it out yet, Jim Hinckley's Ramblings of a Geek blog has exclusively used Pink Floyd song titles as blog entry titles, to date. If you know Jimmy at all, then you know he's a Floyd aficionado of the first order, which is one of the things we have in common (though I'm not nearly as up on Floyd as he is). My earliest Floyd-related recollection involves hearing The Dark Side of the Moon playing on a friend's 8-track in his car, when I was about 16 or 17, and thinking it was just about the weirdest shit that'd ever hit my ears. I don't know if it was the clocks going off at the start of "Time" or the background vocal clips ("I've been mad for fucking years, absolutely years...") but it just sounded like something you didn't expect to ever hear. And considering the music of the day (this would be the late 70s or early 80s) it clearly had about ten times the depth of what I was used to running across on the radio. I'd already discovered Genesis and the Police by then, and was slowly travelling backward in time along the former's album list, which would eventually lead me to the good stuff - Peter Gabriel's music, within and outside of Genesis - so I wasn't completely AM radio-fed, just mostly so.

But Floyd albums, especially from the 70s, had an edge to them that no one else came close to. I think it seemed to me like music for those who were almost (but not quite) sick of music. They threw everything but the kitchen sink into their compositions and yet just barely managed to keep it musical, unlike some of the stuff done by others who clearly were sick of music (one of the reasons I could never get into Punk, for example)! The lyrical complexity of a typical Floyd song was shocking to my teenage mind, and still, nearly thirty years later, resonates very strongly with me. I don't think the Syd Barrett (R.I.P.) era was their high-water mark, as some do, because I find the lyrics from that early period rather lacklustre compared to what came when Roger Waters became more of a driving force.

Just consider a few of the lyrics:

"Forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died.
And the general sat and the lines on the map
moved from side to side.

Down and out
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about.
With, without.
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?
Out of the way, it's a busy day
I've got things on my mind.
For the want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died. "
- from "Us and Them", The Dark Side of the Moon

And what teenager (or teenager at heart) can't relate to:

"The lunatic is in my head.
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane.
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me."
- from "Brain Damage", The Dark Side of the Moon

Little did I know, way back in 1979 or 1980, that someday I'd be working with (and sometimes for) exactly the sort described in the following passage:

"And after a while, you can work on points for style.
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake,
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile.
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to,
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You'll get the chance to put the knife in."
- from "Dogs", Animals

I doubt we'll ever see another group quite as talented at blending complex music and sophisticated lyrics as Pink Floyd did at their creative peak, but at least we've got half a dozen or so albums to enjoy and introduce to new generations.

And as a coincidental side-note, "Comfortably Numb" - the real version! - just came on the digital music channel as I was finishing up this post! Quel appropriate! One of the all-time great songs, if you ask me!