SETLIST inagurates itself with a look at probably my personal favorite rock act of all time, and definately one of the more influential groups. Starting out with lead vocalist/songwriter Syd Barrett before he went cuckoo, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright would have worthy street cred in the 1960s, followed by unprecedented chart success in the 1970s, until their break-up in 1985.

Before we get going, lets get something clear. SETLIST won't include any tracks from "Pink Floyd" with Gilmour/Mason/Wright that reformed in the late 1980s, nor any of Waters' stuff. Besides the fact that most of their songs...I can't listen to...to me, the group of Pink Floyd began in the 1960s with Mason and Waters, and when they permanently broke in 1985, that was the end for the band. Besides, "Pink Floyd" after that was a glorified tribute show, and Waters, once a lyrical genius, until he realized that he was.

Anyway, we count down from #15 to #1, where the tunes and their album of origin will be listed, and I'll give my arguments for their placements. Plus, I'll add Youtube music videos that will help jog memories, and help encourage people to totally attack my list.

MISSED THE CUT: Tunes from Pink Floyd that came close to making my list, but failed to make the cut.

Run Like Hell(THE WALL)
Us and Them (DARK SIDE OF THE MOON)
Welcome to the Machine (WISH YOU WERE HERE)
Have a Cigar (WISH YOU WERE HERE)
Bike (THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN)
When the Tigers Broke Free (THE WALL)
Echoes (MEDDLE)
One of These Days (MEDDLE)
Free Four (OBSCURED BY CLOUDS)

Now onto the SETLIST for PINK FLOYD!

(15) The Fletcher Memorial Home (THE FINAL CUT)

Roger Waters is one of the great lyricists of the last 50 years. After Barrett's departure, Waters naturally took up the mantle of band leader and cheif songwriter. He's also one of the more politically polarizing figures. When exhibiting his opinions expressively in detail, either you agree with him or not. Take in point Pink Floyd's last album, THE FINAL CUT, in which Waters basically makes out an entire anti-war statement against the British government and Prime Minister Thatcher over the deal with the Falkland Islands in 1981. Whatever you agree with him or not that Thatcher is among the "wasters of life and limb," this tune is certainly powerful.

While most of Waters' post-Pink Floyd work mostly consist of angry but mediocre albums, "The Fletcher Memorial Home" actually spends Waters' anger with a quality song in its own right that people of both political ailes would angry is an emotional song. While the song cues a weaker-than-hoped guitar solo in its climax, I just love the gaulness of this song, which basically is about the rulers of the world, usually held not responsible for their actions, being all jammed into an asylum rest home, and then applied with the "Final Solution." The Fletcher Memorial Home

(14) Empty Spaces/What Shall We Do Now? (THE WALL)

So many great songs on Pink Floyd's legendary THE WALL album, and yet one of the greats is one that isn't mentioned in the majority of the time, its not even available very easily for commercial sale.

"Empty Spaces" was simply an electrifying build-up for the roller-coaster climax of "What Shall We Do Now?" but it was deleted from the album at the last minute due to record-space. It was featured in the WALL movie, and played on the tour, but until IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?, a compilation of THE WALL's concert recordings, came out in 2000, fans could not obtain the song officially.

In a way, these two songs together do explain the fustrations and anger with the rock star lifestyle that inspired Waters to create the idea of THE WALL album in the first place. Too bad not enough people have heard it. Empty Spaces/What Shall We Do Now?

(13) Careful with That Axe, Eugene (UMMAGUMMA)

Instrumental haunting work that seems to really depict, if only a glimpse, the mindset of the abyss that madness resides in humanity. Besides, its always did more for yours truely than say "One of These Days," but thats just me. Careful with That Axe, Eugene

(12) Sheep (ANIMALS)

What a disturbing song. It begins with the lollygagging of being in the fields, then notes of fear enter the narrative, followed by a sudden change of tone once we realize what is the fate. Then a frenzified pick-up once the protagonists fight back. The almost mock "Shepherd's Prayer" conducted in electronic voice still gets to me. Maybe the only song on the album ANIMALS worth listening to on its own. A fun homage to the ANIMALS cover appears in the recent masterpiece CHILDREN OF MEN. Sheep

(11) Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS)

With Barrett going cuckoo and the band, now with David Gilmour, forced to go on after their great success with THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN, many of their subsequent albums were the guys trying to figure out what their voice is, and evolving from the 60's psychedelic scene that almost pigeonholed the band.

This moody song with heavy drums from Waters certainly will pay the way years later for works we will see in MEDDLE, ATOMIC HEART MOTHER, and DARK SIDE OF THE MOON. Then again, I think this song is better than "Us and Them," which is a very great moody song on its own, if only because the lyrics don't get in the way of the tempo. But again, thats just me.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

(10) Astronomy Domine (THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN)

Syd Barrett had a mental knack for wordplay that maybe few humans could ever pull off. Perhaps its the same knack that led ultimately to his mental exile from society. Yet his genius was such that while he only played professionally for 6 years in the 1960s, generations of rockers praised his work when he died recently. Now that is street cred.

To me the best example is "Astronomy Domine" since Barrett gives a messmerizing vocals with his equally tranceful, if not logical, lyrics. Shine on, you Crazy Diamond.... Astronomy Domine

(9) Not Now John (THE FINAL CUT)

Now this is really the most underrated song on the Pink Floyd catalogue that doesn't get its due respect. In a way, its what "Young Lust" in THE WALL wanted to be, which was Pink Floyd's definitive hard-rocking and stomping tune alternative to "Money". In what would turn out to be Waters and Gilmour's last shared commercial released single together within Pink Floyd, they show us their best of gifts as singers, with Gilmour's deep but beautiful (before he smoked it away) and Waters' intellectual emotion (which usually covered for his lack of singing talent) pair off perfectly in this song. Not Now John

(8) Shine on You Crazy Diamond (WISH YOU WERE HERE)

With all nine parts combined, its Pink Floyd's longest song clocking in at 25 minutes. In those 25 minutes, you feel the entire mood of Waters and the rest of the band after Barrett's meltdown. Years of comradeship and a bright spot of talent gone out like a candle fire, with Waters' vocals reflecting this loss, for Barrett was both admired, and quite missed. Shine on You Crazy Diamond

(7) Interstellar Overdrive (THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN)

I'll get heat for putting this over "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," but its the right choice. "Interstellar Overdrive" is space rock in its purest form, and while the band seems to hate the term, its a perfect definition for me. Interstellar Overdrive

(6) The Happiest Days of Our Lives/Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (THE WALL)

Did you know that the most popular song from THE WALL album was Pink Floyd's only #1 singles hit? No wonder.

While the tune itself is about the album story's protagonist's hell in public school as a child, most people relate to the "dark sarcasm in the classroom."

It also serves as the most powerful and successful visual/musical narrative sequence in the movie. Everyone remembers the zombie faced kids being sent into a meat grinder and coming out as sausage. Another Brick in the Wall

(5) Money (DARK SIDE OF THE MOON)

I feel for Pink Floyd fans who hate that most people that don't know any better (i.e. dipshits) think Pink Floyd came into being with DARK SIDE OF THE MOON in the 1970s. Hell, they had decent chart success with their records beforehand, and alot of quality great stuff.

Worse yet, the only song that the "dipshits" can name from the album is "Money," which scored in the Top 20 Singles chart of 1973.

Maybe the only major hit single that has a beat time of 7/8, its very easy to listen to, yet kickass at the same time. Played in the setlist of the reunited Pink Floyd at Live 8 in 2005. The version played in concerts performed by the "tribute band" of Pink Floyd in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to quote a BB.Net member, "sounds like Phil Collins with kidney stones pissing on the song." Money

(4) Hey You (THE WALL)

The opening tune for the 2nd disc for THE WALL album, it details the record protagonist's state of mind after blocking himself from the rest of the world with his "wall." Its also a wonderful song about loneliness and isolation. Too bad it was cut from the WALL movie. Interestingly, a kid character gets in trouble for plagarizing this song in the 2005 movie THE SQUID AND THE WHALE. Hey You

(3) Wish You Were Here (WISH YOU WERE HERE)

Such a beautiful song that I actually didn't like for the first few years I got into the Floyd experience. Like Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," its a beloved hit-single that I believe was pretty overrated. Yet I changed my tune when I learned that the song basically was originally penned as a poem by Waters, later converted to music, that I realized that I was missing the whole point of "Wish You Were Here."

Its the poetic words that make the song's magic, and when the lyrics make a song excellent on their own, then you have a great song. Check out this tribute/parody song from http://www.amiright.com made in relevance to the song's subject, the great late Syd Barrett:

"Syd, so you thought you could tell
Heaven from Hell
Cold snow from rain
Could you tell a brick wall
From a cold jail cell
A laugh from a wail
Did your music prevail

And could they get you trade
Your lyrics for poems
Old records, CDs
Your mind had a brain breeze
Dark Side of the Moon
(Could) you sing the tune
Another Brick in the Wall
Or a man who died too soon

(Instrumental break)

How I wish, how I wish you were here
Syd, you died two times
Now's the end of your rhymes
Let's shed our tears
Running over the same old songs
They can't be wrong
You were Premier
Wish you were here"
Bravo! Wish You Were Here

(2) Time (DARK SIDE OF THE MOON)

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON has songs that are very elemental in their messages. Take a moment and breath before its too late ("Breathe"). Materialism sucks ("Money"). So does War ("Us and Them"). Only the world's insanity that rules reality think the normals are the nutcrackers ("Brain Damage").
They are simple, but they work well because they are relatable on a universal scale. Take for example, "Time". It warns about letting life and its grand possibilities slip away as the clock ticks, and the regrets of allowing this to happen. Time

(1) Comfortably Numb (THE WALL)
Screw Led Zeppelin's good but incredibly overrated "Stairway to Heaven." Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" features THE immortal guitar solo of the great rock decade of the 1970s, from the fingers of the great David Gilmour. Maybe the reason why this power ballad of THE WALL album barely beat out "Time" is because every time I hear "Comfortably Numb," through its mood swings and emotions regarding the pesstimistic present/nostalgic present, I am caught up in it. Checking out Waters and Gilmour's differing demos before they hammered out a compromising version for the WALL album, certainly you will notice that in the evolution of "Numb," you will notice the problem that will doom and poison the Waters/Gilmour teamwork within Pink Floyd. Waters would dominate the song, whatever the cost, for the sake of his lyrics, and Gilmour's tremendous music sensibility tapped out by his loudy lyrics.

Yet before the duo stopped talking and started suing each other, they had a workable relationship that exploited each other's strength, especially indeed in Pink Floyd's most triumphant song. Apparently, the Pink Floyd fanzine agreed with me in 1989 in a readers' poll. Too bad the meh cover version from Van Morrison made the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED instead of the genuine real deal. Comfortably Numb

I apologize if my list is sloppy and slightly repetitive, since I'm more organic writing-wise with cinema than I am with music, but I've tried my best. Comments and heated debate would be welcomed.

another brick in the wall thats there best song.Ive just watched the video and thats some freaky shit

DeNiro, check out PINK FLOYD THE WALL (1982) movie sometime. From director Alan Parker, its a rather insane but ambitious as hell musical with great visuals set to the album. Highlights include the school meat grinder sequence (which was released as the official music video and which you saw), the Hammerhead violent fascism of "In the Flesh" and "Run Like Hell," and so on.

Really, you would like it.

Echoes should be in there, in my opinion. Echoes is at times credited as my favorite Floyd song, and it really broke way to the "modern" Floyd (DSOTM and on). And above all, I just fucking love Meddle and Atom Heart Mother... I think the two of them combined are overlooked even more than Animals.

And yes. Post-1985 Floyd did sound like recycled dance music. One question; Where the hell did the guitar headstocks go in Pulse!?

Good list, though.

Thanks for the info,ill try and check the film out,its the one with Bob Geldof in it,is that right..

Yes, Geldof has the lead. I second that reccomendation. It's excellent.

Cool,thanks

Yeah, its the one with Bob Geldoff, who actually does a tremendous acting job, especially since he:

(1) Never acted before, nor since, I believe.
(2) Had to act out his emotions and feelings without saying one word of expositional dialogue, which many trained actors simply can't do.
(3) Actually hated Pink Floyd's music. Yet Parker was able to get him for the movie with his ambitions for the movie itself, since Waters apparently had a spectacular failure of a screen test. In fact, I wonder if thats a reason why he has low regards for the movie, but thats just conspiracy talking.

LLC, you have no idea how close...how friggin close...that ECHOES came to making my list, but that happens. I might have increased my list to make it up to 20 songs, but thats cheating. Plus, you have to cut off somewhere. Hell, I still hate that "Run Like Hell" failed to make the cut.

My problem with my setlist, if anyone else agrees, is that it reads too much like that meh ECHOES "best-of" album. Again, maybe thats just me.

Anyway LLC, thanks for your writing.

Excuse me for being stupid,but whats the film about,ive heard of the film but never looked it up.Thanks

Basically DeNiro, THE WALL movie has the same plot as the album, which is this:

"The movie tells the story of rock singer "Pink" who is sitting in his hotel room in Los Angeles, burnt out from the music business and only able to perform on stage with the help of drugs. Based on the 1979 double album "The Wall" by Pink Floyd, the film begins in Pink's youth where he is crushed by the love of his mother."

"Several years later he is punished by the teachers in school because he is starting to write poems. Slowly he begins to build a wall around himself to be protected from the world outside. The film shows all this in massive and epic pictures until the very end where he tears down the wall and breaks free."

Now remember THE WALL movie had this ambition of telling a film without using expositional dialogue. Pretty much it tries to use visuals, editing, and of course THE WALL's music to tell its story, which is why it fustrates some viewers.

Still, if you dig Pink Floyd, or up for a very creative movie(and one that if I made a musical, I would be influenced mostly by THE WALL), check the movie out.

Thanks for the review i will

That Echoes collection was a good collection of songs in theory; this coming from someone who has never really been a fan of "best of" albums... A band should be judged by their ability to make a great album, as a collective work, opposed to one or two good songs an album. But, hey, Floyd kind of reinvented "best of" albums and one-band compilation collections with Relics. But back on track. Echoes sounded great on paper, but when they threw it althogether, they just messed up in a few places. Personally, I don't think they should have watered-down the title track...

A random thought... What do you think of Atom Heart Mother, Ronnie? For me, the title track makes the album, and I love the other four tracks as well. I feel that to those who actually know that it exists, it's equally as underrated as Animals.

The problems with that ECHOES best-of album were:

(1) Editing down of "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," "Echoes," you name it. I understand why it was done, but its like if I bought that rather nice Alfred Hitchcock boxset from Universal, but PSYCHO and VERTIGO were edited for time-length. That shit aint gonna cut it.

(2) The politics of the track selections. Obviously Gilmour and Waters still talk to each other with their lawyers, because while I haven't heard a word myself, I can assume that both had their own settlement.

"Okay, you wanna put some songs from the fake Pink Floyd after I left? Fine. Just add "Fletcher Memorial Home" and "When the Tigers Broke Free."

(3) The flowing of songs into each other. A trademark of the Pink Floyd, its tricky having to do this with different songs, different albums, different moods, different decades, and ECHOES suffers in part from that, but its not as big of a problem for me as it seems to be for some folks.

Still, I liked that the album began and ended with Barrett tunes. A nice touch.

Now LLC, I need to honestly listen more to ATOMIC HEART MOTHER to fairly grade it. Certainly in the brief time I've glanced at it audio-wise, it didn't rank high with me among the Floyd catalogue. But then again, I was as such with ANIMALS for a good time, so I'll give ATOMIC HEART MOTHER a good weekend of contimplation during the spring, LLC.

But yeah, I will agree that fans should give it a honorable and worthy check out at least.

Variety

https://variety.com/2024/music/news/pink-floyd-sells-music-rights-to-sony-400-million-1236165925/

The deal, one of the largest of many in recent years, apparently has finally concluded despite decades of ongoing infighting and bitter words between the bandmembers, notably chief songwriters Roger Waters and David Gilmour; also involved are drummer Nick Mason and the estates of keyboardist Richard Wright and founding singer-songwriter Roger “Syd” Barrett. The deal comprises recorded-music rights but not songwriting, which is held by the individual writers, as well as name-and-likeness, which includes merchandise, theatrical and similar rights. While Pink Floyd was famously anonymous as personalities, presumably most if not all of the iconic artwork on their albums, which was largely designed by the British firm Hipgnosis, is included.