The Smiley Smile Message Board

I'm trying to make the ultimate sleep playlist for when i go to bed.
I've got all my quiet favorites.
My problem is, I have Floyd's discography, and I'm having trouble finding quiet tunes to pick for my playlist.
Every single song I love that starts out or has a quiet part always gets loud....pretty much all of Darkside is loud at some point on each track...I'd love to hear some suggestions.

the only one I have on my playlist by PF is Pow R. Toc H.

Cirrus Minor
Crying Song
Green Is The Colour
Cymbaline
Grantchester Meadows
If
Summer '68
Fat Old Sun
A Pillow Of Winds
Echoes
Stay
When The Tigers Broke Free
Cluster One
Poles Apart
Marooned
A Great Day For Freedom
Wearing The Inside Out
Coming Back To Life

As much as I admire the track, I would have to say that "When The Tigers Broke Free" would definitely shock me out of my sleep after being lulled by "Fat Old Sun" and "Pillow of Winds"!

Julia Dream and if you can find it Embryo.

I have Embryo from the Works album/compilation.
BTW, when was Embryo recorded and what album was it suposed to be for or what album era was it?

"Embryo" was never actually finished and certain members of Floyd were not that happy to have it released on WORKS. The studio recording dated back to 1968 (after A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS but prior to the UMMAGUMMA sessions) and it was performed live a few times in 1970 and '71, often as part of a longer instrumental piece.

Perhaps some of My compadres need to hear a live version of embryo, which is super awesome...just to compare to the Works version, which sounds more contrived.

As for quiet:

Nobody Home
Goodbye Blue Sky
Signs Of Life
Is There Anybody Out There
Paranoid Eyes
Southampton Dock
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (Saucerfull Of Secrets version)
Seamus
San Tropez
Sysyphus (kinda scary though)
Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast (very relaxing actually)

Real Beach Boy:

Happy to see you list so many Division Bell songs!

I listened to that album (clear vinyl version :p) last night and was frankly amazed at how good it hangs together all these years later. It really is a quite fitting final album from The Floyd. And it's sooooooo awesome that Rick's all over it.

I will happily defend The Division Bell; not since The Wall had they sounded so good on record. And the best part of The Division Bell was the fact that they took their sound on that album with a hint of the pre-DSOTM sound. There's a lot of Meddle and Obscured By Clouds on there.

Speaking of Division Bell sounding so good on record at that time, does anyone get such an 80's feel on Learning to Fly(and yes, I know it's not on division bell)?

Its an ok album and has it's moments. But ultimately it doesn't really sound like Pink Floyd to me. It sounds like an over produced album by a group of sessions musicians trying to sound like Pink Floyd. I have never liked an album where it takes 3 or 4 or 5 people to write a song. Thats a big tip off right there.

It is miles better than MLoR though.

I agree that THE DIVISION BELL is much better than A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON. For me, the first non-Waters Floyd album sounded like an attempt to imitate the sound of a Floyd album whereas BELL sounded more like a straight Gilmour solo album with Wright guesting, which is what makes it more palatable to me.

As I recall reading a couple of decades back, the first version of AMLOR was rejected by Columbia for "not sounding enough like a Pink Floyd album" which resulted in the team of outsiders being brought in to give it that "Floyd flavor". "Learning To Fly" is just alright, but it really is done in by the ugly 80s-style production. Some of the album's other tracks have acceptable melodies/performances, but the lyrics are uniformly atrocious.

Are you talking about A Momentary Lapse of Reason? Because yeah, that basically was a bunch of session musicians brought in to "sound like" Pink Floyd" with Gilmore admitting to playing the keyboards and "Trying to sound like Rick"

Although, Nick Mason is quoted as claiming to have played on every track regardless of there being another drummer. He talked about how him and Jim Keltner, for instance,  would arrange on the tracks for one guy to play straight time and fills while the other would provide color and percussive flourish.

In the case of The Division Bell: that record was really made by a band. Gilmore and Polly Sampson wrote the lyrics, you had Nick on drums with some additional percussion from Gary Wallis, Rick on keyboards with some additional keys/piano from Jon Carin, Gilmore on guitar and various instruments, and Guy Pratt on bass.... According to lore, Nick, Rick, Gilmore and Pratt (and sometimes Bob Ezrin on bass) recorded all the basic tracks and the touring Floyd guys augmented with later overdubs. In a way, it was really a stripped down version of the touring family of Pink Floyd gathered to make an album. In reality, this WAS Pink Floyd at the time, and it's a fantastic record.

"Friends" anyone??

Exactly my point.This was a stripped down version of the Pink Floyd Touring Band. Not Pink Floyd.

But that WAS Pink Floyd at the time, just as The Wall with Jeff Procaro, Bob Ezrin, Freddie Mandel, Lee Ritnour, Bruce Johnston, Tony Tennill, WAS Pink Floyd at that time. Actually that really WAS just a bunch of session musicians being brought in. By the time of The Division Bell, Guy Pratt, Jon Carin, Gary Wallis etc had been with Floyd for over 8 years, so yeah, that was the band by that time. Not saying it's better than the Mason, Waters, Gilmore, Wright core, but that it was by no means some studio hack steeped fraud..... They didn't have to bring any of these guys in for Division Bell but they knew them, had toured the world twice with them, and had more fun on those two tours than on any before, liked their playing and creativity, so why not? Guy Pratt's Rick Wright's son-in-law for Christ's sake! This WAS Pink Floyd circa 1994!

Is anybody else's favourite era of Floyd pre "Dark Side of the Moon"? It seems that after that the records became a bit more even and steady sounding but as a result lost a lot of that wacky experimental style in the process.  Give me "Atom Heart Mother" or "Ummagumma" anyday!

My fave is actually Piper era. :)

And Eric I understand your point of it DB being an accurate portrait of PF at that moment, but to my ears that doesn't mitigate the fact that it is still the second worst album they ever put out (to my ears).

Get a hold of the outtakes from the Zabriskie Point sessions to hear Fingal's Cave, and Richard Wright's piano instrumental versions of the Love Theme and The Violent Sequence which later formed the basis for Us and Them.

My view on the post Roger albums is that I could cull the few songs I like on both of them together and make one 45 minute album I wouldn't mind listening to. I find mostly the songs and atmosphere sound forced on those albums. My overall favorite post Roger song is Wearing the Inside Out.

My other favorite post Roger Floyd moment isn't on an album or from one of the live shows, it's footage of them rehearsing Echoes for the '87 tour that's on Youtube. They reach a good blend of emulating the original and adding some minor 80's rock touches here and there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVyV-LNM1Ug

God, I should send you my "lost Pink Floyd album" that I pieced together... I cut half the songs out, and it's still an utter snore.  This is the tracklist...

SIDE ONE
01) Heart Beat, Pig Meat
02) Crumbling Land  [with truncated sound-effects ending]
03) The Red Queen  [with full Gilmour solo]
04) Rock Intro  [allegedly part of a Crumbling Land outtake, but it fits right onto...]
05) Fingal's Cave  [okay, THIS isn't quiet.]

SIDE TWO
01) Embryo
02) Oenone  [not the take where Rog and Dave act out a sex scene, thankfully.]
03) Biding My Time

SIDE THREE
01) The Red Queen Interlude  [a harpsichord rendition]
02) The Violent Sequence (Us and Them)  [edited down a little bit]
03) Rain In The Country  [aka Unknown Song - later reused as part of 'Atom Heart Mother']
04) Pink Blues

SIDE FOUR
01) Love Scene  [Richard's piano instrumental]
02) Sleep  [another 'Love Scene' improv, cut down by half... just boring vibes!]
03) Come In No. 51, Your Time Is Up  [Roger wakes you up!]
04) The Red Queen (Reprise)

Since all of this material (save the two Ummagumma-era outtakes) was written to score a movie about hippies in a desert, I gave it the Floydian title of "A Vast Expanse Of Freedom."  The cover art is Floyd floating above a desert, from the French soda ads they did.

Guess I've missed out on a lot!  
Grew up listening to Saucer and Piper, Umma, moved onto Meddle and the Dark Side, and stopped listening to Floyd, tho I still hear Flashbacks in my mind

Since this thread, I've been listening to Division Bell like crazy! From watching/listening to Pulse, I've come to love Keep Talking and especially What do You Want From Me, I love the bass feel on the latter song. Always been a fan of High Hopes. Poles Apart and Cluster One have grown on me. Marooned has always been a favorite instrumental since I heard it on the Echoescompilation, which btw, for what it's worth, Echoes is BRILLIANTLY put together, the way the tracks are pieced together are amazing! Great album cover too.

I'm still having a fight (internally) between the Final Cut and A Momentary Laps of Reason, are those the two division albums when it comes to favoring (as a fan) the Waters' Pink Floyd or Gilmour's Pink Floyd?

Would I be wrong is saying Floyd is more unified on A Momentary Laps of Reason than the Final Cut?

Sort of, in that it's about the same. Both were solo albums put out as Floyd albums. Despite the booklet credits, Wright is on neither album. Mason drummed on every cut save the final one (see what I did there?) on TFC, but was barely on Lapse (heavy use of drum machines on that one), so by that you can actually argue TFC is more of a Floyd sounding album.


That's the thing...Animals was the last Floyd album I truly loved (actually TFC is one of my favorite albums of all time, but I consider it a Waters album). I actually feel the Wall is overrated to be honest. For me, the magic starts to go when a band has more session musicians playing on the album (and the live shows) than the actual band members (much like when the Beach Boys started bringing in more people to sing...it took away from the natural blend of their voices IMHO). Usually the kiss of death is female backup singers on every song live, even for songs that didn't originally have backups. Just a huge pet peeve of mine.


For the record, my favorite PF period is Saucerful thru Obscured by Clouds.

Wright is on a bit of Momentary Lapse, he's singing backup on "Sorrow" at least.

I was thinking about the inner politics of Floyd and what's all included on the Echoes compilation; I find it strange that The Final Cut and AMLOR material are both included on compilation, but material for More and Obscured by Clouds are not included, I only say this because a lot of the material from More has popped up on later compilations like Relics, Works, etc, plus, I'm sure a couple of shorter length tracks were idea next to Shine on, Echoes, etc. I understand how Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother's material not included because of lengthy and lesser known tracks. But with inner struggles with the group and how fans feel about TFC and AMLOR as Floyd albums, it puzzles me for their inclusion of songs. Though now that I think about it, I think TFC's inclusion is notable for being somewhat (what was intended but didn't happen) as outtakes of The Wall. And of course, if TFC has tracks, of course Gilmour wants Learning to Fly and Sorrow on there.

The Floyd have been trying very hard to rewrite history...it's almost like they want to have the image that their career began with their "first album" The Dark Side of the Moon, which was an utter fluke of success...it certainly looks cooler than the band that had an initial period of notoriety and then spent five years going "through the desert" so to speak.

Not so sure about that. "One of these Days" rarely left their setlist for example. Maybe the record company prefers to focus on "Dark Side" onwards more as this is when the Floyd sound seemed to solidify. Also "Obscured By Clouds" is Nick Mason's favourite Pink Floyd album.

The Dark Side of the Moon is indeed all well and good, and no fan would ever try to deny that. But it was not something that came from pure coincidence. It was the natural evolution of their sound from psych-pop genius under Syd to the rambling, at times incoherent and soothing sounds of Saucerful through Ummagumma, the orchestral and folkish tendencies of Atom Heart Mother, and the prog sound on Meddle and Obscured by Clouds. Dark Side is the culmination of the past seven years of their work as a band.

I don't know about that. They seem perfectly happy to talk about their pre Dark Side career. In a recent interview Nick Mason talked about listening to demos the bank recorded in the mid 60's, and how well developed Syd Barrett's songwriting was even at that point.
David Gilmour played a pretty important role in the recent Syd Barrett compilation, which included a number of Pink Floyd tracks he doesn't even play on. And the band would be the first to admit that (and indeed David Gilmour has on a number of occasions) their last 60's/early 70's material was a natural evolution of the bands sound and dynamic which led eventually to Dark Side. I think Gilmour has talked about the track "Echoes" being the point where the post Syd Pink Floyd found their sound.

David Gilmour wanted "Fat Old Sun" included on the compilation (and quite rightly too, it's one of his best songs) but nobody else in the band did. Apparently despite the less than favourable opinion that the members of Pink Floyd not called Roger Waters have of The Final Cut, "The Fletcher Memorial Home" was, according to Gilmour, one of the few songs they all agreed on to be included.

Wow, I just listened to Fat Old Sun a lot, along with If and Summer 68, and you're right about it being one of Gilmour's best. I've listened to Atom Heart Mother a couple of times (being a newer PF fan) and this time around was fantastic. My family has been going through some junk and I wasn't able to sleep very well last night, but listened to Fat Old Sun really made me feel better, I don't know what it is about it, but it has a great vibe to it...kinda white album-ish....as is Summer 68 (especially those horns like on Savory Truffle and Mother Nature's Son)

You should hear the live version of "Fat Old Sun" Gilmour did on his REMEMBER THAT NIGHT DVD...I nearly cried it was so beautiful.

That DVD in general is beautiful. One of the best purchases I ever made.

The Floyd seem weirdly half embarrassed by anything they've done that wasn't overtly commercially successful! This trait probably got them where they are, so it's a good thing really.

Typical for a bunch of architects to look at well selling product as an example of perfect craftsmanship and anything less successful as a bad floor plan   :p

What do you consider "overtly commercially successful"? I feel like a lot of the experimental material that one (like myself) who didn't grow up back when this material originally released would assume it didn't do well on the charts but actually (as I was shocked and surprised) they did fairly well:
-Piper at the Gates: #6 on UK chart
-A Sucerful of Secrets: #9 on UK chart
-More: #9 on UK chart
-Ummagumma: #5 on UK/#74 on US
-Atom Heart Mother: #1 on UK/#55 on US
-Relics: #32 on UK
-Meddle: #3 on UK/#70 on US
The difference on UK and US charts just shows how much more hip the UK is when it comes to listening to good music.

What I consider as "Floyd's embarrassment" (from what I've read online and a book), they consider Ummaguma and/or Atom Heart Mother and/or Saucerful of Secrets to be lame or not relevant to their career as a band; as if the album covers are more famous than the music inside of the LP.

And what's funny about that is Ummagumma and Saucerful are two of my favorite albums.

My favorite album for the record is Dark Side (followed by Meddle). I know there's a segment of fans that don't feel that way because it is their most popular, but there's a REASON why it's their most popular. It's damn phucking good.

For a very long time I considered Dark Side to be the best album ever recorded in the history of rock and roll. But then I heard the SMiLE boots, and Pet Sounds. I would say that even Bambu is very high in my list of top ten best albums ever recorded.

It's actually quite interesting to put together an alternate version of A Saucerful of Secrets which is made up of the songs that were either written by, or played on by Syd Barrett. It makes for a very different, but nontheless very good album. My most recent attempt goes something like this. Bearing in mind that some of this stuff was never completed in a releasable form. It's just songs that date from the post Piper recording sessions (apart from She Was A Millionaire).

1. Vegetable Man
2. Remember A Day
3. Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun
4. Scream Thy Last Scream
5. In The Beechwoods
6. Paintbox
7. Apples & Oranges
8. No Title
9. She Was A Millionaire
10. Reaction In G
11. Jugband Blues

nice play list, but what is No Title?

It's a 4 minute track recorded in September 1967. About 90 seconds of the track has leaked out, and is usually wrongly listed as "Sunshine" on bootlegs.

By overtly commercial, I meant the obviously earth shatteringly successful billion trillion selling triage of Dark Side/Wish/Wall!!!

An yeah, it's awesome that the Floyd are that example of the super commercial stuff being so FREAKING good!!!

I know Dave's called Atom Heart Mother "rubbish" in the past, but they seem to be easing up in their old age.... Didn't Dave even perform AHM (side one) in it's entirety recently or am I imagining things?

Actually that last tour with Dave and Rick did a lot toward waking people up to a lot of the pre-Darkside awesomeness!

The did Wots Uh The Deal and Echos with Rick kicking massive ass on both!!!!

Now if Nick would just go perform Grand Vizer's Garden Party someplace, I could die happy :)

Oh ok thanks. I do have it listed as Sunshine.  :lol

I`m guessing Bob Klose won`t be returning to the Floyd anytime soon.

?!

Bob Klose was the original lead guitar player. Syd Barrett was actually a rhythm guitar player until Bob Klose quit in 1965.

I knew THAT :lol ...just wondering why his name was brought up, since it's not like he's been in the news or anything. It was just so *random* that I hurried up and checked to see if he had recently died. It'd be like, "Oh, I guess Chris Dreja isn't going to rejoin a reformed Led Zeppelin  (since he was in the Yardbirds and was tentatively going to be in Page's new band until John Paul Jones was tagged)". ;)

It was probably one of those random things disigned for obsessive weirdos like us to pick up on, while many people here wouldn't know who Alex was talking about.  ;D

Klose was the Dave Marks of Floyd...can`t have a true reunion without every single living original member.

Except David Marks played on many of the early hits. Bob Close wasn't anywhere near the sessions for PF's early recordings.

It'd be like having Angus Maclise in the reformed VU....

I`d love to see a Doug Yule/Squeeze-album era VU reunion.

I'd like to see Doug Yule out there doing ANYTHING!

Man played a mean bass and had such a sweet, lovely voice!

Him and Sterling together were the best Lou foils ever!

I prefer Cale on his own.

Just a heads up: the live Dark Side that's included in the Immersion Box Set is epic!

Great Gig will make your head explode!

This has long been on of my fave Floyd boots, but the sound quality on this official released is pristine. Sounds as pristine as the damn album itself!

Them damn Floyd bastards most likely have every show they ever played recorded to this standard and here they are sitting on 99% of it!!!  >:(

I've recently become a big Syd fan. His music really makes me feel good.

I cannot get into about 95% of their work post-Syd. Piper is such a great album, and his solo albums are great, too. He was a good kid.

Agreed. I think they were good in their own way later, but it's not a style I am personally big on.

one of the the best ssong by pink floyd imo is "pillow of winds" you should check it out :)

If from Atom Heart Mother is a gorgeous track.

Obscured by Clouds is a damn good album.

Okay gang...least favorite Floyd tracks?

You know since I posted I have found some real love for the 1968-81 work, but Syd is still my main man.

I like the More LP a lot but my least favorite song they did must be Quicksilver as well as some of the filler on Umma Gumma. I do like the Atom Heart Mother LP though it's not very popular.

you got that right :) and meddle is too
my least favorite well i cnt specifically name one or two but they have to be from the wall and atom hearth mother.

'See Saw' is pretty bad.

Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast

I dont see the point in it!

atom heart mother is ehhhhh ..that's the album where they wanted to change the perception of them being a "psychedelic band" they should've went a different way though.

There is only one Floyd track I always forward past: Young Lust. I detest that song.

what are your favorite floyd songs?

My faves?

I guess my favorite Pink Floyd song is the movie version of Outside the Wall, followed by Bran Damage/Eclipse, Cirrus Minor, The Gnome, all of the Syd Barrett stuff, Fat Old Sun... sheeesh.. I pretty well love everything as a favorite but Young Lust.  :lol

Young Lust Rules! The instrumental track is mind bowing.... really. Soooo funky.....

Worst songs? ...about half the trax from AMLOR.

That's true. When I think pink floyd I had only considered 1967 - 1983. But you're right there are far worse songs on AMLOR.

...made even worse on Delicate Sound of Thunder.

Hey AMLOR ain't half bad as a Dave Gilmour solo album!

DSOT sounds like crap to me mainly because of Gary Wallis being obnoxious and overplaying like a hyperactive idiot kid on everything and missing the entire point altogether. But the blame goes to Dave for that one.

The fucking reverb...the complete lack of Rick Wright in all but name...Dogs of War...freakin' weak sax solos...gah. Let me stop before I have another stroke.

To be honest...I wasn't as big of a fan of The Wall as their other works. I even preferred Final Cut to it. Yeah, it's a Roger Waters solo album in all but name, but it's a good one. IMHO, of course.

I think 'Animals' is highly underrated.

my favorite album by pink floyd is animals :) but i must admit the shittiest one is the final cut lol

Is The Final Cut a RW solo album? Pretty much. I still think it is a great album though. Gunner's Dream alone is one of Roger's best songs as is Two Suns in the Sunset. I have always regarded it as a prequel to The Wall.

the only songs i like from that album are
the hero's return
the gunner's dream
the final cut
not now john
two suns in the sunset

The Heroe's Return (pt 2) is amazing.

I like the DSOT version of Sorrow also. What a guitar sound!

Sorrow is a great song and the version on AMLOR is great too. But, in my opinion, the version on Pulse is the best. With Nick and Rick fully present, the song really kicks!

The Pulse tour overall was wonderful, I thought. Dave, Nick, and Rick really jelled with the extra players and the whole thing felt like a genuine unit in comparison to DSOT.

I don't mind Atom Heart Mother as an album and "If" is one of my favourite Floyd tracks but Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast was a big mistake.
It's shite!

I swear: get up early one morning and put on Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast while puttering around/starting your day and it will suddenly work its charm on you in a big way!

I wish i could honestly!
I once forced myself to listen to it four times on the trot in the hope that it might grow on me but i just hated it even more.
Now it's a definate skip when it comes on my ipod!!

what is another song you forced yourself to listen to but just couldnt do it anymore? :)

Replace it with "Embryo", "Biding My Time", and "Dominoes". It makes for an interesting alternate version of Atom Heart Mother.

Anybody notice that the beginning of The Show Must Go On kind of sounds like Wild Situation?

Barely but still. You can sing the "myyyyy ohhhhhhhh" over it.

Eric H - Where did you get your avatar from?!

You mean Floyd track?
It's got to be "Keep Talking" from The Division Bell.
I'm not keen on that either.

Meddle with Echoes, enough said. :hat

no i mean any other major group that has an album that many considered greta work that you just couldnt feel :]

Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins

Promising singles, the rest... ??? I've never trucked a new CD to the record exchange as quickly as that gear

Seriosly?

Man, MatIS is one of my ALL TIME favorite albums. I love every second of it.... except the James Iha song on the end of disc 1. I can do without that. But Thirty-three, 1979, Beautiful, Porcelina, I can go on and on about how much I love that album.

I was looking for something to approximate what OSD's fever dreams must be like and somehow stumbled upon that pic  ;D

This board should start a fund to have OSD have front row seats at the reunion concert.

and a "day with Mike Love" at the MIU University.

Oh ok i get you now!

Any Arctic Monkey's album after their first one (First one was very good!).

Yeah, sorry man - I really tried to like it - and off the back of "Bullet with..." I had high expectations, but it just did not happen, I may even have screwed up my face, which for me is an extreme physical reaction.  And just corrected my shocking spelling in the previous post :-D