Any Pink Floyd Historians?

CWL, early PF had an avant garde cachet. They were far-out compared to their blues based rock contemporaries; holy cow Martha, a synthesizer! Innocent beginnings sometimes spun into shrieking cacophony and resolved into something simple and pretty. This was a novelty to me. Endure the beast to appreciate the beauty; the lesson came in handy later wrestling with Sun Ra.

By comparison, DSOTM was one HUGE piece of candy. What was it, 187 straight weeks on the Billboard top 300? Heck, it might still be on there. So it felt like goodbye hip snob cognoscenti and welcome to the machine. The cat was out of the bag forever. Like a complete tool I sprung for WYWH and Animals but wound up disappointed: more candy.

As far as their message in the post-Meddle lyrics goes I'd say it boils down to join the meaninglessness of existence club for only $14.99 and up.

If you could have only one album get Umma Gumma, an original special price double album deal.

Rockvirgo's opinion is very like that of one of my work colleagues from London who saw Floyd many times in their early years.
He considered DSOM the start of their decline.
Personally I think sometimes it's hard to relate just as closely to music if you weren't there (not always I admit)at the time,in context,seeing gigs etc.
I don't think the humour ever went away but it was less musical humour and perhaps a tad too cynical for some tastes.
I do agree the music prior to DSOM is more out there and avant garde and even before that Syd Barret's Pink Floyd is indeed a different band completely.
Since my first Floyd album was DSOM heard in '78 then much as I like the earlier material my personal favourites are DSOM through to The Wall.
CW as well as the good recommendations made already I would add the DVD of The Wall movie to it -not only does Waters do an absolutely hilarious commentary-he explains in the documentry a lot of his thinking behind the album.
It's a complex piece based on both Waters childhood and his problems relating to his new much bigger audience (he infamously spat at a fan on The Animals tour)and well it deals also with lots of related issues(relationshps/isolation).
To me Waters success in global terms was his ability to take quite personal subjects and articulate them in a way that way that the masses could relate to.
For me The Wall is the start of the decline and clearly the start of Waters splitting from the band-there's much great work on it but it is bloated and overdone in places.
As for their world view,Animals is pretty much a reflection of the industrial and social decline of the UK in the 70's-it's a dark album for what became a pretty dark time-it also pretty much predicted the Conservative grip which Britain came under from '78 onwards-Waters hated Thatcher with a passion.
As for the contradiction between singing about greed and being massively successful-I think Waters is well aware of these aspects he covered them many times-he also got a bit of stick from within the band who were all very much middle-class including Roger himself.
I think they were valid points well made.
For many the real jewel in Floyd's crown is WYWH.
In my opinion the best marriage of ambient/atmospherics with mainstream Rock music ever recorded-it's a very tight album which has never really dated in a way and I think quite a strange album since you can't really see it coming from what went before.
The Final Cut is Waters prediction of Animals come true-with Britain very much under Thatcher's grip-as much as I relate strongly to what he was saying, the album lacks cohesion and depth both lyrically and musically-he veered into the ranting which he's never really got out of imho.
After the Wall I really do struggle with any of the music related to either Floyd or Waters.
I must be close to being alone in Audio Land in neither caring for Amused To Death nor thinking on CD it sounds THAT great.
Also to me Floyd without Waters is a no-goer.
They needed the different dynamics and talents to keep the balance correct.
Waters world view (now)needs the balance of other opinions or else it seems like ranting and this is added to by the decline in his vocals and the lack of musical weight (in the songwriting)on his solo stuff.
Likewise Floyd without Waters lyrics and idea's is indeed pretty much like the "clever forgery" Waters described their music as.
To me Floyd from 1974-1979 produced some of the best concept work in the rock music canon-whilst it's a musical form usually derided I think the universal themes,musical greatness and above all humanity of their work is why the music has lasted.

The early Floyd were definitely avant garde - a saucer full of secrets and piper at the gates of dawn show them at their experimental best. There is no way anyone could listen to them, compare them with their peer groups at the time, and not see that they were on the fringes of rock experimentation. Truly revolutionary - questionable in the I want to put it on again and again and listen to it a few times category. In terms of great music, I think Meddle is their best work period, followed by Wish you were here, Dark side, and the vastly underrated Animals. Umma Gumma, Atom heart mother, More, Obsured by clouds, all have some intersting tunes, but in general are relatively weak in terms of songwriting and performance - they seem to have lots of fluff. I condider the Wall and the Final cut to be the band's weakest albums, almost water's solo albums with the band as backup (with a few exceptions on the Wall where gilmour gets to rock). Water's is way overrated as a lyricist and his "social commentary" is transparent and pedestrian at best. With the exception of Gimour's contributions, the songs lack melody and interest. Waters is not a great singer either -mainly talking through many of the songs as opposed to actually attempting to sing. If you want to go beyond Floyd, check out Gilmour's two solo albums - they are consistently good. In general I don't think that Floyd ever sold out - just because you are commercially successful does not mean you are a sellout - listen to have a cigar - talk about biting the hand that feeds!

Cheers - Scott

I am really surprised no one has mentioned the film "Pink Floyd at Pompeii". If you want to get real insight into post Barrett Floyd, this is a must see. The sound is marginal but not bad for 1972 film.

Tim