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Beliefs about Pink Floyd so misguided that they couldn't be more wrong

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    Beliefs about Pink Floyd so misguided that they couldn't be more wrong

    When I was a 9-10 year-old child, just starting to explore Pink Floyd beyond "The Division Bell" (the only record of theirs my father listened to), I used to believe many absurd things about their history:

    I used to think Syd Barrett left the group, after which David Gilmour was brought in as their bass player and second vocalist, of all things! Roger Waters switched to guitar and bore the brunt of Syd's departure by writing "The Wall", which explained why he sang nearly everything on it; it also explained why Gilmour's vocals on "The Show Must Go On" and "Waiting for the Worms" are often interjected with backing vocals - this was a way to bully the newcomer.

    After a few years and a few records more, Gilmour started to assert himself better, which led to a far higher vocal presence on "The Dark Side of the Moon", their second hit. I never gave a thought as to where "Wish You Were Here" fit in all of this.

    With the group getting tired of the arrogant personality of Waters, he came at loggerheads with Gilmour, who by now coveted the position of guitarist and single vocalist, so the former was expelled from Pink Floyd; but not before Waters had a short stint as the keyboard player - period which is documented in the "Pulse" release. That Richard Wright existed also never crossed my mind; but even when I learned of him and he became my favourite member then, I still would only later learn that Waters was never not the bass player!

    Yes, I was a much too imaginative autistic child, but, not so recently, I happened to read "The Big Midweek", Steve Hanley's story of his period in The Fall, and, in one of the chapters, he tells of an episode where he argued with guitarist Craig Scanlon, because the latter wouldn't budge in his belief that David Gilmour was the bass player for Pink Floyd (I mean, he technically was a few times, as we know; but that's not the point) - so I guess I wasn't the only weirdo alone to make that assumption.

    Thinking about this last night, I was wondering: what are some beliefs you once had about Pink Floyd that turned out to be so wrong, you could only ever wonder to yourself how you ever came to hold them, in the first place?
    Last edited by TheMoebLoop; 03-16-2023, 08:33 PM.

    #2
    Your imagination was not really that much off, except in relation to chronology. Except from the chronology, most of your assumptions have a degree of truth to them; they are mostly either partly true, almost true, or possibly true!

    Comment


      #3
      Well, I was once lead to believe, as were probably the rest of the music press readers at the time, that in 1978 or 1979 the entire band had been killed in a plane crash!!

      I bought UK music paper Sounds every week so I guess it must have been reported in their news pages. I can’t remember the date of the issue and with little other option available, I searched for a contact address to write to to confirm if this was true. I found details for EMKA Productions, Pink Floyd management and wrote to them. Some while later, I received a lovely letter back on EMKA headed paper stating this was in fact false, (so certainly misguided and couldn’t be more wrong) and that in actual fact they were currently working on a new album project, which I think the letter referred to as 'Bricks'.

      I'd love to be able to post a copy of their reply here but unfortunately I sold it in the 1990s, so it’s out there somewhere!

      Comment


        #4
        I once thought Roger always played Bass and wrote the entirety of The Wall on his own with no outside assistance... So no input from Gilmour or Bob Ezrin. I also used to believe that Rick was fired before The Wall was made, not during it's production, and that he had no keyboard parts on the album. I even had no idea about any of the albums pre Dark Side or post Wall until a fair bit later, let alone that Gilmour wasn't always in the band!
        Go Fishing, My Boy...

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          #5
          Well I was led to believe as a kid that The Wall was made by and for druggies! Stay away from it! You only listened to it or could understand it being stoned. (little did they know that it was actually Dark Side)

          And also KISS stood for Knights (or Kids) in Satan's Service. Probably does.
          For every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch. Three if you're on the Interstate. - Derek Bieri, Vice Grip Garage

          PF - April 18, 1988, Denver
          PF - June 22, 1994, Minneapolis
          Rog - July 16, 2017, Atlanta (Taped)
          Rog - Aug 20, 2022, Atlanta (Taped)
          Nick - March 29, 2019, Atlanta (Taped)

          Comment


            #6
            I once thought - like many other people - that Syd had his "brain destroyed" or something by acid.
            Of course, after learning more about the case, I learned that this story in fact was a lot more complex.

            Comment


              #7
              Whether or not Rick's departure from the band can be considered him being fired still appears to be up for debate. I personally don't think it can, but that's just me.
              Picture a courthouse with no fucking laws!
              Picture a cathouse with no fucking whores!
              Picture a shithouse with no fucking drains!
              Picture a leader with no fucking brains!

              Comment


              • DARREN
                DARREN commented
                Editing a comment
                Rick was unfairly dismissed.

              #8
              Originally posted by daemonspudguy View Post
              Whether or not Rick's departure from the band can be considered him being fired still appears to be up for debate. I personally don't think it can, but that's just me.
              The Vernon Fitch/Richard Mahon "Comfortably Numb" book shows it was more that Roger gave Rick an ultimatum of some kind and Rick refused, from what I remember. There are other accounts of the story, I'm sure, but that's the explanation I usually fall back on in terms of talking about the subject. Back then I assumed it was him being fired. Of course, that's not the point of this thread, but thought I'd clarify what my stance is on it...
              Go Fishing, My Boy...

              Comment


              • Harmonic Sheep
                Harmonic Sheep commented
                Editing a comment
                Huh, that's honestly interesting. I ought to find that book. Would you recommend it?
                Last edited by Harmonic Sheep; 04-15-2023, 11:09 PM. Reason: Edit: missed a word by accident

              #9
              When I was very young and started listening to Pink Floyd an older boy who claimed to know a lot abut music used to swear by everything holy that Syd Barrett had two cats (named "Pink" and "Floyd") and that he used to give them LSD in the water. Even back then I found such story too extreme to believe it (a bit funny, though, imagining the cats climbing walls while high). So far I have never read anything remotely similar anywhere.

              I've also heard several people say that Syd Barrett was institutionalized and lived several years in an asylum after he left the band. When they're so convinced of that "fact" it is quite difficult to correct them, as most people just prefer to believe some things instead of the truth.

              Comment


                #10
                When i was 14yrs i used to listen to the shine on 1-3 with my (still) best friend on a massive soundsystem and we were both 100%(!) sure that no regular humans could have played that kind of music.
                FINGAL‘S CAVE: A Podcast for all dedicated Pink Floyd Fans

                Available here:
                Youtube
                Apple Podcast
                Amazon Music
                Spotify
                Deezer
                Facebook

                Comment


                  #11
                  Oh man, I used to have a lot of things like this. I started listening before the internet, so my info all came from word of mouth, liner notes, and speculation. Eventually I found some books...

                  For a few years I believed that Roger Waters had gone insane and had become a recluse after becoming a born again Christian and releasing Amused to Death, which I had not listened to yet. I also thought Roger was like a Brian Wilson character who wrote the songs while the other guys toured without him. Guy Pratt did the gigs that Roger was mentally too unsound to handle, which of course was all of them from 1987 on, so Roger must have really been in bad shape in my mind.

                  I was also convinced that Pink Floyd had performed at my summer camp when I was 8 or 9, and I was kicking myself a few years later for being so ungrateful and uninformed about what I was seeing in that cafeteria. They were a rather good rock band after all, so it must have been Pink Floyd. I was pretty sure it was not Pearl Jam.

                  I initially thought bootleg albums were actually released by the band and I thought that they were harder to find because the band themselves considered them to be their coolest recordings, and they wanted to make it fun for us to track them down.

                  Loads of Syd nonsense of course as well. Looking at Facebook, it seems the general public still believes most of the things about him that I figured out as false by the time I was 13 or so.

                  I thought the line in ABITW Pt. 1 was "Star Trek in the family album" as if Roger was explaining that his family upbringing was very odd.
                  Last edited by lennyif; 03-17-2023, 08:00 AM.

                  Comment


                    #12
                    Originally posted by lennyif View Post
                    I thought the line in ABITW Pt. 1 was "Star Trek in the family album" as if Roger was explaining that his family upbringing was very odd.
                    You have just wrecked that song for me now, that line will play in my head every time I listen to it. 😂


                    For every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch. Three if you're on the Interstate. - Derek Bieri, Vice Grip Garage

                    PF - April 18, 1988, Denver
                    PF - June 22, 1994, Minneapolis
                    Rog - July 16, 2017, Atlanta (Taped)
                    Rog - Aug 20, 2022, Atlanta (Taped)
                    Nick - March 29, 2019, Atlanta (Taped)

                    Comment


                      #13
                      I'm enjoying all of these examples of fun, imaginative renderings of their journey, and we could actually compose a wonderful alternative history of Pink Floyd - save, perhaps, for them dying in a plane crash.

                      But I have to say that Syd giving LSD to his cats and Roger becoming a born-again Christian take the cake for me so far!

                      Comment


                        #14
                        Originally posted by MrFender View Post


                        You have just wrecked that song for me now, that line will play in my head every time I listen to it. 😂

                        Sorry... haha at least I am not alone in the world anymore.

                        Comment


                          #15
                          Originally posted by lennyif View Post

                          Sorry... haha at least I am not alone in the world anymore.
                          +1.

                          lennyif, there's a chap I know in your neck of the woods who is convinced that it is Tina Turner's vocals on DSOTM and there is nothing I can do to change his mind.

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