PINK FLOYD NEW ALBUM: ENDLESS RIVER

14 November 2014

The release of’The Endless River’may be the last album of new Pink
Floyd music,ever. Is it a fitting finale to an illustrious career? It
certainly serves as a tribute to the late Rick Wright,keyboard player
and multi-instrumentalist who was an essential ingredient in the Pink
Floyd sound. Although by David Gilmour’s own admission it consists
primarily of instrumental out takes from 1994’s’The Division Bell’plus
one new song Louder Than Words, I think it does stand as a valid coda
to that album if not their band career. Having only started to listen
to the album, it is too early to judge but certainly what I have heard
shows that Pink Floyd were masters of the ambient soundscapes that have
been so influential and groundbreaking. Yes, it would have been great
if Roger Waters had contributed but we all know how unlikely that was,
given their emotional and last live appearance together at the Live 8
concert in 2005. This was already a farewell performance by Waters,
Gilmour,Nick Mason and Rick Wright. (Mason of course,has played drums
in Roger Waters’ own live tours since).

As a band they were at the
forefront of UK psychedelic rock and key players in developing studio
experimentation and live improvisation into progressive rock. At a time
when American bands of the late 60s gradually moved away from mind
expanding,drug influenced music and lyrics, prog rock emerged as a
distinctly British and European genre on this side of the Atlantic.
Just as bands like Black Sabbath defined heavy metal, Pink Floyd
defined prog rock(as an art form and in their case,a critical and
commercial success).

Rick Wright and Syd Barrett were essential to the
early Pink Floyd band arrangements of keyboard and guitar. The earliest
example of this is the original 16 minute version of Interstellar
Overdrive recorded in January 1967. Along with the instrumental 11
minute Nick’s Boogie, they virtually invented space rock. Syd Barrett’s
guitar style is often underrated with the focus being on his
songwriting. This version was an instrumental epic of trippy
atmospheric organ and guitar improvisations,kicked off by a heavy
guitar/bass riff. Compare this to the shorter takes included on the
anniversary CD edition of’Piper At The Gates of Dawn’including the 10
minute album version and you find many fascinating variations. In
particular,there is a prominent organ in the intro to’Interstellar’from
Rick Wright and slide guitar from Syd Barrett in the mono mix, missing
in the stereo mix. So if we are to re-appraise Syd as Pink Floyd’s
unsung guitar hero,we also need to listen to these as well as his eerie
slide guitar in Rick Wright’s song Remember a Day on’A Saucerful Of
Secrets’. Also, rare single tracks like Candy And A Current Bun,Apples
And Oranges and the unreleased Vegetable Man,Scream Thy Last Scream and
Lucy Leave,along with the above named original group instrumentals,
would almost make up a second Syd/Floyd album(plus the scarce stereo
mixes of Arnold Layne and See Emily Play perhaps). His electric and
acoustic guitar playing on his solo albums too,is both idiosyncratic
and impressive(with contributions from Waters,Gilmour and Wright). It’s
no wonder Syd Barrett has been a cult influence on post punk/indie
musicians like Julian Cope,Robyn Hitchcock and others in alternative
music to this day.

Rick Wright’s legacy by comparison is mainly
centred on his keyboard work. However it’s worth mentioning his lead
vocals on tracks like Astronomy Domine,Matilda Mother(written by Syd
Barrett) Stay(written by Roger Waters from’Obscured By Clouds’)and his
own compositions Remember a Day,See Saw(from’Saucerful’)and the single
tracks Paintbox and It Would Be So Nice. In addition,his other songs
include Summer 68(from’Atom Heart Mother’)The Great Gig In The Sky(with
the soulful vocals of Claire Torry)and the co-written Us And Them(with
Waters from’Dark Side Of The Moon’)plus Wearing The Inside Out (with
Anthony Moore from’Division Bell’). There is also the rare soundtrack
to the Antonioni film’Zabriskie Point’for which Pink Floyd composed an
hour of songs and music,much of it from Wright on organ and piano. His
harmony vocals featured throughout the band’s career and his musical co-
written contributions to albums like’Dark Side Of The Moon’Wish You
Were Here’The Division Bell’and others were immense. The only album in
which he did not appear was’The Final Cut'(which was more like a Roger
Waters solo effort featuring Gilmour and Mason,than a Pink Floyd
album). As an unsung keyboard hero his rare solo albums are worth
investigating too. Quite simply,only with Syd Barrett at the beginning
and Richard Wright at the end, would Pink Floyd have made that musical
journey down’The Endless River’