2011 – Steve Jobs, Apple Computers, Disney, Pixar, and iTunes died today on This Day in Rock! Jobs, most notably known for the iPhone in recent years, contributed to the computer and music world. iTunes being the most notable and influential music download service in the known universe. At one time apple battled over the name ‘Apple’ with the Beatles who own the same name, but in different industries… until iTunes.
Steve… you will be missed. We equate it to the passing of Walt Disney.
2011 – lyricist Jerry Leiber dies at age 78 on This Day in Rock! He Co-wrote hits like “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock” and was a key player in the birth or Rock ‘n’ Roll. Composing over 200 tunes covered by Elvis, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, James Brown, BB King, The drifters and Peggy Lee, Elvis having recorded over 20 of the tunes himself.
All the facts about rock hisory you need in one easy place. With a database of over 25,000 records and growing daily, we update posts about Elvis, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Jet, My Chemical Romance and many more. We include Video from YouTube, lyrics, and all the juicy facts that happen to your favorite stars. Tell you friends, leave comments, and enjoy history.
2010 – DIO – Double Vinyl Version Of Dio At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987 To Be Issued By Niji Entertainment Group
press release:
The recently-released double-disc DIO album, Dio At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987, is about to get a glorious vinyl makeover. On February 15th, 2011, the album will be issued as a double vinyl set with deluxe gatefold packaging, and on 180 gram vinyl – the first-ever Dio album to be released in this high quality vinyl format. The album was mixed and mastered under the supervision of Dio’s longtime engineer, Wyn Davis, and comes hot on the heels of the CD version’s success (debuting at #98 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart – Dio’s strongest chart debut in the “Soundscan era”).
The first disc of Dio at Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987 was recorded at the first-ever UK performance by Dio’s solo group, while on tour supporting their classic debut, Holy Diver. And the set-list does a superb job reflecting Dio’s debut (featuring such classics as ‘Rainbow in the Dark’, ‘Stand Up And Shout’, etc.), as well as classics from both RAINBOW and BLACK SABBATH (‘Man On The Silver Mountain’, ‘Heaven And Hell’) – resulting in a thorough retrospective of Dio’s career, from Rainbow to Black Sabbath to solo hits.
The second disc of Dio at Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987 features guitarist Craig Goldy’s debut – recorded in 1987, in support of the Dream Evil album, and contains further highlights from Dio’s career.
Following is the tracklist of the CD release; more details on the vinyl version will be revealed soon.
Disc 1 (1983)
‘Stand Up and Shout’
‘Straight Through The Heart’
‘Children Of The Sea’
‘Rainbow In The Dark’
‘Holy Diver’
- drum solo -
‘Stargazer’
- guitar solo -
‘Heaven And Hell’
‘Man On The Silver Mountain’
‘Starstruck’
‘Evil Eyes’
Disc 2 (1987)
‘Dream Evil’
‘Neon Knights’
‘Naked In The Rain’
‘Rock ‘N’ roll Children’
‘Long Live Rock ‘N Roll’
‘Rock ‘N Roll Children’ (reprise)
‘The Last In Line’
‘Holy Diver’
‘Heaven And Hell’
‘Man On The Silver Mountain’
‘All The Fools Sailed Away / The Last In Line’
‘Rainbow In The Dark’
2010 – RIAA, say Beatles still on top! Utilizing Nielsen SoundScan data, which dates to 1991, Guns N’ Roses have totaled 24,914,000 albums sold in the U.S. 1991′s “Use Your Illusion 2″ leads with 5,587,000 units, followed closely by “Use Your Illusion 1,” at 5,502,000.
In that span, Metallica has sold 52,271,000 albums in the U.S., led by 1991′s “Metallica” with sales to date of 15,525,000.
According to the Recording Industry of America (RIAA), whose data encompasses the bands’ entire careers, Metallica leads Guns N’ Roses, 59 to 43.5 million. Among all artists, Metallica ranks 18th, Guns N’ Roses 30th.
It does help Metallica that the band has released more albums. The band has placed 14 titles on the Billboard 200, compared to G N’ R’s eight.
As for why the bands’ totals are so much closer using RIAA data as opposed to SoundScan’s, Guns N’ Roses’ opus “Appetite for Destruction” was released in 1987, four years before the advent of SoundScan information. Since 1991, the set has sold 5,008,000 copies. The RIAA, however, has certified the album with sales of 18 million dating to its release.
How does the RIAA stack up the U.S.’ top-selling rock groups of all-time? The list looks like this:
Rank, Artist, Certified Units (in millions)
1, the Beatles, 170
2, Led Zeppelin, 111.5
3, Eagles, 100
4, Pink Floyd, 74.5
5, AC/DC, 71
6, Aerosmith, 66.5
7, the Rolling Stones, 66
8, Metallica, 59
9, Van Halen, 56.5
10, U2, 51.5
11, Fleetwood Mac, 48.5
12, Journey, 47
13, Guns N’ Roses, 43.5
14, Santana, 43
15, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, 41
Finnegan’s Wake
What happens when a dearly loved Irishman passes on? Well, it’s time to celebrate his wake. This song is dedicated, no doubt, to the Irishman’s love of funerals and whiskey, “Finnegan’s Wake” supplied the theme for James Joyce’s famous novel of the same name.
The Unicorn Song
This “Irish song” is not really Irish at all, but the Irish Rovers found it and turned it into a St. Patrick’s Day classic.
Whiskey in the Jar
Metallica tried to turn it into a rock song, but it will always be a classic Irish tale of love and betrayal with a great chorus!
ABOUT:
Saint Patrick is believed to have been born in the late fourth century, and is often confused with Palladius, a bishop who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 to be the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.
Saint Patrick was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing christianity to Ireland. Most of what is known about him comes from his two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish christians. Saint Patrick described himself as a “most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God.”
Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been – the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped. Driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to that pagan practice. While not the first to bring christianity to Ireland, it is Patrick who is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites. The story holds that he converted the warrior chiefs and princes, baptizing them and thousands of their subjects in the “Holy Wells” that still bear this name.
There are several accounts of Saint Patrick’s death. One says that Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on March 17, 460 A.D. His jawbone was preserved in a silver shrine and was often requested in times of childbirth, epileptic fits, and as a preservative against the “evil eye.” Another account says that St. Patrick ended his days at Glastonbury, England and was buried there. The Chapel of St. Patrick still exists as part of Glastonbury Abbey. Today, many Catholic places of worship all around the world are named after St. Patrick, including cathedrals in New York and Dublin city
Why Saint Patrick’s Day?
Saint Patrick’s Day has come to be associated with everything Irish: anything green and gold, shamrocks and luck. Most importantly, to those who celebrate its intended meaning, St. Patrick’s Day is a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide.
So, why is it celebrated on March 17th? One theory is that that is the day that St. Patrick died. Since the holiday began in Ireland, it is believed that as the Irish spread out around the world, they took with them their history and celebrations. The biggest observance of all is, of course, in Ireland. With the exception of restaurants and pubs, almost all businesses close on March 17th. Being a religious holiday as well, many Irish attend mass, where March 17th is the traditional day for offering prayers for missionaries worldwide before the serious celebrating begins.
In American cities with a large Irish population, St. Patrick’s Day is a very big deal. Big cities and small towns alike celebrate with parades, “wearing of the green,” music and songs, Irish food and drink, and activities for kids such as crafts, coloring and games. Some communities even go so far as to dye rivers or streams green!
2010 – U.K. Declares Abbey Road A Historic Site
February 23, 2010
2010 – With all the talk about EMI possibly selling Abbey Road Studios, the U.K. government has stepped in and declared it a historic site so that no radical changes can be made. Culture Minister Margaret Hodge declared the iconic venue a “Grade II” listed building, which means that although changes to its interior are permitted, any proposed alterations must respect the character and preservation of the site. In a statement, Hodge said the listing had been granted “overwhelmingly on the historic merit of the studios” and because “it has huge cultural importance and a very special place in the hearts of recording artists and music lovers alike.”
“The Abbey Road Studios have been listed in acknowledgement of their outstanding cultural interest and to ensure that recording artists for generations to come can continue to make and record music in the same rooms as musical icons of years gone by,” said Hodge’s statement. “Music – of whichever genre – is the thread that follows us through all our lives and Abbey Road Studios have produced some of the very best music in the world. It’s a testament to both the importance of music in people’s lives as well as the passion this kind of issue stirs up, that so much interest has been generated by the perceived threat to the future of Abbey Road.”
Among those calling for the studios to be saved were Sir Paul McCartney and Andrew Lloyd Webber, who signaled that he was a potential buyer. However, EMI said over the weekend that it did not want to sell Abbey Road, although it was talking to other parties about revitalizing the site. EMI said it had been in discussions since November 2009 to find ways to regenerate the studios.
“EMI confirms that it is holding preliminary discussions for the revitalization of Abbey Road with interested and appropriate third parties,” the company said in the statement. “We believe that Abbey Road should remain in EMI’s ownership.”
1911 – Robert Johnson is born this day in rock history. You remember the movie Crossroads… that was his song!
Robert Johnson, born Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is among the most famous of Delta blues musicians. His landmark recordings from 1936–1937 display a remarkable combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced generations of musicians. Johnson’s shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given rise to much legend. Considered by some to be the “Grandfather of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, his vocal phrasing, original songs, and guitar style have influenced a broad range of musicians, including John Fogerty, Bob Dylan, Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix, The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers Band, The Rolling Stones, Paul Butterfield, The Band, Neil Young, Warren Zevon, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton, who called Johnson “the most important blues musician who ever lived”. He was also ranked fifth in Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He is an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Life and career
Johnson’s life is not well documented, and the variety of legends that have surrounded him for decades have made scholarship difficult. Serious research was not undertaken until the late 1960s and early 1970s, most notably by researchers Mack McCormick and Stephen LaVere. Most of the information on his life has come from the decades-old recollections of surviving family and associates. The two known images of Johnson were located in 1973, in the possession of the musician’s half-sister Carrie Thompson, and were not widely published until the late 1980s.
Five significant dates from his career are documented: Monday, Thursday and Friday, November 23, 26, and 27, 1936 at a recording session in San Antonio, Texas. Seven months later, on Saturday and Sunday, June 19–20, 1937, he was in Dallas, Texas at another session. His death certificate was discovered in 1968, and lists the date and location of his death. Two marriage licenses for Johnson have also been located in county records offices. Other facts about him are less well established. Director Martin Scorsese says in his foreword to Alan Greenberg’s filmscript Love In Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson, “The thing about Robert Johnson was that he only existed on his records. He was pure legend.”
Scarcely anything was known of Johnson’s origins until Mack McCormick traced and interviewed members of his family. The research has still not been published, so the biography is based entirely on trust. Such is McCormick’s reputation among his peers that no blues scholar seriously doubts his findings. Eventually, McCormick pemitted Peter Guralnick to publish a summary in Living Blues (1982), later reprinted in book form as Searching for Robert Johnson.
Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi sometime around May 8, 1911, the 11th child of Julia Major Dodds, who had previously borne ten children to husband Charles Dodds. Born out of wedlock, Johnson did not take the Dodds name.
Twenty two-year-old Charles Dodds had married Julia Major in Hazlehurst, Mississippi—about 35 miles (56 km) south of Jackson—in 1889. Charles Dodds owned land and made wicker furniture; his family was well off until he was forced out of Hazlehurst around 1909 by a lynch mob following an argument with some of the more prosperous townsfolk. (There was a family legend that Dodds escaped from Hazlehurst dressed in women’s clothing.) Over the next two years, Julia Dodds sent their children one at a time to live with their father in Memphis, where Charles Dodds had adopted the name of Charles Spencer. Julia stayed behind in Hazlehurst with two daughters, until she was evicted for nonpayment of taxes.
By that time she had given birth to a son, Robert, who was fathered by a field worker named Noah Johnson. Unwelcome in Charles Dodds’ home, Julia Dodds became an itinerant field worker, picking cotton and living in camps as she moved among plantations. While she worked in the fields, her eight-year-old daughter took care of Johnson. Over the next ten years, Julia Dodds would make repeated attempts to reunite the family, but Charles Dodds never stopped resenting her infidelity. Although Charles Dodds would eventually accept Johnson, he never would forgive his wife for giving birth to him.
Around 1914, Robert Johnson moved in with Charles Dodds’ family, which by that time included all of Dodds’ children by Julia Dodds, as well as Dodds’ mistress from Hazlehurst and their two children. Johnson would then spend the next several years in Memphis, and it was reportedly about this time that he began playing the guitar under his older half-brother’s tutelage.
Johnson did not rejoin his mother until she had remarried several years later. By the end of the decade, he was back in the Mississippi Delta living with his mother and her new husband, Dusty Willis. Johnson and his stepfather, who had little tolerance for music, did not get along, and Johnson had to slip out of the house to join his musician friends.
In the course of these these years, he was known by various names: Robert Dodds and Robert Spencer (his first stepfather’s real name and pseudonym), and Little Robert Dusty (after his second stepfather’s nickname). Finally he chose to use his birth name Robert Johnson after his natural father. He may also have wished to be associated with the great guitarist Lonnie Johnson. These changes of name largely explain the inability of researchers before McCormack to obtain information.
There are conflicting accounts of whether Johnson attended school or not. Later accounts portray him as illiterate or possessing beautiful handwriting. The question was settled with the discovery by Gayle Dean Wardlow of marriage certificates bearing the clear and attractive signature of Robert L Johnson.
In any case, everyone agrees that music was Johnson’s first interest, and that he had his start playing the Jew’s harp and harmonica in addition to guitar.
Son House recalled Johnson as a boy had followed him around and tried very unsuccessfully to copy him. He then left the Robbinsville area, but later reappeared with a miraculous guitar technique. His boast is entirely credible. Johnson later recorded versions of Preaching the Blues and Walking Blues in House’s vocal and guitar style. However, Son’s chronology is questioned by Guralnick. When House moved to Robbinsville in 1930, Johnson was a young adult, already married and widowed. The following year, he was living near Hazelhurst, where he married for the second time. From this base Johnson began travelling up and down the Delta as an itinerant musician.
Legend
According to a legend known to modern Blues fans, Robert Johnson was a young black man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi. Branded with a burning desire to become a great blues musician, he was instructed to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery’s plantation at midnight. There he was met by a large black man (the Devil) who took the guitar from Johnson, tuned the guitar so that he could play anything that he wanted, and handed it back to him in return for his soul. Within less than a year’s time, in exchange for his everlasting soul, Robert Johnson became the king of the Delta blues singers, able to play, sing, and create the greatest blues anyone had ever heard.
This legend was developed over time, and has been chronicled by Gayle Dean Wardlow, Edward Komara and Elijah Wald. Folk tales of bargains with the Devil have long existed in African American and White traditions, and were adapted into literature by Washington Irving in “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824, and by and Stephen Vincent Benet in “The Devil and Daniel Webster” in 1936. In the 1930s the folklorist Harry Middleton Hart recorded many tales of banjo players, violinists, card sharps and dice sharks selling their souls at the crossroads, along with guitarists and one accordionist. The folklorist Alan Lomax considered that every African American secular musician was “in the opinion of of both himself and his peers, a child of the devil, a consequence of the black view of the European dance embrace as sinful in the extreme”.
Johnson seems to have claimed occasionally that he had sold his soul to the Devil, but it is not clear that he meant it seriously. Son House once told the story to Pete Welding as an explanation of Johnson’s astonishingly rapid mastery of the guitar. Welding reported it as a serious belief in a widely read article in Down Beat in 1966. However, other interviewers failed to elicit any confirmation from House. Moreover, there were fully two years between House’s observation of Robert as first a novice and then a master. In 1982, Guralnick unintentionally added the crossroads details to the legend. He quoted the account given by Ledell Johnson to David Evans of how his brother Tommy Johnson (no relation to Robert) sold his soul to a large black man at a crossroads. Although Guralnick made it clear that the details belonged to the Tommy Johnson story, casual readers failed to notice, and the crossroads association passed into oral tradition, and then into popular written accounts. The myth was established in mass consciousness in 1986 by the film “Crossroads’. There are now tourist attractions claiming to be “The Crossroads” at Clarksdale and in Memphis.
Itinerant career
When Johnson arrived in a new town, he would play for tips on street corners or in front of the local barbershop or a restaurant. He played what his audience asked for — not necessarily his own compositions, and not necessarily blues. With an ability to pick up tunes at first hearing, Johnson had no trouble giving his audiences what they wanted, and certain of his contemporaries, most notably Johnny Shines, later remarked on Johnson’s interest in jazz and country. (Many giants of the blues, including Muddy Waters, were not averse to playing the hit songs of the day.) Johnson also had an uncanny ability to establish a rapport with his audience — in every town in which he stopped, Johnson would establish ties to the local community that would serve him well when he passed through again a month or a year later.
Fellow musician Johnny Shines was 17 when he met Johnson in 1933. He estimated that Johnson was maybe a year older than himself. In Samuel Charters’ Robert Johnson, the author quotes Shines as saying:
“Robert was a very friendly person, even though he was sulky at times, you know. And I hung around Robert for quite a while. One evening he disappeared. He was kind of peculiar fellow. Robert’d be standing up playing some place, playing like nobody’s business. At about that time it was a hustle with him as well as a pleasure. And money’d be coming from all directions. But Robert’d just pick up and walk off and leave you standing there playing. And you wouldn’t see Robert no more maybe in two or three weeks…. So Robert and I, we began journeying off. I was just, matter of fact, tagging along.”
During this time Johnson established what would be a relatively long-term relationship with Estella Coleman, a woman who was about fifteen years his elder and the mother of musician Robert Lockwood, Jr.. Johnson, however, reportedly also cultivated a woman to look after him in each town he played in. Johnson supposedly asked homely young women living in the country with their families whether he could go home with them, and in most cases the answer was yes—until a boyfriend arrived or Johnson was ready to move on.
Recording sessions
Around 1936, Johnson sought out H. C. Speir in Jackson, Mississippi, who ran a general store and doubled as a talent scout. Speir, who helped the careers of many blues players, put Johnson in touch with Ernie Oertle, who offered to record the young musician in San Antonio, Texas. At the recording session, held on November 23, 1936 in rooms at the landmark Gunter Hotel which Brunswick Records had set up as a temporary studio, Johnson reportedly performed facing the wall. This has been cited as evidence he was a shy man and reserved performer, a conclusion played up in the inaccurate liner notes of the 1961 album King of the Delta Blues Singers. Johnson probably was nervous and intimidated at his first time in a makeshift recording studio (a new and alien environment for the musician), but in truth he was probably focusing on the demands of his emotive performances. In addition, playing into the corner of a wall was a sound-enhancing technique that simulated the acoustical booths of better-equipped studios. In the ensuing three-day session, Johnson played 16 selections, and recorded alternate takes for most of these. When the recording session was over, Johnson presumably returned home with cash in his pocket; probably more money than he’d ever had at one time in his life.
Among the songs Johnson recorded in San Antonio were “Come On In My Kitchen”, “Kind Hearted Woman Blues”, “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom”, and “Cross Road Blues”. “Come on in My Kitchen” included the lines: “The woman I love took from my best friend/Some joker got lucky, stole her back again,/You better come on in my kitchen, it’s going to be rainin’ outdoors.” In “Crossroad Blues”, another of his songs, he sang: “I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees./I went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees./I asked the Lord above, have mercy, save poor Bob if you please./Uumb, standing at the crossroads I tried to flag a ride./Standing at the crossroads I tried to flag a ride./Ain’t nobody seem to know me, everybody pass me by.”
When his records began appearing, Johnson made the rounds to his relatives and the various children he had fathered to bring them the records himself. The first songs to appear were “Terraplane Blues” and “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”, probably the only recordings of his that he would live to hear. “Terraplane Blues” became a moderate regional hit, selling 5,000 copies.
In 1937, Johnson traveled to Dallas, Texas, for another recording session in a makeshift studio at the Brunswick Record Building, 508 Park Avenue. Eleven records from this session would be released within the following year. Among them were the three songs that would largely contribute to Johnson’s posthumous fame: “Stones in My Passway”, “Me and the Devil”, and “Hellhound On My Trail”. “Stones In My Passway” and “Me And The Devil” are both about betrayal, a recurrent theme in country blues. The terrifying “Hell Hound On My Trail”—utilising another common theme of fear of the Devil—is often considered to be the crowning achievement of blues-style music. Other themes in Johnson’s music include impotence (“Dead Shrimp Blues” and “Phonograph Blues”) and infidelity (“Terraplane Blues”, “If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day” and “Love in Vain”).
Six of Johnson’s blues songs mention the devil or some form of the supernatural. In “Me And The Devil” he began, “Early this morning when you knocked upon my door,/Early this morning, umb, when you knocked upon my door,/And I said, ‘ Hello, Satan, I believe it’s time to go,’” before leading into “You may bury my body down by the highway side,/ You may bury my body, uumh, down by the highway side,/So my old evil spirit can get on a Greyhound bus and ride.”
It has been suggested that the Devil in these songs does not solely refer to the Christian model of Satan, but equally to the African trickster god, Legba.
Death
One of Robert Johnson’s three tombstonesIn the last year of his life, Johnson is believed to have traveled to St. Louis and possibly Illinois, and then to some states in the East. He spent some time in Memphis and traveled through the Mississippi Delta and Arkansas. By the time he died, at least six of his records had been released in the South as race records.
His death occurred on August 16, 1938, at the age of twenty-seven at a country crossroads near Greenwood, Mississippi. He had been playing for a few weeks at a country dance in a town about 15 miles (24 km) from Greenwood.
There are a number of accounts and theories regarding the events preceding Johnson’s death. One of these is that one evening Johnson began flirting with a woman at a dance. One version of this rumor says she was the wife of the juke joint owner who unknowingly provided Johnson with a bottle of poisoned whiskey from her husband, while another suggests she was a married woman he had been secretly seeing. Researcher Mack McCormick claims to have interviewed Johnson’s alleged poisoner in the 1970s, and obtained a tacit admission of guilt from the man. When Johnson was offered an open bottle of whiskey, his friend and fellow blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson knocked the bottle out of his hand, informing him that he should never drink from an offered bottle that has already been opened. Johnson allegedly said, “don’t ever knock a bottle out of my hand”. Soon after, he was offered another open bottle of whiskey and accepted it, and it was that bottle that was laced with strychnine. Johnson is reported to have started to feel ill into the evening after drinking from the bottle and had to be helped back to his room in the early morning hours. Over the next three days, his condition steadily worsened and witnesses reported that he died in a convulsive state of severe pain – symptoms which are consistent with strychnine poisoning. Strychnine was readily available at the time as it was a common pesticide, and although it is a very bitter-tasting substance it is extremely toxic, and a small quantity dissolved in a harsh-tasting solution such as whiskey could possibly have gone unnoticed, but (over a period of days due to the reduced dosage) still produced the symptoms and eventual death that Johnson experienced.
The precise location of his grave remains a source of ongoing controversy, and three different markers have been erected at supposed burial sites outside of Greenwood. Research in the 1980s and 1990s strongly suggests Johnson was buried in the graveyard of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist church near Morgan City, Mississippi, not far from Greenwood, in an unmarked grave. A cenotaph memorial was placed at this location in 1990 paid for by Columbia Records and numerous smaller contributions made through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund. More recent research by Stephen LaVere (including statements from Rosie Eskridge, the wife of the supposed gravedigger) indicates that the actual grave site is under a big pecan tree in the cemetery of the Little Zion Church north of Greenwood along Money Road. Sony Music has placed a marker at this site.
In 1938, Columbia Records producer John Hammond, who owned some of Johnson’s records, sought him out to book him for the first “From Spirituals to Swing” concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. On learning of Johnson’s death, Hammond replaced him with Big Bill Broonzy, but still played two of Johnson’s records from the stage. Robert Johnson has a son, Claude Johnson, and grandchildren who currently reside in a town near Hazlehurst, Mississippi.
Discography
Eleven Johnson 78s were released on the Vocalion label during his lifetime, with a twelfth issued posthumously. All songs copyrighted to Robert Johnson, and his estate.
1980 – John Lennon is shot to Deaths outside of his New York City home by Mark David Chapman. His biggest hit is “(Just Like) Starting Over,” which was released the month before his Deaths and becomes a million-selling No. 1 song. As part of the Beatles he is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. He is awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1991.
2008 – Waters Announces Final Dark Side Tour…
Roger Waters will perform his last two performances of Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The moon’ in the UK later this Spring.
As with similar performances which have taken place across the world, Waters will play the album in its entirety, as well as playing a mixture of Pink Floyd tracks and his own solo material.
The final two performances will take place at the Echo Arena in Liverpool on May 15th and the O2 Arena in London on May 18th.
Note: “Dark side of the moon” holds the record for the longest running album to be in Billboards top 100 charts!
Pink Floyd are an English rock band that initially earned recognition for their psychedelic rock music, and, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music. They are known for philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative cover art, and elaborate live shows. One of rock music’s most successful acts, the group have sold over 200 million albums worldwide including 74.5 million albums in the United States alone.
Pink Floyd had moderate mainstream success and were one of the most popular bands in the London underground music scene in the late 1960s as a psychedelic band led by Syd Barrett; however, Barrett’s erratic behaviour eventually forced his colleagues to replace him with guitarist and singer David Gilmour. After Barrett’s departure, singer and bass player Roger Waters gradually became the dominant and driving force in the mid-1970s, until his eventual departure from the group in 1985. The band recorded several albums, achieving worldwide success with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979). In 1985, Waters declared Pink Floyd defunct, but although the remaining members, led by Gilmour, were sued by Waters for rights to the name, they continued recording and touring as Pink Floyd and enjoyed commercial success with A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), eventually reaching a settlement with Waters over the use of the name.
Waters performed with the band for the first time in 24 years on July 2, 2005 at the London Live 8 concert.
Pink Floyd have influenced rock music artists of the 1970s such as Genesis and Yes; and various contemporary artists such as Dream Theater, Tool, Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, The Orb, Anathema and Nine Inch Nails. Their music plays a featured role in the Tom Stoppard Broadway play Rock ‘N’ Roll.
Band history
Syd Barrett–led era: 1964–1968
Pink Floyd evolved from an earlier rock band, formed in 1964, which was at various times called Sigma 6, the Meggadeaths, The Tea Set, The Abdabs and The Screaming Abdabs. When the band split up, some members — guitarists Rado “Bob” Klose and Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason, and wind instrument player Rick Wright — formed a new band called “Tea Set”. After a brief stint with a lead vocalist named Chris Dennis, guitarist and vocalist Syd Barrett joined the band, with Waters moving to bass.
When Tea Set found themselves on the same bill as another band with the same name, Barrett came up with the alternative name The Pink Floyd Sound, after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. For a time after this they oscillated between The Tea Set and The Pink Floyd Sound, with the latter name eventually winning out. The Sound was dropped fairly quickly, but the definite article was still used regularly until 1970. The group’s UK releases during the Syd Barrett era credited them as The Pink Floyd as did their first two U.S. singles. 1969′s More and Ummagumma albums credit the band as Pink Floyd, produced by The Pink Floyd, while 1970′s Atom Heart Mother credits the band as The Pink Floyd, produced by Pink Floyd! David Gilmour is known to have referred to the group as The Pink Floyd as late as 1984.
The heavily jazz-oriented Klose left after recording only a demo, leaving an otherwise stable lineup with Barrett on guitar and lead vocals, Waters on bass guitar and backing vocals, Mason on drums and percussion, and Wright switching to keyboards and backing vocals. Barrett soon started writing his own songs, influenced by American and British psychedelic rock with his own brand of whimsical humour. Pink Floyd became a favourite in the underground movement, playing at such prominent venues as the UFO club, the Marquee Club and the Roundhouse.
At the end of 1966 the band were invited to contribute music for Peter Whitehead’s film Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London; they were filmed recording two tracks (“Interstellar Overdrive” and “Nick’s Boogie”) in January 1967. Although hardly any of this music made it onto the film, the session was eventually released as London 1966/1967 in 2005.
As their popularity increased, the band members formed Blackhill Enterprises in October 1966, a six-way business partnership with their managers, Peter Jenner and Andrew King, issuing the singles “Arnold Layne” in March 1967 and “See Emily Play” in June 1967. “Arnold Layne” reached number 20 in the UK Singles Chart, and “See Emily Play” reached number 6, granting the band its first national TV appearance on Top of the Pops in July 1967. (They had earlier appeared, performing “Interstellar Overdrive” at the UFO Club, in a short documentary, “It’s So Far Out It’s Straight Down”. This was broadcast in March 1967 but seen only in the UK’s Granada TV region.).
See Emily Play peaked at #6 on the UK single chartReleased in August 1967, the band’s debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, is today considered to be a prime example of British psychedelic music, and was generally well-received by critics at the time. It is now viewed as one of the best debut albums by many critics. The album’s tracks, predominantly written by Barrett, showcase poetic lyrics and an eclectic mixture of music, from the avant-garde free-form piece “Interstellar Overdrive” to whimsical songs such as “The Scarecrow”, inspired by the Fenlands, a rural region north of Cambridge (Barrett, Gilmour and Waters’s home town). Lyrics were entirely surreal and often referred to folklore, such as “The Gnome”. The music reflected newer technologies in electronics through its prominent use of stereo panning, tape editing, echo effects and electric keyboards. The album was a hit in the UK where it peaked at #6, but did not do well in North America, reaching #131 in the U.S., and that only after it was reissued in the wake of the band’s state side commercial breakthrough in the 1970s. During this period, the band toured with Jimi Hendrix, which helped to increase its popularity.
Barrett’s decline
As the band became more popular, the stresses of life on the road and a significant intake of psychedelic drugs took their toll on Barrett, whose mental health had been deteriorating for several months. Barrett’s strange behaviour has often been attributed to his drug use. In January 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band to carry out Barrett’s playing and singing duties, though evidently Jeff Beck was considered.
With Barrett’s behaviour becoming less and less predictable, and his almost constant use of LSD, he became very unstable, occasionally staring into space while the rest of the band performed. During some performances, he would just strum one chord for the duration of a concert, or randomly begin detuning his guitar. The band’s live shows became increasingly ramshackle until, eventually, the other band members simply stopped taking him to the concerts. The last concert featuring Barrett was on January 20, 1968 on Hastings Pier. It was originally hoped that Barrett would write for the band with Gilmour performing live, but Barrett’s increasingly difficult compositions, such as “Have You Got It, Yet?”, which changed melodies and chord progression with every take, eventually made the rest of the band give up on this arrangement. Once Barrett’s departure was formalised in April 1968, producers Jenner and King decided to remain with him, and the six-way Blackhill partnership was dissolved. The band adopted Steve O’Rourke as manager, and he remained with Pink Floyd until his death in 2003.
After recording two solo albums (The Madcap Laughs and Barrett) in 1970 (co-produced by and sometimes featuring Gilmour, Waters and Wright) to moderate success, Barrett went into seclusion. Again going by his given name, Roger, he lived a quiet life in his native Cambridge until his death on July 7, 2006.
Finding their feet: 1968–1970
This period was one of musical experimentation for the band. Gilmour, Waters and Wright each contributed material that had its own voice and sound, giving this material less consistency than the Barrett-dominated early years or the more polished, collaborative sound of later years. As Barrett had been the lead singer during his era, Gilmour, Waters and Wright now split both songwriting and lead vocal duties. Waters mostly wrote low-key, jazzy melodies with dominant bass lines and complex, symbolic lyrics, Gilmour focused on guitar-driven blues jams, and Wright preferred melodic psychedelic keyboard-heavy numbers. Unlike Waters, Gilmour and Wright preferred tracks that had simple lyrics or that were purely instrumental. Some of the band’s most experimental music is from this period, such as “A Saucerful of Secrets”, consisting largely of noises, feedback, percussions, oscillators and tape loops, and “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” (which went by a number of other names as well), a very Waters-driven song with a bass and keyboard-heavy jam culminating in crashing drums and Waters’ primal screams.
Whilst Barrett had written the bulk of the first album, only one composition by him, “Jugband Blues”, appeared on the second Floyd album. Barrett also played on the songs “Remember A Day” (recorded during the sessions for Piper) and “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”. A Saucerful of Secrets was released in June 1968, reaching #9 in the UK and becoming the only Pink Floyd album not to chart in the U.S. Somewhat uneven due to Barrett’s departure, the album still contained much of his psychedelic sound combined with the more experimental music that would be fully showcased on Ummagumma. Its centrepiece, the 12-minute title track, hinted at the epic, lengthy songs to come, but the album was poorly received by critics at the time, although critics today tend to be kinder to the album in the context of their body of work. Future Pink Floyd albums would expand upon the idea of long, sprawling compositions, offering more focused songwriting with each subsequent release.
Pink Floyd were then recruited by director Barbet Schroeder to produce a soundtrack for his film, More, which was premièred in May 1969. The music was released as a Floyd album in its own right, Music From the Film More, in July 1969; the album achieved another #9 finish in the UK, and peaked at #153 in the U.S. Critics tend to find the collection of the film’s music patchy and uneven. The band would use this and future soundtrack recording sessions to produce work that may not have fit into the idea of what would appear on a proper Pink Floyd LP; many of the tracks on More (as fans usually call it) were acoustic folk songs. Two of these songs, “Green Is the Colour” and “Cymbaline”, became fixtures in the band’s live sets for a time and were a part of their live The Man/The Journey suite, as can be heard in the many available bootleg recordings from this period. “Cymbaline” was also the first Pink Floyd song to deal with Roger Waters’ cynical attitude toward the music industry explicitly. The rest of the album consisted of avant-garde incidental pieces from the score (some of which were also part of The Man/The Journey) with a few heavier rock songs thrown in, such as “The Nile Song”.
The next record, the double album Ummagumma, was a mix of live recordings and unchecked studio experimentation by the band members, with each member recording half a side of a vinyl record as a solo project (Mason’s first wife makes an uncredited contribution as a flautist). Though the album was realised as solo outings and a live set, it was originally intended as a purely avant-garde mixture of sounds from “found” instruments. The subsequent difficulties in recording and lack of group organization led to the shelving of the project. The title is Cambridge slang for sexual intercourse and reflects the attitude of the band at the time, as frustrations in the studio followed them throughout these sessions. The band was wildly experimental on the studio disc, which featured Waters’ pure folk “Grantchester Meadows”, an atonal & jarring piano piece (“Sysyphus”), meandering progressive rock textures (“The Narrow Way”) and large percussion solos (“The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party”). “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict” is a five-minute song composed entirely of Roger Water’s voice played at varied speeds, resulting in a noise resembling rodents and birds. Large portions of the studio disc were previously played in their live The Man/The Journey concept piece. The live disc featured acclaimed performances of some of their most popular psychedelic-era compositions and caused critics to receive the album more positively than the previous two albums. The album was Pink Floyd’s most popular release yet, hitting UK #5 and making the U.S. charts at #74.
1970′s Atom Heart Mother, the band’s first recording with an orchestra, was a collaboration with avant-garde composer Ron Geesin. One side of the album consisted of the title piece, a 23-minute long “rock-orchestral” suite. The second side featured one song from each of the band’s then-current vocalists (Roger Waters’ folk-rock “If”, David Gilmour’s bluesy “Fat Old Sun” and Rick Wright’s nostalgic “Summer ’68″). Another lengthy piece, “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast”, was a sound collage of a man cooking and eating breakfast and his thoughts on the matter, linked with instrumentals. The use of noises, incidental sound effects and voice samples would thereafter be an important part of the band’s sound. While Atom Heart Mother was considered a huge step back for the band at the time and is still considered one of its most inaccessible albums, it had the best chart performance for the band up to that time, reaching #1 in the UK and #55 in the U.S. It has since been described by Gilmour as “a load of rubbish” and Waters has said he wouldn’t mind if it were “thrown in the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again.” The album was another transitional piece for the group, hinting at future musical territory such as “Echoes” in its ambitious title track. The popularity of the album allowed Pink Floyd to embark on its first full U.S. tour.
Before releasing its next original album, the band released a compilation album, Relics, which contained several early singles and B-sides, along with one original song (Waters’ jazzy “Biding My Time”, part of The Man/The Journey recorded during the Ummagumma sessions). They also contributed to the soundtrack of Zabriskie Point, though many of their contributions were eventually discarded by director Michelangelo Antonioni.
Breakthrough era: 1971–1975
During this time, Pink Floyd shed their association with the “psychedelic” scene and became a distinctive band who are difficult to classify. The divergent styles of their primary songwriters, Gilmour, Waters and Wright, merged into a unique sound. This era contains what many consider to be two of the band’s masterpiece albums, The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. The sound became polished and collaborative, with the philosophic lyrics and distinctive bass lines of Waters combining with the unique blues guitar style of Gilmour and Wright’s haunting keyboard melodies and harmonic textures. Gilmour was the dominant vocalist throughout this period, and female choirs and Dick Parry’s saxophone contributions became a notable part of the band’s style. The sometimes atonal and harsh sound exhibited in the band’s earlier years gave way to a very smooth, mellow and soothing sound, and the band’s epic, lengthy compositions reached their zenith with “Echoes”. This period was not only the beginning but the end of the truly collaborative era of the band; after 1973 Waters’ influence became more dominant musically as well as lyrically. Wright’s last credited composition and last lead vocal on a studio album until 1994′s The Division Bell were in this period (“Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Time” respectively), and Gilmour’s writing credits sharply declined in frequency until Waters left the band in 1985, though he continued to perform lead vocals and write songs throughout the whole time. The last ties with Barrett were severed in musical fashion with Wish You Were Here, whose epic track “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” was written both as a tribute and eulogy to Barrett.
The band’s sound was considerably more focused on Meddle (1971), with the 23-minute epic “Echoes” taking up the second side of the LP.
Meddle album cover”Echoes” is a smooth progressive rock song with extended guitar and keyboard solos and a long segue in the middle consisting largely of synthesised music produced on guitars, organs, and synths, along with backward wah pedal guitar sounding like samples of sea gulls or albatross, described by Waters as a “sonic poem”. Meddle was considered by Nick Mason to be “the first real Pink Floyd album. It introduced the idea of a theme that can be returned to.” The album had the sound and style of the succeeding breakthrough-era Pink Floyd albums but stripped away the orchestra that was prominent in Atom Heart Mother. Meddle also included the atmospheric “One of These Days”, a concert favourite featuring Nick Mason’s menacing one-line vocal (“One of these days, I’m going to cut you into little pieces”), distorted and bluesy lap steel guitar, and a melody that at one point fades into a throbbing synthetic pulse quoting the theme tune of the cult classic science fiction television show Doctor Who. The mellow feeling of the next three albums is very present on “Fearless”, and this track displays a folk influence, as does the prominent lap steel guitar on “A Pillow of Winds”. The latter track is one of the Floyd’s very few acoustic love songs. Waters’ role as lead songwriter began to take form, with his jazzy “San Tropez” brought to the band practically completed. Meddle was greeted both by critics and fans enthusiastically, and Pink Floyd were rewarded with a #3 album chart peak in the UK; it only reached #70 in U.S. charts. According to Nick Mason, this was partly because Capitol Records had not provided the album with enough publicity support in the U.S. Today, Meddle remains one of their most well-regarded efforts.
Obscured by Clouds was released in 1972 as the soundtrack to the film La Vallee, another art house film by Barbet Schroeder. This was the band’s first U.S. Top 50 album (where it hit #46), hitting at #6 in the UK. While Mason described the album years later as “sensational,” it is less well-regarded by critics. The lyrics of “Free Four”, the first Pink Floyd song to achieve significant airplay in the U.S., introduced Waters’ ruminations on his father’s death in World War II which would figure in subsequent albums. Two other songs on the album, “Wot’s… Uh the Deal” and “Childhood’s End”, also hint at themes used in later albums, the former focusing on loneliness and desperation which would come to full fruit in the Roger Waters-led era, and the latter hinting much at the next album, fixated on life, death and the passage of time. “Childhood’s End”, inspired by the Arthur C. Clarke book of the same name, was also Gilmour’s last lyrical contribution for 15 years. The album was, to an extent, stylistically different from the preceding Meddle, with the songs generally being shorter, often taking a somewhat pastoral approach compared to the atmospheric use of sound effects and keyboard on sections of Meddle, and sometimes even running into folk-rock, blues-rock and piano-driven soft rock (“Burning Bridges”, “The Gold It’s in the…” and “Stay” being the best examples for each).
The release of Pink Floyd’s massively successful 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon, was a watershed moment in the band’s popularity. Pink Floyd had stopped issuing singles after 1968′s “Point Me at the Sky” and was never a hit-single-driven group, but The Dark Side of the Moon featured a U.S. Top 20 single (“Money”). .
Money – Pink Floyd’s breakthrough US singleThe album became the band’s first #1 on U.S. charts and, as of December 2006, is one of the biggest-selling albums in U.S. history, with more than 15 million units sold, and one of the best-selling albums worldwide, with more than 40 million copies sold. The critically-acclaimed album stayed on the Billboard Top 200 for an unprecedented 741 weeks (including 591 consecutive weeks from 1976 to 1988), establishing a world record. It also remained 301 weeks on UK charts, despite never rising higher than #2 there, and is highly praised by critics.
Saxophone forms an important part of the album’s sound, exposing the band’s jazz influences (especially that of Rick Wright), and female backing vocals play a key role in helping to diversify the album’s texture. For example, songs such as “Money” and “Time” are placed on either side of mellow lap steel guitar sounds (reminiscent of Meddle) in “Breathe (Reprise)” and female vocal-laden song “The Great Gig in the Sky” (with Clare Torry on lead vocal), while minimalist instrumental “On the Run” is performed almost entirely on a single synthesiser. Incidental sound effects and snippets of interviews feature alongside the music, many of them taped in the studio. Waters’ interviews started out with questions like “What is your favourite colour?” in an attempt to get the person comfortable. He would then ask, “When was the last time you were violent? Were you in the right?” The latter answer was played on the album. Other interviews would ask, “Are you afraid of dying?” The album’s lyrics and sound attempt to describe the different pressures that everyday life places upon human beings. This concept (conceived by Waters in a band meeting around Mason’s kitchen table) proved a powerful catalyst for the band and together they drew up a list of themes, several of which would be revisited by Waters on later albums, such as “Us and Them”‘s musings on violence and the futility of war, and the themes of insanity and neurosis discussed in “Brain Damage”. The album’s complicated and precise sound engineering by Alan Parsons set new standards for sound fidelity; this trait became a recognisable aspect of the band’s sound and played a part in the lasting chart success of the album, as audiophiles constantly replaced their worn-out copies.
Seeking to capitalise on its new-found fame, the band also released a compilation album, A Nice Pair, which was a gatefold repackaging of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets. It was also during this period that director Adrian Maben released the first Pink Floyd concert film, Live at Pompeii. The original theatrical cut featured footage of the band performing in 1971 at an amphitheatre in Pompeii with no audience present except the film crew and stage staff. Maben also recorded interviews and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the band during recording sessions for The Dark Side of the Moon at Abbey Road Studios; although the timeline of events indicate the recording sessions may have been staged after the recording, they provide a glimpse into the processes involved in producing the album. This footage was incorporated in later video releases of Live at Pompeii.
After the success of Dark Side, the band were unsure of their future direction and worried about how they would be able to top that record’s huge popularity. In a return to their experimental beginnings, they began work on a project entitled Household Objects, which would consist of songs played literally on household appliances. Instruments consisted of old hand mixers, rubber bands stretched between two tables, wine glasses, etc. However, the planned album was soon shelved after the band decided that it was just easier and better to play the songs on actual musical instruments. No finished recordings of these sessions exist, however some of the recorded effects were put to use on their next album.
“Wish you were Here” album coverWish You Were Here, released in 1975, carries an abstract theme of absence: absence of any humanity within the music industry and, most poignantly, the absence of Syd Barrett. Well-known for its popular title track, the album includes the largely instrumental, nine-part song suite “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, a tribute to Barrett in which the lyrics deal explicitly with the aftermath of his breakdown. Many of the musical influences in the band’s past were brought together — atmospheric keyboards, blues guitar pieces, extended saxophone solos (by Dick Parry), jazz-fusion workouts and aggressive slide guitar — in the suite’s different linked parts, culminating in a funeral dirge played with synthesised horn and ending with a musical quote from their early single “See Emily Play” as a final nod to Barrett’s early leadership of the band. The remaining tracks on the album, “Welcome to the Machine” and “Have a Cigar”, harshly criticise the music industry; the latter is sung by British folk singer Roy Harper. It was the first Pink Floyd album to reach #1 on both the UK and the U.S. charts, and critics praise it just as enthusiastically as The Dark Side of the Moon.
In a famous anecdote, a heavyset man, his head and eyebrows completely shaved, wandered into the studio while the band was mixing “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. The band could not recognise him for some time, when suddenly one of them realised it was Syd Barrett. On being asked how he had put on so much weight, he retorted “I’ve got a big fridge in the kitchen and I’ve been eating a lot of pork chops”.
In an interview for the 2001 BBC Omnibus documentary Syd Barrett: Crazy Diamond (later released on DVD as The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story), the story is told in full. Rick Wright spoke about the session, saying: “One thing that really stands out in my mind, that I’ll never forget; I was going in to the “Shine On” sessions. I went in the studio and I saw this guy sitting at the back of the studio, he was only as far away as you are from me. And I didn’t recognise him. I said, ‘Who’s that guy behind you?’ ‘That’s Syd.’ And I just cracked up, I couldn’t believe it… he had shaven all his hair off… I mean, his eyebrows, everything… he was jumping up and down brushing his teeth, it was awful. And, uh, I was in, I mean Roger was in tears, I think I was; we were both in tears. It was very shocking… seven years of no contact and then to walk in while we’re actually doing that particular track. I don’t know – coincidence, karma, fate, who knows? But it was very, very, very powerful”. In the same documentary, Nick Mason stated: “When I think about it, I can still see his eyes, but… it was everything else that was different”. In that same interview, Roger Waters has said: “I had no idea who he was for a very long time”. David Gilmour stated: “None of us recognised him. Shaved…shaved bald head and very plump”. In the 2006 ‘definitive edition’ DVD release of The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story in the UK/Europe, the director John Edginton’s interviews with Barrett’s former Floyd colleagues are included unedited, with far more detail of their feelings and actions during Syd Barrett’s tragic breakdown and withdrawal from the band.
Roger Waters–led era: 1976–1985
During this era, Waters asserted more and more control over Pink Floyd’s output. During the recording, Waters fired Richard Wright after The Wall was finished, arguing that Wright was not contributing much, in part due to a cocaine addiction. Waters claimed that David Gilmour and Nick Mason supported Waters’ decision to fire Wright, but in 2000, Gilmour stated that he and Mason were against Wright’s dismissal. Author Nick Mason claims that Wright was fired because Columbia Records had offered Waters a substantial bonus to finish the album in time for a 1979 release. Since Wright refused to return early from his summer holiday, Waters wanted to dismiss Wright. Wright was fired from the band but stayed on to finish the album and perform the live concerts as a paid musician.
Much of the music from this period is considered secondary to the lyrics, which explore Waters’ feelings about his father’s death in World War II and his increasingly cynical attitude towards political figures such as Margaret Thatcher and Mary Whitehouse. Although still finely nuanced, the music grew more guitar-based at the expense of keyboards and saxophone, both of which became (at best) part of the music’s background texture along with the usual sound effects. A full orchestra (even larger than the brass ensemble from Atom Heart Mother) plays a significant role on The Wall and especially The Final Cut.
By January 1977, and the release of Animals (UK #2, U.S. #3), the band’s music came under increasing criticism from some quarters in the new punk rock sphere as being too flabby and pretentious, having lost its way from the simplicity of early rock and roll.
Animals album coverAnimals was, however, considerably more guitar-driven than the previous albums, due to either the influence of the burgeoning punk-rock movement or the fact that the album was recorded at Pink Floyd’s new (and somewhat incomplete) Britannia Row Studios. The album was also the first to not have a single songwriting credit for Rick Wright. Animals again contained lengthy songs tied to a theme, this time taken in part from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which used “Pigs”, “Dogs” and “Sheep” as metaphors for members of contemporary society. Despite the prominence of guitar, keyboards and synthesisers still play an important role on Animals, but the saxophone and female vocal work that defined much of the previous two albums’ sound is absent. The result is a more hard-rock effort overall, bookended by two parts of a quiet acoustic piece. Many critics did not respond well to the album, finding it “tedious” and “bleak,” although some celebrated it for almost those very reasons. For the cover artwork, a giant inflatable pig was commissioned to float between the chimney towers of London’s Battersea Power Station. However, the wind made the pig balloon difficult to control, and in the end it was necessary to matte a photo of the pig balloon onto the album cover. The pig was created by Dutch industrial designer and artist Theo Botschuijver. The pig nevertheless became one of the enduring symbols of Pink Floyd, and inflatable pigs were a staple of Pink Floyd live performances from then on.
The Wall album cover1979′s epic rock opera The Wall, conceived by Waters, dealt with the themes of loneliness and failed communication, which were expressed by the metaphor of a wall built between a rock artist and his audience. The deciding moment in which to conceive The Wall was during a concert in Montreal, Canada in which Roger Waters spat on an audience member as he attempted to climb up on stage. — it was this point where Waters felt the alienation between audience and band.
This album gave Pink Floyd renewed acclaim and their only chart-topping single with “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”. The Wall also included the future concert staples “Comfortably Numb” and “Run Like Hell”, with the former in particular becoming a cornerstone of album-oriented rock and classic-rock radio playlists as well as one of the group’s best-known songs.
The teacher puppet used in the concertThe album was co-produced by Bob Ezrin, a friend of Waters who shared songwriting credits on “The Trial” and from whom Waters later distanced himself after Ezrin “shot his mouth off to the press.” Even more than during the Animals sessions, Waters was asserting his artistic influence and leadership over the band, using the band’s perilous financial situation to his advantage, which prompted increased conflicts with the other members. The music had become distinctly more hard-rock, although the large orchestrations on some tracks recalled an earlier period, and there are a few quieter songs interspersed throughout (such as “Goodbye Blue Sky”, “Nobody Home”, and “Vera”). Wright’s influence was minimised, and he was fired from the band during recording, only returning on a fixed wage for the live shows in support of the album. Ironically, this fixed salary made Wright the only “member” of Pink Floyd to make any money from the Wall concerts, with the three remaining members stuck covering the extensive cost overruns of their most spectacular concerts yet. The Wall was performed live in only a few cities, contributing to the “tour”‘s unprofitability. (It would be performed one more time, after the Berlin Wall came down in Germany, by Roger Waters and others).
Despite never hitting #1 in the UK (it reached #3), The Wall spent 15 weeks atop the U.S. charts in 1980. Critics praised it, and it has been certified 23x platinum by the RIAA, for sales of 11.5 million copies of the double album in the U.S. alone. The huge commercial success of The Wall made Pink Floyd the only artists since the Beatles to have the best-selling albums of two years (1973 and 1980) in less than a decade.
A film entitled Pink Floyd: The Wall was released in 1982, incorporating almost all of the music from the album. The film, written by Waters and directed by Alan Parker, starred Boomtown Rats founder Bob Geldof, who re-recorded many of the vocals, and featured animation by noted British artist and cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. Film critic Leonard Maltin referred to the movie as “the world’s longest rock video, and certainly the most depressing”, but it grossed over US$14 million at the North American box office. A song which first appeared in the movie, “When the Tigers Broke Free”, was released as a single on a limited basis. This song was finally made widely available on the compilation album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd and the re-release of The Final Cut. Also in the film is the song “What Shall We Do Now?”, which was cut out of the original album due to the time constraints of vinyl records. The only songs from the album not used were “Hey You” and “The Show Must Go On.”
When the Tigers broke Free struggled to #39 in the British singles chartTheir 1983 studio album, The Final Cut, was dedicated by Waters to his father, Eric Fletcher Waters. Even darker in tone than The Wall, this album re-examined many previous themes, while also addressing then-current events, including Waters’ anger at Britain’s participation in the Falklands War, the blame for which he laid squarely at the feet of political leaders (“The Fletcher Memorial Home”). It concludes with a cynical and frightening glimpse at the possibility of nuclear war (“Two Suns in the Sunset”). Michael Kamen and Andy Bown contributed keyboard work in lieu of Richard Wright, whose departure had not been formally announced before the album’s release.
Though technically a Pink Floyd album, the LP’s front cover displayed no words, only the back cover reading: “The Final Cut — A requiem for the post-war dream by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason”. Roger Waters received the sole songwriting credit for the entire record, which became a prototype in sound and form for later Waters solo projects. Waters has since said that he offered to release the record as a solo album, but the rest of the band rejected this idea. However, in his book Inside Out, drummer Nick Mason says that no such discussions ever took place. Gilmour reportedly asked Waters to hold back the release of the album so that he could write enough material to contribute, but this request was refused. The music’s tone is largely similar to The Wall’s but somewhat quieter and softer, resembling songs like “Nobody Home” more than “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).” It is also more repetitive, with certain leitmotifs cropping up continually. Only moderately successful with fans by Floyd’s standards (UK #1, U.S. #6), but reasonably well-received by critics, the album yielded one minor radio hit (albeit in bowdlerised form), “Not Now John”, the only hard-rock song on the album (and the only one partially sung by Gilmour). The arguments between Waters and Gilmour at this stage were rumoured to be so bad that they were supposedly never seen in the recording studio simultaneously. Gilmour has said he wanted to continue making good quality rock music, and felt Waters was constructing music sequences together merely as a vehicle for his socially critical lyrics. Waters claims that his bandmates never fully understood the importance of the social commentary he was making. By the end of recording, Gilmour’s co-producer credit was dropped from the album sleeve (though he received attendant royalties). There was no tour for the album, although parts of it have since been performed live by Waters on his subsequent solo tours.
After The Final Cut Capitol Records released the compilation Works, which made the 1970 Waters track “Embryo” available for the first time on a Pink Floyd album, although the track had been released on the 1970 VA compilation Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air on the Harvest Records label. The band members then went their separate ways and spent time working on individual projects. Gilmour was the first to release his solo album About Face in March 1984. Wright joined forces with Dave Harris of Fashion to form a new band, Zee, which released the experimental album Identity a month after Gilmour’s project. In May 1984, Waters released The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, a concept album once proposed as a Pink Floyd project. Waters had written this at the same time as The Wall and during proposal of both, the band selected The Wall. A year after his bandmates’ projects, Mason released the album Profiles, a collaboration with Rick Fenn of 10cc which featured guest appearances by Gilmour and UFO keyboardist Danny Peyronel.
David Gilmour–led era: 1987–1995
Waters announced in December 1985 that he was departing Pink Floyd, describing the band as “a spent force creatively”, but in 1986 Gilmour and Mason began recording a new Pink Floyd album. At the same time, Roger Waters was working on his second solo album, entitled Radio K.A.O.S. (1987). A bitter legal dispute ensued with Waters claiming that the name “Pink Floyd” should have been put to rest, but Gilmour and Mason upheld their conviction that they had the legal right to continue as “Pink Floyd.” The suit was eventually settled out of court.
After considering and rejecting many other titles, the new album was released as A Momentary Lapse of Reason (UK #3, U.S. #3). Without Waters, who had been the band’s dominant songwriter for a decade, the band sought the help of outside writers. As Pink Floyd had never done this before (except for the orchestral contributions of Geesin and Ezrin), this move received much criticism. Ezrin, who had renewed his friendship with Gilmour in 1983 (as Ezrin co-produced Gilmour’s About Face album), served as co-producer as well as being one of these writers along with Jon Carin who wrote the music for “Learning To Fly” and played much of the Keyboards on the album. Wright also returned, at first as a salaried employee during the final recording sessions, and then officially rejoining the band after the subsequent tour.
Gilmour later admitted that Mason and Wright had hardly played on the album. Because of Mason and Wright’s limited contributions, some critics say that A Momentary Lapse of Reason should really be regarded as a Gilmour solo effort, in much the same way that The Final Cut might be regarded as a Waters album.
A year later, the band released a double live album and a concert video taken from its 1988 Long Island shows, entitled Delicate Sound of Thunder, and later recorded some instrumentals for a classic-car racing film La Carrera Panamericana, set in Mexico and featuring Gilmour and Mason as participating drivers. During the race Gilmour and manager Steve O’Rourke (acting as his map-reader) crashed. O’Rourke suffered a broken leg, but Gilmour walked away with just some bruises.
David Gilmour in a break during the “Carrera Panamericana”, in San Luis Potosi, MexicoThe instrumentals are notable for including the first Floyd material co-written by Wright since 1975, as well as the only Floyd material co-written by Mason since Dark Side of the Moon.
1992 saw the box set release of Shine On. The 9-disc set included re-releases of the studio albums A Saucerful of Secrets, Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, and A Momentary Lapse of Reason. A bonus disc entitled The Early Singles was also included. The set’s packaging featured a case allowing the albums to stand vertically together, with the side-by-side spines displaying an image of the Dark Side of the Moon cover. The circular text of each CD includes the almost illegible words “The Big Bong Theory”. The year also saw the release of Roger Waters’ solo album Amused to Death.
The band’s next recording was the 1994 release, The Division Bell, which was much more of a group effort than Momentary Lapse had been, with Wright now reinstated as a full band member. The album was received more favourably by critics and fans alike than Lapse had been, but was still heavily criticised as tired and formulaic. It was the second Pink Floyd album to reach #1 on both the UK and U.S. charts.
The Division Bell was another concept album, in some ways representing Gilmour’s take on the same themes Waters had tackled with The Wall. The title was suggested to Gilmour by his friend Douglas Adams. Many of the lyrics were co-written by Polly Samson, Gilmour’s girlfriend at the time, whom he married shortly after the album’s release. Besides Samson, the album featured most of the musicians who had joined the A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, as well as saxophonist Dick Parry, a contributor to the mid-70s Floyd albums. Anthony Moore, who had co-written the lyrics for several songs on the previous album, wrote lyrics for Wright’s tune “Wearing the Inside Out”, also Wright’s first lead vocal on a Pink Floyd record since Dark Side of the Moon. This writing collaboration continued on Wright’s 1996 solo album, Broken China.
The band released a live album entitled P*U*L*S*E in 1995. It hit #1 in U.S. and featured songs recorded during the “Division Bell” tour from concerts in Londons Earl Court. The Division Bell concerts featured a mix of classic and modern Pink Floyd. The Pulse album has an entire performance of The Dark Side of the Moon. The Earls Court concert would mark the first time the band performed The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety in over two decades. VHS and Laserdisc versions of the concert at London’s Earl’s Court 20 October 1994, was also released. A DVD edition was released on 10 July 2006 and quickly topped the charts. The 1994 CD case had an LED, timer IC, and battery which caused a red flash to blink once per second, like a heartbeat, as it sat in the owner’s CD collection.
Furthermore, in 1995, the band received their first and only Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “Marooned”.
Solo work and more: 1995–present
On January 17, 1996, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. Roger Waters did not attend, still being antagonistic towards his former bandmates. At their acceptance speech, Gilmour said, “I’ll have to grab a couple more of these for our two band members that started playing different tunes; Roger and Syd…”. Although Mason was present to accept the award, he did not join Gilmour and Wright (and Billy Corgan) for their acoustic performance of ‘Wish You Were Here’.
A live recording of The Wall was released in 2000, compiled from the 1980–1981 London concerts, entitled Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81. It reached #19 on the American album chart. In 2001, a remastered two-disc set of the band’s best-known tracks entitled Echoes was released. Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright all collaborated on the editing, sequencing, and song selection of the included tracks. Minor controversy was caused due to the songs seguing into one another non-chronologically, presenting the material out of the context of the original albums. Some of the tracks, such as “Echoes”, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, “Sheep”, “Marooned”, and “High Hopes” have had substantial sections removed from them. The album reached #2 on the UK and U.S. charts.
In 2003, an SACD reissue of The Dark Side of the Moon was released with new artwork on the front cover. The album was also re-released as an 180 gram, virgin vinyl pressing in 2003, which included all the original album art from the original release of the album, albeit with a new poster. The reissue of Wish You Were Here is in the works, with no release date announced. Nick Mason’s book, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd was published in 2004 in Europe and 2005 in the U.S. Mason made public promotional appearances in a few European and American cities, giving interviews and meeting fans at book signings. Some fans claimed that he said he wished he were on a tour with the band rather than on a book tour.
Long-time Pink Floyd manager Steve O’Rourke died on October 30, 2003. Gilmour, Mason and Wright reunited at his funeral and performed “Fat Old Sun” and “The Great Gig in the Sky” at the Chichester Cathedral in tribute.
Two years later, on July 2, 2005, the band reunited once again for a one-off performance at the London Live 8 concert. This time, however, they were joined by Waters – the first time all four band members were on stage together in 24 years. The band performed a four-song set consisting of “Speak to Me/Breathe/Breathe (Reprise)”, “Money”, “Wish You Were Here”, and “Comfortably Numb”, with both Gilmour and Waters sharing lead vocals. At the end of their performance Gilmour said “thank you very much, good night” and started to walk off the stage. Waters called him back, however, and the band shared a group hug that became one of the most famous images of Live 8.
In the week after Live 8, there was a revival of interest in Pink Floyd. According to record store chain HMV, sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd went up, in the following week, by 1343%, while Amazon.com reported increases in sales of The Wall at 3600%, Wish You Were Here at 2000%, The Dark Side of the Moon at 1400% and Animals at 1000%. David Gilmour subsequently declared that he would donate his share of profits from this sales boom to charity, and urged all the other artists and record companies profiting from Live 8 to do the same. On November 16, 2005 Pink Floyd were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame by Pete Townshend. Gilmour and Mason attended in person, explaining that Wright was in hospital following eye surgery, and Waters appeared on a video screen, from Rome.
David Gilmour released his third solo record, On an Island, on March 6, 2006, and began a tour of small concert venues in Europe, Canada and the U.S. with a band including Richard Wright and was joined several times for the encore by Nick Mason. During the tour, he performed Pink Floyd’s first single, “Arnold Layne”. Waters was also invited to join them in London, but final rehearsals for his 2006 Europe/U.S. tour required him to decline. Waters was joined on stage by Mason on the 29th of June 2006 for the second half of a show in Cork, Ireland where he performed the whole of The Dark Side of the Moon.
Waters and Wright are both reported to be working on solo albums, and there has been talk of Waters doing a Broadway musical version of The Wall, with extra music to be written by Waters. Waters also embarked on his worldwide The Dark Side of the Moon Live Tour; the setlist consisted of The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety along with a selection of other Pink Floyd favourites and a small number of songs from Waters’ solo career. Waters also contributed the song “Hello (I Love You),” cowritten by Howard Shore, to the 2007 film The Last Mimzy.
Future directions
Many fans expressed hope that the band’s Live 8 appearance would lead to a reunion tour, and a record-breaking US$250 million deal for a world tour was offered, but the band made it clear that they have no such plans. In the weeks after the show, however, the rifts between the members seem to have mostly healed. Gilmour confirmed that he and Waters are on “pretty amicable terms”, but Waters has offered conflicting comments on the issue, with statements as varied as “I can roll over for one show, but I couldn’t roll over for a whole fucking tour” and “I hope we do it again,” although most recently, his statements indicate his desire to play together again, not for a whole tour, but for an event similar to Live 8.
On January 31, 2006, David Gilmour issued a joint statement on behalf of the group stating that they have no plans to reunite, refuting rumours from several media outlets. Gilmour later stated in an interview with La Repubblica that he is finished with Pink Floyd and wishes to focus on solo projects and his family. He mentions that he agreed to play Live 8 with Waters to support the cause, to make peace with Waters, and knowing he would regret not taking part. However, he states that Pink Floyd would be willing to perform for a concert “that would support Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts”. Then speaking with Billboard, Gilmour changed his “finished with Pink Floyd” sentiment to “who knows”. A surprise performance by the post-Waters Pink Floyd line-up of David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason occurred on the last performance of David Gilmour’s three night run at The Royal Albert Hall on May 31, 2006 as the three played “Wish You Were Here” and “Comfortably Numb”.
2007 saw the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s signing to EMI and the 40th anniversary of the release of their first three singles “Arnold Layne”, “See Emily Play” and “Apples and Oranges” and their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. This was marked by the release of a limited edition set containing mono and stereo mixes of the albums, plus tracks from the singles and other rare recordings.
On May 10, 2007, Roger Waters performed at the Syd Barrett tribute concert at the Barbican Centre in London. This was then followed by a surprise performance by the post-Waters Pink Floyd line-up of David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason of “Arnold Layne” to a rapturous applause and standing ovation. However, hopes of a second reunion concert with the band’s classic lineup were dashed when Waters did not perform with the group. Roger Waters took to the stage to screams of “Pink Floyd!” to which he responded, “Later.” Gilmour, Mason, and Wright took to the stage to screams of “Roger Waters!” to which Gilmour politely responded, “Yeah, he was here too, now the rest of us.”
More recently, Waters has become more and more open to a Pink Floyd reunion. In a 2007 interview, he said “I would have no problem if the rest of them wanted to get together. It wouldn’t even have to be to save the world. It could be just because it would be fun. And people would love it.”
On September 24th, 2007, Gilmour stated that a future reunion of Pink Floyd in any form, be it with or without Roger Waters, looked grim, stating that “I can’t see why I would want to be going back to that old thing. It’s very retrogressive. I want to look forward, and looking back isn’t my joy.”
On December 10th (UK) & 11th (US) 2007, Pink Floyd released a new CD box set, Oh, By the Way, containing all fourteen studio albums with their newest respective CD remasters, original vinyl artwork plus new artwork from Storm Thorgerson.
Both Mason and Waters have said that they would be happy to do a Pink Floyd tour
Live performances
Main article: Pink Floyd live performances
Pink Floyd are renowned for their lavish stage shows, combining over-the-top visual experiences with music to create a show in which the performers themselves are almost secondary.
Stage lighting on The Division Bell Tour (1994). The latest version of “Mr Screen” featured robotic lights around its circumference.They have always resisted the temptation of a large screen portraying band members because they “don’t really do very much”, preferring instead to show music videos to run alongside the songs.
Discography
Music
Year Album US UK RIAA Certification BPI Certification
1967 The Piper at the Gates of Dawn 131 6 Gold -
1968 A Saucerful of Secrets – 9 Gold -
1969 Music from the Film More 153 9 – -
1969 Ummagumma (also live) 74 5 Platinum -
1970 Atom Heart Mother 55 1 Gold -
1971 Meddle 70 3 2x Platinum -
1972 Obscured by Clouds 46 6 Gold Silver
1973 The Dark Side of the Moon 1 2 15x Platinum 9x Platinum
1975 Wish You Were Here 1 (2 weeks) 1 6x Platinum Gold
1977 Animals 3 2 4x Platinum Gold
1979 The Wall 1 (15 weeks) 3 23x Platinum Platinum
1983 The Final Cut 6 1 2x Platinum Gold
1987 A Momentary Lapse of Reason 3 3 4x Platinum Gold
1994 The Division Bell 1 (4 weeks) 1 4x Platinum 2x Platinum
DVD and Video
Live at Pompeii (1972)
The Wall (1982)
The Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988)
La Carrera Panamericana (1992)
P•U•L•S•E (film) (1994)
Band members
Official Pink Floyd members 1965 Syd Barrett – rhythm guitar, lead vocals
Bob Klose – lead guitar
Roger Waters – bass, vocals
Rick Wright – keyboards, vocals
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
1965–1968 Syd Barrett – guitar, lead vocals
Roger Waters – bass, vocals
Rick Wright – keyboards, vocals
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
1968 David Gilmour – lead guitar, lead vocals
Syd Barrett – rhythm guitar, vocals
Roger Waters – bass, lead vocals
Rick Wright – keyboards, lead vocals
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
1968–1981 David Gilmour – guitar, lead vocals
Roger Waters – bass, lead vocals
Rick Wright – keyboards, vocals
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
1981–1985 David Gilmour – guitar, vocals
Roger Waters – bass, lead vocals, additional guitar, keyboards
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
1985–1987 David Gilmour – guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
1987–present David Gilmour – guitar, lead vocals, bass
Rick Wright – keyboards, vocals
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
2007 – Stu Sweatman begins prototyping the idea for “THIS DAY IN ROCK” website, where you can find many facts about musicians and what happend on a given day in history!
He joined forces with John Myer’s to create the information base you see. Although the site contains facts from all genres, we tried to focus in on Rock in all forms.
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