Pink Floyd‘s long, celebrated career breaks down into four distinct eras. Each had its own levels of creative and commercial success, though not always at the same time.
First was the short but wildly influential Syd Barrett era, which only included a string of trippy psych-rock singles, 1967’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets, the latter of which both reached the U.K. Top 10. Before Pink Floyd’s second album arrived, school friend David Gilmour had been invited to join – but the five-member lineup wouldn’t last.
With Barrett’s departure, Pink Floyd entered their second, more experimental phase. The path forward wasn’t immediately clear, but the group slowly began to gain new confidence through soundtrack work and albums like 1970’s U.K. chart-topping Atom Heart Mother and 1971’s double-platinum Meddle.
READ MORE: Ranking Every Pink Floyd Album
By the time 1973’s 15-times-platinum The Dark Side of the Moon arrived, they’d struck a career-defining creative balance between Roger Waters‘ dark and insightful lyrics and music often composed by Gilmour and Waters’ fellow co-founding member Richard Wright. They reached new cooperative heights on 1975’s Wish You Were Here before the partnership began to unravel on 1977’s Animals, despite selling millions more.
Waters took an even more central role on 1979’s double-diamond-certified The Wall and 1983’s two-million-selling The Final Cut, leading to a split that heralded Pink Floyd’s concluding era. Gilmour reunited first with Nick Mason and then with Wright. He’d lead the group over their final three LPs, 1987’s multi-platinum A Momentary Lapse of Reason, 1994’s international chart-topping The Division Bell and 2014’s belated gold-selling finale The Endless River.
Their album opening songs underscore, time and again, how these foundation-shifting changes played out in Pink Floyd’s music. Each tells reflects a distinctive point on their long musical timeline. Here’s a ranked look back:
No. 15. “Cluster One”
From: The Division Bell (1994)
The Division Bell was a long, slow exhale after the novelization of Pink Floyd on The Wall and The Final Cut. This goal was made clear with its largely ambient opening song, a rare co-write from Gilmour and Wright. What followed, again written without the Waters, was never going to be as narratively strong. But with Gilmour, Wright and Mason each finally making important musical contributions again, The Division Bell nonetheless emerged as Pink Floyd’s clearest group effort since Wish You Were Here.
No. 14. “Obscured by Clouds”
From: Obscured by Clouds (1972)
Released in 1971, Meddle worked as a rough sketch for 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon. But a funny thing happened along the way: 1972’s Obscured by Clouds. French filmmaker Barbet Schroeder pursued a second collaboration after their work on 1969’s More. Once again, Pink Floyd was clearly recording on the fly, actually using stopwatches for specific film cues with only an eye on creating musical moods that could be used under very specific scenes. The whole thing only took two weeks.
No. 13. “Signs of Life”
From: A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
The remnants of Pink Floyd – Gilmour and Mason, with sideman contributions from Wright – gathered on Gilmour’s converted Astoria houseboat studio in London’s River Thames after their split with Waters. So, in that way, the slight but splashy “Signs of Life” works as the perfect reintroduction. They hadn’t issued a studio instrumental since 1973’s “Any Colour You Like,” which was written by the same trio of Gilmour, Mason and Wright. The Kurzweil synthesizer from Wright represented his first studio contributions since the ’70s.
No. 12. “Cirrus Minor”
From: More (1969)
Gilmour joined as Pink Floyd’s final LP was completed with original frontman Syd Barrett. But Saucerful of Secrets didn’t herald a new direction, so much as the beginning of a long period of experimentation. First came More, a soundtrack which found Pink Floyd mostly dabbling in short-form acoustic balladry. Gilmour sang every song for the last time until 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason – but Waters continued a move to the compositional fore with songs like “Cirrus Minor.” The results, unfortunately, just aren’t very focused.
No. 11. “Sysyphus”
From: Ummagumma (1969)
Pink Floyd wasn’t quick to discover a post-Syd Barrett direction. On their second recording without him, they settled on the idea of presenting a bunch of solo material — and that only served to illustrate the concept of a sum being still far greater than its parts. Gilmour later admitted he “just bulls—ted” through his piece. As Wright’s meandering four-part 13-and-a-half-minute “Sysyphus” definitely shows, they all did.
No. 10. “Things Left Unsaid”
From: The Endless River (2014)
The Endless River represented the final sounds from Pink Floyd, and the often-fractuous band’s last will and testament began with a grace note. It seemed Gilmour had grown to have a deeper appreciation of the understated role the late Wright always played and, perhaps, the way that petty arguments with Waters became a distraction from their legacy. With “Things Left Unsaid,” he began a journey toward absolution – and that’s only expanded upon by the LP’s concluding “Louder Than Words.”
No. 9. “Let There Be More Light”
From: A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
Pink Floyd begins the long transition between their early Syd Barrett-led phase and everything that would follow. A Saucerful of Secrets is notable for Gilmour’s first major contributions on the epic, largely instrumental title track. But the Waters-composed opener pointed to his first compositional successes – beginning with “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” found later on this LP. Waters had only added the dark and experimental “Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk” to their debut. There was much more to come.
No. 8. “Speak to Me”
From: The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
You don’t hear it on the scarcely one-minute-long “Speak to Me,” of course, but with so many copies sold, millions now know what this snippet of a song heralds: Dark Side of the Moon has become rightly renowned for its musical ambition. Just as interesting were ruminative lyrics that have made this album a visceral experience for generations. Waters was still on the cusp of 30 when Dark Side arrived in stores. Yet the LP’s themes on growing older, inevitable regrets and the specter of death connect on a level far beyond his years.
No. 7. “Atom Heart Mother”
From: Atom Heart Mother (1970)
The still-transitional Atom Heart Mother included collaborations with a brass section and choir, paired with Pink Floyd’s weirdest improvisational moment. As with the preceding Ummagumma, the LP also ended with a series of solo compositions. It was a decidedly unfocused era best summed up by an unwieldy six-part title track that took up all of side one. Mason and Waters played the entire 23-minute rhythm figure in one sitting, while the rest of Pink Floyd and orchestral arranger Ron Geesin pasted all manner of sounds on top.
No. 6. “The Post War Dream”
From: The Final Cut (1983)
Originally envisioned as a soundtrack for the motion picture component of The Wall, The Final Cut became a didactic stand-alone effort when Waters got tuned up over the Falkland Islands conflict. In full megalomaniac mode by now, Waters had already sacked Wright and subsequently relegated Gilmour to a handful of interludes. That reportedly led to a heated exchange in which Gilmour said: “Look, if you need a guitar solo, phone me.” Waters didn’t place that call for this largely orchestral opener.
No. 5. “Pigs on the Wing (Part One)”
From: Animals (1977)
A curiously delicate song dedicated to Waters’ now-former wife Carolyne begins the album where Pink Floyd pushed back against the punk-driven notion that they had grown soft into middle age. Today, it’s clear that Animals also represents the first stirrings of a more political bent that would dominate Waters’ recordings past his association with the group he co-founded. He’d follow this up with The Wall, Waters’ most personal album, his greatest individual triumph — but also the stone that dragged Pink Floyd down.
No. 4. “One of These Days”
From: Meddle (1971)
Meddle still boasted Pink Floyd’s turn-of-the-’70s improvisational gumption, but their focus was starting to narrow. They got there together, swapping musical ideas and – with “One of These Days” – even swapping places. Gilmour played bass as the song opened, before being joined by Waters. (The second double-tracked instrument has a flatter sound. “We sent a roadie out to buy some strings,” Gilmour later told Guitar World, “but he wandered off to see his girlfriend instead.”) Mason then takes a rare vocal turn.
No. 3. “In the Flesh?”
From: The Wall (1979)
There are two songs on The Wall titled “In the Flesh,” with the opening track followed by a question mark. (The second is really only a reprise.) Pink Floyd references this rock opera’s finale, “Outside the Wall,” after we hear the completing “…we came in?” from an album-ending phrase, “Isn’t this where…” It’s all very dramatic and not a little bit confusing at first, but this song’s flinty propulsion carries the day. Pink’s story has begun. Wright adds Prophet-5 synthesizer but the Hammond groove is actually from Fred Mandel.
No. 2. “Astronomy Domine”
From: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
Co-written by Syd Barrett and Wright, this delightful initial freak-out hinted at every success Pink Floyd would have with long-form explorations like “Interstellar Overdrive,” found later on their typically overlooked debut. Wright provided a sweeping dreamscape for the song’s outer-limits theme, something he got to show off all over again when “Astronomy Domine” served as the early-tour opener behind The Division Bell, his long-awaited early-’90s return in full to Pink Floyd.
No. 1. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (Parts I–V)
From: Wish You Were Here (1975)
Pink Floyd began with the first sections of what became a nine-part bookend. Waters and Gilmour made notable contributions but “Shine On” was Wright’s virtuoso moment. The subject, a tribute to Barrett, often took a backseat to co-writer Wright’s lengthy turns on the mini-Moog. Later, he added ARP String Ensemble Synthesizer, piano and Hohner Clavinet – and Pink Floyd’s last four-man triumph was complete. “Without his quiet touch,” Gilmour later admitted, “the album Wish You Were Here would not quite have worked.”
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