Hall Members Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd's entrance into the hall could have been earned with their debut, Piper’s at the Gates of Dawn alone. They actually used The Pink Floyd as their moniker during this era with original frontman Syd Barrett. The albm remains one of the greatest psychedelic albums of all time. Arnold Layne, Lucifer Sam, See Emily Play, and Interstellar Overdrive are songs that defy comparisons. Syd became a bit too dependent on the psychedelics and played the same guitar chord full blast over and over in concert, answered television interviews with blank stares, and refused to lip synch on American Bandstand. It became too much for the band who had only put up with it as long as it did due to Syd being the member who wrote and sang most of the tunes on the album. So, the band recruited Syd’s pal David Gilmore who graciously helped Syd on his solo albums to replace Syd as guitarist and co-lead singer with Roger Waters. The band lacked a calling and produced long art-rock jams much like Radiohead would record years later as a follow-up to OK Computer. Eventually the band would find their new niche with the wonderful Meddle followed by their 20 year album chart masterpiece Dark Side of the Moon. Animals, Welcome to the Machine, along with the Barrett inspired Wish You Were Here and The Wall continued their album rock dominance. The Final Cut sounded a bit like Wall leftovers but had a few good moments with the title track, Your Possible Past, and Two Suns in the Sunset. Waters’ over-dominance in the songwriting and the departure of Rick Wright as a full time member that made it seem less a band effort. Then, the 70’s and 80’s rock generation had to endure a split that for them made them somewhat understand how the Beatles break-up impacted their fans when Roger Waters left the band. Roger’s Pros and Cons of Hitch-Hiking was not quite up to the Floyd legacy but was better than his Radio Kaos. His best solo album was Amused to Death. The other three performed as Pink Floyd on Momentary Lapse of Reason and a more Floydian, the Division Bell. A reunion of the full band would be a better send-off. The former members were in contact for their compilation CD Echoes, so one can hope.