II. gimnazija Maribor

SEMINARSKA NALOGA PRI ANGLEŠČINI TER INFORMATIKI

Avtor: KATJA MARINIČ

Mentor vsebine: NUŠA ODER

Mentor oblike: MIRKO PEŠEC

Maribor, 17.3.2009

Pink Floyd

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LEGEND OF CONTENT

1. SYNOPSIS………………………………………………………………………………….3

2. PREFACE…………………………………………………………………………………...3

3. SEX'N'DRUGS'N'ROCK & ROLL…………………………………………………………4

4. BEHIND THE MASK………………………………………………………………………7

5. CONCERTS…………………………………………………………………………………8

6. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………………11

7. POVZETEK………………………………………………………………………………..12

8. LITERATURE……………………………………………………………………………..13

9. RESOURCES FILES………………………………………………………………………13

INDEX……………………………………………………………………………………14

LEGEND OF PICTURES

Picture 1: Roger Waters……………………………………………………………………….6

Picture 2: David Gilmour..…………………………………………………………………….6

Picture 3: Nick Mason...……………………………………………………………………….6

Picture 4: Rick Wright..……………………………………………………………………….6

Picture 5: Syd Barrett………………………………………………………………………….6

Picture 6: Albums..…………………………………………………………………………….7

Picture 7: Concert 1..………………………………………………………………………….8

Picture 8: Concert 2……..…………………………………………………………………….9

Picture 9: Concert in Verona 1 ………..……………………………………………………...10

Picture 10: Concert in Verona 2………………………………………………………………10

Pink Floyd

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1. SYNOPSIS

First, I was choosing between Iron Maiden and Pink Floyd and the choice was pretty difficult

for me. They both have interesting biography and meanings of songs. Since Pink Floyd are

more known and important for the development of rock, I decided for them. Their songs are

not just some “boy-girl-love-songs” but include life advice, and things that are actually

happening and sometimes we do not even realize them.

Finding the material for this seminar was not a problem, because my parents are big fans of

them and have lots of things about them. So going to the library was not necessary in my case.

I really enjoyed doing this because I like my theme and it is fun to absorb in their songs and

compare them.

In my seminar I wrote something about their history. Then I decribed meanings of some of

their songs which was really fun becouse behind every lyric there is a deeper meaning. I also

wrote about their albums and concerts becouse they really are sometnig incredible.

2. PREFACE

Pink Floyd are a British rock band. Their big career started in 1965 in London. Since then

their music is less tinkered with electronic and fullfilled with other special efects. Also their

lyric themes are mostly philosophical, thier covers are very inovative and so are their

concerts. Their genre is progressive rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock . Their music is very

imoprtant for developed rock in the future and is an influence to many other bands..

And after a while, after thinking of how many notes are there, how many words, phrases that

make complete sense and just flow with the melody you realise that Pink Floyd are really one

of the greatest bands in rock history and all their work just couldn't be a work of some

average rock amateur. There's so much more than just words and notes in there.

Pink Floyd

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3. SEX'N'DRUGS'N'ROCK & ROLL

Roger Waters was attending Cambridge High School for boys. After he went to London

in 1962 as an architecture student. In London he met Rick Wright and Nick Mason, who were

also students there. As their hobby, they played music together. Eventually architecture

became less and less interesting. They created a band, Sigma 6. The band also included two

singers, Juliette Gale (who also married Wright later) and Keith Noble. As many other

developing groups, they also changed their band name a few times. From T-Set, to

Meggadeaths and the Abdabs. When The Regent Street Polly Magazine for the first time

wrote an article about them, they renamed in the Architecture Abdadbs. But soon after

released article, they broke up. They reconfigured band members. To the trio – Waters,

Wright and Mason, joined two of Water's friends from Cambridge – Bob Close and Syd

Barrett. Barrett was also helping his close friend, David Gilmour to learn the guitar. Even that

Barrett joined the existing group, he instantly became their leader. He also renamed them in

the Pink Floyd Sound after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Barrett

immidiately started to write songs, which included his own brand of humour. The Pink

Floyd Sound became favourite in a growing 'underground' in London. When they recorded

their first record, they named them selves The Pink Floyd, later just Pink Floyd.

The band was invited to play two tracks in a Peter Whitehead's film Tonite Let's All Make

Love In London at the end of 1966. In August 1967 they released they first album The Piper

at the Gates Dawn. In the UK the album was a hit, but in North America it didn't do well.

During this time, Pink Floyd also toured with Jimi Hendrix which helped to increase they

poplularity.

As the start of 1967 Pink Floyd became more and more popular and were considered as a

psychedelic genre. There was more and more pressure on all of them but psychedelic drugs

took their toll on Barrett. In 1968 guitarist David Gilmour joined the band, to correct Barrett's

behaviour and acts during the time he spent on drugs. His behaviour inspired Roger Waters'

for his next lyrics in 19750 – Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Barrett stopped going on their

concerts and left the band. He returned back home in Cambridge. He lived there until his

death on 7 July 2006.

Pink Floyd

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This period was different and more experimental for Pink Floyd, now that Barrett was gone.

After a while, in 1968 the second Pink Floyd album was released; A Saucerful of Secrets. It

was a bit different but it still contained psychedelic sound. They were invited to produce a

sondtrack for Barbet Schroeder's film. The music was then also released in their next album -

Soundtrack from the Film More. Then there was their next album – Ummagumma, which was

a mixture of live recordings, unchecked studio experimental tracks and many long solo tracks.

Album hit the UK charts and also make it to the U.S. ones.

Pink Floyd also recorded with an orchestra for the first time in 1970. They made a new album

- Atom Heart Mother. They also contributed in Michelangelo Antonioni' film - Zabriskie

Point. Later they became a band who were difficult to classify even that they were still

playing sort of pshychedelic music. Their next album was Meddle. As the soundtrack to the

film La Vallee, they released a new album called Obscured by Clouds (1972). Then in 1973

they released a masterpiece – The Dark Side Of The Moon. It got on every charts on a very

high places and remained there for a long time. The Dark Side of The Moon contains some of

their greatest hits – like Money, The Great Gig in the Sky,… Director Adrian Maben in 1973

also made their first concert film – Live at Pompeii, where they were playing in 1971.

After the successful release of The Dark Side of The Moon they released another masterpiece.

Wish You Were Here. Album released in 1975 shows the most absence of Syd Barret, which

is shown especially in ''Shine On You Crazy Diamond''.

In 1977 their album Animals was released. Songs and their melodys were a bit more

aggressive and connected to Stalinis. And so were the animals (pigs, cows,..) compared to

members of society.

Waters was later also working on a project, that was in 1979 released as The Wall. Today the

most known song from that album is Another Brick in the Wall. In 1983 Waters dedicated

their new album to his father. The Final Cut. It contained even darker themes than The Wall.

In December 1985 Water announced that he was leaving Pink Floyd. Gilmour and Mason on

the one side and Waters on the other, they started to make new albums. Gilmour and Mason

released A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987. Wright came back from Cambridge and

rejoined the band. In 1994 they released a new album – The Division Bell. Gilmour was also

complaining that Mason and Wright were hardly played on an album.

The band in 1995 released a live album entitled P*U*L*S*E. In 1995 they also recieved

Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

In 2002 the band was reunited once again for performance at the London Live 8 concert.

Waters also joined them and the four of them were togehter on stage in 24 years.

Pink Floyd

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Picture 1: Roger Waters Picture 2: David Gilmour

S

Picture 3: Nick Mason Picture 4: Rick Wright

Picture 5: Syd Barrett

Pink Floyd

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4. BEHIND THE MASK

Their songs are different from songs of the other bands. They have never written the

average Boy-Girl love song or something like that. Their themes have always dealt with

realistic things, mostly everyday human miseries. For example; TIME, which talks about time

that is passing you by, while you're sitting and doing nothing, waiting for sometnihg to show

you the way; ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL, which talks about unspoken societal

restrictions and ideals, as well as governmental control. All that is in song compared to

students and teachers, their power and oblast; MONEY, which talks about the value of

money, how it affects on our lifes and how it completely confuses our minds.

Then there's SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND. The interesting part of this song is, that

if you remove every second capital letter (O and C) you got a name – Syd. The same as it was

in song of the Beatles – Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, where you got an LSD if you

removed every second capital letter. So it's probably connecter – Syd and LSD. The song also

talks about his past when he wasn't on drugs – ''Remember when you were young, you shone

like the sun.'' And then how he looks now – ''Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes

in the sky.''

Picture 6: Albums

Pink Floyd

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5. CONCERTS

Pink Floyd's concerts are specially known by their mixture of music and special effects.

With many different lights and pyrotehnics they can really make a tense atmosphere. For

expample, their song TIME is fullfilled with many different sounds of clocks or MONEY,

with treasury sound.,…

They use pyrotehnics as exploding flashpots , fireworks and dry ice.

In 1973's tour Dark Side of the Moon, a large model of a plane flew over the audience and

crashed into the stage with an explosion. This effect also repeated in The Wall and Division

Bell tour. On Dark Side of the Moon tour, they also used big hellium baloons. In 1977 for

Animals a giant pig was brought. Once they were playing The Wall, a big white wall was built

between the audience and the band. It lifted right before the start of the song.

Picture 7: Concert 1

Pink Floyd

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Picture 8: Concert 2

Pink Floyd

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Picture 9: Concert in Verona. Avtor: Katja Marinič

Picture 10: Concert in Verona 2. Author: Vesna Polanc Marinič

Pink Floyd

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6. CONCLUSION

Pink Floyd are one of the most important rock bands because of their unique way of playing,

extreme lyrics and innovative concerts. Their genre is progressive rock, psychedelic rock,

hard rock. Their career started in 1965 in London and since then, their music has been an

influence to many other bands. They were active from 1965–1994. The way they express their

feelings and opinions in their songs is really incredible. From all the side effects to notes that

don’t seem connected to the melody, they really can make a person think.

Pink Floyd

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7. POVZETEK

Najprej sem se za seminarsko nalogo odločala med dvema skupinama. Ker je o Pink Floydih

res veliko zanimivega in imajo obenem tudi izjemna besedila, sem se odločila za njih. Floydi

nikoli niso napisali povprečne ljubezenske pesmi med fantom in dekletom, v njihovih

besedilih je polno življenjskih nasvetov ter stvari, ki se dejansko dogajajo ter jih včasih sploh

ne opazimo. Sčasoma, po poglabljanju v njihove pesmi, ugotovimo, koliko je v njihovih

besedilih besed, ki tvorijo popolnoma smiselne fraze ter se kar zlijejo z melodijo. Z vsem

potrebnim trudom, razmišljanjem in znanjem, Pink Floydom res lahko rečemo profesionalci.

Saj je v njihovih pesmih veliko več kot le besede ter melodija.

Pink Floyd

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8. SOURCES

- Pink Floyd. 1975 Shine On You Crazy Diamonod [zvočni posnetek]

- WILLIAM,R. 1993. Pink Floyd. New York: Smithmark

WEB RESOURCES

http://classicrock.about.com/od/bandsandartists/p/pink_floyd.htm (16.3.2009, 15:35)

9. RESOURCES FILES

Picture 1: Roger Waters, availabe on the URL adress:

http://mitkadem.homestead.com/files/floyd/roger_waters_Greatphoto.jpg

(16.3.2009, 16:35)

Picture 2: David Gilmour, dostopna availabe on the URL adress:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y36/Blondievonbondie/David_Gilmour.jpg

(16.3.2009, 16:30)

Picture 3: Nick Mason, availabe on the URL adress:

http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii309/gratefuldon/Nick_Mason.jpg

(16.3.2009, 16:39)

Picture 4: Rick Wright, availabe on the URL adress:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HZJReAhBfcA/SM6UzLqvfKI/AAAAAAAAA90/X8FTUv4

WeN0/s400/Rick1.jpg

(16.3.2009, 16:45)

Picture 5: Syd Barrett, availabe on the URL adress:

http://assets.mog.com/pictures/wikipedia/4740559/425px-Syd.jpg

(16.3.2009, 16:50

Picture 6: Albumi, availabe on the URL adress:

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j200/daviddonut/Pink_Floyd_Albums.jpg

(16.3.2009, 16:55)

Picture 7: Koncert 1, availabe on the URL adress:

http://scribble.scran.ac.uk/_files/icon.php?id=511&w=500&h=500

(16.3.2009, 17:01)

Picture 8: Koncert 2, availabe on the URL adress:

http://www.radioaktual.si/modules/gallery/uploads/pf06.jpg

(16.3.2009, 15:05)

Picture 9: Concert in Verona 1

Picture 10: Concert in Verona 2

Pink Floyd

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INDEX

A

Adrian Maben, 6

ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL, 8

Atom Heart Mother, 6

D

David Gilmour, 5

K

Keith Noble, 5

M

Meddle, 6

MONEY, 9

N

Nick Mason, 5

R

Rick Wright, 5

Roger Waters, 5, 15

S

SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND, 8

Soundtrack from the Film More, 6

T

The Dark Side Of The Moon, 6

The Final Cut, 6

The Pink Floyd, 5

Pink Floyd

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