Founded by Joe Boyd and John “Hoppy” Hopkins, the UFO Club opened its doors at 31 Tottenham Court Road on December 23, 1966. The occasion was marked by a show named “UFO Presents Night Tripper,” which included underground movies from New York plus music from Soft Machine and… Pink Floyd. The Floyd presented psychedelic versions of old blues songs, an enthralling light show, and, most importantly, occupying the front of the stage, a singer and guitarist with long curly hair and a vacant gaze that gave him an air of being lost in his own strange thoughts. His name? Syd Barrett. Jenny Fabian, author of the book Groupie, would never forget the thrilling performance by the still largely unknown quartet: “They were the first group to open people up to sound and colour,”11 she writes.
A few months later, on June 16 and August 4 respectively, the Floyd’s first single, “See Emily Play,” and first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, were released, marking the start of Pink Floyd’s vinyl odyssey, the magical adventure of four students named Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason. The adventure would continue with A Saucerful of Secrets, which saw the arrival of David Gilmour as Syd Barrett’s successor (although Syd still has a presence on that album), the soundtrack of Barbet Schroeder’s movie More, plus Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall… truly legendary albums in which the genres heroic fantasy, space opera, psychedelia, symphonic rock, and musique concrète (concrete music) rubbed shoulders or followed in succession. Albums that took Pink Floyd to the top of the prog-rock hierarchy and enabled them to establish themselves as one of the most influential groups not only in the history of rock, but in twentieth-century music as a whole.
It is to this unique musical approach, which continues to attract real interest and inspire no less real musical vocations today, that this book pays tribute. From their first single in 1967 to the album The Endless River in 2014, Pink Floyd has recorded tracks ranging from the acoustic ballad to the orchestral suite, from the movie soundtrack to the concept album. Analyzing the words and music, detailing the instruments, recording studios, producers, sound engineers, session musicians, and telling countless anecdotes, Pink Floyd: All the Songs uniquely and exhilaratingly offers total immersion in the creative process of this British band. The book is based on Pink Floyd’s official British discography (antecedent to the box set The Early Years: 1965–1972, released in November 2016). The outtakes described in it also form part of the official discography and therefore do not include bootlegs. These outtakes have been added to the track listings of several Pink Floyd albums rereleased on CD, notably Works, Zabriskie Point, and the Experience Edition series. Where the track listing of the US pressing differs, we have pointed this out. Similarly, in order to be as honest as possible with our readers, where the name of a musician or a recording date is uncertain or even unknown, we have indicated this with a (?). Finally, the B-sides of singles that have already been or are subsequently covered in the book within the context of an album are accompanied by an asterisk.
Over forty years ago, Pink Floyd went down in history with their three brilliant albums Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, and The Dark Side of the Moon. Pink Floyd: All the Songs turns the spotlight on the complete works, examining each one in a new and objective light. The curtain opens with “See Emily Play,” the strange story of a young woman with a tendency to borrow other people’s dreams and cry after dark.…
Note: The order of appearance of the musicians in the technical listing for each track has been chosen on the basis of the orchestral position of each instrument in the group: first of all the guitars, followed by the keyboards, and then the rhythm section, comprising the bass and drums (or percussion). Additional musicians are listed after the band members.
