Pink Floyd – one of music’s most successful acts – they have sold over 200 million albums around the world. They are considered to be a British progressive rock band, gaining early recognition for their psychedelic or space rock music. This is a list of their ten greatest songs.
In 1985, Roger Waters left Pink Floyd and declared the band dead. Two years later, David Gilmour and Nick Mason released A Momentary Lapse of Reason and proved him wrong. Although the album is arguably worse than anything else in the Floyd catalog, the songs “Learning to Fly”, “On the Turning Away”, and “Sorrow” stand as some of the best of the post-Waters Floyd. This performance is from the Pink Floyd concert film Delicate Sound of Thunder.
Richard Wright’s mesmerizing keyboard work and Roger Waters’ though-provoking lyrics both shape this great song from the Floyd’s greatest hit, Dark Side of the Moon. The melody was originally born from the Pink Floyd recording sessions for the film Zabriskie Point, but the film’s director rejected it. This performance is from Roger Waters’ Live Earth performance.
Syd Barrett’s music, both with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist, is characterized by entrancing and often surreal lyrics. “The Gnome” from Pink Floyd’s debut album Piper at the Gates of Dawn is no different. “The Gnome” is a Tolkinsian tale about a little man who enjoys drinking wine and sleeping. This is the album version with random footage of the late Syd Barrett.
Atom Heart Mother is a very eclectic album featuring a very avant-garde symphony/rock suite, three songs by Roger Waters, Richard Wright, and David Gilmour respectively, and “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast”. The title track is the second-longest song the Floyd have ever recorded, clocking in at 23 minutes and 44 seconds. This performance is from the Bath Festival in June 1970.
“Fat Old Sun” remains one of David Gilmour’s best songwriting efforts. This performance is from the DVD David Gilmour in Concert.
During the recording of Saucerful of Secrets, Syd Barrett became more and more disconnected from his bandmates and the world in general. Every theory on Syd’s mental breakout has been posited, from LSD to drugs and epilepsy. This song is seen by many as a self-assessment by Barrett. Barrett was dropped from the band soon after, replaced with his friend David Gilmour.
Another of Pink Floyd’s “epics”, “Echoes” pushed the space-rock tendencies of Pink Floyd to their max. The “whale” sound effects would later be recycled into “Is There Anybody Out There?” from The Wall. This performance is from David Gilmour’s live DVD Remember That Night.
Animals, while not as well known as Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, is every bit as good as its brothers. This album introduced the pig, who’d be present at every subsequent PF tour. This version is from Roger Waters’ live DVD In the Flesh Live.
Shine on You Crazy Diamond is the Pink Floyd’s tribute to their fallen leader, Syd Barrett. The nine-part, 26-minute song is perhaps the greatest collaboration of Gilmour, Waters, and Wright. This performance is from the Pink Floyd DVD Pulse.
This short, acoustic, poignant song by Roger Waters and David Gilmour lends its name to the album, which also features “Shine On”, “Welcome to the Machine”, and “Have a Cigar”. This performance is from Live 8, which was a moving time for Floydians everywhere. After 20 years of animosity, Roger Waters and his former bandmates finally shared a stage together.
Contributor: CBorne
Led Zeppelin rules!
(Just joking!)
Why are you joking? Led Zeppelin is a great band.
Great list. Glad you kind of stayed off The Wall.
Excellent list.. although i disagree with it for the most part, it is still excellent.
WOW….you totally blew it on this one : (….have you actually listened to any of their albums?
Retitle as IMHO…
I would love to get 1 unit of any currency for all the “I disagree with …”, ” type messages that are sure to follow.
Comfortably Numb? Time? Run Like Hell? I think you missed a lot of the better songs in order to make a personal top ten list. These may be your favorite Floyd songs but they are not really a good batch for most fans.
Yeah number one for me would have to be comfortably numb (live pulse performance)
I got three words for you: TIME and COMFORTABLY NUMB. What were you thinking? Pink Floyd is my personal favorite band, and I think its great you include more obscure works of art like Echoes and Dogs, but how could you forget the two most popular Floyd songs in history? Work harder next time, dude. Use headphones. Like your supposed to.
Glad you stayed away from “the wall” and excellent list.
Awesome list!
PF is one of my all-time favourite bands!
One thing though – I would have made a few changes, not all of the songs on this list would make it to my top 10, but hey… personal taste eh?
Nice job!
This is the stupidest list on here. You missed alot of good songs.
Not a Pink Floyd fan (cant get into any band doing the high-concept, music as art-form thing), but wondering where that song “Money” is at?
So nobody likes The Wall? That’s too bad, cause that’s pretty much all I really recognize from Pink Floyd!
*ducks to avoid incoming tomatoes*
Ok stevenh you get 1 yen for every disagree comment
. You make only 1$ for every 103 comments. ….Actually on this particular list you might make a lot of money.
I’m a huge Floyd fan, and pretty much agree with everything except #10, I’d throw “The Trial” in that spot.
Thanks for staying off The Wall.
I personally hate when uber mainstream songs are on a top ten list because then it seems as if the list maker doesn’t even listen to the band.
But seriously, good job on this list.
Interstellar Overdrive and Brain Damage (I seriously freaked out when I first heard that, I felt like I was high or something) are top 1 and 2 for me. Not heard most of the songs on the list.
Careful with that axe, Eugene.
Haha, can’t wait to see what kind of comments this list gets.
Nice on by the way, I haven’t listened to pink floyed that much at least now I know where to start.
brain damage, eclipse, another brick in the wall, hey you, one of these days, breathe. where da hell r all these songs
!?
I am a huge Floyd fan. I have the prism tatooed on my shoulder. I LOVE all their stuff. I would have had a different list but I do like all these songs. Great job on getting the performances. Fun to watch them play. But I do think you will catch a lot of heat.
You should not include songs just because they were popular but they should not be left off because other people like them either.
I think this list kinda of suffers in the sense that you avoided great songs because others listened to them.
If not, you might take another listen to The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon I think you will like them.
Thanks for the list, I look forward to more music lists.
You’d better be comfortably numb to catch the flak from the inevitable comments… might want to take some time (and money) to run like hell?
Why do so many people comment with differing opinions to the creator of the list? The author picked 10 of his favorite Pink Floyd songs, not yours. No one cares if he omitted your favorites, that isn’t the point of this list.
brain damage, eclipse, another brick in the wall, hey you, one of these days, breathe. where da hell r all these songs
!?
Tampon Juice’s name in of itself illegitamizes his post. He could have written the most profound, thought provoking and eloquently worded response and it wouldn’t have mattered because of his vial choice of screen name. And it just so happens that he also types like 12 year old with internet shorthand like “r” in place of “are”. Two extra letters and you won’t look like a dumbass. Regardless of his linguistic skills, all he does is list some of his top songs and then asks in an indignant manner emphasized with an exclamation mark AND a question mark. This insinuates that he is outraged that his favorite songs weren’t chosen. What an injustice that the creator of the list has a differing opinion to yours.
Any list of “TOP TEN” people will have discrepancies with. Just listen to the songs and move on.
Don't you find it ironic when people lambasting others for poor grammar misspell words, a la "vial". I didn't know he was glass container.
Besides that, it's somewhat more than personnel opinion on this one. While most of those are very good songs, the author seems to have avoided all of Pink Floyd's most critically acclaimed songs and albums, particularly (arguably) their most famous album, The Wall.
This often seems to happen among mainstream popular bands. People who consider themselves "true" fans, whatever that means, avoid the most popular songs and albums because they are popular.
It's fine to like their less well-known pieces, but the reason their well-known is because they usually are the best songs. So basically I'm fine with this list, but at least one song from the Wall is in order.
good list, but you missed a couple of really good songs. Also astraya (1st comment), I hope you are not saying that Led zeppeling is bad.
Why would people comment with their discrepancies to the author’s opinions? We don’t care what your top Pink Floyd songs are Tampon_Juice and your name itself illegitamizes anything you have to say.
Unusual choice of songs, to say the least. I have my list of favorites, Pink Floyd being one of my favorite bands, but I don’t think I would have made a top ten list out of it. I love Dark Side of the Moon, but I actually liked PF sans Roger Waters better. A Momentary Lapse… and the Division Bell are my two favorite albums, followed by Dark Side… I know my opinion on those songs is not popular, although I have heard many through and through PF fans say that “Learning to Fly” was their best song ever.
way off
Yes!! Glad you picked the right number one. I would have never come back to this site
But really, where’s Comfortably Numb?
looks like you annoyed a lot of people with this. I’ve been meaning to really listen to pink floyd for a long time, so this is where i’d start.
Wait….realy? No Time? That song is one of my all time favories. EVER. Can’t disagree with the number 1 spot…but the rest of the list is semi-whack.
Good list. but personally i prefer Metallica
me too.
I have to admit I am a gigantic pink floyd fan, and I am extremely glad to see some of their more obscure albums represented. In fact in my opinion Animals is their greatest album all things considered, but i have to admit comfortably numb would of had to make an appearance for me, it has one of the greatest guitar solos of all time!!
but rant aside great list!!
I wanted to highlight all of Pink Floyd. And while it kinda sucks that Comfortably Numb or Time aren’t on there, I’m glad I got “Fat Old Sun”, which is very typical of many songs they were doing at the time (“Grantchester Meadows”, “If”, “Green is the Colour”, &c). While this may not be the BEST Pink Floyd songs, it is more representative of their history than a list of Dark Side and The Wall songs would have been.
I have to say when i saw the gnome on there a little part of me got quite excited, i expected this list to be nothing but the wall and dark side of the moon so i was quite happy to see some of their more obscure work represented.
but seriously, i’d like to tell you a story
Great Job CBorne! Personally I think The Wall to be over-played, over-produced, and over-rated. Much better choices here.
David Gilmour Rules.
By the way, I would take it as a compliment that tampon-juice (likely what’s in his cranium) disagrees with your picks.
Pink Floyd – Syd Barret
no.
and I’m not much of a fan of “Top 11″, “Top 12″, &c lists. Limiting the response is all the fun/difficulty.
in the flesh?
I actually know very little about Pink Floyd – with the obvious exception being The Wall – so I liked this list a lot Christopherbourne – thanks for broadening my musical horizons
Thanks for the list. Disagree with it for the most part. Here is a few that would make it into mine that were not in this list.
-Interstellar Overdrive-(For its intense trippiness!)
-Any Colour You Like-(A song many years ahead of its time)
-One of These Days-(A truly rocking Floyd number)
-Bike-(A song which I believe sums up Barrett’s style, in particular, his lyrics.
I think the wall is extremely overrated and I dislike everything that case out after that. The Floyd still rule!!
case=came…..Apologies
In the 70′s, I discovered Floyd and weed in the same month. 20 years later, I was smoking my first harvest at my first Floyd concert.
I have listened to all of it, repeatedly, but just can’t develop much of a taste for the Barrett years, with some notable exceptions.
Still, a great list, and you could probably have expanded it to 20 or 25 songs, and still have people *****ing about omissions.
BTW, as I type this, “Learning to Fly” just came on the radio. Synchronicity, I guess.
For those of you who have no idea who I’m talking about when I say Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Syd Barrett, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason, the wikipedia article has a nice picture identifying the members.
@Vera Lynn,
you are a bigger fan than I, apparently!
what a list! i dunno if i agree, but its great to see a whole list dedicated to pink floyd. my personal favorite is Echoes -greatest song in history-. but obviously, i think you left out some important tracks. great stuff still.
comfortably numb is definetely top 10, i was surprised/disappointed it wasnt there =\
I am disapointed
No Pink Floyd list should be devoid of songs like Money,Time, Comfortabley Numb, Another Brick In The Wall Pt.2, The Great Gig In The Sky ,or Hey You
astraya (1): Echem… FUGGU.
While I could debate the other 9… ‘Wish you were here’ is up there in my all time favorites so , I shant debate
List is interesting in that it’s highlighted a few I hadn’t considered. Thanks for that.
could have been a top 100 list really, these guys will go down in history with names like mozart and beethoven, it is so much more than just music…
“Comfortably Numb”? “Money”? “Another Brick in the Wall”? “Time”? “See Emily Play”?
AAAAAAAAAARGGGGGHHHHHHHH………….. I’m sorry, but this list is an impossible dream.
Hello? Have a cigar.
I don’t get where all the hate for The Wall is coming from. That’s my favorite Floyd album, personally, and my favorite song is Nobody Home. I know I’m weird, though. I do think this should be a “My Favorite” instead of a “Top 10″, but his opinion is valid. I appreciate the love for Animals and Wish You Were Here, though.
#1 is my ring-tone. Good list.
yeah i’m disappointed with the list too. Liek most other people said you missed comfortably numb, time, have a cigar, and money . Comfortably numb has one of the most memorable solos in all of music history.
If not, the most! That song hit me in the heart as a kid and still to this day. I lived for those Solo’s. Comfortably Numb’s Solo is by far the most soul-felt emotional-driven Solo, that I can think of right now. When I think of solo’s, my mind jumps to Floyd.
Yes. I am the biggest fan ever. Love my tat. Smile every time I look at it. No one sings me lullabies…. I have every album and I love Syd’s solo stuff. Mad cap laughs. I will keep the video of him you posted. I have a picture of him on my dresser. He was so cute and so messed up. Im glad you included some obscure stuff.
I have Piper at the Gates of Dawn on vinyl, Floyd stickers on my car, and 2 framed concert posters in my bedroom. Tee shirts, backpacks, hats, etc.
A difficult list to come up with, too much material to pick from, but I personally think the top ten doesn’t match my top ten – just an opinion. I think it becomes more difficult when you take into account that much of Floyd’s discography was created during the whole Album Oriented Rock era, in which there were great songs, but more to the point, great albums that were meant to be played as a whole. This is no more true than Dark Side of the Moon. There really isn’t a dud on the entire album. I would also put forth that argument for the Wall. And it’s part of the reason that Floyd was never a Top 40 type of a band.
I know I disagreed with the author, but coming up with my own top ten would be just as difficult and in some way downplay what’s listed which is still great stuff. I would have most certainly included “Money” and “Another Brick in the Wall” as well as “Great Gig in the Sky” “Time” and others. There’s plenty to choose from.
TIME, DUDE. TIME. WHERE IS TIME?????????
TIME!!!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD, YOU DID NOT INCLUDE TIME???? OH, I SHOULD JUST COME OVER TO YOUR HOUSE AND USE THE BATHROOM WITHOUT FLUSHING!
Relax guys, it’s a top 10 list and it’s his opinion. Some excellent songs in there, good list.
But he really should have included TIME!!
I’m coming over to your place.