Tag: Pink Floyd

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The heydays (Prog rock 1965 – 2025 part 3)

This post covers 11 characteristics of prog rock. Each is illustrated with recordings by prominent groups such as Yes, King Crimson, Soft Machine, Caravan and, of course, Pink Floyd and Genesis. Become aware of their differences and similarities

In the early 1970s, the building blocks that ‘proto prog’ groups had provided in the 1960s fell into place. This resulted in progressive rock becoming an identifiable style within rock music in general. Below, I will summarise its characteristics. In doing so, I recall some songs by Pink Floyd, which you could listen to in Part 2 of this series. I also refer to songs by Genesis, a group that will take centre stage in the next instalment. Most of the songs come from four bands, each of which made its own contribution to the development of prog rock: King Crimson, Yes, Soft Machine and Caravan.

Four innovative bands

King Crimson

Formed in 1968 by Robert Fripp, the band disbanded in 2021, after a few periods of inactivity. More than Pink Floyd, King Crimson has an experimental, sometimes avant-garde character and the music has a high degree of complexity. The members of the band play a variety of instruments, leading to a broad palette of sounds. You can hear Starless here. This complex instrumental song showcases Robert Fripp’s unique guitar playing (Starless and Bible Black, 1974) 

Yes

Yes was founded in 1968 by Jon Anderson and still exists to this day,  after dozens of line-up changes. Like King Crimson, the band is known for its complex compositions, virtuosity, spiritual lyrics and unusual time signatures. At the same time, the band’s songs are more accessible. The band has announced it will release a new album in 2025. To get acquainted with the group, I will show you here a live performance of โ€˜Round aboutโ€™ (Fragile, 1971) The song opens with acoustic guitar playing by Steve Howe, followed by dynamic and complex bass lines, harmonies and a catchy chorus.

Soft machine

This is an English band from the Canterbury area, formed in 1966. Initially with a strong psychedelic orientation, the group later developed towards prog rock with a jazzy accent. You can listen to ‘The tale of Taliesin’ย (Love makes sweet music, 1969)here.

Caravan

Formed in 1968 by David and Richard Sinclair. The band still exists after several interruptions, although its predicted success never quite has materialised. Its style is more melodic and accessible and less influenced by jazz than Soft Machine’s. The group combines complex structures with a warm, playful atmosphere and is known for its dreamy and sometimes humorous approach. Here you are listening to ‘Golf girl’ (In the land of grey and pink, 1971).

Characteristics of the heyday of prog rock (late 60s, early 70s)

1. Long numbers

Prog rock broke with the standard three-minute pop structure and embraced long songs with individual parts, like classical music. This applies to most of the songs you can listen to below.  I particularly mention Pink Floyd’s suite ‘Dark side of the moon’ (1973), which filled the entire album of the same name.

2. Experimentation , improvisation and innovation

Many songs arose from improvisations during performances and jam sessions in the studio, trying out different instruments and technical aids. Listen and watch Pink Floyd‘s song ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967). You can at most hear that the song was born out of improvisations during live performances by its lack of structure at the end before the band picks up the theme again. Moreover, widely different long versions of the song circulate among themselves, including the soundtrack of the film London ’66 – ’67. Anyway, you  hear the band’s psychedelic roots.

The ability to improvise makes it attractive for musicians to play in a prog rock band. This is especially true of the most experimental band King Crimson. ‘Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part I’ (Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, 1973) is an avant-garde song with great rhythmic complexity and strong dynamics, partly due to the combination of strings with heavy guitar playing.

Another example is Soft Machine’s ‘Facelift‘ (Third, 1970). The organ parts of this 18-minute song were improvised. The song ‘For Richard‘ (If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You, 1970) by Carava is one of this band’s most iconic songs. It lasts 18 minutes and begins with a subdued introduction that develops into an intense climax.

3. Dynamics and complex structures 

Almost all the songs by all the bands I review here, consist of contrasting parts that differ in tempo, rhythm and measure. They often start out simple and then build up to a layered and complex whole. You can listen to Caravan’s 22-minute suite ‘Nine Feet Underground’ (In the Land of Grey and Pink, 1971). It consists of several jazzy improvisations that seamlessly blend together, even though they are recorded separately. This live version was recorded in Paris, 2003.

The song ‘Heart of the sunrise by Yes (Fragile, 1971) starts with an explosive bass part by Chris Squire and alternates between intense and subdued moments. Alternating time signatures and virtuoso instrumentation also add to the dynamics. This song is one of the classic examples of prog rock. Finally, you can take another listen to Pink Floyd’s ‘Brain Damage/Eclipse‘ (The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973). This is the last part of the suite that, as mentioned, covers the entire album. 

4. Unusual time signatures

Prog rock experiments with time signatures such as 7/8, 5/4 and other non-standard patterns, giving the melodies a special character. The King Crimson song you can listen to and watch below, ’21st century schizoid men’ (In the court of King Crimson, 1969) is taken from the group’s debut album. This album later turns out to be their most successful and influential album. In the song, 4/4 and 6/4 bars alternate. The last part (the ‘outro’) has no beat at all. The song combines an unusual beat with cryptic lyrics and an epic arrangement with symphonic grandeur. This 2016 recording enhances this effect as the group now performs with three (!) drummers.

I also mention Pink Floyd’s song ‘Money’ (The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973). It is written in 7/4 time.

5. Instrumental virtuosity

In prog rock, technical prowess of the musicians played an important role. This was linked to the presence of extended instrumental passages, often with solos by all members of the band. This applies to all the bands you can listen to here. Still, a couple of examples. The first comes from Yes‘ Homeworld’ (The Ladder, 1997).

After the group had increasingly turned to a polished pop style in previous years, ‘Homeworld’ is a successful balance between accessibility and the bandโ€™s 1970s prog rock roots. King Crimson also revives ’70s ements in one of its later songs, ‘FraKtured’ (The constrKuction of light, 2000). Furthermore, this recording (Berlin, 2000) shows even more matured virtuosity. ‘Winter Wine‘ (In the Land of Grey and Pink, 1971) by Caravan combines dreamy melodies with a nostalgic atmosphere and imaginative lyrics. It shows the introspective and lyrical side of the group.

6. Concept albums and thematic cohesion

Many prog rock songs tell a story with a philosophical, mythical or sci-fi background. In some cases, this background extends over an entire album. Pink Floyd has carried this feature furthest in both album art, music videos and films. Here you are listening to an excerpt from the filmed version of ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)’ (The Wall, 1979). Both the album and the film revolved around alienation and the impact of a repressive upbringing.

Another example is ‘The dark side of the moon’, also by Pink Floyd. Theme of this album is time, mortality, and the human condition. You can hear ‘Time’ (The Dark Side of the Moon, 1973) here. 

7. Orchestral character with influences from classical music and jazz

Prog rock integrates among others classical compositional techniques (such as fugues and symphonic structures) and jazzy improvisation. You can watch and listen to ‘Firth of fifth’ (Selling England by the pound’, 1974) by Genesis. The piano intro, with its complex beat and Steve Hackett’s guitar solo are heavily influenced by classical music. The awkward piano intro was usually omitted in live concerts.

Yes’s song Close to the Edge (Close to the Edge, 1972) lasts almost 19 minutes and has an epic character with symphonic grandeur. The album is considered as the high point of Yes’s career. Moon in June (Third, 1970) by Soft Machine marks the transition from psychedelic rock to jazzy prog rock with long instrumental passages with surreal lyrics. The fully instrumental song ‘Slightly all the time’ (Third, 1970), also by Soft Machine, features extended and virtuoso saxophone and organ parts and moves smoothly between jazz, rock and avant-garde. Caravan’s song ‘If I could do It all over again, I’d do It all over you’ (If I could do It all over again, I’d do it all over you, 1970) combines a catchy melody with complex jazzy parts.

8. Use of synthesizers and other electronic instruments

All bands increasingly used electronic keyboard instruments such as mellotron and mini Moog from the early 1970s to create orchestral, sometimes bombastic sounds.  The song below, ‘Out-bloody-rageous’ (Third, 1970) by Soft machine starts with electronics, followed by more traditional jazz-rock instrumentation.

In Genesis‘ ‘Watcher of the Skies’ (Foxtrot, 1973), you can hear the ominous sounds a mellotron can produce The mellotron intro is one of prog rock’s most iconic ‘samples’. King Crimson’s orchestral number ‘Epitaph‘ (In the Court of the Crimson King, 1969) has a classically epic and melancholic atmosphere thanks to the mellotron.

9. Philosophical and esoteric texts

Many lyrics are poetic and profound, focusing on abstract concepts such as the universe, the human condition and spirituality. Caravan’s song ‘In the Land of Grey and Pink’ (In the Land of Grey and Pink, 1971) is light-hearted, dreamy and playful, with surreal and humorous lyrics and has a relaxed, almost pastoral atmosphere. This is another classic within prog-rock.

Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ (The Wall, 1979) is also an introspective song about isolation and losing touch with reality.

10. Dynamics and atmosphere

Prog rock plays with dynamics by contracting between quiet, introspective moments and bombastic outbursts. Spatial effects are often used, which can have a hallucinatory effect. Genesis‘ next song ‘The Musical Box’ (Nursery Crime, 1971) combines an imaginative storyline with musical dynamics and theatrical vocals.

Echoes (Meddle, 1971) by Pink Floyd is a 23-minute song that combines complex structures with atmospheric sounds and experimental instrumentation. What you can see is a live performance in Gdansk (2006). The song ‘And You and I’ (Close to the Edge, 1972) by Yes has a poetic, almost spiritual atmosphere, partly due to the combination of mellotron and acoustic guitar.

11. Visual effects and multimedia

Needless to say, Pink Floyd in particular could afford fascinating visual effects in its final years, performing to audiences of tens of thousands, as here in “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)” (Wish You Were Here, 1975), performed in London (2004).

But Genesis also attached great importance to stage decoration and lighting. During the tour to promote the album ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’ (1974), three giant screens were used on which eight projectors projected 1450 images. Furthermore, there was a laser show.

Prog rock had a great influence on the development of other forms of rock, including metal, in the 1970s. In Part 6 dealing with ‘neo-progressive rock’, I will show how the genre has renewed itself in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including the further use of electronics and improving the songsโ€™ accessibility. 

The next episode focuses on Genesis, one of the leading and most inspiring rock bands during the last years of the 20stecentury.

[1] This post is based on an analysis of articles in Wikipedia (Eng.) and recordings on YouTube. ChatGPT was used as an aid in structuring the information.

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Pink Floyd (Prog rock 1965 – 2025, part 2)

The songs of the English group Pink Floyd reflect many stylistic building blocks of prog rock mentioned in the first episode of this series. This is why this group is often called the first “prog rock” band. Listening to Pink Floyd is therefore a good way to get an impression of this genre. 

The band’s founding members Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright studied architecture at London Polytechnic and Syd Barrett at Camberwell College of Arts in the early 1960s. Few bands will have had so many different names in this early period: Sigma 6, Meggadeaths, Screaming Abdabs, Leonard’s Lodgers, Spectrum Five and Tea Set. When Barrett discovered that an eponymous group existed in the distant Netherlands, the name Pink Floyd made its appearance. Pink and Floyd are the first names of two American blues musicians.

The band is performing regularly in clubs and gained some fame for being considered one of the first groups with a psychedelic sound. With Syd Barrett as their main inspiration, Pink Floyd also distinguishes themselves at the time with elaborate compositions, sonic experimentation and philosophical lyrics. The group had its first hits in 1967, Arnold Layne and ‘See Emily play‘. The links point to the corresponding music videos. To my taste, the image and sound are strikingly like the videos the Beatles previously made to accompany their songs.

Syd Barrett’s artistic starring role took its toll when he collapsed mentally and physically due to LSD use. At times, he stood motionless on stage for long periods and was unresponsive. Eventually, he agrees to leave. David Gilmour takes his place and his guitar solos would become an unmistakable part of many of the group’s songs. In the following years, Roger Waters increasingly becomes the artistic brain of the band and gradually takes over the leadership. The second album ‘A saucerful of secrets’ (1968) still features one Syd Barrett song: ‘Jugband blues’. The song ‘Set the controls for the heart of the sun’ exudes a mystical atmosphere and is a bridge to the following albums on which increasingly longer songs appear. You can listen to this song here:

I will leave the next album ‘Ummagumma’ unmentioned. In retrospect, the band members thought this was a failed experiment. And then, in 1970 the group is releasing ‘Atom heart mother’, which would become the band’s first number-one album in the UK. The album’s title track is a six-part suite, covering one side of the LP. The orchestral arrangements include a brass and string section and a 16-piece choir. You can watch and listen to a live performance in full ensemble here. Such large-scale performances were very expensive and later the group shortened the suite to 15 minutes without additional musicians.

Precisely because of the orchestral nature of the original version, symphony orchestras that do not shy away from experimentation have also included the entire suite in their repertoire in edited form. You can watch a performance by the Conservatorio di Cagliari here.

The next album to hit number one in many European countries is ‘The dark side of the moon’. In the US, it spent 14 years (!) on the Billboard Top 100. Global sales reached 50 million copies. The album explores themes of conflict, greed, life, death and mental illness. Memories of Syd Barrett resound in many places. You can watch and listen to a live performance of the album, filmed at Earls Court 1994, here.

Together, both sides of the LP form a continuous piece of music. The five songs on each side reflect different stages in human life, starting and ending with a heartbeat. Below you can listen to six songs that became top-one singles. “Speak to Me” and “Breathe” emphasize the importance of making your own choices in life. The first side of the album ends with Wright’s and Clare Torry’s metaphor for death.

“Money“, the first track on side two, opens with the sound of cash registers and rhythmically ringing coins. The song mocks greed and consumerism. “Money” would become the band’s most commercially successful song. “Us and them”addresses the risks of using black-and-white contrasts to characterise individuals and relationships. The album ends with “Eclipse“, which embraces the concepts of otherness and unity and encourages the listener to recognise common traits in fellow human beings.

Four female vocalists sing on “Brain damage”, “Eclipse” and “Time”, and saxophonist Dick Parry plays on “Us and them” and “Money”. Besides conventional rock band instruments, synthesizers play a prominent role on this album.

The next album ‘Wish you were here’ would also get a number-one listing in many countries, including the US and Great Britain. This album is steeped in melancholic memories of Syd Barrett, co-founder of the band. Dedicated to him is ‘Shine on you crazy diamond’, a nine-part suite. Critics consider this album one of the best prog rock albums of all time. While Pink Floyd was working on the album, Barrett made an unexpected visit to the studio. He had grown fat and bald and was not recognised at first. He hung around a bit without saying much. 

In the mid-1970s, Waters is becoming an increasingly emphatic leader of the band and he is determining the themes for new albums, for which he also writes the lion’s share of the lyrics. For the next album, he writes a script with Bob Ezrin around Pink, a character inspired by Waters’ childhood experiences, the most poignant of which is his father’s death in World War II. Pink would become addicted to drugs and depressed by the music industry, eventually turning into a megalomaniac, a development partly inspired by Syd Barrett’s downfall. By the end of the album, the increasingly fascistic audience would watch Pink break down the wall and become a normal and caring person again. You can watch a 1994 performance of ‘Another brick in the wall’ here.

This song sung by a giant choir and orchestra is also fun to watch. 

Meanwhile, tensions are rising within the band: Waters fires Wright, because of his lack of input in the production of ‘The Wall’, and he sleeps in a different hotel from the other band members after gigs. Gilmour has felt undervalued for years. Indeed, he is not the most creative songwriter, but his guitar playing is leading Pink Floyd. It was under these circumstances that the production of ‘The Final Cut’, the 12de studio album came about (1984). The Final Cut is an anti-war concept album that addresses what Waters considers the betrayal of fallen British servicemen, like his father. They sacrificed their lives during World War II for an unrealized post-war dream. You can watch the subdued song ‘Two sons in the Sunset’ here. It is about the impending atomic holocaust. Critics’ reactions vary. Rolling Stone considers it “art rock’s crowning masterpiece”, the magazine sees it mostly as a solo album by Roger Waters.

‘The final cut’ is the last album Gilmour, Mason and Waters made together. It would take until 1987 to resolve all legal issues, the most important of which was whether Gilmour and Mason can continue with Pink Floyd. They eventually agreed on this, and Wright also came back on board. The trio’s first joint album was ‘A momentary lapse of reason’ (1988). Qualitatively, it did not come close to the albums from the 70s. The ironically titled ‘Signs of Life’ is an instrumental prelude to ‘Learning to Fly‘ in which Gilmour’s guitar comes into its own, and the uplifting ‘On the Turning Away’ is just beautiful. You can listen to and watch this song here.

After this, two more albums, will follow ‘The division bell’ (1994) and Endless river (2014) The group has promoted ‘The division bell’ extensively in the US and Europe, as well as ‘A momentary lapse of reasonโ€™. From ‘The division bell’, you can watch and listen to ‘High hopes’ here and from ‘Endless river’ to ‘Louder than words’ here. 

Wright died of cancer on 15 September 2008, aged 65. His former bandmates all paid tribute to his life and work; Gilmour said on the occasion that his “soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound”. A week after Wright’s death, Gilmour released “Remember a Day” from A Saucerful of Secrets, written and originally sung by Wright, as a tribute on BBC Two’s programme ‘Later… with Jools Holland’. You can watch and listen to this performance here.

After the disbanding of Pink Floyd in 2008, Nick Mason and David Gilmour go their separate ways. By then, Waters already had been performing under his own name for years, singing old and new songs.

In 2018, Mason formed a new band, ‘Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets’, to perform Pink Floyd’s early material. Both the new band and the audience seem to have lots of fun. You can watch ‘Fearless’ here.

It’s quite a seat, but very much worth it. 52 years after Pink Floyd’s filmed a performance in Pompeii, Nick Mason gives a 2.5-hour concert at this venue with his new band.  You can hear almost all the famous Pink Floyd songs in the process.  Watch the full recording here.

David Gilmour has gone in a different direction, producing his own studio albums. The fifth album, ‘Luck and strange’, was released in June 2024. Gilmour’s wife, novelist Polly Samson, wrote most of the lyrics, which often deal with mortality and ageing. Their children contribute additional vocals, lyrics and instrumentation. This music video for the song ‘Luck and Strange’ includes fragments from 2007 of Richard Wrightโ€™s performing, a year before his death.

The ‘Luck and strange tour’ from September 2024, has visited Circo Massimo in Rome, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Intuit Dome and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Madison Square Garden in New York City. YouTube is teeming with worthless videos of visitors. Instead, you can see here some footage of a rehearsal for these gigs, with a prominent contribution from Romany Gilmour.

By 2013, Pink Floyd had sold more than 250 million records worldwide, making the group one of the best-selling music artists of all time at that time. ‘Dark side of the moon’, ‘The wall’ and ‘Wish you were here’ are among the best-selling albums of all time. Four Pink Floyd albums topped the US Billboard 200 and five the UK Albums Chart. In the Sunday Times Rich List, Music Millionaires 2013 (UK), Waters is at number 12 with an estimated fortune of ยฃ150 million, Gilmour at number 27 with ยฃ85 million and Mason at number 37 with ยฃ50 million. 

So, what makes Pink Floyd a prog rock group? In the first instalment of this series, I listed the characteristics of prog rock. Keeping these in mind, what stands out most are the complex orchestral productions, the musical contrasts, their blending with non-conventional sound effects, the thematic nature of the albums, the depth of the lyrics, the psychedelic – others say ‘spatial’ – nature of many melodies, the long, partly improvised solos, the intertwining of music and design of the albums and the spectacular lighting effects during the concerts.  In the next episode, I will start from the characteristics attributed to prog rock and try to recognise them in songs by various prog rock groups.

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Late 60s: Art-rock and psychedelia (History of rock after 1960 3/6)

In the late 1960s, a growing group of young people started using hallucinogenic drugs. This also applied to musicians, who sought musical inspiration in (hard) drugs and wanted to make music that resonated with this group of young people. Halls of screaming fans were a thing of the past for them, insofar as they still performed publicly.  The 13th Floor Elevators from Austin, Texas, are usually considered the first band to use the term “psychedelic” as early as early 1966. This started with folk rock and later continued across all genres. The harder variants, which usually harkened back to blues rock, were also called acid rock. Many bands added oriental scales and various sonic effects to achieve hypnotic soundscapes. 

The Beatles

After the decline of the Mersey beat, the Beatles in Britain were once again forerunners in the fields of both psychedelia and art-rock, reinventing themselves in albums such as ‘Rubber Soul’ (1965), ‘Revolver'(1966), ‘Sergant Pepper’s lonely hearts club band’ (1967) and ‘Magical mystery tour’ (1967). ‘Rubber soul’ marks the transition to a new period in which the Beatles decided to stop performing in public and only do studio recordings. A feature of the whole album was the expansion of the instrumentation, including a Hammond organ. George Harrison was heard on the sitar for the first time. Critics were complimentary, praising the growing maturity of Lennon and McCartney as lyricists. You can listen to Norwegian wood, a self-contained studio recording, here.

Furher renewal followed a year later. In the first half of that year, the group made its final world tour, which was surrounded by riots caused by right-wing extremists, bad weather and negative publicity. The group was fed up with the screaming fans, most of whom completely drowned out the music. The main reason to cancel touring, however, was that the production of the songs became increasingly complicated and the songs took shape and content by experimenting with the technical possibilities offered by the studio. The themes shifted to existential topics like death, overcoming material needs. Lennon and Harrison drew inspiration from LSD but also from Eastern spiritual movements.

You can listen to a song typical of the album HERE. It is ‘Tomorrow never knows’. This is a ‘drone composition’ that uses only one keynote (C) and otherwise consists of several samples varying in length that are mixed. 

Other songs that may have greater fame are ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Good  day  sunshine’ and ‘Yellow  submarine’. Watch and listen to a relatively recent recording of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ here.  Recorded live in New York 2007, sent by Paul Mc Cartney.

 In the absence of live recordings by the Beatles themselves, I refer to Spotify for listening the albums.  Alternatively, below you will find recordings by the Dutch cover group ‘The Analogues’. This group performs all Beatles songs live, if necessary, with an extensive set of instruments.

‘Sergant Pepper’ followed in 1967, I release ‘Within you, without you’ here. This song is based on a Hindu Veda and, apart from George Harrison, is played on the album exclusively by Eastern musicians. The Analogues managed to perform a meticulous version of this song

Other songs included ‘With a little help from my friends’, ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’, ‘She is leaving home’. All played and sung by ‘The Analogues’.

You can listen to the live unplayable ‘A day in the life’ (followed by ‘Let it be’) here. So much for ‘The Analogues’ contribution, too.

The style of the songs on ‘Sergant Pepper’ – sometimes even within a song – varied widely, The record was considered as a ‘Gesamt Kunstwerk’. That the Beatles’ songs were art was already established after Revolver.  Remarkably, ‘Sergant Pepper’ was initially considered as the Beatles’ best album ever, but as the years went by, ‘Revolver’ took over this position, because of its originality, the quality of the lyrics and the consistency of the songs.

The EP ‘Magical mystery tour’ was the soundtrack to a film of the same name and included well-known songs like ‘Fool on the Hill’. ‘I’am the walrus’ and ‘Hello goodbye. For critics, it was mostly old wine in new bags.

Three more albums would follow:

‘The Beatles’ (the ‘White album’), with songs such as Ob-la- di Ob-la da, While my guitar gently weeps, Julia, Blackbird, I will, Revolution 1 & 9. Most of the songs were much simpler in structure also because the use of LSD had by now been renounced. During the recording, tensions in the group, also due to the ubiquitous presence of Yoko Ono, continued to rise. 

Then came ‘Abbey Road’, whose songs included ‘Come together’, ‘Something’, Maxwell Silver Hammer’ and the 12-minute medley. Critiques were mixed, Some critics felt the sound was too artificial, especially with the overuse of a moog synthesiser. Still, some thought it was the best album ever because it was less pretentious due to the absence of psychedelic influences. Before the album was released, John Lennon had left the group for good. The other members followed soon after.

Their last album was ‘Let it be’ (1970).  Its recording had already started in 1968. According to Paul McCartney, it was supposed to be a solid rock album, with songs that could be performed live, a performance that would be captured on film.  The live performance was limited to a one-off performance on the roof of the Beatles’ record company office, Apple Inc, which led to an unprecedented traffic jam in New York. Songs included: ‘Two of us’, ‘Let it be’, ‘Maggie Mae’, ‘The long and winding road’ and ‘Get back’.

Beach Boys

Another group with high artistic ambitions was ‘the Beach Boys’ and in particular the eldest of the three Wilson brothers, Brian. The song Good vibrations illustrates the artistic direction the group had taken, continuing its original surf sound. Brian Wilson was impressed by the Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’ and he wanted to top that album. To free up enough time to do so, he stopped touring and devoted himself entirely to the production of the album, which was to be the best rock album ever, ‘Petsounds’.

The album ‘Petsounds’ eventually included the following songs ‘You still believe in me’, ‘I know there is an answer‘, ‘Sloop John B’, ‘God only knows’ and ‘I just wasn’t made for these times’. He co-wrote the lyrics with Tony Asher. It was recorded in the studio, with the other band members, but mostly with session musicians. The album uses a variety of instruments. More than the use of technology, the complicated vocals define the character of the album. In recent years (2002 – 2016), Brian Wilson has given a series of live performances of ‘Petsounds’. You can watch and listen to ‘God Only Knows’ (London 2002) here 

Pink Floyd

In the list of art bands with a psychedelic slant, Pink Floyd’s ‘Atom Heart Mother’ cannot be left out. The title track alone lasts 23 minutes, divided into six parts. To play this song, the group had to bring a brass section and a choir. You can watch and listen to a 23-minute recording from London’s Hyde Park (1970) HERE.

More accessible is Pink Floyd’s ‘Arnold Layne’. You can see this song here 40 years after its first performance by a still vital band Pink Floyd (Barbican London 2007)

Finally, I mention ‘Velvet underground with songs like ‘I am waiting for the man’. Jefferson Airplane (‘White rabbit’), the Byrds (‘Eight miles high’) and Iron Butterfly (‘In-a-gadda-da-vida’) 

The Woodstock festival is considered the pinnacle of psychedelic rock. Soon after, this genre was on the wane as many hallucinogens, including LSD were made illegal in both the US and Britain. 

Musicians’ quest to create songs of a high artistic standard was by no means over. Symphonic rock is characterised by poetic lyrics, advanced technology, long solos and demonstrations of high technical skill. The compositions use elements from experimental music (Mike Oldfield), avant-garde music (Eno), classical music (Procol Harum) and jazz (Colosseum). Groups often sufficed with studio recordings, but fortunately some also performed live, often accompanied by extended horn groups (Blood sweat and tears). Moody Blues brought in an entire symphony orchestra when they recorded ‘Days of Future Passed’. From this concert you can see ‘Nights in white satin’ here

Major successes were limited, with only a few groups reaching the top of the charts, Pink Floyd being the most successful. ‘The dark side of the moon’ (1973) is an example of ‘art-rock’ par excellence and is one of the best-selling albums of all time. So are symphonic compositions like ‘The Wall’ by Pink Floyd and Tommy by the Who. In the late 1970s, the utopian ideals of art-rock fell into oblivion. Society hardened, virtuosity was rejected as it was supposed to come at the expense of immediacy and accessibility. We then found ourselves on the eve of punk. Earlier, the numerous ‘glam-rock’ groups expressed resistance to both the revolutionary momentum of the 1960s and the pomposity of art-rock. Members of these groups wore flamboyant clothes, but their music was diverse, ranging from simple but powerful pop songs (Marc Bolan, David Bowie) to more complicated music by Roxy Music.