Pink Floyd

Released: June 13, 1969

Songwriter: Roger Waters

Producer: Pink Floyd

In a churchyard by a river
Lazing in the haze of midday
Laughing in the grasses and the graves

Yellow bird, you are not lone
In singing and in flying on
In laughing and in leaving

Willow weeping in the water
Waving to the river daughters
Swaying in the ripples and the reeds

On a trip to Cirrus Minor
Saw a crater in the sun
A thousand miles of moonlight later

Pink Floyd was a British rock band who managed to carve a path for progressive and psychedelic music in a way that was uniquely fascinating at the time and has remained equally momentous in the modern age. The name “Pink Floyd” came from two blues musicians that founding member Syd Barrett idolized—Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

The band was formed in 1965 London by Barrett (guitars, vocals), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass), and Richard Wright (keyboards). Sometime after releasing their debut album, 1967’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the group saw the addition of a second singer-guitarist, David Gilmour. This acted largely as a means of replacing Barrett, who was forced to leave in 1968 for mental health reasons, resulting in Waters taking over as the main vocalist.

The band broke into the mainstream with 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon, an album that became one of the best-selling and most influential records in music history. Their follow-up efforts, 1975’s Wish You Were Here and 1977’s Animals, also sold well. However, the band started to see some in-fighting while making their next album, a rock opera about how Waters felt frustrated and detached from his audience. Waters seemingly became extremely controlling, firing Wright over disputes about touring and his contributions to the album. The result, 1979’s The Wall, became the best-selling double album of all time. It spawned iconic songs such as the #1 hit, “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2,” and the melodic “Comfortably Numb.”

more tracks from the album

Relics

From the albums

More (Original Film Soundtrack) (1969)
Relics (1971)

Pink Floyd popular songs

Cirrus MinorPink Floyd

Pink Floyd

Relics