Pink Floyd

Released: March 21, 1983

Songwriter: Roger Waters

Producer: James Guthrie Michael Kamen Roger Waters

[Verse 1]
They disembarked in '45
And no-one spoke and no-one smiled
There were too many spaces in the line
Gathered at the cenotaph
All agreed with the hand on heart
To sheath the sacrificial Knifes
But now
She stands upon Southampton dock
With her handkerchief
And her summer frock clings
To her wet body in the rain
In quiet desperation knuckles
White upon the slippery reins
She bravely waves the boys goodbye again

[Verse 2]
And still the dark stain spreads between
Their shoulder blades
A mute reminder of the poppy fields and graves
And when the fight was over
We spent what they had made, but
In the bottom of our hearts we felt the final cut

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.”

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