tomewing:

I never read Ayn Rand books aged 14 but I did have a winter of being Into Pink Floyd, which I have never really felt any great desire to revisit.* Until now! The endless resources of the Internet being what they are I decided to listen to some Pink Floyd albums again and here is my verdict:

- Dark Side Of The Moon is better than I thought it would be.

- Wish You Were Here I thought would be better than DSOTM but isn’t. (The whole “about Syd Barrett” thing gives it emotional resonance but it’s resonance they hit a lot better in the last couple of tracks of Dark Side I think.)

- Animals is awful!** I don’t think I was into all the Sheep/Pigs “allegory” even as a teenager but it didn’t infuriate me quite so much and I’d forgotten eg. how terrible and forced the “Ha ha! Charade you are!” line sounds and how bad they are at swearing. If there’s one thing pop music has learned since 1977 it’s how to swear without sounding like naughty schoolboys, well, except if you’re Mumford And Sons.

Haven’t dared tackle The Wall.

*aside from the Early Funny Stuff.

**though it has the best sleeve.

yes Animals is rough stuff. Listened to it recently for the first time in ages, and agree the “har-har—-chararde you are” line is just dire. I had thought, since I was a kid, that Waters was singing about Nixon or something in the “HEY! YOU!—WHITE HOUSE!” verse, but it’s really about Mary Whitehouse (so sez Wikipedia)???

the Floyd record I rediscovered, & which I’ve really come to enjoy, is Obscured by Clouds.