I agree with you somnolence, none of their albums ever really captured the excitement that was on Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Wish You Were Here, Meddle and Darkside of the Moon are all great albums and sold well but they lack a certain level of innovation or spark that the early Floyd possessed – they were basically progressive rock for the masses, enough pop for the pop audience but also underground enough to keep the heads from bitching. This group has arguably never wrote a better song than See Emily Play tho- one of rock’s all-time great singles – there has never been a single that sounds like it, other than maybe Dantalian Chirot’s Madman Running Thru The Fields – another fantastic song. But amen to Syd Barrett, he was a true legend who has always cast a long shadow over Floyd’s subsequent releases.

But genius? Undeniably. I’m casting my vote here.

Each year, there are fewer and fewer “classic rock” albums that still have some freshness to them each time a royalty payment from commercial radio strips just a bit more of their magic away. The process of dehumanization is twofold. First, you learn to tune the songs you once deeply loved into the background’s white noise. Then you learn to loathe them.

This was the album that taught me to listen for something new every single time you replay great music. That taught me, really, how to always be prepared to be surprised by life. There aren’t as many insights these days, but it’s still a while before it becomes white noise. And that’s no small achievement.

Love your site… Ford told me about it when I was on tour…. dark side rules!!!

rob

One other thing on the sync: if any of you happen to be into geocaching, I hid one in Chicago a while back inspired by the Wizard of Oz/Dark Side thing called Dark Side of the Park which (wow, I’m just now realizing) got a mention in the Chicago Tribune.