Before Tangerine Dream got their hands on every soundtrack this side of the ‘70s Pink Floyd were the perfect fit for this ever expanding artistic world known as film. Gone were the orchestras led by Bernard Hermann, in were the in studio experimentations and other forms presented not exactly seen on other LPs. While the films were crafted with a distinct eye, the Floyd were willing to let a certain side of them show that they weren’t on their regular albums. And who better to soundtrack these nascent developments into a new wave of directors love of experimental cinema and free range of the modern avant garde than the band that best exemplified it. The band would now use their film soundtracking as a through line to help their studio experiments which then aided their live show overtime.
The majority of these films were expressionistic, eclectic, and occasionally downright flat footed in their attempt to be artistic or boundary breaking, inadvertently tying them to the period of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s aping of earlier European cinema. Regardless, its newfound freedom allowed them to mesh with the culture like none had before. From their immediate nuclear bomb entrance into the psychedelic world both as a musical and visual entity, the Floyd and their specific feel—coupled with their love of theatrics and willingness to set tone and ambiance over strict songwriting—were a perfect fit for these new artistic developments.
Bookends 1: Tonite Let’s All Make Love In London and Speak
Tonite Let’s All Make Love In London is a very period accurate film demonstrating the early Floyd in their most AMM Syd Barrett U-FO deconstrionist tendencies. Super swinging London and the first time they were properly documented, and even then it’s easy to see how different they were compared to everyone, and how different they were from your other pop stardom seeking groups at the time, despite having the pop song structure for it. This film more so demonstrates their live experimentations with Nick’s Boogie, a drum laden excursion, and their infamous Interstellar Overdrive coupled with dancers, lights, and wild performances. That it’s a foetus level capture of a band already so developed and sure of itself is but one important aspect, but the most important one is that they were so willing to peer into the world of film and document themselves, a picture of what was to come once Syd had left the band.
Concurrent to that, one of the last entryways with Syd into their psychedelic acid period was to an obscure art film made in 1962 with the music of the Floyd added in 1967. John Lathem was a classmate of theirs from college and the film Speak would play behind them at U-FO during their most intense unstructured forms. If you’re one for living right in an early 1967 U-FO experimentation then this is for you. It is as experimental as it gets, and the first time they would grow from pure deconstruction to a newer style of moody experimentation found in just a short time later.
The Committee
Their second dive into the world of experimental film was in 1968's, The Committee, where they provided music to a film just under an hour long. Interesting as it is the first time the group attempted such a feat [of making music for film] and is a window into their tentative—still embryonic—emerging of their psychedelic post Syd era once David joins the band. Despite being lacklustre overall instrumentally, it does contain one very important piece of the puzzle, The Committee Part 7. The Committee Part 7 is the first time Careful With That Axe Eugene was laid to tape after being a sped up instrumental piece set during their live shows. While still existing in a mid-tempo form, it’s the first time the group started to walk away from their Syd territory and towards their love of floating minor key ambience they’d so willingly absorb themselves in later. It was this chance at soundtracking a film that they were awarded the ability to put their road tests on tape and relish in its ideas.
After Syd their speedier entries would gradually slow down to the now familiar spliff Floyd tempo we are all familiar with once David Gilmour joins the band. Once the initial rush of acid wore off by 1969 the band had become the biggest underground group in Europe. No doubt this was helped by their early chart success and early auditorium live show, which built them a large dual audience of young men, women, and studious college types. This audience and chart placement allowed them to relax a bit but also give them the ability to really hone in and stretch their limbs in regards to their experimental and fanatical tendencies learned live, in the studio, and with their film experiments. Ultimately this leads to their first attempt at a full on stage performance as The Man and The Journey seen later on.
More and Zabriskie Point
In 1969, Barbet Schroeder approached the group to soundtrack the impressionistic More. More was successful in capturing that middle period between albums, what it was like between phases of pure trailblazing songwriting, psychedelic wistfulness drifting into the mood scenes they would become known for in just a few months. It’s a nice snapshot of the band that was not seen on their albums or even featured on their live releases at the time, especially Up The Khyber, Main Theme, and Quicksilver, which were either represented song wise or spiritually on the fantastic man the journey. In addition, it’s also a wonderful sesh record, a nice change from the Syd years to the countryside early ‘70s Floyd feel so many love.
Cirrus Minor starts us off with a plaintive Gilmour lead vocal over top of some simple acoustic riffs, but where the song truly shines is Richard Wright’s otherworldly keyboards floating around the song before shifting into that Celestial Voices style keyboard pattern the group defined their sound around. Green Is The Colour is one of the groups loveliest songs and Cymbaline would become a solid mainstay of their live career, even merging with their song Footsteps, included into its midsection complete with stereophonic mutations.
Even though it feels wrong, the infamous Nile Song is one of the Floyd’s best costume pieces. As demonstrated later in their career, they were quite the visceral hard rock band both in their Nick Mason wild man days and their controlled later years. This is a nice change of pace considering it has one of David’s best vocal parts, but I’m glad the Floyd only did this once as this was overdone in the era. Similarly if not more truncated, Ibiza Bar makes good on this promise, if not for including more dynamics and musical progressions, then to continue a different interest overall. Somehow despite the band working outside their comfort zone, they still sound like themselves regardless of slotting into that genre. However, it’s worth noting the Floyd performed neither song often in their live careers, much preferring the textures of Cymbaline, Eugene, Grandchester Meadows etc, truly showing they wore the clothes once but much preferred the ones that fit.
On the flip side, their infamous ambient excursions flourished alongside their songwriting tendencies in tracks like Quicksilver, Up The Khyber, and Main Theme. Songs that were performed and mutated per live performance in their infamous The Man And a the Journey 1969 stage show alongside material from Ummagumma, both creations that were borne out of their film experiments. Both of these ideas gave birth to how DSOTM would later be formatted as a stage show presented as Eclipse in 1972, and their in studio experimentations (which came out of their contract rules to have essentially unlimited studio time) allowed them eons of space to grow: something born out of the culture laid down by the Beatles and the new psychedelic market and ultimately shown the way by film in the countries episcenter.
The Floyd, while infamous for their arguments regarding musical direction, sound, and feel would last for hours in polite yet pointed discussion at dinner tables and coffee shops long into their career, ironically the earliest seeds of their post Syd Barrett sound had already formed itself by the time the end of 1969 rolled around. Cirrus Minor and its church like static and leslieless organ chords were already a part of their sound with the Celestial Voices section of A Saucerful Of Secrets, reflecting it as well as later tracks like Echoes, and the last couple of parts of Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
Similarly Careful With That Axe Eugene went through a row of permutations before finally settling on its familiar form as it was heard originally in The Committee. That song became the bedrock for their sound going forward, reflected in the Funky Dung section of Atom Heart Mother, Any Colour You Like, and the midsection of Dogs. This allowed them to achieve a sort of neutralness in terms of tone—not exactly blues, jazz, or other rock based feelings.
Now each member had preferences and feels through their music and richard wright’s jazz dalliances, but, as far as overall picture of the music, it’s this very tempo and structure that allowed them to achieve the moody ambient idea that we attach to the band (along with their floating keyboard tendencies and fractured guitar), both temperaments achieved by effects and panning. It’s why outside of a few songs it’s so hard to cover their music, because you’re not quite strumming and riffing along like other groups, it’s a whole different feel entirely.
Zabriskie Point
Following up More the band went straight to Antonioni’s infamous flop turned cult item Zabriskie Point, with a firm understanding of their atmospheric songs out the gate, a pulsing creepy delay laden song called Heartbeat Pig Meat, (later its intro would be sampled by Boards of Canada). Even previous Committee favorite Eugene shows up here again albeit in a different key and titled under Come In Number 51 Your Time Is Up, showing how proud they were of their clothes to show off on screen again. Previous dressup still exists with Crumbling Land and Country Song, but while the former is a cliched attempt at uptempo fingerpicking country, the latter at least sounds nothing like country but more or less like what they would do more successfully in the next year.
While most of the soundtrack flirts with jazzy blues and country improvisations and songs, Love Scene Version 4 has some lovely Richard Wright piano playing which would be further showcased on the song Riot Scene. Riot Scene was not used for the film, director Antonioni stated it was “too sad and reminded him of church” and so they saved it for later. Zabriskie Point contains some of the most folk and country based material and it is clear here how it laid the groundwork for songs like San Tropez.
Within these films they allowed themselves to be adapted to other musical and cultural feelings outside their own norm. The Grateful Dead, The Band, Neil Young were not only contemporaries but influences, musically but also within film. It’s not hard to see when something like Crumbling Land coexists beside The Weight or Dire Wolf, and that’s because of what was expected of these directors, and what was being represented by culture and its exports at that time in the wake of Easy Rider.
It also allowed the band to start expressing themselves within the cliched mode of “country song” or “blues feeling” as not only evidenced by their song titles on More and Zabriskie Point (crying song, Nile song, riot sequence etc) but also a tool they would use in the studio with Meddle (two minutes upbeat two minutes romantic etc). This technique and requirement of what was needed via the directors a la “we need this style of song since we want that band but here we have you.” It allowed them to breathe and buckle to trends in a sense that lead the way towards songs like Wish You Were Here.
Their comfort behind the camera lended itself to a comfort in front of it as well, albeit in their own way. When appearances on television like fan titled Corrosion In the Pink Room and performing for the BBC during the moon landing an improvisation entitled Moonhead it was already clear by the decade's end that Pink Floyd had crafted a lane of their own from film, studio, and live experimentation and work. And that itself would pave its way for people like Ron Geisson to come in and show them tape and experimental techniques that they themselves would attempt to use on Atom Heart Mother, mainly in Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast.
While the film aspect of their career was demonstrated in the lengthy orchestral experiment in the title track and If and Fat Old Sun, both of which came from these embraced tendencies but this time around are closer to the Floyd than what was delivered previously. In terms of their growing confidence, if you compare the 1970 version of songs to the late 1971 versions live, it is truly night and day. Their confidence in performing comes directly from their links with the aforementioned films.
With regards to their albums, Pink Floyd were about as studious and intense about presentation in all aspects as anyone. By the time Meddle came out they were intense about providing the listener their best work. They would always continue to write Floyd like music but within other clothes with Obscured and even their solo albums, as is inevitable once bands and members truly find themselves after their initial soul searching.
Live At Pompeii
These moments and offerings of studio time were essential to their existence going forward, both to compensate for the absence of Syd and to define themselves outside of him. Their four personalities of mild mannered middle class men without a penchant for flash or spotlight perfectly reflected their ability to create such pieces of minor key ambiance seen here. This development of the film music live led to the bands growth into Adrien Maben.
Live At Pompeii was the last time the band would be used by someone else, but also the first time they would have some control of all this music they had created out of film and for their stage show. It was a culmination of their existence and image. A wonderful documentation of the Floyd live and in the studio comes at the height of their pre Dark Side era. Maben’s work was the last time the group would be under someone’s lens, and the first time they were ready to define themselves out of all the work done previously. Aside from being a great live document, it’s also a fun look at the group's camaraderie and sense of polite, dry, uber British middle class sensibilities and truly one of the greatest concert films ever.
Obscured By Clouds (La Vallée)
The group however never fully left the world of soundtracks. The movie soundtracks were not just an excuse to try on the new clothes they were allowed to see on their usual album statements, it was a way for them to further explore their musical developments and mirror what they had done and would continue to do. Famously, Obscured By Clouds was recorded concurrently with Dark Side yet retains a different production value and feel overall. It retains its synthesizer underpinnings and marks yet its flirtations with breezy folk (something the band always seemed to be obsessed with whether it was A Pillow of Winds, Grandchester Meadows, or Goodbye Blue Sky) or showing where they had been with tracks like Obscured by Clouds or Childhood's End (reflecting Time) and what might be one of their most beautiful songs Wots Uh The Deal. They were a group that would use all that they had learned to reflect, try on, experiment, and live within their song choices overall.
On Obscured they used synthesizer experiments throughout the album that would lead towards pieces like Welcome To The Machine, despite the experiments being more improv and knob twiddle based than they were usually accustomed to presenting on their albums. This includes the title track, When You’re In, Mudmen, and Free Four. In addition to their usual hard rock costume piece with Gold It's In The? And the decidedly Time sounding Childhoods End, this album contains some of the most Rick centric pieces including Mudmen, and the lovely ballad Stay. Obscured by Clouds was the last time the band were asked by someone else to put music to their picture, and the last time they attempted country, hard rock, or experimentations once they had become fully formed. Their hard rock songs were starting to become strong enough to stand on their own as Floydian classics (Time, eventually Have A Cigar), country influences as well with the wonderful Wots, Uh The Deal, and the experiments were streamlined and even performed live on a regular basis with the title track often flowing into When You’re In.
It was this stopgap of an album recorded after Dark Side was written and being fleshed out in the studio that they had finally found their footing, aided by all their recording time and film experience that they were able to stand on their own and start using their own film for their own music. Appropriately, ending this period is an organ led film sampled chant driven song titled Absolutely Curtains, closing out the door on their most fruitfully collaborative period led by the quietest member’s contributions, the one whose soul gave birth to their most distinctive sound overall.
Bookend 2: Crystal Voyager and French Windows
One of the most famous surf films ever, reflects the notion of utilizing technology to present uncut footage of rip curl surfing set entirely to Echoes. The band agreed for the song to be used so they could use the footage live while playing the song. The group was one of the first to project footage live while they performed, and did so famously with pieces like French Windows during the song One Of These Days, the entirety of DSOTM, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (both sides), and Welcome To The Machine. Evidently their film experimentations had grown on them. By 1974, their first tours with the aptly named “Mr Screen” the circular projection screen used for their films, they had custom made footage for the dark side of the moon portion and later on in the 77 tours, for Wish You Were Here.
Going forward the group's thesis of utilizing film experiences for their studio and live growth was fully realized by this point in 1974. It had also allowed their musical tendencies to reflect the outside world and their own, helping them grow along the way into territories previously unseen. Afterwards it heightened their live shows and permitted throughout their main albums. It was altogether necessary for the films to present the music and vice versa, with both sides coming through in a way that would’ve fallen apart without the other. By this point with performing in front of projections they had gone from working for others to working for themselves and projecting their own music for their own films. A full projection of themselves. From here on out until the end they would only come to work for themselves and represent themselves either from their own perspective or how they wanted themselves to be perceived. Pink Floyd after this point would become their own entity, despite whoever was running the show.