The Decibel Tolls

Last Friday, The Decibel Tolls received one of the most epic comments I’ve ever seen on a music blog. This bro/broette had a lot to say concerning a rather controversial entry written back in September titled A Pox on Roger Waters. Coincidentally (or synchronistically, your pick), this argument against post-1971, Waters/Wright-helmed Pink Floyd was published only a few days before Rick Wright passed. I make no bones about my allegiance to Syd Barrett, and of course, I certainly expected impassioned responses in the thread. But our fair commenter left a novella. Since the aforementioned post is nine months old, I wanted to make sure all you dudes saw it by republishing the comment(s). But, I mean, shit, if anyone else writes a veritable thesis in the comments section, I’d certainly give him/her an entry of his/her own as well. The comments, unedited and in sequence, are below…

Ok, so, I checked out Summer of 68 for the first time, at your suggestion, and it sounds trajically like the Beatles caught the flu and collaborated with the Monkees and a garage band version of Chicago. I was surprised at how horrible it was, after so much hoopla and insistence that the old Floyd was so superior, from yourself and so many others over the years, and so convincingly so. Typed in “roger waters sucks” today in google, after watching his rubbish video called “Three Wishes”. It’s depressingly and awkwardly sucky, and it’s sad to see him as a grey-haired older man, still making reference to the fact that he “wishes his old man hadn’t been gone when he was young”, and admitting “I wish someone would help me write this song”. I bet you do, Roger. Gilmour, maybe? Mason? Funny thing is, Gilmour didn’t write his lyrics either, on his solo stuff, his wife did. Pink Floyd is a classic case of “the sum is greater than the parts”, as none of Gilmour’s solo stuff, as I call it, officially referred to as “Pink Floyd minus Waters”, was top shelf like some of the other stuff – The Wall, Dark Side (sort of) and Wish You Were Here. Funny thing is, I call them top shelf, but the common element in all the Floyd I’m referring to as “top shelf” is just Gilmour’s awesome guitar playing – he makes it wail like no other. But really when you dissect it, you find the songs themselves to be as you described – overly polished, and after you listen to them a couple hundred million times, they give you a f**** headache. The Wall was Roger’s attempt at self-indulgent rock opera, and so many people liked it probably because they felt like it must be good since it was so “different, and you know, man, it’s Pink Floyd”. Who cares. Gilmour’s guitar is awesome, Wright was great, Mason was great…Waters? Well, creative, but cheesily so, and I agree, unintentionally hilarious. Just my opinion.

Wow. Felt so strongly about this, I had to ammend my above post…I’m almost speechless, but I’ll try to get through this haze of disillusion and be coherent. I listened to the other tracks as well, Vegetable Man, and Astronomy Domine, and Nightmare is playing now as I type this. How appropriately titled, for starters. Again, wow. I feel like I just watched a low-budget horror film in its entirety with a friend who insists that it’s the greatest theatrical work of all time. With art, it’s all about what it means to you, and I can’t take that away from anyone, I’m just not seeing the significance of calling this “focused”, I think they may have been focused, but the result was not. Focused, in this case, is a relative term. I suppose if you are a person who likes seemingly random, pseudo-complicated, pseudo-creative ramblings that come off sounding like the b-side tracks from a Cream album, then this is genius work. I venture to say, that those of us who prefer something a bit more “standardized”, but definitely not overly so, as in the case of pure pop, or basically anything made since 1990 that calls itself “rock” somehow, aren’t necessarily missing the boat, we just don’t have the appreciation that you do for what seems like, well “a bunch of potheads fucking around in a (cheap) studio”. The more things change, the more they stay the same, maybe? In any case, if you can get over the fact that Alan Parsons “fucked with the knobs”, and stop thinking that Yes has anything to do with this at all, it’s good stuff. But then, even though Alan Parsons isn’t daily listening to me, more like an occasional speaker test (along with some other highly polished tunes from Dire Straits), it does have musical significance, especially with regards to high fidelity, which is personally important to me as well. Not at the expense of cheesy music, but there is something to be said for clarity. So, in summary, Pink Floyd is Waters/Gilmour, and especially Gilmour’s guitar. But then, I’m not as categorically conscious as some.

Embarrasingly needed clarification: when I said [In any case, if you can get over the fact that Alan Parsons “fucked with the knobs”, and stop thinking that Yes has anything to do with this at all, it’s good stuff.], “it” was referring to Pink Floyd with Gilmour and Waters, specifically The Wall, Dark Side, Animals, Wish You Were Here.

Ok, last post. That old Floyd stuff was so horrible, I think it actually ruined my day. It was so horribly boring and under-developed, like maybe the musical equivalent of a Michael Stipe lyric, but on lots of pot, that it just took away my focus. Now my head is filled with the endless draggings on of that Nightmare song, and it has taken me from alert to mind-numb. I guess the significance of the song is just that maybe? Makes you feel like either you already did drugs, or want to? I’ve had a few cups of coffee, and now even that isn’t enough to keep me clear after that, the effects have instantly wore off. Even more coffee will not change this feeling – it’s just stuck. Crap, I can’t think of anything that will ditch it. Time heals all wounds, as they say. I certainly hope so in this case. I’d hate to find out I just caught the Syd Barrett mental state. Maybe it’s contagious, comes from the music they were making pre-Wish You Were Here, and only those band members have the antidote. I may have to call upon Roger Waters for the cure. Nevermind, judging from the lyrics Waters wrote on his solo stuff, he finally caught it too. So did Gilmour – his face puffed up in the last 15 years, and his guitar playing definitely went downhill after The Wall. If anyone knows of a cure for this, please let me know.

I’m not sure if I caught all that – but yeah, totally dude. This is my favorite Syd Barrett song – I hope this helps.

MP3 :::
Syd Barrett – No Good Trying