When Floyd Came Second

There have been few bands on this planet who are on Pink Floyd's level when it comes to having been innovative and adventurous. But why on earth did they miss out on the Moonlanding/Space Flight issue and let David Bowie get all the honour for spearheading rock music in that department? And why did it even take two more years after Bowie released a song called "Life On Mars" that Pink Floyd named an album "Dark Side Of The Moon"? I am not doubting the majestic quality of that album, no way never, but wasn't it all a bit late for a band that should have been upfront instead of legging lightyears behind Mr. Bowie? He was headed for Mars when they were till exploring the Moon.

That's because Bowie is awesome, no doubt about it. And Pink Floyd wasn't exactly a chart-topping band in 1970 when Bowie did Life On Mars. Floyd was still trying to find their sound. They were still doing space rock, they just weren't singing about it, which is kinda nice actually since that's what you'd think they'd sing about.

I see what you mean, but in "Life On Mars" Bowie wasn't factually singing about the planet itself either but used the imagery to create certain connotations. The feelings, excitement, fears and all other notions which were around then in connection with the beginning era of space travelling. And just by having the word "Mars" in the title Bowie widened the perceptive abilities of his audience. Bowie was good in reflecting that and gained in image from that. Floyd missed out on that and I wouldn't justify this by saying they were non-conformist. They just didn't see what was there.

Try listening to A Saucerful of Secrets.

Flying saucers or what?

Don't you think Pink Floyd singing about space would have been very contrived and boring?

It would have been okay in 1969, but that is not the point. As I said Bowie wasn't singing about factual "Life On Mars" either. The point is that he was using the contemporary "atmosphere" of space travelling to express something completely different. An extra layer of understanding and fantasy between artist an audience. Expressionism.

Pink Floyd certainly pioneered "space rock", but quickly grew out of the "Neptune Titan stars can frighten" type of imagery and chose much deeper avenues of exploration, still incorporating subtle references to the moon, the sun, "black holes in the sky" etc. I don't think they missed out on anything.

Yeah, this whole "let's leave the comfort of our own forum and go bug the APFFN kids" is pretty exhausting.

I suspected those Zappa morons.

Hey at least it isn't a wave of My Chemical Romance forumsters.
*knock on wood*

Yeah, right. After Hawkwind.

Nonce!

I shudder at the though of being overrun by the AllDuranDuranfan.net gang.

You're all wrong! After the Roswell crash, the alien's body was found and it's flatulence sounded like Black Sabbath with lots of sloppy synthesizers and saxophones all over.

Does that even exsist?
Shall we build a wall?