I want to say why I consider Pink Floyd to be "all that".... and I'm not trying to convince anyone to see it my way, especially Q , because I like his posts and I usually agree with him. He's got a right not to like any given performer, for whatever reasons he feels are valid.
But I gotta come clean.... the hippie jokes just made me
Anyway, what follows is only my opinion and memories. You are welcome to point out any inaccuracies. But of course, in the end, you'll be wrong.
I consider Pink Floyd to be masters of the concept album (CA from now on).
I would loosely define a CA as a recorded work where the parts or movements are somehow related to each other.
Certainly PF didn't invent the CA. Mussorgsky created Pictures at An Exhibition. Ravel orchestrated it. ELP progged it. Each movement attempts to describe a painting of the composers dead friend. But that's classical. For me, the first true rock genre CA was the Pretty Things: SF Sorrow, but I'm sure there are others that can be argued for. Around this same time period The Who produced Tommy which was a spinoff from a true CA genre called Rock Operas, the difference being Rock Operas vocals are sung by different characters like in a stage show. Floyd's The Wall is a rock opera to me. So is Jesus Christ Superstar, which might actually be the first rock opera. Rice and Webber initially conceived of it as a CA, not a play or stage show. As an aside, its recent performance on NBC, Easter Sunday was sensational.
Jethro Tull made fun on the concept genre with the release of Thick As a Brick, a mock CA. Of course TAAB was the bands response to their dislke of the widespread belief that Aqualung was a also a CA. And regardless of what Anderson says, it was. I mean, side one has songs about the nature of mankind. The second side has songs about the nature of God. The two sides of the LP are subtitled "Aqualung" and "My God", and that artwork text ... "in the beginning man created god... If it wasn't an intentional CA , it certainly fell together pretty precisely into a great one.
The Beatles had their try at a CA as well with Sgt Pepper. Musically it was only partially a CA, but it did do something nearly all good CA would do thereafter... it would include the album packaging in the concept.
Enter Pink Floyd. After the loss of Syd in the psychedelic 60's they struggled for an identity. None were particularly talented musicians (that was supposed to be Syd's part), although Gilmour turned into a truly special guitarist. Before they released Meddle, a PF release would have a decent song or two with a lethal dose of psychedelic filler ... or worse. I still don't like the title track from Atom Heart Mother. but side 2 is OK. And although Meddle wasn't a concept album, in hindsight you can see it was the tune-up for a great one.
With Dark Side of the Moon, Roger Waters took greater control of the songwriting, including the concepts. He gave sound effects a more prominent part. The album packaging was fully involved the concept. Gilmour continued the musical evolution he found on Meddle. But to me DSOTM is king of CAs because any part of it can convey an independent idea or story, yet when combined the overall theme is so much bigger than the individual parts. You need not listen to Money to fully understand what Time is about, but the two are related in the context of "things that drive men mad" (the briefest explanation of the overriding theme of the album). Every song that has lyrics, has great lyrics. And the guitar work is stunning.
Next is the album of the hour, the one that instigated this thread, WYWH. Its partially a tribute to Syd and partially an inditement of the music business. Those two themes are related in that the "You" in Wish You Were Here is Syd and the "Here" is the level of success the band was having. Awesome packaging touting a theme of surrealism... what's real and what isn't, like with mental illness. Also a new musical twist called bookending. I think it was just new for PF though, I'm pretty sure others had already done it (like Sgt. Pepper?). The album starts and ends with Shine On You Crazy Diamond (who is Syd of course). I love the way the song musically builds. And I think it offers some of Gilmours best guitar work, ever. It has the best sound effects. The radio tuning and the entry/exit on the "machine" are classic.
Next up is Animals, inspired by George Orwell's Animal Farm. The pigs are the politicians, the dogs are the corporate magnates, and we are the sheep. For me, things drop off a bit here. The lyrics aren't as good, the music has more filler, the concept isn't as clever. But to many its their favorite PF release. The fantastic Gilmour guitar work is still there, including some of his best riffs. Less sound effects. More bookending.
On to The Wall. Like I said... really its a rock opera. It was conceived as a film from the start I believe. You can google the concept on your own for this one if you need to. I thought this was better at the time of release than I did in later years. I always thought it was a step down musically. But think of how high DSOTM and WYWH set the bar to begin with. It too has some fantastic lyrics, but not universally so.
The PF finale is The Final Cut, better known as the first Roger Waters solo album. I like parts of it... the Gunners Dream and Two Suns are PF worthy. Not Now John is a hoot. There certainly is a concept expressed, but the magic Gilmour moments are few and far between.
Still, even with the later albums not quite living up to the earlier ones, it was a great string of concept albums. Not one you are likely to see repeated for quite some time. The Water-less Floyd produced Floyd like music without as much concept while the Floyd-less Waters produced a lot of concepts with a growing emphasis on politics, but with no Gilmour magic at all.
PF gave us the CAs that came to define the CA genre.
