Pink Floyd and Philosophy

If punk music was all about rejecting authority, getting back to basics, paying attention to what you really feel and think and dream (and not what commercial interests tell you to feel and think and dream), then Pink Floyd was punk long before The Ramones and the Sex Pistols.

But some (and some writing in this book) think that Barrett was more in control of his withdrawal than the acid-casualty story suggests. Everyone wants to be a rock star, right? We assume that anyone who opts out after a few singles, a well-received album, and appearances on “Top of the Pops” must have been derailed by something outside of their control. Maybe. But Syd had a way of seeing things differently, as his music suggests.

If you wanted to be hip in the late 1970s, you could be like Johnny Rotten and wear a T-shirt that declared “I hate Pink Floyd.”