35 Best Pink Floyd Songs

By Michael Perone /

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9. "Green Is the Colour" 10. "Cymbaline" €“from More Believe it or not, Pink Floyd actually used to compose music for avant-garde, independent foreign films, such as this one, right after Barrett left. I guess they were simultaneously looking for work and a musical direction in which to take the band. Both of these songs were beautiful ballads, but "Cymbaline" is probably the prettiest song in the bunch on this album, most telling in the chorus with a soft-spoken, lilting flute line, which was very uncharacteristic of the band, especially then. Musically, they were starting to grow and stretch beyond Barrett's silly limericks and mad nursery rhymes.

11. "Atom Heart Mother" 12. "If" 13. "Fat Old Sun" €“from Atom Heart Mother The title track, which is also the opening number of the album, is a gorgeous, nearly 24-minute opus with almost as many movements as an orchestral piece. I think my favorite bit though is the haunting middle, with its eerie chorus of moans and melancholy chords that would fit right at home in a chilling cemetery scene. "If" was the first song that made me pay attention to who was writing what. I noticed that it was the strongest entry on this album and discovered that it was the only one completely written by Waters. This is when my love of the band shifted from the whole to the bassist, who had a way of penning a great line and memorable melody (think "Another Brick in the Wall"). Powerful, moving, and yet quiet, Waters notes: "If I were a swan/I'd be gone/If I were a train/I'd be late/If I were a good man/I'd talk to you more often than I do." I included "Fat Old Sun" just for the miracle that is David Gilmour's guitar, whose amazing solo at the finale eclipses the vocals, as they trail away.

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14. "One of These Days" €“from Meddle A mostly instrumental freakout that was the hallmark of most of their live performances at the time, "One of These Days" was simultaneously inspiring and frightening. How frightening? The end of the title's phrase is, "...I'm going to cut you into little pieces." Yikes! Gilmour has gone on record to say it's Pink Floyd's most collaborative song, and you can hear it, in every joyous, unnerving minute.