The artist David Gilmour called the true prog-rock guitarist
Prog-rock ushered in the rock landscape of the 1970s, moving away from the spaced-out hippiedom of the previous decade and pursuing something far more modern, and typically much more experimental.
Along the way, Pink Floyd were cited among the key trailblazers of the scene, despite the band themselves paying little to no attention to that genre tag.
Pink Floyd, in many ways, should be a musical genre of its own. Throughout their existence, and all the countless different sounds and sonic experiments they embraced within those iconic records, the group were largely in a league of their own, with everybody else either unwilling or unable to try and emulate their beloved output.
During the early days of the band, of course, they had been at the very forefront of Britain’s psychedelic age, expanding the minds of listeners everywhere through the otherworldly writing of Syd Barrett, but those days didn’t last forever.
After Barrett was unceremoniously sacked from his position in the band, the group continued their psychedelic explorations, but they quickly split off into multiple different avenues of artistic inspiration. By the time The Dark Side of the Moon arrived in 1973, they were a completely different group with a totally original sound.
Given that album’s penchant for extensive runtimes and complex compositions, though, it was quickly painted with the prog brush by the music press of the time.
In fairness, it is easy to see how the band were lumped in with prog. After all, there isn’t a prog outfit out there that didn’t owe a core part of their inspiration to the records churned out by Roger Waters and the gang. Still, guitarist David Gilmour never paid much heed to the prog world, and he certainly didn’t view himself as a prog guitarist, despite what others would have the masses believe.
For Gilmour, there were key fundamental differences which he saw as separating him from the world of prog guitarists. Namely, the seriousness of their output. “We didn’t talk about style, and I’ve never talked about progressive rock, or thought that we were, whatever, progressive rock,” the guitarist told Rick Beato earlier this year. “To me, progressive rock is very, very serious players who can really do their stuff.”
That quote does beg the question, does David Gilmour view himself as an unserious player, who cannot do his stuff? Regardless, the former Pink Floyd leader was quick to highlight an example of his thinking, and landed upon the unforgettable sounds of Steve Howe from prog giants Yes or, as Gilmour called him, “The wonderful Steve Howe.”
“You know, lovely guy, lovely guitar player,” the guitarist explained. “But I’d never thought of us in those terms at all.”
Howe is a particularly interesting example for Gilmour to cite, not only because there are certain similarities between the pair, but also because the Yes guitarist had previously performed on the same bills as Pink Floyd during his pre-Yes days alongside Tomorrow, suggesting that both guitarists were certainly in the same sonic realm.
Nevertheless, it is near-impossible to dispute Howe’s prog credentials, with the guitarist having established the inherent sounds of prog guitar almost single-handedly. Whether or not he had a similar skillset to Gilmour is an argument for guitar and prog obsessives to engage in between themselves, but either way, it seems clear that Pink Floyd were never keen to be tarred with the prog brush.
