Every song that Pink Floyd never played live
Throughout their half-century history, Pink Floyd evolved through several distinctive chapters, all bound by experimental introspection. On a less granular level, the band’s history can be divided into three movements: the first being the psychedelic mid-1960s led by Syd Barrett, the second led by Roger Waters and finally, the post-Waters era led by David Gilmour.
When they first formed in 1964, Pink Floyd began playing mainly rhythm and blues compositions, but it wasn’t long before they sculpted an abstract sound to bend the formalities of rock music. Under Barrett’s early leadership, Pink Floyd joined the likes of Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience as one of Britain’s most promising psychedelic rock band psychedelic rock bands.
In the run-up to their debut album, 1967’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn, psychedelic instrumental voyages would be augmented by rudimentary light shows achieved using colour slides and domestic light bulbs. During this early period, a Sunday Times article stated: “At the launching of the new magazine ‘IT’ the other night, a pop group called the Pink Floyd played throbbing music while a series of bizarre coloured shapes flashed on a huge screen behind them … apparently very psychedelic.”
With Syd Barrett front and centre, this early incarnation would also hear keyboardist Richard Wright handle a share of the lead vocals. However, while creating A Saucerful of Secrets in late 1967 and early ‘68, Roger Waters began to take a firm grasp on Pink Floyd’s creative direction as Barrett faded under mental illness. Ultimately, Gilmour would be brought in as a replacement guitarist.
Waters’ lengthy and prolific spell helming the band was undoubtedly its most profitable, artistically and financially. Following a run of uneven transitional albums in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Pink Floyd hit full stride with 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon and maintained a similar level of fan engagement and critical favour through the rest of the decade, ending on the highly conceptual double album, The Wall.
The Wall marked a commercial zenith, mostly thanks to ‘Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’. However, the project was tarnished by frayed relationships within the band. Notably, Wright became disillusioned with Waters’ arduous vanity project and began to spend more time with his family.
“Both myself and Dave… had little to offer, through laziness or whatever,” Wright admitted in a 2000 interview with Classic Rock. “Looking back, although I didn’t realise it, I was depressed.”
Unimpressed with Wright’s lack of engagement in The Wall sessions, Waters considered suing but ultimately decided it was easier to fire him at the end of the project, given the band’s difficult financial position at the time.
Between 1980 and ’81, Pink Floyd staged an elaborate world tour in support of The Wall and commissioned Wright as a salaried session musician. Ironically, Wright was the only band member to profit from the tour as he was exempt from the crippling cost of the extravagant stage production.
Without Wright, Pink Floyd released 1983’s divisive album The Final Cut, which marked Waters’ final work for Pink Floyd. Subsequently, Gilmour and Mason continued to wave the Pink Floyd banner, welcoming Wright back into the fold. A Momentary Lapse of Reason arrived in 1987 as this chapter’s first release and beckoned two decades of sporadic activity and undignified legal drama.
Today, we present a playlist composed of every song Pink Floyd neglected to include in their live shows. Some were overlooked for their complexity, and others for lacking merit. Meanwhile, the film soundtrack, More, the Final Cut and The Endless River simply lacked any supporting tours.
The songs Pink Floyd never played live:
- ‘See-Saw’ – A Saucerful of Secrets
- ‘Cirrus Minor’ – More
- ‘The Nile Song’ – More
- ‘Crying Song’ – More
- ‘Party Sequence’ – More
- ‘Ibiza Bar’ – More
- ‘More Blues’ – More
- ‘A Spanish Piece’ – More
- ‘Dramatic Theme’ – More
- ‘Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict’ – Ummagumma
- ‘Summer ’68’ – Atom Heart Mother
- ‘A Pillow of Winds’ – Meddle
- ‘Fearless’ – Meddle
- ‘San Tropez’ – Meddle
- ‘Burning Bridges’ – Obscured by Clouds
- ‘The Gold it’s in the…’ – Obscured by Clouds
- ‘Mudmen’ – Obscured by Clouds
- ‘Free Four’ – Obscured by Clouds
- ‘Stay’ – Obscured by Clouds
- ‘Absolutely Curtains’ – Obscured by Clouds
- ‘The Post War Dream’ – The Final Cut
- ‘Your Possible Pasts’ – The Final Cut
- ‘One of the Few’ – The Final Cut
- ‘When the Tigers Broke Free’ – The Final Cut
- ‘The Hero’s Return’ – The Final Cut
- ‘The Gunner’s Dream’ – The Final Cut
- ‘Paranoid Eyes’ – The Final Cut
- ‘Get Your Filthy Hands off my Desert’ – The Final Cut
- ‘The Fletcher Memorial Home’ – The Final Cut
- ‘Southampton Dock’ – The Final Cut
- ‘The Final Cut’ – The Final Cut
- ‘Not Now John’ – The Final Cut
- ‘Two Sons in the Sunset’ – The Final Cut
- ‘Cluster One’ – The Division Bell
- ‘Wearing the Inside Out’ – The Division Bell
- ‘Things Left Unsaid’ – The Endless River
- ‘It’s What We Do’ – The Endless River
- ‘Ebb and Flow’ – The Endless River
- ‘Sum’ – The Endless River
- ‘Skins’ – The Endless River
- ‘Unsung’ – The Endless River
- ‘Anisina’ – The Endless River
- ‘The Lost Art of Conversation’ – The Endless River
- ‘On Noodle Street’ – The Endless River
- ‘Night Light’ – The Endless River
- ‘Allons-y (1)’ – The Endless River
- ‘Allons-y (2)’ – The Endless River
- ‘Talkin’ Hawkin’ – The Endless River
- ‘Calling’ – The Endless River
- ‘Eyes to Pearls’ – The Endless River
- ‘Surfacing’ – The Endless River
- ‘Louder than Words’ – The Endless River
