The Pink Floyd song inspired by Chic
Although Pink Floyd are ostensibly hailed as one of the foremost prog-rock outfits, this tag barely even scratches beneath the surface. There might be elements of the genre found within their most important work, but the band always stood apart from their so-called peers musically, thematically and philosophically.
Starting as one of the most exciting psychedelic rock bands of the late 1960s, Pink Floyd made history with their 1967 debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, when Syd Barrett led them. While it was raw and rough around the edges, the unique sonic world that the quartet established would see them strike out on their own away from the parameters of the genre, which they continued to do for the rest of their career.
After Barrett left for mental health reasons in 1968, the group embarked on a period of oscillating artistic success, fuelled by a desire to innovate while providing distilled versions of themselves as creatives. They would eventually reach this promised land, and it would produce classic moments such as 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon, its follow-up Wish You Were Here, and the final instalment in this run before it all fell apart 1979’s The Wall.
One of the main reasons Pink Floyd were able to enjoy such an immensely impactful run of albums during the 1970s was the way they blurred the lines between genres. Drawing on everything from psychedelia and prog to funk and soul, this convergence of opposites would create a broad palette, which augmented the complex mesh of emotional themes Roger Waters explored with his lyrics.
One genre and band they would become particularly enamoured with when making The Wall was Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers’ disco pioneers, Chic. The duo had such an impact on the British quartet that the lead single of the record, ‘Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2’, was directly inspired by them and their genre.
When speaking to Rolling Stone in 2016, Nile Rodgers reflected on Chic’s widespread effect on rock music after he was inducted as a solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame without Chic. He was understandably forthcoming in his reaction and said it was like being invited onto a lifeboat without his family.
Rodgers explained: “I think that people who vote should probably at least be as aware as the people that they are voting on. I remember when the Disco Sucks controversy was going on. Who were the two bands they were pitting against each other? The Knack and Chic. The Knack never had another hit record after ‘My Sharona.’ The second single did OK. But a year after ‘Good Times,’ which was our last Number One record, there was a slew of records that sounded like ‘Good Times’ and were obviously influenced. There’s obviously ‘Another One Bites the Dust.'”
As for Chic’s effect on Pink Floyd, he said: “John Deacon was in the studio with me when I wrote ‘Good Times.’ That shows you bands like Queen were our friends. Pink Floyd will tell you straight up when they wrote ‘Another Brick in the Wall,’ they were in the studio next to us. They listened to our patterns and went, ‘Wow.’ It’s a famous rock & roll story when you hear them arguing over the drum beat and they listen to us playing ‘Good Times’ and they go, ‘Let’s copy that.’ There was no wall between the musicians and what we do.”
Listen to ‘Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two’ below.
