New Pink Floyd album artwork unveiled

More details about 'The Endless River' revealed
By Peter Lindblad

Pink Floyd - The Endless River 2014

A classy tribute to a fallen comrade, keyboardist extraordinaire Richard Wright, the cover to Pink Floyd's upcoming LP The Endless River features a lone boatsman paddling across a blanket of clouds into a glorious sunset.

The metaphor may be a bit obvious for the Floyd, whose album art is usually somewhat more enigmatic, but it's a beautiful and poignant piece of work and given the circumstances surrounding this release, it's an entirely appropriate meditation on mortality, loss and the afterlife.

Wright died of cancer in September 2008, leaving only guitarist/singer David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason as remaining members, following Roger Waters' acrimonious split from the group.

In 1993, the trio hunkered down at Brittania Row and Astoria Studios for sessions that yielded the Division Bell, Pink Floyd's last studio album. It was the first time they had done so since the seventies, when they hashed out the iconic Wish You Were Here LP, another moving Pink Floyd record that ruminated on former band leader Syd Barrett's sad decline and mental disintegration.

Last year, Gilmour and Mason went back through the music that came out of the Division Bell studio work and decided to hone and shape these orphaned pieces – with the help of modern recording technology – for a new album, The Endless River. The whole LP is a celebration honoring the genius of Wright, whose keyboards helped mold Pink Floyd's uniquely spacey and conceptual progressive-rock sound.

According to a statement on the www.PinkFloyd.com web site, The Endless River is "a mainly instrumental album with one song, 'Louder Than Words,' (with lyrics by Polly Samson), arranged across four sides and produced by David Gilmour, Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson."

Some, like Mike Portnoy, have expressed their reservations about the new album, wondering how it can be a proper Pink Floyd album without Waters and the deceased Wright and Barrett. He would prefer a special edition reissue of the Division Bell. That's splitting hairs, especially considering the contributions Wright made to these recordings while still alive. Throughout music history, there are numerous instances of artists taking work from sessions for one album and using them later for another.

How many stories are there out there of songs being written long ago in the distant past and then brought out of retirement for inclusion on future releases? What makes these creations any different? And as for Waters, he made his own bed, opting to go solo and talking about how Floyd was "a spent force" way back when and prematurely proclaiming the band's death. It was his hubris that led to his departure, and while he certainly was the driving force in Floyd in the aftermath of Barrett's death, how much of that was due to his own need to for full control?

Anyway, you'll be able to form your own opinions when The Endless River comes out on Nov. 10.

Here's the track listing for The Endless River:

"Things Left Unsaid"
"It's What We Do"
"Ebb and Flow"
"Sum"
"Skins"
"Unsung"
"Anisina"
"The Lost Art of Conversation"
"On Noodle Street"
"Night Light"
"Allons-v (1)"
"Autumn '68"
"Allons-v (2)"
"Talkin' Hawkin'"
"Calling"
"Eyes to Pearls"
"Surfacing"
"Louder Than Words"

DVD Review: Pink Floyd – The Pink Floyd & Syd Barrett Story

DVD Review: Pink Floyd – The Pink Floyd & Syd Barrett Story
Eagle Rock Entertainment
All Access Rating: B+

Jerry Shirley, ex-drummer for Humble Pie, saw the old creative spark return on occasion while helping Syd Barrett record his solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett. He was also there when Barrett put down his guitar and simply walked off the stage June 6, 1970, at the Olympia Exhibition Hall.

Predicting what the erratic Barrett would do by then was an exercise in futility, his mind scrambled from taking too much acid. In 2001, a documentary titled "The Pink Floyd & Syd Barrett Story," which included Shirley's observations, examined Barrett's sad decline through a somewhat stodgy, if well-arranged and professionally edited, mosaic of vintage video snippets, performance clips and promotional videos, and poignant, candid interviews with those who knew him best.

Now reissued by Eagle Rock Entertainment as a two-disc DVD set with complete, unedited Q&A sessions with Roger Waters, Nick Mason, David Gilmour and Richard Wright and Graham Coxon's bonus cover of "Love You," off The Madcap Laughs, this version of "The Pink Floyd & Syd Barrett Story" fleshes out what was already a well-rounded, in-depth portrait of an artist whose mind was set adrift long before he shuffled off this mortal coil.

Told chronologically, it's a concise and insightful look at the rise of Pink Floyd as inspired psychedelic-rock oddballs, these experimental delinquents led by a cult figure in Barrett, whose ability to make the mundane seem strangely magical led to wonderfully mad musical creations that set the band on an artful journey of imagination and wonder. Barrett, though, would only travel so far with them.

Amid the expected gushing tributes, the sense of loss and wasted talent, and the behind-the-scenes peek into Barrett's life beyond the Floyd, "The Pink Floyd & Syd Barrett Story" – Barrett would surely balk at such a pedestrian title, as well as the film's bland narration – is a focused examination of his impact on the band and popular music in general. A kindred spirit, Robyn Hitchcock, admires his genius from afar, offering his personal thesis on why Barrett still matters. There's also a detailed analysis of the song "Bike," so blissfully strange and childlike and yet crazed in its manic musique concrete episode, from Pink Floyd's psychedelic masterpiece Piper at the Gates of Dawn, that gazes at the Barrett's idiosyncratic artistry and shakes its head at its audacity. Fading remembrances, both happy and still troubled by his disintegration, flow like rivers of colorful paint from witnesses of Barrett's bedraggled character, his unique vision and his growing detachment, which led to a hermit-like existence and self-imposed musical exile until his death.

At the end, there's still emptiness. What remains is a wide gap in our understanding of how Barrett lived during all those years of radio silence, his story a frustrating mystery with an unsatisfying resolution. And yet, as is argued in the film, perhaps Barrett was fated to burn brightly, just before having his candle snuffed out.
– Peter Lindblad

A Wall of Pink Floyd Collectibles

With nearly 30 impressive lots, Pink Floyd is taking center stage at the 2012 Rock 'n Pop Auction event this month at Backstage Auctions. 

"It is always a good day when a former Columbia Records executive decides to part with a private collection, especially when so much of it is related to Pink Floyd" says Backstage Auctions owner Jacques van Gool. "With a band as collectible and popular as Pink Floyd, you're always looking for something unique and rare and we sure struck gold this time". 

Pink Floyd 1987 "Momentary Lapse of Reason" Proof Print

Among the many highlights is an impressive number of album proofs, including original Storm Thorgerson prints from 'Momentary Lapse Of Reason'.

1979 Pink Floyd "The Wall"
Promotional Display

Fans and collectors will have ample choices between promotional items and swag related to historic albums such as 'Animals', 'Delicate Sound Of Thunder' and the classic 'The Wall' such as this exceptionally brick molded display .

David Gilmour signed proofs for 'Shine On' book

Autographed items will sure demand a great deal of attention, specially a set of David Gilmour signed proofs from the 'Shine On' book. 

And if proofs aren't your cup of tea, you can make a run for a full signed copy of the 'Shine On' book, which also contains the autographs of Wright and Mason.

Pink Floyd Rare Inflatable "The Wall"
Promotional couch / chair

Between foam pigs, unique promotional pins, rare records and press releases, collectors will have to think 'strategy' if they want to come out on top. If anything, there's always a Pink Floyd promotional couch to relax on and be a great conversation piece.

But whatever your poise, with this number of solid, top-shelf Pink Floyd collectibles, fans will have something to get truly excited about. And contrary to Steve Buscemi in 'Reservoir Dogs', it is good to be 'Mr. Pink'! 

Backstage Auctions' - 2012 Rock 'n Pop Auction is open for bidding November 3 - 11th, but is available now for previewing the entire catalog. VIP All Access Registration is FREE and only takes a minute or two.

View Now: Pink Floyd Memorabilia