Pink Floyd and Philosophy, (Chapters 1-6)

The series of books that this work comes from is known as the “Popular Culture and Philosophy” series, an ongoing compilation of analyses which extract the philosophical elements from various popular phenomena in order to show the study of Philosophy in a more positive light than most of us have acquired.  This one is the thirtieth such volume, the seventh one I have read, and I have enjoyed them very much.  (I have read, in this order, the books on Harry Potter, Monty Python, The Wizard of Oz, the Beatles, Superheroes and the band Rush.)  Sure, I have been known to read a “real” philosophic work now and then by Ayn Rand, Aristotle, Plato, Nietzsche and others; but the books in this series are much easier to read and generally more entertaining. 

Pink Floyd is one of the musical entities that have had a major influence on me musically over the years – and my career has been a music career, so it’s an important influence.  The “chapters” of this book, and the others like it, are essentially essays written by experts in the field, whether philosophy professors or more journalistic writers on the topic at hand.  One thing they often do is to tell how they were affected personally by the subject, in this case Pink Floyd.  One writer tells how he would turn out all the lights in his dorm room and lay on the floor with his head positioned between the speakers of his stereo and his eyes shut, and be transported to the universe of The Dark Side of the Moon.  This relatability to the writers helps grease the skids into what can become a fairly in depth exploration of a particular genre of philosophical study – usually pretty painless. 

Another writer points out something I had noticed before:  “Why is it that all of us who are familiar with Dark Side feel the necessity to recount when we first heard it and how it affected us?”  This is probably a phenomenon associated with all of the “classics” of rock or pop albums, but I would venture to guess that this album is referred to in this context more than any other.  I know my own first listen was in a very memorable and unusual situation! 

The strange phenomenon known as The Dark Side of the Rainbow is discussed in the 5^th entry.  “…place the The Dark Side of the Moon CD on pause immediately after pressing play.  Then play the classic version of The Wizard of Oz and, on the third roar of the MGM lion, unpause the CD.  Reports vary about which roar is actually the best, since the start speed of CD players can be different.  For me, the third roar works fine.”  I tried this once a couple of years ago, and it really is uncanny how frequently the two works coincide in one way or another.  For instance, the Tin Man lifts his blade just as the phrase, “You raise the blade” is sung. 

Some entries focus on specific albums, others on the overall content of Pink Floyd lyrics over the years, and others on events that have taken place in the band’s history throughout their career.  This first section is titled, Pink Floyd in Popular Culture, which would seem to apply to the entire book, but will contrast with more specific areas of philosophy in subsequent sections dealing with, apparently, Alienation, Collectivism, Perception and Insanity.  This brings up the question of how it is determined which writers will cover which topics.  If each writer simply picks the topic they want, it would seem there would be a lot of duplication.  Surely the areas of political philosophy or religious philosophy shouldn’t be overlooked in a book about Pink Floyd, whose lyrics have had so much to say within these major topics of Philosophy!  A brief glance at the Index reveals the absence of both - but we’ll just have to see how well they are covered.

 

 

 

 

Next week's chapters: 7-10.