Fighting Over Pink Floyd

Myra MacDonald gave me a hard time, in a good way, about the Pink Floyd Total Art blog post. She and her son Eddie used to fight bitterly about Pink Floyd when Eddie was a teenager. I was not surprised to hear that Eddie is about my age. We had our share of Pink Floyd fights in my house back then too. They were one of the ultimate rebel bands and parents in those days hated them. It was delightful.

"Eddie," Myra remonstrated, "We are country-western people." Eddie shot back that Pink Floyd had transformed the universe. "You and your Purple Floyd," she would sigh. Eddie would widen his eyes in horror. "Pink Floyd, Mother! Pink! PINK!" Meanwhile, I was softly singing somewhere in Ohio, "All in all you're just another brick in The Wall." The Wall was another of those bestselling-albums-of-all-time creations that Pink Floyd generated. And here they were in the 1990s still playing. The Pink Floyd Grandfathers. I invite you to go with me through their song "Time." I've heard that the basis for all religion is the fact that human beings live and one day we will die. I've never heard that fact conveyed in more powerful or poignant terms than it is here. This video has had more than five million views. I scrolled down through the comments on the video. One writer admitted, "This song scares me to death."

Pink Floyd Total Art

I've long been enamored of Pink Floyd's music. Earlier this year they won an award in Stockholm, Sweden for "their monumental contribution over the decades to the fusion of art and music in the development of popular culture." Their 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon (DSOTM) was on the Billboard 200 highest selling music albums chart for a record-breaking 741 weeks. I did the math. That equals 14 years and 3 months.

A while back I was blown away by the video of the two DSOTM songs "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse." During a trek to Fry's Electronics megastore in Austin, this music video played on a giant HDTV on a continuous loop for about three straight weeks. The first surprise I had was that Pink Floyd band members are not young guys anymore. When I first saw the lead singer I had the politically incorrect thought "Look! There's Grandpa!" It didn't matter. I went back to Fry's several times just to see it all again. It was almost never without spectators. Old men stared, young boys and teens stood with mouths open, and we midlifers just went "oooh."

The interweaving of music and image here seems magical to me. I concede that most people don't have Pink Floyd's cash flow, but many churches do have a certain level of funding and a wealth of talent with which to blend image and sound, to show people all over again who Christ is. And why He is worth following. I have faith in that.

Those making comments on the Pink Floyd video are all ages. The band seems to transcend generations. You can watch it here. Now imagine it on a giant screen.

What happens at 5:07 on the video still gives me goosebumps.