Floydian Images

Third Boot from the Sun

by Mike McInnis

Like it or not, Pink Floyd has a reputation as a space band. Whether or not the music itself stands up to such a classification is for someone else to debate--the fact is that in the minds of many music fans, "Pink Floyd" is a space band. (Similarly, the general public seems to regard the Floyd as a drug band and a depressing band, regardless of whether or not the recorded output supports this.)

"Pink Floyd are the premier space-rock band." Thus spake Richie Unterberger in the All-Music Guide, a reference work that is quoted again and again in print and on the web, reinforcing the stereotype, even though Roger Waters has famously gone on record that "the space thing was a joke."

And though one might assume that the band's 'serious fans' would reject this 'space' label, it's not entirely true. Websites such as "Celestial Voices"and " Pink Floyd - First in Space" feature a slick graphic themes of stars, planets, and other 'spacey' iconography.

Another such fan site is called "Synchonicities of Pink Floyd in Space", and is dedicated to synchronizing Floyd albums to science fiction films such as Ummagumma and 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Collection of Great Dance Songs and Contact, and The Division Bell and Planet of the Apes (which, the site's author suggests, is the ultimate answer to the famed Publius Engima).

The producers of Floyd bootlegs have employed this space association in a variety of creative ways to help sell records. Space-related titles have ranged from the blatant (Outtakes from Outer Space, Cosmic Music, Interstellar Encore) to the vague (Meteora, Nebulosity, Libest Spacement Monitor). And in some cases the bootleggers go all out to blend sci-fi and psychedelia, as evidenced by the title Pink Floyd - Stoned Alone and Other Astral Chants From Their Space Age Book.

Psychedelia and sci-fi coalesce on Pink Floyd bootleg covers such as Stoned Alone.

Bootleggers commonly make up false names for songs with which they are unfamiliar, or songs which are untitled. The more clever producers give titles which fit the band's perceived image. A compilation CD called Around the Mystic features a track entitled "Jupiter's Eye" which is really the Zabriskie Point outtake commonly called "Oneone" (a title made up by some other bootlegger and which managed to catch on in Floyd circles), as well as a track called "Trip on Mars", which is the instrumental performance from the BBC's moon landing special.

Of course, bootleg covers have long exploited the public's perceptions of any given band to sell the product. Space imagery is a part of many a bootleg's cover, from the dull, uninspired starscape of Music for Architectural Students, to the psychedelic space scene of The Floyd's of London, vaguely reminiscent of "A Saucerful of Secrets," with the ear from Meddle thrown in just to confuse things.

Levels of inspiration varied widely in the space imagery of Pink Floyd bootleg covers Music for Architectural Students (above) and The Floyd's of London (below.)

Because of The Dark Side of the Moon's phenomenal success and popularity, moon imagery has been used time and again in bootleg titles as well as cover art. There is Eclipsed by the Moon, The Great Gig on the Moon, From Underground to the Moon, and Moonwalk, just to name a few. The cover of a bootleg called Variations on the Theme of Absence features photos of the moon, and one called From the Other Side features a photo of the Earth--as seen from the moon.

The moon has almost become inseparably linked to Pink Floyd since The Dark Side of the Moon. It is featured prominently in the cover of The Great Gig on the Moon (above) and in a more subtle manner in From The Other Side (below).

The booklet of a bootleg called Black Holes in the Sky (originally released by the Great Dane label, and more recently re-released by the Harvested label) features the sci-fi comic book graphics used by the Floyds in the official program of the 1974 British Winter Tour.

The litany of space references in Floyd fandom goes on and on. For years the most authoritative compendium of Floyd concert dates was a book called A Journey Through Time and Space, though it is now out of print and has been supplanted by other works. And it seems like every major U.S. has a regular "Laser Floyd" show at a planetarium in which fans are invited to 'space out' as star scenes and laser animations are choreographed to a soundtrack of classic Floyd numbers. These shows have become something of a cultural phenomenon unto themselves, as evidenced by references to them in popular films and sitcoms.

Like it or not, the public has viewed Pink Floyd as a space band for some 35 years, and will likely continue to do so for as long as the band remains in the public consciousness.

Mike McInnis is a staff writer for Spare Bricks.