I have forgotten how much I loved this album.  I wore a deep groove in the vinyl back in my late teens and early 20's listening to this Floyd album.  I pretty much burned myself out on it back then, not to mention how overplayed "Brick In The Wall" was on the radio, back in those days.  I have basically avoided listening to the album for the last....maybe... over 15 years.
 
So, I was on my way to the health club and was tired of everything on my iPhone.  I down loaded the entire album from iTunes and listened to the first 7-8 songs while doing the stepper up there at the club.  I was blown away all over again.  "Mother", "Goodbye Blue Sky", "Empty Space", what excellent song writing.  I am going to throw it back on tonight before bed and enjoy some more.  I can hardly wait to get to the second album with "Hey You" and "Comfortably Numb".  I am listening with Engineers Ears, this time around and it is a whole new awakening.
 
And how excellent are Gilmour's leads!  There is a blues lick move that he does on the "Brick In The Wall" solo that I have heard a lot lately and need to try to figure out how it is done.  It's like a choked triplet on the string...not sure what you would call it....but I have to find that blues move on You Tube and see how it is done.  I have recently heard blues guitarist Paul Rose use that choked triplet as well.
 
Good stuff. 

First Pink Floyd album I ever listened. Back then (mid 80s) where I lived, it was THE stoner album and it was pretty much a rite of passage to get intoxicated and then watch The Wall. 
 
For quite a while actually, as soon as I became aware of them and even before I actually listened to them, Pink Floyd meant drugs - it was meant to be an entire experience, as opposed to "normal" music. Getting high was mandatory.
 
Eventually I became a huge Pink Floyd fan, particularly the early Syd Barrett era, though I renounced to the idea of doing drugs relatively early. 
 
I still loved The Wall, and I've always thought it was brilliant, but I didn't feel it was a Pink Floyd album. Some people draw the line at Final Cut (the only Pink Floyd album I never owned or listened to in its entirety) - for me, The Wall is it.
 
As for Gilmour, he's always been in my top 5 guitar players. I remember someone saying that his guitar was "the emotional anchor of Pink Floyd", and that rang particularly true to me. 
 
I'm listening to some of that stuff 25 years later, and even in the case of the simplest lines which I thought I'd figured out way back then, there's just so much more to it. It's one of those case where playing slow can be as challenging as playing fast.
 
 
 
 

Gilmour is proof to me that feel is everything when playing guitar. 

craigb
Gilmour is proof to me that feel is everything when playing guitar. 

And that having a studio on a boat isn't such a crazy idea. Man, I wish...

I think ABITW was the first album I ever owned, along with The Specials' first album. I was only 6 or 7 at the time and the single with the video set in the school totally transfixed me. I loved how they'd gotten the kids to sing as well. Had to have it for my birthday. I loved the whole album and decided that Pink Floyd was my favorite band (with The Specials a close second). My aunt had given me some cash for my birthday so I went straight down to the record store to see what other Pink Floyd they had. It was a small store and the only other album they had was Relics. But it had a really cool cover so I bought it. I was pretty much shocked by how different it was to The Wall, but I loved it anyway. I'll never forget hearing the first track, Arnold Layne, and thinking wow, this is nothing like ABITW, but it's great! See Emily Play also turned into a firm favorite. Not long after that I was home from school sick and "Live In Pompeii" was on TV (daytime TV was 1000x better back then). What a blast that was. 

His house boat is so much more inspiring than something like the studio on Paul Allen's pretentious Octopus yacht... (Not to say I would mind having that either!  )
 

 

 
- OR - 
 


 
 
 

Back then (mid 80s) where I lived, it was THE stoner album and it was pretty much a rite of passage to get intoxicated and then watch The Wall.

 
Same where I grew up close to the Canadian border.
  

though I renounced to the idea of doing drugs relatively early.

 
Same deal with me.  All of my friends were stoned and listening to it; that's how I first came upon Floyd.  This album and Dark Side of the Moon.  I just never had the interest in going down that path.  I was taken by the actual music and quite enjoyed it without any enhancements.  I think most people will say that DSOTM was their best work, but not for me, The Wall was always my favorite and in my opinion, the best work they did.  I have DSOTM on my iPhone as well and have been listening to it lately, too.  iTunes had a Fathers Day special on Moon and that has revived my whole love for these albums.
 
 

I'm still partial to Animals from them myself... (And Division Bell too!)

Hi,
I got into PF during the "More" and then "Ummagumma" days. And then saw them with their Quadraphonic sound system at the Hollywood Bowl in September of 1972. Still, one of the best concerts I have ever seen.
 
All other PF concerts after that (4 of them) were all good, but the circus atmosphere was out of line, frustrating, and seeing the police pick people off the line at the Sports Arena, was not the nicest way to see a band, and then watch people picked off the audience during The Wall later.
 
All in all, it was disgusting and disappointing, though the shows themselves were good.
 
Of all of these, the Anaheim stadium shows were the best, and the bootlegs that existed of them showed it.
 
Of all their work, and the bootlegs I used to have, I like the earlier material better than the later material. I still get a thrill out of hearing 12 different versions of "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", or 12 different versions of "Echoes" or 12 different versions of "Atom Heart Mother".
 
The later material is nice, and a listening pleasure, but in the end, I still go back to the earlier material as having more depth and beauty than the later material. 

For me, 'Dark Side' is as near as they came to a completely satisfying album, although 'Wish You Were Here' is close. They started to lose me with 'The Wall', and I don't think I ever heard 'The Final Cut'.