December Musical Giftravaganza - Day 20 In which I act in a completely predictable manner ...→[More:]

Most people associate Pink Floyd with the canonical Dark Side of the Moon album, widely touted as the first 'concept album', despite being more a collection of tracks covering various themes, including mental illness. The mental ilness theme is thought to be a reference to the deteriorating mental state of founding member Syd Barrett and this theme is returned to in many of their later works, notably Shine on You Crazy Diamond, originally composed as a nine-part full-side track (for the younger set, this means that it would have covered an entire side of an LP, or 50% of a CD in modern terms), recorded and performed in many versions of varying length, but originally released in 1975 on the Wish You Were Here album in two parts totalling around 19 minutes as the first and last tracks of the album.

Pink Floyd are best known for their dark, brooding tracks, focussing on anti-war, anti-political statements and themes exploring depression, suicide and apocalyptic scenes such as that decribed in Two Suns in the Sunset (ironically, the last track on the last album they recorded before breaking up). However, they brought a lighter note to some of their recordings that were never released, such as the delightfully whimsical cover of Knockin' on Heaven's Door and the feature track for this post, Merry Christmas Song. This track was written and performed by the band's drummer, Nick Mason and recorded during a BBC show in 1975. It's nice to know that, despite the deeply serious nature of most of their music, they knew how to have fun with it too. It could also be argued that this is a clear example of why drummers rarely get to write or sing ;-)

Many thanks to arse_hat for helping me defeat my workplace's Internet filter in creating this :-)