Pink Floyd were an English rock band formed in London in 1965. They achieved international acclaim with their progressive and psychedelic music. Distinguished by their use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, extended compositions, and elaborate live shows, they are one of the most commercially successful and influential groups in popular music history.

Pink Floyd were founded by students Syd Barrett on guitar and lead vocals, Nick Mason on drums, Roger Waters on bass and vocals, and Richard Wright on keyboards and vocals. They gained popularity performing in London’s underground music scene during the late 1960s, and under Barrett’s leadership released two charting singles and a successful debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour joined in December 1967; Barrett left in April 1968 due to deteriorating mental health. Waters became the band’s primary lyricist and conceptual leader, devising the concepts behind their albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979) and The Final Cut (1983). The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall became two of the best-selling albums of all time.

Following creative tensions, Wright left Pink Floyd in 1979, followed by Waters in 1985. Gilmour and Mason continued as Pink Floyd; Wright rejoined them as a session musician and, later, band member. The three produced two more albums—A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994)—and toured through 1994. After nearly two decades of enmity, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason reunited with Waters in 2005 to perform as Pink Floyd in London as part of the global awareness event Live 8; Gilmour and Waters later stated they had no further plans to reunite the band. Barrett died in 2006, and Wright in 2008. The final Pink Floyd studio album, The Endless River (2014), was recorded without Waters and based almost entirely on unreleased material.

Pink Floyd were inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. By 2013, the band had sold more than 250 million records worldwide.

Here´s the song “Fat Old Sun” from the album “Atom Heart Mother”, one of my favorite early Pink Floyd songs.

And here´s “Brain Damage” from the album “The Dark Side Of The Moon”, a song that I used to play on my guitar in the old hippie days.

And here´s their most famous song “Another Brick In The Wall”.

In the late 60ies another supergroup became my favorite band, “Jethro Tull” with their charismatic front man Ian Anderson.

Jethro Tull are a British rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1967. Initially playing blues rock, the band later developed its sound to incorporate elements of hard and folk rock to forge a progressive rock signature. The band is led by vocalist/flautist/guitarist Ian Anderson, and has featured a revolving door of lineups through the years including significant members such as guitarists Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre, keyboardist John Evan, drummers Clive Bunker, Barriemore Barlow, and Doane Perry, and bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock and Dave Pegg.

The group first achieved commercial success in 1969, with the folk-tinged blues album Stand Up, which reached No. 1 in the UK, and they toured regularly in the UK and the US. Their musical style shifted in the direction of progressive rock with the albums Aqualung (1971), Thick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973), and shifted again to hard rock mixed with folk rock with Songs from the Wood (1977) and Heavy Horses (1978). Jethro Tull have sold an estimated 60 million albums worldwide, with 11 gold and five platinum albums among them. They have been described by Rolling Stone as “one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands”.

The last works as a group to contain new material were released in 2003, though the band continued to tour until 2011. Anderson said Jethro Tull were finished in 2014,however in September 2017 Anderson announced plans for a tour to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the band’s first album This Was, and then record a new studio album in 2018. The current band line-up includes musicians who have been members of Anderson’s solo band since 2012. The band began a world tour on March 1, 2018.

1969 “Back To The Family” from their album “Stand Up” became one of my all time favorite songs.

1971 the sensational album “Aqualung was released, and I used to sing and play on my guitar for my friends songs from the album as “Wond´ring Aloud”, a beautiful love song.

Another romantic love song with exceptional lyrics we can find on the 1969 album “Stand Up”, the unforgettable song “Reasons For Waiting”.

And here´s another of my favorite “Jethro Tull” songs, “Home”

And here it is: Their famous “Aqualung” 1971 with Martin Barre´s unforgettable guitar solo.

Another supergroup founded in the late 60ies was “Deep Purple” with their charismatic superguitarist
Richie Blackmore who influenced me a lot at this time.

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. The band is considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical approach changed over the years. Originally formed as a progressive rock band, the band shifted to a heavier sound in 1970. Deep Purple, together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, have been referred to as the “unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies”. They were listed in the 1975 Guinness Book of World Records as “the globe’s loudest band” for a 1972 concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre, and have sold over 100 million copies of their I want to finish talbums worldwide.

Deep Purple have had several line-up changes and an eight-year hiatus (1976–1984). The 1968–1976 line-ups are commonly labelled Mark I, II, III and IV.^[13][14] Their second and most commercially successful line-up consisted of Ian Gillan (vocals), Jon Lord (keyboards, backing vocals), Roger Glover (bass), Ian Paice (drums), and Ritchie Blackmore (guitar). This line-up was active from 1969 to 1973, and was revived from 1984 to 1989, and again from 1992 to 1993. The band achieved more modest success in the intervening periods between 1968 and 1969 with the line-up including Rod Evans (lead vocals) and Nick Simper (bass, backing vocals), between 1974 and 1976 (Tommy Bolin replacing Blackmore in 1975) with the line-up including David Coverdale (lead vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass, vocals), and between 1989 and 1992 with the line-up including Joe Lynn Turner (vocals). The band’s line-up (currently including Ian Gillan, and guitarist Steve Morse from 1994) has been much more stable in recent years, although keyboardist Jon Lord’s retirement from the band in 2002 (being succeeded by Don Airey) left Ian Paice as the only original Deep Purple member still in the band.

Deep Purple were ranked number 22 on VH1‘s Greatest Artists of Hard Rock programme^[ and a poll on British radio station Planet Rock ranked them 5th among the “most influential bands ever”.^[he band received the Legend Award at the 2008 World Music Awards. Deep Purple (specifically Blackmore, Lord, Paice, Gillan, Glover, Coverdale, Evans and Hughes) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016.

Here´s “Child In Time” from their album “Deep Purple In Rock” with the exceptional vocals of front man Ian Gillan and an incredible guitar solo of Richie Blackmore.

And here´s the guitar riff that every electric guitar player plays first on his guitar.

“Smoke on the Water” is a song by the English rock band Deep Purple. It was first released on their 1972 album Machine Head. In 2004, the song was ranked number 434 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, ranked number 4 in Total Guitar magazine’s Greatest Guitar Riffs Ever, and in March 2005, Qmagazine placed “Smoke on the Water” at number 12 in its list of the 100 greatest guitar tracks.

The song´s telling the story whan Casino Montreux was burning during the Montreux Jazz Festival.

I want to finish my story of today with one of the first and very rare records of “Deep Purple”, “April” 1969.

I wish you a wonderful Tuesday and come back tomorrow with the second part of the story.