80's Guilt #33: Pink Floyd "Learning To Fly" (1987)

We considered heading in a wackier direction for Thanksgiving morning, but since no one will be reading today, we decided instead to talk about '80s Pink Floyd since they're already so boringly overdiscussed that we really have nothing original to say anyway.

Taste My Kids presents: A brief history of Pink Floyd

Syd Barrett-era (1965-1968): Their best era. | "Lucifer Sam." | "See Emily Play." | This shit RULES. Album one is their best.

Everyone contributes-era (1968-1972): Their 2nd-best era. | "The Nile Song." | "Echoes." | Syd started going crazy and eventually leaves the group. They brought in David Gilmour, and for their next few albums almost every band member had a significant hand in their songwriting. There's a lot of weird rewarding shit and odd experiments.

Mostly Roger Waters-era (1973-1985): Their 3rd-best era. Waters took control of their focus for 5 albums and as a result they sold like 100 billion records. Many of the most exhausted and overplayed songs on classic rock radio are released during this time, although radio still ignores their 2nd best album, 1977's Animals.

David Gilmour-era (1985-1996): Their weakest era. Waters attempts to end the group, but everyone else wants to keep it going. Gilmour takes over the focus and they released two extremely boring records in 1987 and 1994.

So the best song from their weakest era was probably "Learning To Fly." (Either that or "What Do You Want From Me.")

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies / Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, I

Misfit? Tongue-tied? What do any of these things have to do with flying? Why can't he keep his eyes from the skies? And why are they circling? Ending a statement with "I"? So fucking awkward...

It's quite a drop in quality from Gilmour's contributions on The Wall and Animals. But as a pop single, it gets the job done. Just catchy enough that the lyrical imperfections don't really matter all that much.