Knocking At The Gate

In 1967, Pink Floyd was introduced to American television audiences when they performed "Apples And Oranges" on Dick Clark's American Bandstand . Lead singer Syd Barrett is still fronting the band, and guitarist David Gilmour had not yet joined. Given the limited effort the band seems to be putting into lip syncing, this clip may be from a rehearsal. The recording has been spruced up and colorized by Swedish artist and graphic designed Alex Stubbe Teglbjærg.

On the way home tonight, the shuffle play offered up Pink Floyd's "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" from way back in 1968. As required by both state and federal law, I immediately turned it up all the way. This reminded me of one of the most satisfying perquisites of being a high school drama teacher at a school with a bustling stagecraft program: having complete control over a full rock-concert-sized PA system. I had this rig set up one day in the auditorium at Cypress Lake High in preparation for some show or another. Once something like this is set up, it's wrong to just let it sit idle, so I would "test" it by playing music. On this day, I had a few minutes after school had dismissed but before the crew arrived for whatever work we were going to do, and so I put on this song. It was a glorious thing to listen to at that volume in that deliciously dark auditorium. So I'm sitting there in my usual fourth row center seat, enjoying the freaky m...