Pink Floyd Album Poll from rec.music.misc

Date: Sun, 10 Nov 91 20:54:27 +0100
From: sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc,alt.rock-n-roll
Subject: Usenet Artist Polls #8 - Results for Pink Floyd

No one had asked for Pink Floyd, yet the poll was a smashing success.
107 people voted, which passed Zappa's record of 43 to a laughable
history. As usual the result first, and then my comments.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

Total number of ballots: 107

     TITLE                             POINTS   LISTED   FIRST   LAST
     =====                             ======   ======   =====   ====
  1. Dark Side Of The Moon               1129      106   30.66      0
  2. Wish You Were Here                  1010      105   24.16      1
  3. The Wall                             788      107      20   2.50
  4. Meddle                               590       82       3   3.33
  5. Animals                              374       92   12.50      6
  6. A Momentary Lapse Of Reason           45       91       0   7.75
  7. Atom Heart Mother                   -109       59    3.50   3.43
  8. Relics                              -147       47       0   2.09
  9. The Final Cut                       -153       81       3  14.10
 10. The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn      -174       46       5   3.59
 11. Ummagumma                           -205       50       0   6.09
 12. A Saucerful Of Secrets              -212       48    1.50   1.60
 13. The Delicate Sound Of Thunder       -304       74       0   8.25
 14. More                                -365       33       0   1.10
 15. Obscured By Clouds                  -380       51       0   1.43
 16. The Pros And Cons Of Hitch-Hiking   -432       51    0.33      5
 17. Works                               -508       15       0      2
 18. Radio K.A.O.S                       -546       58    3.33   9.35
 19. Masters Of Rock                     -832       14       0      3
 20. A Collection Of Great Dance Songs   -847       38       0      7
 21. The Wall In Berlin                 -1046       52       0  17.35

Mentioned once was also "Objects Of Fantasy", "When The Wind Blows"
"Tongue Tied And Twisted", "Ultra Rare Trax-vol. 2". I have to
admit complete ignorance on these titles.

Well, "Dark Side of the Moon", and I guess everyone expected that.
But the margin to "Wish You Were Here" was not very big. What is
maybe more noticeable is that only 6 out of 21 albums managed to
get a positive score.

The thing I was most curious in this poll, was how "The Wall" would
rank. I know that many people loves this one a lot, but I have also 
seen several who don't like it. My theory was that the net effect 
would be that "The Final Cut" would rank higher than "The Wall".
Because if you liked "The Wall" you proceeded to "The Final Cut",
whereas we who couldn't think of getting through sides 5 and 6 of 
"The Wall", skipped that one. This would then lead to that while
"The Wall" would have both positive and negative votes, "The Final
Cut" would only have positive ones. Well, I was proven wrong.
(Although it is possible that including the Waters album distorted
the facts. "The Wall" would have ranked last on at least one more
ballot without them, namely mine.)

As for "who-is-the-real-Floyd", I guess there is not much discussion.
"Lapse" gets, for me at least, a very surprising sixth place, while
Waters albums are all in the bottom swamp together with the compilations.
But notice that no one listed "Lapse" as #1, while "Radio K.A.O.S"
topped 4 bills, and "Hitch-Hiking" also shared a top tie on one
ballot.

Another observation is that many have the compilations. 38 have
"Collection..." whose only unique track as I know is a remix of
Money. 47 have "Relics", but this is more motivated, since "Relics" 
add many tracks not on LP elsewhere. This was to me a bit unexpected.

But I was also negatively surprised to see how few who have the stuff 
before "Meddle". Only 58 have "Atom Heart Mother", and less half of the
voters have listed the earlier albums. Personally I find this being the
essential period of Floyd. My own bill was topped by a tie of "Piper"
and "Atom Heart Mother" followed by "Ummagumma" before a filler.
On the other hand, it doesn't seem that the voters of this poll
think they have missed anything. There is a clear correlation
between times listed and the position, with "Delicate..." and "The
Final Cut" being the only exception.

Finally, of the regular Floyd albums "Obscured By Clouds" ended
up last, which is another disappointment for me. Well, I had
not expected much better, but still I like to point out that
this indeed fairly simply kept album,, is a nice little gem.

Oh well, I guess I am not a very typical Floyd fan...