Both, equally, more or less.

I haven't listened to an album pre-AHM for about 30 years, despite owning all of them.

Strange that ASTRONOMY DOMINE was not listed.

Saucerful of Secrets is already post Syd.

how is Astronomy Domine an epic? 

also 1968 is not early Floyd? 

Astronomy Domine was originally (on the bootlegs) played with the morse code in it, and it was a sort of "anthem" for the band, and its ideas, for new music.

AD had Syd in it, whereas Saucerful is already the DG era.

Not to say that SoS is not an "epic", but in terms of what the band has to say with music alone, AD is a much better candidate than SoS.

Not sure everyone sees the same, since most folks never heard any of the old bootlegs with all their far out stuff in it, that explained what the PF music became 10 years later ... most people are looking at it as just another song in an album ... but with history next to it, it is vastly different!

are you disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing?

even in live versions (the famous Ummagumma live for example), AD is 8 minutes and a half. 

Still shorter than the two epics in the poll. 

1968 is Gilmour era already? He was the new guy trying to fit in, to figure out what was going on. He was friends with Syd. There was no DG era yet in 1968. Syd was a mess and the other guys gave up on him more or less, in order to have a future as a band. Everyone knows the story. 

AD is played with morse code on the studio version as well? its literally the intro of the song, not sure how that would affect it being an epic though. How does syd being on AD make it an epic either? You must be disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing lmao

You don't listen to epics with a timing watch. I've listened to 5 minute songs I would call epic. Comes down to what the musicians are doing in the space of time of the composition.

Hi,

No sense disagreeing with someone that takes the discussion out of context and continues to think that the 2nd album has the "epic" and that the 1st album doesn't.

It was clear in the 2nd album (release June 68) that Syd was not in it much and that SoS could be said to be the first DG thing, which they went on to expand on and show in concert all the way to 1973, just before the arrival of DSOTM in its entirety, portions of which had been played/rehearsed in concert in many places.

Length, is just a marker you are using to determine something that you think is better than another song ... has nothing to do with the reality, or even the content/matter of the song itself ... the idea of which could be said that the stars were aligned for something else, and at first they might have thought of the spacey pieces that meandered everywhere with visual effects for the stage show ... (Set the Controls ... ).

Pretty soon you're gonna tell me that the original Great Gig in the Sky did not have Syd in it ... it's on the bootlegs, it was a bunch of folks doing sermons with Syd on top ...  which could be taken in various different ways in terms of meaning, one of them being disrespect. That it was changed to something else, became a "classic" and was a "stroke of genius" (as folks like to say) that made a good album great.

Cristi wrote: ... 1968 is Gilmour era already? He was the new guy trying to fit in, to figure out what was going on. He was friends with Syd. There was no DG era yet in 1968. Syd was a mess and the other guys gave up on him more or less, in order to have a future as a band. Everyone knows the story.

You need to go check your facts ... SoS was released in June 1968 and DG is all over it. Not just SoS.

In fact for some 5 months, the band was a 5 piece, although story goes that Syd did not do a whole lot but wonder around the stage? ... SoS, really, only has one Syd song. Meaning he was not really a part of it much anymore, and some stuff may have been removed because it was not very good, or simply did not stand up as a good listen. 

How am I taking the discussion out of context? That is you I'm afraid. You are simply being asked to choose between two songs and yet you asked why a third one is not in the poll? Simple answer you were given is that AD is not an epic, it's much shorter than the two songs in the poll. 

You said "continues to think that the 2nd album has the "epic" and that the 1st album doesn't". How and when did I say the first album doesn't have the "epic"? When people use the word "epic", it just means a long song, in our case both songs in the poll are long, whether their studio or live versions (even longer live). 

You said "Length, is just a marker you are using to determine something that you think is better than another song ... " - I'm not sure I even understand what you are trying to say. A long song is good IMO if it's got a nice flow, it never feels like it's long, I don't know how to say it in simpler words. 

In retrospect, ASoS is the beginning of the Gilmour era. All I said was that in 1968, David was the new guy, trying to fit in. 

 

I tend to agree - Syd's departure was messy and Gilmour was briefly around at the same time.  As usual, not much mention is made of Rick Wright's contribution in all this, particular to Saucerful.  Wright was also contributing a lot of material around this period from whimsical psychedelic pop to extended jazz-inflected instrumental sections.

To be honest I don't play Floyd much these days but when I do it's usually Atom Heart, Meddle, or maybe Umma....