Thanks for the clarification about the writing of Stay. I love to know exactly who contributed what to each song.

I totally agree about Waters and Gilmour being extremely complementary. I think there was a quote from The Wall-era (I think it was from Mark Blake's Pigs Might Fly) where Roger said 'we make a great team'. The Wall would not have existed, let alone be the epic it is, without Roger, but David added so much to the album with his vocals and guitars. Indeed, I'd say their vocals were every bit as complementary as their contributions to the rest of the music - Comfortably Numb and Hey You, for instance, would not have worked as well with just one of them singing the whole song. FWIW, I listened to Gilmour's first solo album last week - I really like most of it musically, but the lyrics and songs for the most part can't touch the Floyd albums recorded in the same era (in fairness, I'd add that little music can...)

Just wondering, is it possible that Waters wrote all of the music for Time, and that Gilmour and Wright were credited for the Breathe (Reprise) section? I'd agree that Nick was probably credited for the famous drum introduction. I fully agree with you about David's performance on Time - the guitar solo is absolutely brilliant and a standout moment even by his standards.

I more or less agree with you on the 'golden era' for PF except that I personally think it started in 1971 and ended in 1980. I feel that Echoes was where it all came together for the first time, while I would extend it to 1980 simply to include The Wall tour. Obscured By Clouds prevents it from being sequence of truly great albums, but I think it's a pretty enjoyable release in itself (and especially not bad given that I believe the whole thing was made in a couple of weeks), and 1972 did bring Live At Pompeii, which I absolutely love. In fact, this summer I actually went to Pompeii and visited the amphitheatre where the film was recorded and sat down, and listened to the full studio version of Echoes. I think I will remember that experience for many years.

I get what you are saying about Syd Barrett - I do really love Astronomy Domine and there a few others of his that I really like (Lucifer Sam and Jugband Blues spring to mind), but I think there is a tendency to overrate his work with the band due to his mental breakdown which curtailed his career, it could be said to be rather like the praise that is lavished on musicians who died young like Hendrix, Jim Morrison and others. I will happily admit that I don't listen to The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn as often as I listen to Atom Heart Mother or Obscured By Clouds, neither of which garners anywhere near the same level of acclaim, but I get more enjoyment from hearing them.

I'm glad to hear that you like The Endless River, I like it too but on starting to begin to wonder if I was alone. I tend to listen to it as a complete album from start to first, although my favourites as individual songs are It's What We Do and Surfacing. I also really like Talkin' Hawkin', which is funny as I'm not a great fan of Keep Talking, which is my least favourite from The Division Bell. I have to say I do quite like Louder Than Words, it's not great lyrically but it does fit the rest of the album musically. One thing I will admit though is that a lot of the references to earlier or more obscure Floyd works, such as the rather A Saucerful Of Secrets-like drumming on Skins, were probably lost on a lot of casual fans.