Pink Floyd Live Albums Ranked Worst to Best
· Ultimate Classic RockPink Floyd's catalog of live recordings underscores the idea that 1973's Dark Side of the Moon and 1979's The Wall are their signature releases. After all, there are multiple albums commemorating multiple tours focusing on those two projects.
Our list of Pink Floyd Live Albums Ranked Worst to Best also makes the case for the often-overlooked material released before the band's platinum-selling heyday.
David Gilmour began to explore this era much more deeply once he reconnected with former Pink Floyd co-founder Richard Wright, digging back to his initial albums with the group. Original drummer Nick Mason created his own new band to perform some of Pink Floyd's earliest songs.
READ MORE: The Worst Song From Every Pink Floyd Album
Tours also inevitably feature the latest songs from an act's latest album, and these live recordings are no different – whether that means including material from the Gilmour-led Pink Floyd reboot or individual solo efforts from Gilmour and Roger Waters. With a backlog of earworm classics, however, these new offerings typically struggle to gain traction. That impacted more than a few rankings.
Here's how it all shook out in our countdown of Pink Floyd Live Albums Ranked Worst to Best.
No. 13. 'Ummagumma' (1969)
Pink Floyd
David Gilmour had been touring with Pink Floyd for just over a year, and they still hadn't found a musical path forward. Ummagumma summed up the confusion. The first disc was recorded as Pink Floyd performed sometimes desultory 1969 versions of recent songs like "Astronomy Domine" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun." (The concerts also included embryonic takes on soon-to-be-released songs like "Cymbaline" and "Green is the Colour," though they weren't included on Ummagumma.) Yet it's all still better than the second disc, which contains largely pointless solo studio compositions by each member of the group.
No. 12. 'Live at Knebworth 1990' (2021)
Pink Floyd
Completists might be tempted by the dramatic return of vocalist Clare Torry for "The Great Gig in the Sky," but they'll also notice there isn't much more to this. Originally part of The Later Years box set focusing on Pink Floyd's post-Roger Waters era, Live at Knebworth 1990 was subsequently issued as a painfully short, cash-grabby stand-alone product. There are only seven total tracks, and two of them – "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell" – were on the previously released compilation Knebworth: The Album.
No. 11. 'The Wall: Live in Berlin' (1990)
Roger Waters
The promotional angle for this U.K. Top 30 hit – "an all-star cast joins Roger Waters to recreate his signature Pink Floyd opus!" – is also why The Wall: Live in Berlin can be so inconsistent. The historic spectacle of this concert, held near the infamous Brandenburg Gate just eight months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, has inevitably faded over time, too. In keeping, the best moments are those where Waters returns to the spotlight. You'll just have to sort through not-always-convincing updates from the likes of Cyndi Lauper ("Another Brick in the Wall [Part 2]"), Bryan Adams ("Young Lust") and Paul Carrack ("Hey You").
No. 10. 'Delicate Sound of Thunder' (1988)
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd's first proper live release somehow didn't arrive until Roger Waters was long gone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his former bandmates had trouble rising to the visceral anger of Waters' late-period material, in particular on tracks where he used to share vocals. They tended to sound far more comfortable with the new songs. Still, Delicate Sound of Thunder offered a welcome return to the flowing group sounds that predated novelistic albums like The Wall and The Final Cut. Replacement Guy Pratt also had a knack for adding the kind of funk and sophistication on bass (check out "Another Brick in the Wall [Part 2]") that Waters can't really approximate. It opened the door to far more intriguing future collaborations.
No. 9. 'Roger Waters: The Wall' (2015)
Roger Waters
Finally, a full-length single-voice rendition of this towering diamond-certified rock opera. Too bad Roger Waters: The Wall arrived some 35 years after the band's original tour – and without Gilmour, Wright or Mason. All apologies to the small platoon of guitarists who tried (including G.E. Smith, Snowy White and David Kilminster), but Gilmour's soaring presence isn't often convincingly replicated. Worse, really, is the inevitable deterioration of Waters as a vocalist. (He was in his late 60s when this solo tour crisscrossed the globe.) The argument back then was that this was the closest anyone was going to get to a proper live version of The Wall. When that was no longer the case, however, Roger Waters: The Wall began to feel largely irrelevant.
No. 8. 'Live at Pompeii' (2017)
David Gilmour
There's no questioning the concept: Live at Pompeii returns Gilmour to the site of director Adrian Maben's memorable 1972 Pink Floyd concert documentary. The setting adds instant gravitas to renditions of older favorites like "Time / Breathe" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." (The expanded deluxe box set also included songs recorded with an orchestra directed by Zbigniew Preisner, after his sensitive collaborations with Gilmour on Live at Gdansk – found later in our rankings.) All of this iconic material ends up mixed and matched with live updates from Gilmour's then-current Rattle That Lock, however, and the new songs tend to quickly pale in comparison. Even the newer Pink Floyd stuff sounds overmatched.
No. 7. 'Roger Waters: Us + Them' (2020)
Roger Waters
Unlike Gilmour's Live at Pompeii, Roger Waters was touring behind a powerful, well-received album when Us + Them arrived. Is This the Life We Really Want? served as a reclamation of the sound and feel of Pink Floyd albums like Animals and The Wall. Importantly, his latest album also found Waters taking a more frankly emotional tack. That created a new balance when his brand of proselytizing threatened to become brittle over the course of a long double live album. Powerful new connections were made too, as when Waters moved from the raging "Picture That" directly into the quiet ruminations of "Wish You Were Here."
No. 6. 'Pulse' (1995)
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd's only chart-topping live album featured the return in full of Richard Wright, who'd made only occasional contributions to 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason after being fired by Waters in The Wall era. This opened the band's in-concert setlist a little wider, as they added "Astronomy Domine" from their 1967 debut. The second-disc performance of Dark Side of the Moon also served to highlight Wright's often overlooked contributions as an instrumentalist ("Us and Them"), composer ("The Great Gig in the Sky") and vocalist ("Time"). At that point, this was the only complete reading of Pink Floyd's signature 1973 album.
No. 5. 'In the Flesh: Live' (2000)
Roger Waters
The best Roger Waters live album touches on every element of his career to date. In the Flesh: Live pairs by-now-expected material from Pink Floyd's heyday with well-chosen songs from 1968's A Saucerful of Secrets, 1983's The Final Cut and his solo records, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking and Amused to Death. There's even a quietly involving bonus cut, "Each Small Candle," that hints at the more emotional turns taken on Waters' belated solo comeback album, 2017's Is This the Life We Really Want? Fans stayed away in droves, making In the Flesh: Live his worst-selling concert souvenir. Their loss. This is essential listening.
No. 4. 'Live at the Roundhouse' (2020)
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets
Nick Mason named this side project after Pink Floyd's second album, signaling his intention to resurface gems from the group's typically ignored pre-Dark Side of the Moon era. Ace latter-day collaborator Guy Pratt and Spandau Ballet alum Gary Kemp fronted the group as Mason built a setlist dominated by songs from his late original bandmates Syd Barrett and Richard Wright. The results could have been defined by lazy nostalgia, but instead Saucerful of Secrets breathed new life into material that had been too long ignored.
No. 3. 'Live in Gdansk' (2008)
David Gilmour
Wright once again provides a permission structure for Gilmour to dig past setlist warhorses "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb." Oh, those songs appear on Live in Gdansk, as does the entire string-laden song cycle from Gilmour's emotive On an Island. But Gilmour and Wright also undertake a bold exploration of "Echoes" from 1971's Meddle and even trace back to "Fat Old Sun," a rarity from 1970's Atom Heart Mother. Live in Gdansk ended up making a sad bit of history, too. This is Gilmour's last collaboration with Wright, who died one week before its release.
No. 2. 'Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81' (2000)
Pink Floyd
Waters' solo renditions of The Wall typically held their own intrigues, but all were forgotten after an historic excavation by producer James Guthrie. Pink Floyd originally staged just 31 concerts in support of this sprawling project. Guthrie focused on performances from August 1980 and June 1981 in London, including Waters' last concert appearance with Pink Floyd before 2005's Live 8 reunion. Is There Anybody Out There? unfolds with a new sharpness and muscular force, while expanding our understanding of the narrative: Two new songs appear, including "What Shall We Do Now?" – a last-minute cut from the original album.
No. 1. 'The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley 1974' (2023)
Pink Floyd
This has an origin story not dissimilar to Live at Knebworth 1990, having been released as a stand-alone LP after originally appearing on two earlier box set reissues. But that's where the similarities end. The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley 1974 finds Pink Floyd at the peak of their powers and performing their best-known album in its entirety. The material was originally recorded in November 1974 by BBC Radio 1 at what's now Wembley Stadium. Here's how great those shows were: They also provided material for 2011's Wish You Were Here Immersion box (including an early version of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond") and 2016's The Early Years (one of the final classic-era renditions of "Echoes").
Beach Boys
How dysfunctional are the Beach Boys? Well, let us count the ways: First, the group was forced to contend with their controlling manager Murry Wilson, father to Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, and uncle to Mike Love. Then a rift slowly developed between Love and resident genius Brian, as Wilson endured declining mental health. Years later, Brian miraculously rejoined the other surviving Beach Boys for a 2012 LP and tour after decades of personal and professional recriminations, uncountable lineups, the passing of both Dennis and Carl, but their reunion was unceremoniously cut short when Mike (who by now owns the Beach Boys name), decided to freeze out Brian yet again.
The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes' career has had its ups and downs, and most or all of these were determined by the alternately hot and cold fraternal relationship shared by its two fraternal leaders, vocalist Chris and guitar-playing brother Rich Robinson. Over a quarter century on from the group’s smash hit 1990 debut, more than a dozen musicians have fleshed out the band’s ranks. Only drummer Steve Gorman hung onto his position and, more often than not, served as a buffer between the Robinsons. Currently on hiatus again, the Black Crowes are bound to make a comeback at some point – because, well, blood is thicker than water, after all.
Cream
As rock’s first true supergroup, Cream set a standard for colossal egos who tried, and ultimate failed, to coexist. Though they shared a dues-paying education with both Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated and the Graham Bond Organization, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker never seemed to like each other much. And when the immensely talented but less assertive Eric Clapton was thrust between the two, it was all he could do to keep the peace with his formidable guitar skills. After a mercurial two-year run, Cream fulfilled their supergroup destiny and packed it all in.
The Eagles
If you’re searching for the band that stands as the poster children for dysfunction, look no further than the Eagles. As their popularity grew and their sound evolved one album at a time across the early 1970s, the Eagles endured all kinds of internal power struggles. Original leader Glenn Frey and the fast-emerging Don Henley ultimately consolidated their control over the group – to the point where, when they fell out in the wake of 1979’s much-delayed 'The Long Run,' it took hell freezing over to resurrect the Eagles. But then longtime guitarist Don Felder got himself exiled a few years later for voicing his opinions.
Fleetwood Mac
While most bands deny or try to gloss over any public talk of internal dysfunction, Fleetwood Mac turned it to their advantage: first tapping into it for inspiration while recording their career best seller 'Rumours,' and then owning up to all the dirty details so that their fans felt even closer to the men and women behind the music. All of this late-‘70s drama followed the group’s early trials with founder Peter Green (who suffered a nervous breakdown), and a series of personnel shifts in the ensuring Bob Welch era. That alone might have qualified Fleetwood Mac as one of rock’s most dysfunctional bands.
Guns N' Roses
The Kinks
Another band boasting a pair of eternally bickering siblings, the Kinks built much of their life’s work on top of (or perhaps in spite of) the ever-fractious but nonetheless nearly unshakable bond connecting brothers Ray and Dave Davies. Perhaps even more remarkable is how that bond resisted an incalculable number of bust-ups and smash-ups (many of them no doubt related to Ray’s dominant role as Kinks songwriter) over an amazing 33-year run, which saw the Kinks' popularity rise, then fall, then rise, and fall again until their breakup in 1996. It remains to be seen whether the Davies boys will ever find common ground again.
Motley Crue
For years, Motley Crue did more than virtually any other band to perpetrate the myth that rock groups really are gangs of inseparable blood brothers. But when the wheels fell off and vocalist Vince Neil fell out with bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee and guitarist Mick Mars, their public spat was likewise among the most vicious in rock history. Turns out, Motley Crue doesn’t do anything half-assed — neither love nor hate. That has certainly been the case ever since the original foursome’s reunion in the late ‘90s. The fragile peace continued through the band’s subsequent recordings all the way to their now-concluded farewell tour.
Pink Floyd
While most dysfunctional bands employ dozens of musicians, Pink Floyd employed a similar number of lawyers as longtime leader, bassist and chief songwriter Roger Waters battled it out with guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour. For years, Waters had reigned over the group with an iron fist, so when he unilaterally announced their breakup in the early ‘80s, the possibility that his bandmates would have the gumption to carry on never seemed to cross his mind. When they did, all hell broke loose in lengthy litigation. Thankfully, recent years have seen an unlikely truce struck between both sides.
The Police
Punk rock’s most savvy trio, the Police brought together three colossal musical talents (with egos to match) whose only shared ambition seemed to be subverting rock’s most rudimentary form with their thinly veiled virtuosity and supernatural pop songwriting instincts. Since most of the latter belonged to singer/bassist Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland had to grudgingly concede his initial leadership role in the group, with only guitarist Andy Summers to act as a buffer — in part thanks to his own formidable career resume with passages through Zoot Money, Soft Machine and the Animals. Before they initially called it quits, following a stunning string of five studio albums, the Police had turned all this dysfunction into beautiful music, and none of their fans would have it any other way.
Talking Heads
With the possible exception of Television, none of CBGBs' many legendary alumni were more intelligent or sophisticated in their artistic ambitions than the Talking Heads, but as we all know intellect is no remedy for dysfunction. Though they had a college education in common (obtained at Rhode Island’s School of Design) and shared a loft upon their joint relocation to New York City, Talking Head founders David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth saw their strong bonds disintegrate as Byrne gradually took control of the group’s creative process. Though they managed to contain this festering unhappiness for some time, resentment kept growing and an acrimonious breakup was inevitable — not that the Talking Heads' amazing music suffered for it.
Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen redefined the possibilities of the electric guitar and his band later redefined the definition of dysfunction. For years, only the otherworldly music they created together kept Eddie, his drumming brother Alex, bassist Michael Anthony and singer David Lee Roth working on the same page. And when Sammy Hagar stepped in for the exiting Roth, one of then most public feuds in rock history ensued. Then Roth came back and got fired, thus opening the door for Extreme frontman Gary Cherone … who in turn also got fired, making way for Sammy’s brief return, and later David yet again. Then, where did Michael go? With all of these comings and goings, even their most ardent fans might not have been able to keep them straight – but they never stopped supporting their heroes, of course.
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