Pink Floyd were founded in 1965 by Syd Barrett (guitar, lead vocals), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals), and Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals). Under Barrett's leadership, they released two charting singles and the successful debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour joined in December 1967; Barrett left in April 1968 due to deteriorating mental health. Waters became the primary lyricist and thematic leader, devising the concepts behind the band's peak success with the albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979). The musical film based on The Wall, Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), won two BAFTA Awards. Pink Floyd also composed several film scores.
Following personal tensions, Wright left Pink Floyd in 1979, followed by Waters in 1985. Gilmour and Mason continued as Pink Floyd, rejoined later by Wright. They produced two more albums—A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994)—and toured in support of both before entering a long hiatus. In 2005, all but Barrett reunited for a one-off performance at the global awareness event Live 8. Barrett died in 2006, and Wright in 2008. The last Pink Floyd studio album, The Endless River (2014), was based on unreleased material from the Division Bell recording sessions. In 2022, Gilmour and Mason reformed Pink Floyd to release the song "Hey, Hey, Rise Up!" in protest of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
By 2013, Pink Floyd had sold more than 250 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and these albums and Wish You Were Here are among the best-selling albums of all time. Four Pink Floyd albums topped the US Billboard 200, and five topped the UK Album Chart. Pink Floyd's hit singles include "See Emily Play" (1967), "Money" (1973), "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" (1979), "Not Now John" (1983), "On the Turning Away" (1987) and "High Hopes" (1994). They were inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2008, Pink Floyd were awarded the Polar Music Prize in Sweden for their contribution to modern music.
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd
Studio albums
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
More (1969)
Ummagumma (1969)
Atom Heart Mother (1970)
Meddle (1971)
Obscured by Clouds (1972)
The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Wish You Were Here (1975)
Animals (1977)
The Wall (1979)
The Final Cut (1983)
A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
The Division Bell (1994)
The Endless River (2014)
07 Childhood's End
Pink Floyd Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Perhaps the price is just too steep.
Is your conscience at rest
If once put to the test?
You awake with a start
To just the beating of your heart.
Just one man beneath the sky,
Just two ears, just two eyes.
You set sail across the sea
Of long past thoughts and memories.
Childhood's end, your fantasies
Merge with harsh realities.
And then as the sail is hoist,
You find your eyes are growing moist.
All the fears never voiced
Say you have to make your final choice.
Who are you and who am I
To say we know the reason why?
Some are born; some men die
Beneath one infinite sky.
There'll be war, there'll be peace.
But everything one day will cease.
All the iron turned to rust;
All the proud men turned to dust.
And so all things, time will mend.
So this song will end.
Pink Floyd’s Childhood’s End is a surreal and introspective song about the human psyche and the fear of unknown consequences. In the first verse, the song speaks of restlessness and the impact of inner conscience on one's mind. The lyrics question if one can be at peace with oneself if they face the test of morality. The next line refers to the beating of one's heart that awakens them from their unsettling sleep, which is a metaphorical representation of an inner battle.
The second verse speaks of the act of reminiscing and the pain that comes with it. Long-past thoughts and memories are a reference to childhood memories. These innocent and beautiful memories are not always pleasant, and merging them with harsh realities can be a painful process. The mood of the lyrics then shifts to fear and anxiety in choosing between the right and wrong. The fear that every man harbors inside of him finds its way out when faced with life-changing decisions.
The song’s last verse transcends philosophically on human existence, with lyrics that suggest war and peace are but interchangeable phases in life that are subject to an infinite sky. The lyrics observe that everything, including pride and steel, ultimately rusts and perishes. Time, the ultimate healer, will heal all things. The song thus ends on a note of stoic calm.
Line by Line Meaning
You shout in your sleep.
You can’t rest well and during your sleep, you cry out loud or get abrupt shakes.
Perhaps the price is just too steep.
Maybe the effort demanded to carry-out future decisions is too high and you are concerned about the outcome.
Is your conscience at rest If once put to the test?
When your morality is in question and you have to make a decision that carries great consequence, what will you do?
You awake with a start To just the beating of your heart.
You suddenly awaken from a dream or slumber to find a still and calm environment.
Just one man beneath the sky, Just two ears, just two eyes.
As an individual, under an infinite sky, all you have is your senses: the ability to hear, the ability to see, and no one else.
You set sail across the sea Of long past thoughts and memories.
You traverse the sea of your own thoughts and memories of the past, which are difficult to confront.
Childhood's end, your fantasies Merge with harsh realities.
After adolescence, you perceive the world differently - you begin to realize the world isn’t perfect and your ideas of what you want in life merge with the painful reality of the world.
And then as the sail is hoist, You find your eyes are growing moist.
As you journey to adulthood and face new challenges, you become understandably emotional, even tearful from time-to-time.
All the fears never voiced Say you have to make your final choice.
You have the instinct to let your fears remain masked, however, somedays you just need to take a leap of faith and make a decision that will change everything.
Who are you and who am I To say we know the reason why? s
It is hard to understand life and the world it is built on - it is ambiguous, open to interpretation and no one can really know the absolute answer.
Some are born; some men die Beneath one infinite sky.
Despite any differences in life, the truth remains that at the end of it all we all join in the same eternal sky.
There'll be war, there'll be peace. But everything one day will cease.
The human cycle is an active sequence that rotates spheres of disruption and peace, though one day it will all come to an intangible end.
All the iron turned to rust; All the proud men turned to dust.
The grand structures that we honor today, built by noble people that once lived, will decay and be forgotten as time continues forward.
And so all things, time will mend. So this song will end.
Time will remain long after everything else has gone and through it all, it will heal us. One day this song will also come to an end.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: DAVE GILMOUR
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@josephbarbarie7805
Actually -- gonna disagree with you Mason's playing here. First of all, this is an amazing song, and yes, it is one of PF's most overlooked.
HOWEVER -- Mason inadvertently uses a "shuffle" timing on some fills -- where he inserts tom-toms in between the accented set of chords which end the verse, G major, D major, A minor. The song clearly has a "straight 16th note" feel -- listen to the very beginning, where there's the keyboard and very subtle beat (I think it's either a guitar low E, or a bass), that is very obviously a straight row of 16th notes. Also, listen to Dave's rhythm playing during the verse -- also very straight, if slightly syncopated, 16ths.
By applying a "swung" feel in those fills, Mason makes the beat indeterminate -- and this is problem of sub-division You can't insert triplets into a song that has already been subdivided as straight 16ths. You might be able to do it if the subdivision were only 8ths, or quarters, but not when the beat so clearly insists on straight 16ths. The listener's ear isn't sure if this is an attempt to "drag" the rhythm, or compress it. In fact, what's funny, is that in some of those "fills," he actually gets the 16th sub correct -- and it sounds much cleaner, and more rhythmically "alert," or "tense" (which is what you want). Fills should push a song from section-to-section, not distract from its progress.
I realize some people will say, "this is all a matter of feel." Sorry, nope. It's just incorrect.
Okay -- let the flame war begin.
@KC-kw7ii
I really think Obscured by Clouds is their most overlooked album. Every single piece of this album is magic.
@franciscomontoya6039
And the film is a piece of art
@tamaskerekes2186
yep, nearly as good as the Dark Side. its just not as monumental, but technically so brilliant imo. i love it
@azulim030
You could say it's quite "obscure" ?
@lawrence-yx1ew
meddle is around the same level of underrated but still just as good
@70hemi666
It's too bad it was over shadowed by dark side of the moon.
@RyanBedlack
Most underrated Pink Floyd song ever!
@frankbeltran2688
your profile Picture too
@RyanBedlack
Owl Thanks!
@paulorafaellamim3117
not by me