David Gilmour, the lead guitarist of Pink Floyd, and their remaining members sold their music, name and likeness to Sony Records for about 400 million on Oct. 1, after almost 40 years of one of the most drawn out and famous royalty feuds in rock history.

This is less than the deal of $500 million that fell through in 2022, due to controversial remarks made publicly by Roger Waters, an original member of the band. Waters frequently wrote and designed the band's prodigal concept albums until he left the band because of creative differences in 1985.

The band continued to tour music under the Pink Floyd name, playing songs Waters contributed to without compensation and releasing more music. As the band's former creative driving force and bass player, Waters sued his former bandmates including Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright and drummer Nick Mason in 1986 for using the band's name after his departure. 

Since Pink Floyd's first release in 1967, “The Piper At the Gates of Dawn,” 15 studio albums have been recorded under the band’s name with their most recent 2013 entry titled “The Endless River,” Each album is a testament to each band member's mental health and where they stood with the other members.

While the remainder of the Pink Floyd’s discography was sold by Gilmour, he was not in or part of the first studio release mentioned previously. The guitar was taken over by psychedelic rock icon Syd Barrett, who was able to capture enough attention with his crazy nature to convince Columbia Records to approve the band’s second album, “A Saucerful of Secrets.”

Since this would be Barrett’s last contribution to the band and Gilmour’s first, there seems to be an unfocused purgatory while the band transitions members during their second album. It teeters from wanting to gain the success of the Barrett sound and trying to expand their own personal sound. 

Still the band seemed to have an optimistic feeling about the band's future without Barrett’s musical and creative contribution, as the band is too busy finding real musical inspiration to fight over song credits and commissions.

The band then went on to release their two most experimental albums by far, “Ummagumma” in 1969 and “Atom Heart Mother,” recorded a year later. Both were received with mixed reactions and sounded much better live in an intoxicated concert environment. Luckily, they really honed in on their “sound” on the 1971 release of “Meddle.”

“Meddle” opens with rushing winds and an echoing bass note, repeating a galloping rhythm. Wright’s organ shrieks dramatically in an epic introduction Mason titled “One of These Days” with the only lyric shouting in a deep voice, “One of these days, I’m going to cut you into little pieces!” The song then kicks off to Mason’s shuffle and Gilmour’s double tracked slide guitars wailing together harmoniously until the fading back out into the wind. This song credited all four members of the band on its LP edition, meaning all members got equal pay for song radio plays and record commission.

Due to Pink Floyd’s success so far, “Meddle” was heavily featured on their first studio documentary “Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.” It was filmed at The Amphitheatre of Pompeii, one of the oldest surviving Roman amphitheaters in history. 

The 1972 documentary, easily found free on YouTube, showed how the four main members of the band operated before their prime during their recording sessions and mundane interviews. All four members were happy with their music, and Waters has not yet stirred the pot about name credits.

After the monumental success of “Dark Side of the Moon,” all four members were left feeling empty. They received nothing but pressure from record companies to duplicate the same attention it got. Instead, they recorded a four-song album titled “Wish You Were Here,” dedicated to the band’s Golden boy.

Pink Floyd’s success has only brought more attention to Barrett’s mystique and unexplained absence from the world while he can only watch his old friends be happy and successful in the band he started without him.

Barrett made a surprise appearance at the Abbey Road studio while they were recording after years without contact. His shaved eyebrows and head made him unrecognizable to his old friends, with a shell of the personality the band knew him for. Barret would fade away until his reported death in 2006 at the age of 60 from pancreatic cancer at his home in Cambridge, England.

While touring, we get our first report of Waters’ brash concert behavior, like the concert of Montreal, when Waters became so frustrated with the fireworks instead of listening to the message he was trying to convey in each song. 

Waters told producer Bob Ezrin backstage that he wished he could build a wall between he and the audience, which would end up inspiring Pink Floyd's next album, “The Wall,” which was released in 1979.

Waters had been busy on “The Wall” before asking the band's input, asking the other three to listen to samples of two different concept albums, “The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking” or the one they liked more; “The Wall.”

During the recording sessions of “The Wall,” Waters became so frustrated with Wright's inability to focus that he took it upon himself to fire him on the spot. At this point, Wright was so tired of the treatment he had accumulated over the years and was reduced to a session musician for “The Wall” tour concerts.

The next album that did not have Wright involved whatsoever was named the “Final Cut,” which was a creative and commercial flop. Waters leaves the band denouncing it as a spent force creatively, suing the band two years later after Mason and Gilmour released “A Momentary Lapse of Reason.”

The lawsuit was a news sensation and was finalized on Christmas Eve in 1987 while Gilmour hung out on his houseboat the Astoria, where the out-of-court agreement was finalized. Waters kept the music and likeness to the movie and music of “The Wall” and Gilmour was allowed to keep producing and touring under the Pink Floyd name.

Since then, the band only reunited once at the Live 8 charity concert in London in 2005, which means there is a chance Barrett got to watch before his death a year later. Sadly, Wright would also die in 2008 of cancer, which led Gilmour and Mason to produce the last album “The Endless River,” inspired and dedicated to his memory.

In memory of Barrett and Wright’s death, both original members of the band, Gilmour and Waters decided to honor them by selling their musical legacy to a huge company. Gilmour said he is happy to rid of the stress of managing song credits and to have it out of his hands.

It is unclear whether Waters supported the sale of his music or if he had a say at all.

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