I remember listening to The Wall for the first time.  I was 14 and in Bali with my family.  Because cassettes were so cheap over there, I was taking the opportunity to explore some music from the past.  I bought Bowie, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, UB40 and thought I'd take the plunge and have a listen to this Pink Floyd band that so many people liked.  I was only really familiar with the songs Wish You Were Here and Another Brick In The Wall, pt. 2 so I was keen to roll up my listening sleeves.  I'd even gone so far as a young teenager to say that I didn't like them, covering up the fact that I hadn't heard much of their music.

So, I happened to be on a boat called The Golden Hawk and strapped on my headphones and put in the first tape...there was some very soft music at the start, which sounded like an accordion or something.  I turned the volume up, a little puzzled by the crappy sound quality and then BA-DOOM! In The Flesh? started and scared the crap out of me.  I'll never forget that moment.  I remember enjoying the rest of the album immensely...particularly Goodbye Blue Sky, as the boat chopped along the water.  Anyway, that was the start of it all.  Here are my favourites now...

Echoes
From 1971's Meddle album, this is strong contender for my favourite song...ever!!  Starting with a ping sound that was produced by amplifying a piano through a Leslie rotating speaker, this 23 minute plus epic gradually builds into an exciting musical feast for the ears.  At first it's fairly standard fare for what Floyd would record on the Animals and Wish You Were Here albums.  Lots of pretty guitar lines and a lengthy intro leading into some melodic verses.  Then the middle knocks everything for six when the song changes feel and then fades out to indulge in some guitar effect squeals.  The band come back in after a spell and build the song to fantastic climax, before the post-coital third verse kicks in.  Just magic.

Summer '68
The passing of Richard Wright in 2008 was very sad, because it meant that the 20005 Live8 performance was now the last time the classic lineup performed together, and they never would again.  This song he wrote for the Atom Heart Mother album is one of the band's finest moments.  Written about a one night stand, this track balances sweet piano with bombastic brass.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond, pts 1-5
Kicking off the Wish You Were Here album, this 13 minute plus first half of the nine-part Floyd masterpiece is simply exquisite.  Wright's fabulous keyboard intro in Part 1, paves the way for Gilmour's wonderful guitar work in Part 2.  Written about Syd Barrett this great song boasts an anthemic chorus that sounds celebratory as well as mournful.   You may notice a lack of Barrett era Floyd here, but that's unfortunately the way my preferences fell.  Bike came very close to making the cut.

Comfortably Numb
The quintessential Pink Floyd song.  Waters menaces his way through the verses and Gilmour provides a major uplift by singing the chorus.  His two guitar solos on this track are arguably the best he ever recorded.

High Hopes
Closing 1994's The Division Bell, and giving the album it's name (thank you, Douglas Adams), this downbeat and mournful song is the easily the highlight of Floyd's last fifteen years.  Wonderful delicate vocals from Gilmour and some great slide guitar work at the tracks's end.

Have A Cigar
Quite possibly the best song ever written about the fickle nature of the music industry. My favourite lyric here: "Did we tell you the name of game, boy?/We call it riding the gravy train". In a bizarre move, the song is actually sung by folk singer Roy Harper.

Us & Them
Written by Waters and Wright, this magic cut from The Dark Side Of The Moon mixes hypnotic ambience with crashing urgency.  A Floyd classic.

When The Tigers Broke Free
Basically a Roger Waters solo track, this was recorded for The Wall movie (although it was written at the same time as the rest of the album in 1979) and remained unreleased officially until the Echoes compilation in 2001. Telling the story of Waters' father's death during World War II's Operation Shingle, this song always brings a lump to my throat.  The use of the wind noise and the choir sends shivers down my spine.

Dogs
Another lengthy prog effort that stretches past the 17 minute mark, this cut from 1977's Animals used to unnerve me a little as a teenager.  There was something eerie and sinister about this in my mind, but I have grown to love the song as I've gotten older.  The use of dogs in the song symbolises the megalomanical businessman who destroy themselves and those around thme in their climb up the ladder.

Wish You Were Here
One of the first songs I taught myself how to play on my Ibanez 12-string guitar.  I never get sick of singing this, and I must perform it at least twice a week on average.  Wonderful lyrics and a song that will resonate through the ages.

Floyd for all!