Paul McCartney Predicted Pink Floyd Would Fill a Rock Void the Beatles Couldn’t

At the height of Beatlemania, one might assume that the Fab Four was on a quest for total rock ‘n’ roll domination—but even Paul McCartney knew that the Beatles couldn’t follow every evolutionary step of the genre, which is where Paul McCartney believed Pink Floyd would step in.

The Fab Four preceded Pink Floyd by a few years, but even McCartney knew that the rock band from London had the potential to break new ground in rock ‘n’ roll that the Beatles simply couldn’t.

Paul McCartney Predicted Pink Floyd Would Fill This Rock ‘n’ Roll Void

While the original lineup of Pink Floyd was recording their debut, Pipers at the Gates of Dawn, at Abbey Road studios, the Beatles were nearby finishing up Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. When Paul McCartney discovered Pink Floyd was recording, he suggested they pay the up-and-coming rock band a visit, and George Harrison and Ringo Starr obliged.

“It was really extraordinary. The Floyd were so naive,” author Barry Miles said. “They were saying, ‘Can you hear me?’ because of the soundproof glass, not realizing that the mics were on. It was complete innocence, very touching reality. Paul was putting them on the back, saying they were great and were going to do fine. He wasn’t being patronizing: it was almost like the Beatles passing on the mantle—at least some of it—and acknowledging the existence of a new generation of music.”

Miles said that McCartney often discussed an upcoming “synthesis of electronic music and studio techniques in rock ‘n’ roll. He didn’t see the Beatles as being quite the vehicle for that. But the Pink Floyd, he thought, were the very stuff we had [talked] about” (via Saucerful of Secrets).

The Former Beatle Almost Made It On a Record, But Only Almost

The Beatles disbanded before Pink Floyd would create some of their most iconic and enduring albums like Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. But of course, the music world is surprisingly small, and Paul McCartney found himself in the same studio as Pink Floyd once again in 1972. The London psychedelic rock band was in the process of recording Dark Side of the Moon, which featured snippets of people talking about the album’s themes of violence, madness, and, more literally, the moon’s dark side.

Some of these audio snippets were from Abbey Road employees, like doorman Jerry Driscoll, who provided the line, There is no dark side of the moon, really; matter of fact, it’s all dark. Roger Waters employed Paul McCartney, who was working on a new record with his post-Beatles group, Wings, to answer some questions as well. McCartney and Wings guitarist Henry McCullough sat down with Waters, who used some of McCullough’s comments in “Us and Them.”

Pink Floyd didn’t use McCartney’s commentary, though. Waters would later say he found the Beatle’s responses too performative, which isn’t that surprising, given McCartney’s “always on” attitude. Nevertheless, without McCartney’s encouragement during Pink Floyd’s naive Piper days, who knows what could have happened to the band’s trajectory.

Photo by Keystone/Getty Images