Why Pink Floyd avoided flashy prog and when they borrowed from Yes or King Crimson

Pink Floyd’s approach to progressive rock was fundamentally different from the technical virtuosity of contemporaries like Yes or King Crimson. Rather than a deliberate rejection of “technical” prog, it was a natural extension of their earlier psychedelic and space-rock origins—where drones, tape loops, and slow harmonic shifts created atmosphere instead of solos. Roger Waters once joked in a 1970s interview that the band “couldn’t play as fast as Yes” and didn’t care to, which suggests it was less a philosophical stance and more a matter of identity: they valued textural build-ups over showmanship.

Still, Pink Floyd did occasionally borrow elements of their peers’ style. “Money” (1973) is built around a 7/4 time signature, a hall of fame progressive-rock trick that King Crimson and Yes used liberally, but Floyd kept it grounded in a bluesy groove rather than letting it spiral into math-rock. On Animals (1977), the extended instrumental sections and mood shifts echo King Crimson’s Red era, and David Gilmour’s slide guitar on “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (1975) has a lyrical, unhurried quality that sounds nothing like Steve Howe’s fleet-fingered work—but does share a similar fidelity to mood. So they never outright rejected technical prog; they just subverted it, folding odd time signatures and long-form structures into their own patient, cinematic language.