Pink Floyd

The Four Elements

Earth, Water, Air & Fire

For Pink Floyd fans, the correlation between the band and the Four Elements is nothing new. However, most people seem to think no further than the Wish You Were Here sign. There is more... much more.

Table of Contents

The Four Elements in Greek Philosophy

Early Greek Philosophers thought the Universe was constructed using four basic elements: Fire, Air, Water, Earth. All these elements could be mixed to create the different materials found on earth. In Heaven, there was another element, the Fifth Element or Quintessence. This was also called 'ether', and its conception survived into the early 1930s, when scientists used this term as the unmaterial layer through which radio- and tv-signals travel. For the Greek, it was the material in which the 7 crystall spheres of heaven (carrying the moon, the sun and the 5 known planets) moved and produced their heavenly sounds.


Thales of Milete thought that water was the first element: he had noticed that everything that is alive, is wet. Especially for plants, water is life.
His disciple Anaximander of Milete thought the apeiron, the Undefined, was the prime element. This wasn't the same as the Quintescence, which was defined.
Fortunately, Anaximenes of Milete, also a disciple of Thales, abandoned this abstract thought and took air as the basic element. Air is to the Universe like breath to living creatures.

Democritus of Abdera thought that the universe is made up of small particles which he called Atoms, of an undefined material, but different in shape and colour. They cling together to make the different shapes and materials we know. The four basic elements are in fact all of the same material, that is compressed from quintessence to fire to air to water to earth. If earth is compressed more, it becomes rock, and later metal.

And what is the Pink Floyd Relevancy?

Any major rock group, when they have explored many music forms, will try something different: a great project. Pink Floyd did this several times: Dark Side of the Moon (the lunacy theme) and The Wall are clear examples of this. Also the Publius Enigma (if there is one...) fits in this row.

But there are other, more subtle examples, like the Beatles' idée-fixe that Paul McCartney was dead. Or Marillion, who have been using the words 'misplaced' and 'childhood' in their lyrics, years before they put out the 'Misplaced Childhood' album.

Pink Floyd, apparently, tried to do this too. They thought the idea of the four elements corresponding with the four band members, with Syd Barrett being the quintescense, the perfect, missing element, fitted perfectly. It fits nicely in the overall concept of Wish You Were Here, as a tribute to Syd Barrett.

Most Pink Floyd fans know about this connection, but few have thought it out further than just the obvious Mechanical Shaking Hands picture. There is more...

The Mechanical Shaking Hands

Quadrant Element Picture Colour
I. Fire Yellow - Pink - Red Red
II. Air clouds, sun Blue
III. Water sea Green !
IV. Earth desert Yellow

Wish You Were Here Cover

Note that the elements do not get an equal part here.

P.u.l.s.e. Cover

It isn't very obvious here, but perhaps this means something too.

P.u.l.s.e. Cardboard

With the Pulse CD there is a small cardboard with the track numbers, names and duration. These words are also coloured in the four associated colours.

Take It Back Lyrics

(Taken from the Enigma site by Eric Spierings) 
A short list of the elements, their color and the references in 'Take it Back'.
The numbers indicate the line in which you can find the words. 

Earth (yellow): earth (4)
Water (green): rains (1), waves on the sea (2)
Air (blue): breeze (1), breathing (2)
Fire (red): burning (3), rage (3), fire (4)

What does it mean?

I think there is no deep meaning to this like in the Enigma. It's just a way to look at Pink Floyd: reality (music) is formed by 4 elements (members), not just at random but in a certain combination (a combined effort). At some places, some elements prevail, but none is more important than the other. Or that is how it should be.

Syd Barrett is the quintescence, the absent element, and his music was heavenly, like that produced by the seven planetary spheres (Astronomy Domine!).

Who is what?

Now that we can see the general plan, perhaps let us look deeper into the details: who is represented by what element?

Water = Waters ?

This seems rather obvious. In fact, 'water' is a word that is appears often throughout Pink Floyd lyrics. Afterwards, the link water-Waters might seem a prefiguration of the sad departure of Roger from Pink Floyd: although Waters is only 1/4 of the band, our planet consists for 3/4 of water; the human body even for 90%!

The Pulse booklet

In the Pulse book, each band member (including the additional musicians) has an own logo. Some pictures have an evident background color. Rick Wrights portrait with logo is obviously green. But with Davids logo-picture, it is hard to tell: red on the right, blue in the back, green on top, ...

Perhaps the additional musicians can tell more... Well, at least Roger's colour seems to be blue (the only colour that isn't connected with any present band member). But that doesn't fit with the green ocean on our first source, the Mechanical Shaking Hands! Perhaps there has been a colour shift? Or perhaps there never was a colour assigned to the elements?

Another idea: sports!

If we look at the favourite sports of the band members, we get this picture:

David Gilmour Flying Plane Air
Richard Wright Sailing Boat Water
Nick Mason Racing Car Earth
Roger Waters ?? ?? Fire ?
That's pretty confusing. So now Rick turns out to be water. But sailing is of course also associated with wind, and therefore air. But air is already with David Gilmour. Perhaps Davis is associated with fire? Flying too close to the sun, perhaps? But that would be an unacceptable assumption just to make it fit in my theorie that Waters is water.

Is there a way to connect Roger to fire? Is there any fire-related sport that Roger fancies? Is there any fire-related sport at all? Does Roger fancy a sport?

There might be a connection with Set the controls for the heart of the sun. The sun could easily symbolize fire. On the other hand, if you look at the Mechanical Handshake sign, you can see that there is a sun in the sky, so the Fire quadrant cannot be the sun.

If you have additions, corrections, ..., I'd be glad to receive them.

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