David Gilmour on why he wanted to join The Beatles: “They taught me how to play guitar”
It’s not easy to compare the validity of one art against another. The subjective nature of the various mediums with which art is created means that there are very few qualifiers to be able to determine one artist is better than another. However, if you were looking for a single indicator, then using the opinion of the artists in question is a good place to start. If you were to ask Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour about his favourite music, and therefore the group he holds higher than his own, he would have an unequivocal answer for you.
Although David Gilmour was a member of Pink Floyd, with whom he created musical history, delivering monumental albums, fundamentally changing the rock live shows and becoming a behemoth of music at large, there is another group that he wishes he could have been a part of, and that band is The Beatles.
Gilmour was born in 1946, and like everybody else his age, as a teenager, he was obsessed with the Fab Four. When the Beatles came into his world during the early 1960s, they illuminated his life, and as a result of his love for the Liverpudlians, Gilmour chose to learn to play the guitar, which was the greatest decision he ever made.
The guitarist has spoken at length about the group on several occasions, and in 2018, he was asked if he thought Pink Floyd was the greatest band of all time. In a typically humble fashion, the guitarist stated that he wouldn’t know how it feels to be a member of the best group ever because The Beatles, the group of Liverpudlians that changed the world, hold that accolade.
Furthermore, in the summer of 2002, Gilmour performed at a Beatles tribute concert in Sussex. The event, hosted by British television royalty Chris Tarrant, was raising money in aid of the Tibet House Trust and a host of other humanitarian charities close to Gilmour’s heart. During his short set, he elected to cover ‘Across The Universe’ and ‘Revolution’.
Gilmour’s most fascinating comments came during an interview with Mojo in 2015 when he admitted: “I really wish I had been in the Beatles. [They] taught me how to play guitar; I learnt everything. The bass parts, the lead, the rhythm, everything. They were fantastic.”
In a 2006 interview with the BBC on the Radio 2 feature Tracks Of My Years, which included an offering by The Beatles. He told listeners: “I was an absolute mad Beatles fan. ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ is, I think, John Lennon’s first moment of being influenced by Bob Dylan.”
Gilmour added: “It’s very much in the Bob Dylan vein. So it’s just one example of hundreds of things I could choose. Anything by The Beatles, really. Fantastic song.”
While Gilmour’s dream of becoming a member of The Beatles is an impossible fantasy that he’ll never realise, the guitarist has been handed a small taste of life as a Beatle over the years. He not only magicked solos for songs on the Paul McCartney records Give My Regards to Broad Street and Flowers in the Dirt, but he’s also had the honour of performing with Macca at Liverpool’s Cavern Club — the spiritual home of The Beatles.
“I’m a kid, really,” Gilmour continued in his conversation with Mojo when speaking about his collaboration. “You get into Studio Two at Abbey Road, you’re sitting there with Paul McCartney, and your guitar is plugged in.”
For an esteemed artist like Gilmour one might expect the situation to be somewhat usual, but that’s not the case when you’re a super fan: “You think that’s an ordinary day’s work, but of course, it isn’t; it’s magical! Managing to persuade him to sing ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ at the Cavern, with me doing the John Lennon parts, was absolutely fantastic.”
Watch the footage below of Gilmour living out his teenage dream and sharing the stage at the Cavern Club alongside Paul McCartney to play ‘I Saw Her Standing There’.
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