“It did my throat in”: David Gilmour discusses the band that destroyed his voice
The best singers usually have to look at their voice like it’s a precious piece of cargo. It’s easy for someone to trash a guitar if it’s not working properly, but if someone’s voice is shot before a show, you have to treat it with the same treatment and care that would come with a finely crafted jewel. And while David Gilmour was never known for having the greatest vocal acrobatics in the world of progressive rock, he did have his moments where his voice absolutely gave out on him.
Then again, it’s hard not to see some of the biggest names in rock and roll having their fair share of struggles these days. No one can manage to sound like they did in their 20s 50 years down the road, and while Gilmour is still an absolute monster on guitar on his latest album, Luck and Strange, there are those occasional moments where you can hear the age setting in with his voice.
But was everything that he did in Pink Floyd that easy, anyway? Sure, some tunes are universally regarded as fantastic prog-rock journeys, but singing along to some of Gilmour’s sultry songs like ‘Young Lust’ can get more than a little bit difficult when you have to keep pushing from your diaphragm all the way up to your throat.
Even though Gilmour knew the power of his own voice, he still wasn’t afraid to have fun singing in his downtime. He always had a broader musical taste than strictly progressive rock, and considering his love of rustic music on tracks like ‘Fat Old Sun’, it should come as no surprise that he ended up falling in love with Eagles’ greatest hits whenever they came through the UK.
Granted, the country rockers are yet another example of deceptively complex singing. Most of Glenn Frey’s vocal showcases for the band sounded somewhat approachable for a casual singer, but the minute that Don Henley or Randy Meisner started singing, people were either going to have to shout as high as they could or ingest a healthy dose of helium to reach something like ‘One Of These Nights.’
Gilmour may have gone to their concerts to appreciate the craft, but he admitted that he was put through his paces as a singer once he tried to produce a note again for a more intimate show, saying, “It’s much more frightening. The audience are right there in front of you, and you can see the whites of their eyes. And my voice was really shot. I’d foolishly been to an Eagles show three or four nights before and sung along to every song, and it did my throat in a bit.”
Despite having a croaky voice, Gilmour always knew how to work around some of the technical foul-ups that could happen with his singing. He had already had the foresight to realise that what became ‘Dogs’ on Animals needed to be lowered if he wanted to sing it in his old age, and when listening to him approach Pink Floyd vocals on his solo tours, he does have his ways of working in different switch-ups in the melody to keep everything fairly balanced.
Even if Gilmour had his ways around certain problems, it’s always going to be tough trying to sing along to any Eagles song if you’re not prepared. It might be a lot of fun going to their concert and belting it out to tunes like ‘Hotel California’ and ‘Heartache Tonight,’ but no one should be surprised if they can barely talk for a week afterwards.
