David Gilmour’s favourite post-Roger Waters Pink Floyd song
It’s one of the most famous splits in rock and roll history. Pink Floyd may well have been the founding fathers of the acid rock movement, sowed the seeds for a garden of prog-rock to blossom, and even had a large hand in the proliferation of countless band-driven cinematic experiences and theatrical musical explorations, but they were human like the rest of us and susceptible to humanity’s foibles.
These issues would lead to one of the most acrimonious breakups in rock history. One that would see court battles descend into public harassment and even a charitable reunion for good measure. It has also created perhaps the most singularly asked question in the history of music: “Are you and Roger/David ever likely to get the band back together?”
Ever since their inception during the height of the swinging scene in London in the 1960s, Pink Floyd have been a behemoth of the rock music world. A powerful beast that has shapeshifted on occasion but rarely failed to keep up to the high standards they set during the 1970s when they delivered LP after LP of classic music.
It was a band largely driven by the hearts and minds of Roger Waters and David Gilmour. The former founded the group and soon became the group’s chief songwriter, delivering the majority of the lyrics and a lot fo the group’s most deliciously conceptual pieces. The latter replaced Syd Barrett to take his own fair share of the plaudits, becoming a technical guitar whizz and orchestrating a side of the Floyd that few can imagine the band existing without.
With two dominating characters at the centre of the group, trouble was always likely to brew. But, like John Lennon and Paul McCartney before them, the duo always managed to make things work, with perhaps their most famous song even arriving from the energy of one of their creative disagreements. For many, the band’s split was not a shock but an expectation, and, in 1985, Roger Waters decided he had dealt with enough of being in a band and left the group for good, only returning for a special performance during Live 8 in 2005, 20 years after he first departed.
There’s a good chance that Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright were none too happy with Waters when he left. Not only did the bassist and songwriter leave the band at 75 per cent capacity, but he also tried to stop the group from touring under the Pink Floyd name, entering a lengthy legal battle that seemingly only got uglier with every passing week. It was an unwelcomed time for most Pink Floyd fans as the group focused in on their acrimony rather than making music. In 1987, the band finally reached an agreement with Waters and began writing music outside of their original, successful formation.
It means that any song Gilmour considers a classic from Pink Floyd after Waters left is likely one of his most personal. When asked about his favourite tracks from the band in 2006, Gilmour stated: “‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ are standout tracks.” Picking two of the band’s most prominent tunes, the guitarist completed quite possibly the triumvirate of Pink Floyd numbers when picked arguably the band’s most famous song from The Wall, ‘Comfortably Numb’, a track which Gilmour holds a special affection for.
It’s a question the guitarist has been asked a lot during his career, and there is a good case to suggest he had simply hit autopilot when giving away a top three songs which would be included in most fans’ assortments. Gilmour may not have described all of the songs as his personal favourites, but he did eventually give the game away when he said: “‘High Hopes’ from The Division Bell is one of my favourite all-time Pink Floyd tracks.”
‘High Hopes’ also happens to be the only one on Gilmour’s list without a contribution from Roger Waters. That may well be a coincidence, but the song also happens to hold a special place in Gilmour’s heart for another reason: it features his son Charlie on the telephone hanging up on the band’s manager, Steve O’Rourke. It marks the tune as a purely personal affair which, since their split, most of the Pink Floyd songs have become. Elsewhere, the track stands up as some of the group’s best work, with or without Roger Waters.
Many people would suggest that the loss of Waters makes this album a lowly contender for a spot near the top of the band’s discography, and while that is certainly a valid argument, the music made on this record, including ‘High Hopes’ is perhaps the most truthful to Gilmour the group ever made.
