The Pink Floyd album Richard Wright thought could have been better: “We could have gone further”
At some point in the early 1970s, Pink Floyd seemed to reach god-tier status among rock and roll fans. Even if one of their records didn’t seem to match the power of Dark Side of the Moon, they could still be counted on to make a project that would sound absolutely beautiful coming out of any speakers. While Roger Waters left the band drifting for a period, Richard Wright believed that working on The Division Bell left a lot to be desired.
When talking about the story of Pink Floyd, though, the way Wright was treated is one of the more tragic things that has happened to them since Syd Barrett’s departure. For all the comments Waters had said about Wright not pulling his weight, he was always responsible for Floyd sounding the way they did onstage, usually bringing that delicate touch with keyboard pads but also knowing when to ramp things up on songs like ‘Breathe’.
Even though he technically returned to the fold on A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Wright was still being treated as a session musician as David Gilmour tried to steer the ship again. If ‘Learning to Fly’ and ‘On the Turning Away’ proved that the guitarist could write classics of his own, The Division Bell was where things started to get cerebral again.
Waters was normally the one putting a philosophical bent to Floyd’s lyrics, but working in conjunction with Gilmour’s wife, Polly Sampson, led to some of the more intriguing lyrics of the group’s later years. ‘What Do You Want From Me’ is a beautiful tribute to the friends that Gilmour had lost along the way, and ‘Coming Back to Life’ has the same emotional resonance as something like ‘Wish You Were Here’ if you’re in the right headspace for it.
Since Gilmour didn’t have to work on the lyrics, many of the backing tracks could morph into jam sessions as the group hashed out what they wanted. This wasn’t like they had become The Grateful Dead or anything. They were sculpting an album from scratch, and when listening to instrumentals like ‘Marooned,’ what you’re hearing is snippets of jams where the magic is captured all in one go.
Still, Wright thought that from a production standpoint, the record could have been a lot more interesting than it turned out to be, saying, “I think we could have gone further towards making a Floyd album as we used to—more thematic, with all the music having a logical link. That’s something I think a lot of the band’s fans like, and it was something I wanted to achieve with my own record.”
When looking at Wright’s solo catalogue, the album Broken China may have been a better version of what he wanted to achieve, as he tells the story of someone suffering from some sense of depression and trying their best to work their way through it. The Division Bell is better suited to individual moments rather than one thematic concept, but sometimes it’s better to do each song incredibly well rather than make a few toothless tunes for the sake of the album’s story.
