The song David Gilmour couldn’t convince the band to put on ‘The Best of the Pink Floyd’
The issue with a greatest hits mix is that what the band thinks are the best tracks versus what the public or their record label thinks are the best can be two very different things. Give anyone involved the reigns, and the result would be a different tracklist as issues of personal taste, connection to the track, and the context of its creation come into play. That was the problem when it came to Pink Floyd selecting their songs while David Gilmour fought for the inclusion of one niche cut.
Attempting to formulate one all-inclusive Pink Floyd mega mix was always bound to be difficult. They were an ever-evolving beast of a band from the very start. Their history is made up of distinct and different eras, so how could one tracklist adequately capture and represent that? There are the foundational years as a rhythm and blues band, their evolution into a trippy unit when Syd Barrett was at the helm, their tricky middle years as their leader faded away and then their re-establishment as an incredibly adventurous progressive rock band. Not only is there simply so much music, but that music captures different moments in their timeline with different sounds, influences and lineups.
Some selections are no-brainers. Any greatest hits album would have to include hits like ‘Another Brick In The Wall’, ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Comfortably Numb’ and more. But that’s coming from an outsider’s perspective, informed largely by which tracks sold the best or were most well-known.
For the members of the band, that doesn’t equate to their ‘greatest’. Their viewpoint is more personal, considering their own thoughts and feelings on the value of a given song. For Gilmour especially, there was one track that he rallied behind, begging for its inclusion, but the rest of the band didn’t care as much.
The track in question was ‘Fat Old Sun’, a cut from their 1970 record Atom Heart Mother. It’s a strange record anyway, existing in the difficult limbo period after the departure of Barrett but before the group found the epic sound they’d launch on Dark Side Of The Moon. It’s in no way their best-known or most successful release, nor is it one of their most beloved. But for Gilmour, the album, and this track in particular, held a special place in his heart.
But let’s be honest here: the reason for his desire to have the track included was probably because it was his, from start to finish. “I’ve always liked the song, one of the first I ever wrote,” he said in 2008. The song was one of the first, helping to establish Gilmour’s position as the new leading light of the band. That’s always bound to make it one of his favourite songs due to the moment it represents.
It’s also a largely solo effort. On the track, Gilmour plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar, bass guitar, drums and percussion. He also sings the lead. The only other band member on there is Richard Wright who only plays the organ. So ‘Fat Old Sun’ not only means a lot to him personally, but professionally too as a display of his broad skill and talent.
“They weren’t having it,” Gilmour said of his bandmates when he tried and failed to get the song included on Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd. But who can blame them when ‘Fat Old Song’, despite being special to the musician, was considered a failure of a track, with Rolling Stone at the time calling it “English folk at its deadly worst.”
