The two Pink Floyd songs David Gilmour will never get tired of playing
The songs of Pink Floyd have remained entrenched in the public consciousness for decades despite the band no longer being active. Yet, the demand to experience their music live persists unabated.
While the chances of a reunion from the surviving members of Pink Floyd is out of the question due to the personal problems between David Gilmour and Roger Waters, both men still consistently sell out arenas around the globe playing the band’s hits. Furthermore, drummer Nick Mason is out on the road playing material from the Syd Barrett era of the group.
Despite the fierce animosity between the former bandmates, the music of Pink Floyd remains relevant today as new generations discover their magnificence. Therefore, rather than exclusively play solo work in their concerts, they all rely on the back catalogue they helped create.
When Gilmour last toured in 2016, the jaunt on the road was to promote his fourth solo album, Rattle That Lock. Nevertheless, he still played a string of Pink Floyd songs. With many acts, they play tracks from their former band with reluctance and through gritted teeth, but not Gilmour, who savours every second of two particular songs.
During an interview with Louder, he said of his favourite songs to perform live: “For the very palpable joy that things like ‘Comfortably Numb’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ give to an audience, I never tire of them as I know what they’re doing. I suppose playing that same old thing again can be seen as being tedious, but really, I’m always happy to do the ones people love.”
Gilmour has performed those two songs on countless occasions. Still, the feeling he receives when taking flight on the solo in ‘Comfortably Numb’ or delivering the mind-bending ecstasy of ‘Wish You Were Here’ is a drug that he’ll always crave.
Meanwhile, during a conversation with Billboard many years prior, the guitarist again touched upon the thrilling joy of performing ‘Comfortably Numb’ to the adoring masses. He recalled: “I’m in pitch darkness, and no one knows I’m there yet. And Roger’s down, and he finishes his line, I start mine and the big back spots, and everything go on, and the audience, they’re all looking straight ahead and down, and suddenly there’s all this light up there and they all sort of—their heads all lift up and there’s this thing up there, and the sound’s coming out and everything.”
Gilmour added: “Every night there’s this sort of ‘[gasp!]’ from about 15,000 people. And that’s quite something, let me tell you.”
While ‘Comfortably Numb’ is one of Gilmour’s favourites, Pink Floyd’s creative journey to make the song was a rollercoaster. In the studio, the band was locked into heated arguments about how it should be mixed. As Gilmour fought for one take to be the final mix, at the same time, Waters demanded another until they eventually decided to combine the two in an uncharacteristically diplomatic matter. Although this atmosphere helped push Pink Floyd to greatness, it proved unsustainable.
‘Wish You Were Here’ represents a different spectrum of Pink Floyd. The track is a very special one, penned by Waters in a bid to reconcile his feelings about Syd Barrett. The tune is particularly poignant. “It still brings tears to my eyes when I sing it because it’s so important to every day of my life, because we too often fail to make the connections that we ought to,” he said on a 1992 Jim Ladd radio special.
While Gilmour will never play the songs again with Pink Floyd, with his relationship with Waters beyond repair and his want to perform the tracks of the band now waning, we can bet that, somewhere deep inside, Gilmour still longs for the gasp of the audience.
Watch Gilmour perform ‘Comfortably Numb’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ below.
