In the 1970s, with the success of classic Pink Floyd albums like “The Dark Side of the Moon” (1973), “Wish You Were Here” (1975) and “The Wall” (1979), David Gilmour was already considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time. He always had a broad musical taste, something reflected in his versatility as a musician. Unlike many of his peers, he remained interested in new bands and musical styles that emerged over the decades.
He revered artists like The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, but also praised bands such as Van Halen, something that became clear when he was a guest DJ for a day during a radio special (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) and listed some of his favorite songs of all time. That happened in 1984 while he was promoting his solo album “About Face,” and before playing the tracks, he said: “We’re gonna be playing a whole bunch of groovy records from all sorts of strange, diverse people.”
6 songs David Gilmour picked as some of his favorites of all time
Van Halen “Jump”
“We gonna carry right on into a very esoteric little thing that probably none of you have heard. This is called ‘Jump’ by Van Halen and it’s got a great guitar solo! A wild little track there from the boys,” he said. David praised Eddie Van Halen many times, especially in the 1980s, and even said that, alongside Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler, he was one of the guitarists influencing him during that decade.
“These days I don’t listen to other people with the objective of trying to steal their licks. Although I’ve got no objections to stealing them if that seems like a good idea. I’m sure that I’m still influenced by Mark Knopfler and Eddie Van Halen as well.”
“I can’t play like Eddie Van Halen, I wish I could. I sat down to try some of those ideas and I can’t do it. (But) I don’t know if I could ever get any of that stuff together. Sometimes I think I should work at the guitar more. I play every day but I don’t consciously practice scales or anything in particular,” David Gilmour told Guitar Classics magazine in 1985.
Although he liked much of what Eddie Van Halen created in terms of guitar playing, Gilmour never tried to replicate it. As he told Guitar World in 1988, he didn’t have the “fingers” for it.“I do like Eddie Van Halen’s playing a lot. Of course, I can’t do that at all. I don’t have the fingers for it,” he said.
Jimi Hendrix “All Along the Watchtower”
“The next record is a Bob Dylan tune done by Jimi Hendrix ‘All Along the Watchtower’, (it’s got a) wild guitar this one,” he said. Curiously, David had been a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix even before he became famous as Jimi Hendrix. He first had the chance to see him playing as a touring musician with Brian Auger and the Trinity.
“Jimi Hendrix, fantastic. I went to a club in south Kensington in 1966. This kid got on stage with Brian Auger and the Trinity. (He started to play) the guitar with the other way around (upside down) and started playing. Myself and the whole place was with their jaws hanging open.”
“I went to the next day to record shops. I said ‘You’ve got anything by this guy Jimi Hendrix?’ They said ‘Well, we’ve got a James Hendrix’. He hadn’t yet done anything. So I became rather an avid fan waiting for his first release,” David Gilmour said on “Tracks Of My Years” in 2006 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
The Pink Floyd guitarist and singer had already revealed that his favorite Hendrix album is “Electric Ladyland”, released in 1968. Besides “All Along the Watchtower, that album also had classics like “Crosstown Traffic”, Voodoo Chile”, “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”. Gilmour had the chance to pay tribute to Jimi in 1991, during the Live Amnesty International’s Big 30 show, where he played “Hey Joe” with Seal on vocals.
Bob Dylan “Like a Rolling Stone”
“This sort of (list) wouldn’t be complete without a Bob Dylan track and here is one. Probably my favorite… maybe not, but probably. This one is ‘Like a Rolling Stone,'” he said. Dylan has always been one of Gilmour’s biggest heroes, and he first had the chance to hear his music when his parents, who were living in the United States, sent him a few records.
“I got Bob Dylan’s first record for my 16th birthday. They (his parents) sent me from Greenwich Village (New York). Before that they sent me the Peter Seeger’s guitar tutor record, which is my only actual instruction (To play guitar). (It) was with Peter Seeger’s guitar tutor record,” David Gilmour told BBC Two in 2015 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
He has always mentioned Dylan as one of the musicians he admires the most, and unlike many fans from the early days of his career, he was never angry at Bob for “going electric.”
“To me, I was never one of the people who thought Dylan was a monster for going electric. I liked the change. But I must say the power of the young Dylan as the acoustic-playing protest singer- which he’s always denied. But sorry Bob, you were a protest singer.”
“Just to get his guitar and play to a crowd of people and it’s like an arrow. His words come out and the music. People underestimate his actual musical abilities. And the melodies and the words just shoot out like an arrow. I think he was unbelievable. And is,” David Gilmour said in an interview with The Guardian.
The Beatles “Across the Universe”
“This one is one of my all-time Beatles favorites, this one is called ‘Across the Universe’. (The song was) written by old John (Lennon),” he said. Although David was part of Pink Floyd, one of the most successful and influential bands of all time, when asked once which band he would have liked to have been part of, he mentioned The Beatles. Like most Rock fans and aspiring musicians from his generation, he was an avid fan of the Fab Four.
He did have the chance to become a “member” of the band for one night in 1999, when he played at the Cavern Club in Liverpool with Paul McCartney. He is a good friend of Paul’s and has played on many tracks from the musician’s solo career. In 1979 he played in The Wings single “Rockestra Theme” and then on the album “Give My Regards to Broadstreet” (1984). He would be part of Paul’s albums “Flowers In The Dirt” (1989) and “Run Devil Run” (1999).
In an interview with French Guitarist magazine (Translated by Rock and Roll Garage) back in 2002, he praised McCartney. “He is a musician in the broadest sense of the word. He can play everything: bass, guitar, piano, drums. And on all these instruments, he has a very good level. We cannot therefore mystify him, he knows exactly what he wants. We owe him certain productions which were not of the greatest interest. But he definitely deserves the success and respect he enjoys,” David Gilmour said.
Elvis Presley “Heartbreak Hotel”
“The next one is Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley and I picked it because it’s groovy. A snappy little tune, there”. A couple of decades later, in 2006, when interviewed by BBC Radio, Gilmour once again mentioned the song, this time as one he would choose to take with him to a desert island. “‘Heartbreak Hotel’ as I said about ‘Waterloo Sunset’ is a perfect recording. It’s just so spare, so little going on but every nuance, every thing on it it’s absolutely affection. I got it when I was 10 years old in 1956. Also it was the second record I ever got. I’ve got it on a 78, I don’t know whatever happened to it.”
“My first record was ‘Rock Around The Clock’, my babysitter sat on it and it smashed. But I don’t know what happened to ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. It’s just that place and the piano, just magic. Elvis was great for a few years, but for me it lost all the sparkle. If you ever see any of the old black and white bits of film from him performing at that time, they are absolutely electrifying, which I don’t find in the Las Vegas ones,” David Gilmour said.
When Elvis Presley first appeared in the mainstream and became a success all over the world, besides the music, his stage presence on shows and TV programs was something that drew many fans to him. However, as Gilmour once explained, he was only able to see footage of Elvis many years after hearing his music because his family did not have a TV.
David Gilmour said:
“I didn’t actually have television until at least 5 years after Elvis started. I can only remember listening to the records and listening to the Radio Luxembourg. (It was) a late sort of evening radio station beamed in from Europe that we could get in England. I can’t remember ever seeing very much of it in its very early years or in my first few years of exposure to Rock and Roll.”
“(When I first heard ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, it was just wonderful, I wanted to be a part of it. (I didn’t know why), ask 10 million other people who feel the same, you must know as well as I do. It’s not something you can describe or explain, is it? I never felt rebellious about it or anything, I just liked it. It was good fun,” he said in an interview in 1981 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Jackson Browne “Disco Apocalypse”
“We’re gonna move right along into a Jackson Browne song, one of my favorites. This one is called ‘Disco Apocalypse” and it sounds we’ve got one upstairs (someone was making noise above the studio),” he said.
The song was part of Jackson Browne’s sixth studio album, released in 1980. Even though it was not critically acclaimed, it was commercially successful, becoming the only one of his albums to reach number 1 on the Billboard chart. Besides the track mentioned by Gilmour, the record also featured songs like “That Girl Could Sing,” “Boulevard,” and “Hold On Hold Out.”