David Gilmour’s opinion on Steve Winwood

The number of talented musicians who emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 60s is impressive and David Gilmour certainly became one of the most successful and influential among them. He was a fundamental part of Pink Floyd and has been an inspiration to countless musicians over the past decades.

Gilmour doesn’t often speak about other artists, but he has shared his opinion on a few throughout his career. One of them is Steve Winwood, who besides having a praised solo career, is also known for his work with bands such as the Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith and Traffic.

What is David Gilmour’s opinion on Steve Winwood

David Gilmour is a big fan of Steve Winwood and had the chance to see him performing back in the 60s when he was still a member of The Spencer Davis Group. A couple of decades later, the Pink Floyd member invited him to play on his solo album “About Face”.

“I paid him good money, about $1,000 a day. He wanted me to use his studio and pay for the studio time. It seemed perhaps a little high. But he doesn’t owe me any favors and I didn’t know him very well. I’ve always loved Stevie Winwood. I used to go see The Spencer Davis Group when I was 18 and he was about 16. He used to play a really great guitar as well as great piano. I really wanted to hit the little fucker he was so good!” David Gilmour told Q magazine in 1990.

Gilmour said that he wanted to make a really good album so he decided to get the best musicians he could to record with him and Winwood was one of them.”Doing this album I wanted to make a really good record. I didn’t want to do it very very quickly. I wanted to get the best musicians in the world that I could get hold of to play with me. So I thought I’d just make a little list of all my favorite musicians, you know. (The) best drummer, best bass player, best keyboard player. (Then) I’ll work through the list to see who I can get.”

David Gilmour continued:

“Jeff Porcaro was top of my drummers list, Pino Palladino was top of my bass players list. Ian Quely, or the Rev, as he’s known, he actually came and did the bulk of the hammond and piano playing, he was terrific. Steve Winwood was top of my keyboard playing list but he couldn’t do most of the album. But I got him to do a bit, he played hammond organ on ‘Blue Light.'”

“I had a bit more time and was feeling a bit freer about things on this album…just more ‘accidents’ tend to occur. I mean the ‘Blue Light’ track for example actually consists of two different songs. We wound up cutting bits out of each like making a jigsaw puzzle up and used bits of the backing track of one. Then bits of the other and then swapping back and forth,” David Gilmour told The Source.

As the Pink Floyd guitarist said, Winwood couldn’t play in all the songs. So he played the Hammond organ on “Blue Light” and the piano on “Love on the Air”, the last one with lyrics by Pete Townshend. When the album was recorded Steve Winwood already had a solid solo career. “Valerie” and “While You See a Chance” were some of his hits at the time.

He was also known for his work in Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith. As Gilmour said, Winwood is also an amazing guitar player but he also plays other instruments like keyboards, piano, mandolin and bass. He started his career as a young prodigy musician, since Spencer Davis Group’s first single with him “Dimples”, was released only 10 days after his 16th birthday.

David Gilmour is not a big fan of that album which had Steve Winwood as a special guest

Although “About Face” is a praised album, Gilmour thinks the record is a bit dated. He said in an interview with In The Studio with Redbeard in 2006, explaining that even though he had the greatest musicians he wanted, it’s a “bit too much 80s” for his taste.

“1984 was kind of a limbo period. Because we had a pretty unpleasant experience during the making of ‘The Wall’ film. Also (during the making of) ‘The Final Cut’ album with Roger (Waters). Roger still had not officially left the band. But none of us could see that we could do something together as a band. So I was kind of left stuck in a limbo there (and Roger left in 1985). At that moment I was testing the water and seeing how I get on outside of Pink Floyd, heading off into a solo project.”

David Gilmour continued:

“(To make that record) I got some very, very good musicians. (Some were) Jeff Porcaro and Pino Palladino. Looking back, it has some great moments. But the whole flavor of it it’s a bit too much 80s for my taste. I think maybe also I was trying to move into a sort of a Classicaly Rock genre that I felt truly comfortable with. (I was) trying deliberately to be a little different to Pink Floyd. (But) I suspect that’s not really where I am at my best. I should (have) let things flow more naturally,” David Gilmour said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage)

Besides Steve Winwood, that record also had Toto’s drummer Jeff Porcaro, famous session bassist Pino Palladino, Deep Purple‘s Jon Lord on synthesizers, Roy Harper on backing vocals and famous producer Bob Ezrin on keyboards and orchestral arrangement.

Steve Winwood was more prolific than David Gilmour on his solo career, releasing 9 studio albums. The most recent one is “Nine Lives” (2008). His most famous and praised records are “Arc of a Diver” (1980), “Back in the High Life” (1986) and “Roll with It” (1988).