Paul McCartney started his musical career in 1957, when he was still a teenager and helped to form The Beatles alongside John Lennon and George Harrison. A few years later, in 1962 they recruited Ringo Starr and recorded their groundbreaking debut album "Please Please Me". They quickly became one of the biggest and most influential bands in the world, selling millions of records worldwide. One of the most important musicians of all time, McCartney had the chance to see the evolution of Rock and Roll up-close. So he was able to see for example Pink Floyd's rise to fame with their singer and guitarist David Gilmour. What is Paul McCartney’s opinion on David Gilmour The Beatle always respected and praised Pink Floyd and shared the Abbey Road studios with them a few times. The first one was when they were recording "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and Pink Floyd were making their debut album. Later on in the early 70s, when "Dark Side of The Moon" was being recorded, Paul was next door making a Wings album. Although he never played with the Progressive Rock band, McCartney invited David Gilmour to record with him many times. In his book “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present” released in 2021, the beatle called Gilmour “a genius”. “David Gilmour plays the solo on the record. I’ve known him since the early days of Pink Floyd. Dave is a genius of sorts, so I was pulling out all the stops." "I admired his playing so much, I’d seen him around; I think he’d just done his solo ‘About Face’ album. So I rang him up and said, ‘Would you play on this?’ It sounded like his kind of thing,” Paul McCartney said. Gilmour had the chance to work a couple of times with McCartney. In 1979, David played in The Wings single “Rockestra Theme” and then on the album “Give My Regard To Broad Street” (1984), “Flowers In The Dirt” (1989) and “Run Devil Run” (1999). Paul McCartney heard a few parts of "Dark Side of The Moon before release As the Beatle recalled in the documentary "McCartney 1, 2, 3" (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) in a conversation with the producer Rick Rubin, since the Wings and Pink Floyd were sharing the Abbey Roads studios in in 1972, he had the chance to hear a few parts of "Dark Side of the Moon" before release. "(Pink) Floyd came in after us (at Abbey Road) and did a lot of cool experimental stuff. This was more Wings period, but they were next door making 'Dark Side of The Moon'. That was pretty cool. (Yeah I listened to it at the time) the engineers were quite interchangeable. So the engineer that would work on their stuff would work on ours. He'd play us some of the 'Dark Side of The Moon' stuff. “I was an absolute mad Beatles fan. ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ is I think. (It was) John Lennon‘s first moment of being influenced by Bob Dylan. It’s very much on the Bob Dylan vein. So it’s just one example of hundreds of things I could choose. Anything by The Beatles, really. Fantastic song,” David Gilmour said. David Gilmour was a Beatle for a day with Ian Paice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdzVFrvKa6M&pp=ygUZcGF1bCBtY2NhcnRuZXkgY2F2ZXJuIDE5OQ%3D%3D The Beatles were a huge influence to David Gilmour and he already said that he would love to have been a member of the band. He had a little taste of that back in 1999 when McCartney made a special show at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, a special place for The Beatles career in the early days. He formed a special band to play that night which had David Gilmour, the drummer Ian Paice (Deep Purple), Mick Green (Guitarist), Pete Wingfield (Keyboards) and Chris HaFll (Accordion). The set had only one Beatles track and many classic Rock songs from the 50s and 60s. Gilmour was really happy with the invitation and answered fans' questions in a MSN webcast that year. He talked about the experience, saying: “I’ve completed all the stuff that Paul has so far asked me to do with him. I don’t know if he’s doing anymore. But it was really good fun to get back to that kind of music for a change. Getting to be a Beatle for that night at the Cavern was unforgettable.” He was then asked if he saw any parallels between Pink Floyd and The Beatles, like the songwriting relationship Paul and John had. “You make that comparison with a number of different bands. I’m a huge fan of the Beatles. But I don’t know what parallels are between us except we were both pretty good at what we did.” Gilmour also mentioned The Beatles when answering if his kids were Pink Floyd fans. “I think they’re all fans, but possibly they prefer the Beatles,” David Gilmour said.
