One of Richard Wright’s finest songs according to David Gilmour

One of Pink Floyd‘s co-founders, the keyboardist Richard Wright was a fundamental part of the band’s sound ,but of course, there were also turbulent moments in his relationship especially with Roger Waters, who forced him out of the group during the recording of the album “The Wall” released in 1979. But he continued to be part of the band as a hired musician and toured with them until 1981 when he left for good. He would return in 1987, when Gilmour and Mason reactivated Pink Floyd after a legal battle with Waters.

Gilmour and Wright remained really good friends until his death in 2008 at the age of 65. He even revealed once which, in his opinion, is one of Wright’s finest songs.

One of Richard Wright’s finest songs according to David Gilmour

As Gilmour said in an interview with Mark Jeeves in 2023 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), one of Richard Wright’s finest moments was “The Great Gig In The Sky”.

“It’s hard to pin down, Rick wrote a lot of beautiful pieces of music. Obviously, ‘The Great Gig In the Sky’ is one of those things. But he is an integral part of the flavor of pretty much everything we’ve ever put out. Sometimes in all the noise that Roger and I tend to make. You know, verbally, in the press and on the record, he tends to get slightly overlooked.”

“But his part has always been there, in everything you hear. It’s him, it’s idiosyncratic, it’s different to any other player. I would say ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’ is one of his finest moments,” David Gilmour said.

The track mentioned by Gilmour is part of  “The Dark Side of The Moon”, which is Pink Floyd’s eight studio album, released in 1973. It’s their best-selling album and one of the best-selling records of all time. It sold an estimated amount of more than 45 million copies worldwide.

What Richard Wright said about “The Great Gig In The Sky”

In the documentary released in 2003 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of “Dark Side of The Moon”, Wright himself talked about the song. He said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) that he was really proud of the work he did in that song.

“‘The Great Gig In The Sky’ is obviously about death. It was kind of a play on the fact we were doing good, you know. It was possibly even just the working title that stuck. I’m very proud of this piece as a musician and the way the chord structure works. It starts off in B minor and somehow, I managed to go through this whole sequence and get to B flat.”

“It’s a very weird change but it actually works. I thank Clare Torry for that magic day when she put the voice on. I remember us all sitting there saying ‘This is incredible’. What is happening out there? What she did.”

“I was extremely excited from hearing this incredible voice. I mean, even today I just can’t believe the effect it has, on me and I guess with everyone else,” Richard Wright said.