Born in Cambridge, England in 1946, the guitarist and singer David Gilmour was a fundamental part of the success of Pink Floyd. He first joined the band in 1967 in order to help the band to cover Syd Barrett‘s performances since he was already facing mental issues and was sometimes erratic. They eventually had to fire Barrett and Gilmour became the band’s only guitarist.
In the following years they were still discovering which road to take musically and everything changed in 1973 with the release of “Dark Side of The Moon”, which became one of the best-selling albums of all time. Their success continued over the decades and Gilmour is one of the most influential guitarists in the world.
After many decades touring and playing Pink Floyd hits, it’s easy to get tired of many songs but as Gilmour revealed once in an interview with Classic Rock in 2015, there are two tracks that he never gets tired of playing. Rock and Roll Garage shares more information about these songs and tells what is Gilmour’s opinion on them.
The 2 songs that David Gilmour said he never gets tired of playing
“Comfortably Numb”
Although David Gilmour said that he never gets tired of playing a few songs like “Comfortably Numb”, he doesn’t tour around the world that much anymore. Unlike the ex-Pink Floyd bassist and singer Roger Waters, Gilmour historically only performs live after he releases a new solo album. That’s why his most recent tour happened following the release of “Rattle That Lock” (2015) and the most recent show in 2016.
“Comfortably Numb” was the final track of his setlist during those shows and it was first released in the classic album “The Wall” (1979). Gilmour’s guitar solos in the songs are often considered one of the best of all time.
“For the very palpable joy that things like ‘Comfortably Numb’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ give to an audience, I never (get) tired 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,” David Gilmour told Classic Rock.
“Comfortably Numb” was written by him and Roger Waters. Besides both of them, the track was recorded by Nick Mason and Richard Wright. Also had the participation of Michael Kamen (Orchestral arrangements) and Lee Ritenour (Acoustic guitar).
“Wish You Were Here”
As Gilmour said, the track “Wish You Were Here”, from the album of the same name released in 1975 is another song he doesn’t get tired of playing. One of the most famous Pink Floyd ballads, the track was also credited to Roger Waters and Gilmour. But with lead vocals by the guitarist, unlike “Comfortably Numb” in which both shared the vocals. Besides the four members of the band, the track was also recorded by Stéphane Grappeli, who played the violin.
In an interview with Paul Rappaport (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), he recalled how the band was feeling when they made that album. “We were clueless. For a long time we were faffing about blindly finding a way foward. That sort of blindly wandering about not knowing we were doing was what helped to create what came. With ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ and the whole ‘Wish You Were Here’ album.”
“That started quite painfully. It was difficult, we didn’t know what we were doing. But by the time we were adding in those other songs ‘Welcome To the Machine, Have a Cigar’. We were working on all cylinders I would say,” David Gilmour said.
The musician then continued revealing how he composed the music for the track “Wish You Were Here”. “I bought a 12-string guitar of a guy then. I think I had recently bought it, I was strumming it in the control room number three of Abbey Road. (Then) that just sort of started coming out (the riff).”
He continued:
“A bit like the beginning of ‘Shine On…’, those four notes. I started mildly obsessing with this riff that was slowly developing. Roger’s ears picked up and he said ‘Hum.. what’s that?’. I had a terrible habit of playing bits of songs by other people that were good. Roger would say: ‘Yeah, that’s good, let’s use that!’ And I would say: ‘I can’t. It belongs to someone else (laughs)”. So he got a little nervous about asking sometimes,” David Gilmour said.
During the same conversation, the musician said that everytime he hears that track he thinks that he should have recorded that intro a little better. He explained that the concept of the song is that it was someone in a room listening to a song on the radio. Then that person would pick up his guitar and play along. That’s why there is a feeling that the sound of the guitar grows a few moments after the intro.