Among the most acclaimed albums ever recorded, not one is perfect. That’s even more true of releases from what I call the “Heroic Age of Albums,” which peaked around the late ’70s. 1979 was the year Pink Floyd released their album. The Walla two-disc rock opera that deals with a wide range of themes, from World War II bombing to drug addiction, fascist impulses, and the isolation of superstardom. This ambition paid off. The Wall It soon became the best-selling double album of all time, even though it was received with at least some ambivalence for the scale of its production and the grandeur, or perhaps grandeur, of its narrative tone.
The few who are still ready to make the call The Wall Nevertheless, an artistic failure must be recognized for how much impressive work it actually contains. Among his generally acclaimed achievements, perhaps the most memorable is David Gilmour’s guitar solo, or rather guitar solo, on “Comfortably Numb,” a song about being medically revived from a moment of pre-concert drug-induced stupor.
Indeed, when my music teacher assigned me a term paper analyzing this album in seventh grade, it stuck with me and continued to be remembered for decades to come. “His playing is very lyrical,” says YouTuber David Hartley. His new video about the making of “Comfortably Numb”. “The way he plays each note in a way that you can almost sing it, and the way he uses phrases is so simple and so beautiful.”
These solos were recorded under less than smooth sailing conditions for Floyd. As previously featured on Open Culture, “Comfortably Numb” was the product of another controversy that disrupted the long and fractious partnership between Gilmour and lead singer Roger Waters. The Wall It was his way of expressing his own life experiences and perceptions in musical form. But as sometimes happens, in this case the collision between two competing and disparate song concepts, the evolution of which Hartley explains in demo recordings and interview clips, yielded a result greater than any artist’s vision. It all culminates in what Hartley calls “probably the greatest guitar solo of all time,” concluding side three, and indeed the most fruitful era of Gilmour and Waters’ collaboration. Even those who can’t take it The Wall You have to seriously admit that life isn’t always easy for rock stars, much less for two people in the same studio.
Related content:
How Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ was born from an argument between Roger Waters and David Gilmour
History of the Electric Guitar Solo: A 7-Part Series
Pink Floyd songs brilliantly played on harp guitar: “Comfortably Numb”, “Wish You Were Here”, etc.
Oxford scientist explains the physics of playing electric guitar solo
David Gilmour and David Bowie sing “Comfortably Numb” live (2006)
The Evolution of Rock Guitar Solos: 28 Solos Spanning 50 Years in 6 Minutes
Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages and cultures. he is the author of the newsletter books about cities books as well Home page (I won’t summarize Korea) and korean newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
