It was a fantastic moment, I can tell, to be standing up on there, and Roger's just finished singing his thing, and I'm standing there, waiting.
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According to Gilmour, the final solo was one of the few opportunities during those concerts that he was free to improvise completely. It was the first time the audience's attention was drawn to the top of the completed wall.
Live performances Pink Floyd ĭuring the 1980/81 The Wall tour, where a giant wall was constructed across the stage during the performance, the song was performed with Roger Waters dressed as a doctor at the bottom of the wall, and David Gilmour singing and playing guitar from the top of the wall on a raised platform with spotlights shining from behind him. He used a Big Muff distortion and delay effects on the solos. To write the two guitar solos, Gilmour pieced together elements from several other solos he had been working on, marking his preferred segments for the final take. Ezrin later said he was happy with the final mix as it provided a good contrast, while Gilmour said it represented "the last embers of mine and Roger's ability to work collaboratively together". Really had a big fight, went on for ages." In the end, a compromise was reached where the main portion of the song would include the orchestral elements, while the final guitar solo would contain the stripped-down mix preferred by Gilmour. Gilmour later said: "We argued over 'Comfortably Numb' like mad. Waters and Ezrin preferred a mix containing numerous orchestral overdubs, overseen by Michael Kamen, while Gilmour preferred a stripped-down mix with heavier rock elements.
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The band disagreed about how to record the song. This tuning was also used for the arpeggios in " Hey You". įor the chorus, Gilmour and session player Lee Ritenour used a pair of acoustic guitars strung similarly to Nashville tuning, but with the low E string replaced with a high E string, two octaves higher than standard tuning. Ezrin looked at the completed lyrics and said they "just gave me goosebumps". "That was the longest two hours of my life," Waters said, "trying to do a show when you can hardly lift your arm." The song's working title was "The Doctor".
Subsequently, Waters wrote another chord structure for the verses, and added lyrics inspired from an experience of being injected with tranquilizers for stomach cramps before a 1977 performance in Philadelphia on the In the Flesh Tour. Producer Bob Ezrin suggested that Waters should reconsider, agreeing that Gilmour's demo needed fleshing out. Bassist Roger Waters listened to the demo during sessions for The Wall but was reluctant to use it as he wanted to take sole responsibility for writing the album. He didn't use the chord sequence for that album, but kept it for future work. Guitarist David Gilmour recorded a wordless demo while working on his debut solo album in 1978. It is also the longest on the album at 6:21, followed by "Mother", which is 5:32. The song, together with " Mother", is one of two tracks on The Wall that are not connected with an adjacent track. The verses are in B minor, while the chorus has been described as using a modal interchange of that key's relative major, D major, and D Mixolydian. In "Comfortably Numb," Pink is medicated by a doctor so he can perform for a show.
The Wall is a concept album about an embittered and alienated rock star named Pink. An early version was included on the 2012 Wall "Immersion Box Set". In 2005, it became the last song ever performed by Waters, Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright, and drummer Nick Mason together. It was re-ranked number 321 in 2010, and re-ranked number 179 in 2021. In 2004, it was ranked number 314 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. "Comfortably Numb" is one of Pink Floyd's most well-known songs, notable for its two guitar solos. The music was composed by guitarist David Gilmour, and the lyrics were written by bassist Roger Waters. It was released as a single in 1980, with " Hey You" as the B-side.
" Comfortably Numb" is a song on English rock band Pink Floyd's eleventh album, The Wall (1979).