David Gilmour’s six favourite Pink Floyd songs
Pink Floyd was a band so intent on forward-thinking and avid musical creation that they have an incredibly dense back catalogue. It is so textured, so deeply woven and impenetrable that it is almost impossible to unpick completely. When a strand of sonic creation is unthreaded from the tapestry of their work, another seems to fill its place with a whole new web of work to dive into. With 15 studio albums to choose from, it begs the question, which songs does the group’s principal member, the fantastic guitarist David Gilmour, believe are the band’s best?
It’s a tricky question that, one would imagine, Gilmour has faced plenty of times and batted away with a wry smile. It’s a quandary that most artists face and dismiss, but on one or two occasions, Gilmour shared his feelings about his favourite songs from the acid-rock pioneers. The man, it must be acknowledged, will have had such an integral hand in Pink Floyd’s output that picking a few songs to call his favourite is the equivalent of a sonic Sophie’s choice. However, unlike that predicament, there’s a good chance his answer may change every time he is asked.
The singer and guitarist, who joined the band near the very beginning of their wide-reaching 55-year journey after replacing Syd Barrett, once picked six songs he liked the most amid a vast catalogue of incredible work. The choices are a collection of songs that Gilmour would say stood the test of time and still feel as natural to him now as they did when they were first made. More often than not, the idea of timelessness is what truly impresses an artist. If their work can still feel valid decades after they were initially created, then there’s a good chance that they are worthy of being favoured.
In truth, Gilmour’s favourite Pink Floyd songs may be a little hard to gauge. The singer’s relationship with the tempestuous band saw him struggle with creative tensions and in-fighting with Roger Waters, often leaving a slightly bitter taste in his mouth. When considering his own prominent solo career, it must become tiresome having to consistently answer fan-centric questions about Pink Floyd. However, that is what happens when you’re part of one of the most influential outfits of all time.
Luckily enough, in 2006, Billboard spoke to Gilmour, and amidst a heaving interview where pretty much every aspect of his career thus far was discussed, Gilmour did answer the question on everybody’s lips: what were his favourite Pink Floyd songs? While he did pick some Floyd classics out as the best, he also admitted that “there’s lots of them”.
Selecting two from the Wish You Were Here album, Gilmour began: “‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ are standout tracks”. The songs are rightly considered among Floyd’s best. ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ is not only musically exemplary, it also has an emotional message at its centre, written as it was in tribute to Syd Barrett, who left the group after struggling to deal with his debilitating mental health issues. Beginning with a menacing and dark tone, he eventually lifts his style to cosmic levels and creates a fitting tribute to the late genius.
‘Wish You Were Here’ is another piece that sticks out among Pink Floyd’s works. It’s a magnetic piece which begins with Gilmour’s triumphant 12-string intro, the beguiling acoustic solo and the pedal steel guitar that slices through the entire production. It may be a Waters-penned lyric sheet, but Gilmour brought most of the emotional language to the fore.
Picking two of the band’s most prominent tracks, the guitarist quite possibly assured the triumvirate of Pink Floyd numbers when he picked arguably the band’s most famous song from The Wall, ‘Comfortably Numb’, a track which Gilmour holds a special affection for.
When picking out some of his favourite solos, Gilmour shared his most spectacular moment with Pink Floyd, noting ‘Comfortably Numb’ as the pinnacle of his and the band’s live shows: “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,” remembers Gilmour.
He added: “I’m in pitch darkness, and no one knows I’m there yet. And Roger’s down, and he finishes his line, I start mine and the big back spots, and everything going on and the audience, they’re all looking straight ahead and down, and suddenly there’s all this light up there and they all sort of—their heads all lift up and there’s this thing up there, and the sound’s coming out and everything. Every night there’s this sort of ‘[gasp!]’ from about 15,000 people. And that’s quite something, let me tell you”.
The tracks mentioned initially are ones which most Pink Floyd fans would agree with. Gilmour may not have described all of those songs as his personal favourites, but he did eventually give the game away when he said: “‘High Hopes’ from The Division Bell is one of my favourite all-time Pink Floyd tracks,” tacking on a few more for good measure: “‘The Great Gig in the Sky’, ‘Echoes'” he eventually conceded defeat and admitted: “There’s lots of them”.
‘High Hopes’ was always likely to find its way onto Gilmour’s list. It’s a piece upon which much of A Momentary Lapse of Reason hangs, but also one of the first moments he worked so closely with his wife, Polly Samson on the lyrics. “I started writing things and looking to her for an opinion,” recalled Gilmour when reflecting on the album, “and gradually, as a writer herself and an intelligent person, she started putting her oar in, and I encouraged her.”
One of Pink Floyd’s most famous songs, ‘Great Gig in the Sky’ clearly evokes excitement for Gilmour and, so connected as it is to his late friend and Floyd keyboardist, Richard Wright, there’s a good chance that this one will always remain a favourite. ‘Echoes’, his final choice, is also intrinsically connected to Wright. A truly bountiful piece, the track is imbued by some of Gilmour’s best playing with the band, delivering a soulful yet technical solo that few could match. However, owing to the death of Wright, it’s a song Gilmour will never play again: “There’s something that’s specifically so individual about the way that Rick and I play in that that you can’t get someone to learn it and do it just like that. That’s not what music’s about”.
The rest of the interview, conducted to promote his solo tour at the time, offers up a candid view of Gilmour. After being asked whether or not he should be playing bigger venues to avoid upsetting people, he frankly replied: “I can’t help other people’s frustrations. I don’t owe people anything. If people would like to come to my concerts, I’d love them to come. And if they like the music that I make, I love that too. But I do not make music for other people. I make it to please myself.” It’s the kind of artistic determination that has seen Gilmour and Pink Floyd retain their position as purists.
On his legacy, Gilmour reflected: “Oh! [Long silence] Legacy? What’s a legacy? I think our music will continue to be played for a while. Then it will be forgotten like everything else will be forgotten. How long will that take? A hundred years, a thousand years, a million years? I have no idea. This is not something I think of very much.”
Take a listen below to the six songs David Gilmour thinks are Pink Floyd’s best.
David Gilmour’s favourite Pink Floyd songs:
- ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’
- ‘Wish You Were Here’
- ‘Comfortably Numb’
- ‘High Hopes’
- ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’
- ‘Echoes’