Pink Floyd | "Comfortably Numb"
Feb 15, 2016 18:45:09 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2016 18:45:09 GMT -5
From their classic 1979 album The Wall.
One of my favorites by them. Classic song.
From Wikipedia:
One of my favorites by them. Classic song.
From Wikipedia:
"Comfortably Numb" (working title "The Doctor")[3] is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, which first appears on the 1979 double album The Wall. It was also released as a single in 1980 with "Hey You" as the B-side. It is one of only three songs on the album for which writing credits are shared between bassist Roger Waters and guitarist David Gilmour. The chorus melody was written by Gilmour while Waters contributed the lyrics and the music for the verses. An early version of the song was included under the working title on the "Immersion Box Set" of The Wall, released in 2012.
The song is one of Pink Floyd's most famous, and is renowned especially for its guitar solos in the middle and at the end of the song.[4] In 2004, the song was ranked number 314 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[5] In 2005, it became the last song ever to be performed by Waters, Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright, and drummer Nick Mason together. In 2011, the song was ranked 5th in the BBC Radio 4's listeners' Desert Island Discs[6] choices. The two guitar solos were ranked as the greatest guitar solos of all time by both Planet Rock listeners and WatchMojo.com.[7][8]
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While most songs on The Wall were written by Waters alone, most of the music for "Comfortably Numb" was written by David Gilmour, who originally recorded the instrumental demo during the latter stages of recording his first solo album, hoping to find some later use for it. Gilmour later brought his demo of it to The Wall sessions. In Gilmour's original demo, though there were no lyrics, he sang a melody not unlike the final version of the chorus. The verses, however, were in the key of E minor (a progression of E minor, D major, C major, A minor, and back to E minor again), rather than B minor, as in the final version. Also, the chord sequence for the final chorus line "I have become comfortably numb" did not exist in Gilmour's demo. So, while the music is widely considered to be Gilmour's work, it is likely that Waters composed the chords for that line, as well as making the decision to change the verses from E minor to B minor.
...
The verses are composed in the key of B minor, while the chorus is in that key's relative major, D major. The song is one of two tracks on The Wall which are free-standing and do not fade into or out of an adjacent track. (The other free-standing song is "Mother".) This is also the longest song on the album at 6:21, followed by "Mother", which is 5:32.
According to Rolling Stone, the lyrics came from Roger Waters' experience when he was injected with tranquilizers for stomach cramps by a doctor prior to playing a Pink Floyd show in Philadelphia on the band's 1977 In the Flesh tour.[9][10] "That was the longest two hours of my life," Waters said, "trying to do a show when you can hardly lift your arm." The experience gave him the idea which eventually became the lyrics to this song.
Waters and Gilmour disagreed about how to record the song as Gilmour preferred a more grungy style for the verses. In the end, Waters' preferred opening to the song and Gilmour's final solo were used on the album. Gilmour would later say, "We argued over 'Comfortably Numb' like mad. Really had a big fight, went on for ages."[11] For the backing of Gilmour's vocal section, he and session player Lee Ritenour used a pair of high-strung acoustic guitars, similar to "Nashville" tuning, only the low E string was replaced with a high E string, two octaves higher than normal, instead of one.
...
This song features two guitar solos by David Gilmour. The first solo is played over a shortened version of the chorus music, and the longer outro solo is played over the verse structure. In 1989, the readers of the Pink Floyd fanzine The Amazing Pudding voted this song the best Floyd song of all time. David Gilmour's solo was rated the 4th best guitar solo of all-time by Guitar World magazine, in a reader poll.[13] Also in Guitar World, there were details on David Gilmour's "Comfortably Numb" solo, stating that the solo (most likely the outro solo) was pieced together from several other solos that he had been experimenting with at the time; this was accomplished by recording several solos and marking his preferred segments for the perfect final take. In August 2006, it was voted the greatest guitar solo of all time in a poll by listeners of digital radio station Planet Rock.[14] In addition, Gilmour's guitar tone in the song was named best guitar sound by Guitarist magazine in November 2010.[15]
The song is one of Pink Floyd's most famous, and is renowned especially for its guitar solos in the middle and at the end of the song.[4] In 2004, the song was ranked number 314 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[5] In 2005, it became the last song ever to be performed by Waters, Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright, and drummer Nick Mason together. In 2011, the song was ranked 5th in the BBC Radio 4's listeners' Desert Island Discs[6] choices. The two guitar solos were ranked as the greatest guitar solos of all time by both Planet Rock listeners and WatchMojo.com.[7][8]
...
While most songs on The Wall were written by Waters alone, most of the music for "Comfortably Numb" was written by David Gilmour, who originally recorded the instrumental demo during the latter stages of recording his first solo album, hoping to find some later use for it. Gilmour later brought his demo of it to The Wall sessions. In Gilmour's original demo, though there were no lyrics, he sang a melody not unlike the final version of the chorus. The verses, however, were in the key of E minor (a progression of E minor, D major, C major, A minor, and back to E minor again), rather than B minor, as in the final version. Also, the chord sequence for the final chorus line "I have become comfortably numb" did not exist in Gilmour's demo. So, while the music is widely considered to be Gilmour's work, it is likely that Waters composed the chords for that line, as well as making the decision to change the verses from E minor to B minor.
...
The verses are composed in the key of B minor, while the chorus is in that key's relative major, D major. The song is one of two tracks on The Wall which are free-standing and do not fade into or out of an adjacent track. (The other free-standing song is "Mother".) This is also the longest song on the album at 6:21, followed by "Mother", which is 5:32.
According to Rolling Stone, the lyrics came from Roger Waters' experience when he was injected with tranquilizers for stomach cramps by a doctor prior to playing a Pink Floyd show in Philadelphia on the band's 1977 In the Flesh tour.[9][10] "That was the longest two hours of my life," Waters said, "trying to do a show when you can hardly lift your arm." The experience gave him the idea which eventually became the lyrics to this song.
Waters and Gilmour disagreed about how to record the song as Gilmour preferred a more grungy style for the verses. In the end, Waters' preferred opening to the song and Gilmour's final solo were used on the album. Gilmour would later say, "We argued over 'Comfortably Numb' like mad. Really had a big fight, went on for ages."[11] For the backing of Gilmour's vocal section, he and session player Lee Ritenour used a pair of high-strung acoustic guitars, similar to "Nashville" tuning, only the low E string was replaced with a high E string, two octaves higher than normal, instead of one.
...
This song features two guitar solos by David Gilmour. The first solo is played over a shortened version of the chorus music, and the longer outro solo is played over the verse structure. In 1989, the readers of the Pink Floyd fanzine The Amazing Pudding voted this song the best Floyd song of all time. David Gilmour's solo was rated the 4th best guitar solo of all-time by Guitar World magazine, in a reader poll.[13] Also in Guitar World, there were details on David Gilmour's "Comfortably Numb" solo, stating that the solo (most likely the outro solo) was pieced together from several other solos that he had been experimenting with at the time; this was accomplished by recording several solos and marking his preferred segments for the perfect final take. In August 2006, it was voted the greatest guitar solo of all time in a poll by listeners of digital radio station Planet Rock.[14] In addition, Gilmour's guitar tone in the song was named best guitar sound by Guitarist magazine in November 2010.[15]
