Pink Floyd, founded in 1965 by lead singer Syd Barrett, is a band from London that is known for progressive blues rock music. Their style of music captivates many, with meaningful lyrics revolving around political and social issues. Pink Floyd also adapted a very experimental style of playing that required extreme musical acuity.
Throughout the years, the band established a live performance presence almost similar to that of the Grateful Dead. Pink Floyd, like the Dead, utilized improvisation during their live performances to try out and experiment with different pieces. This would mean taking a break and adding a solo or scale into the song that may not have been there on the studio recording.
This adaptation of music I think is what separates bands from truly gifted musicians. I admire the skill that it took to completely come up with different bits and fills for a song live in front of millions. On top of that, the improvisational pieces are often just as good as the original studio recording.
One of Pink Floyd’s most notable songs, “Comfortably Numb” off of their 1979 album “The Wall,” captures a lot of the reasons why they are such a large band. The song opens up with a very calming introduction from Richard Wright on the organ along with lead Guitarist David Gilmour swelling his guitar. A swell is essentially where you mute your guitar, strike the note, and then open up your volume knob to get a beautiful sound.
The song then progresses through a verse and chorus with sophisticated lyrics. As with many bands, the meaning of songs can be all over the place because different people have different interpretations. I think that the overall meaning of the song is being content with the pain and hardship that you experience in life, and living through it.
“There is no pain you are receding” is a line in the song that captures my interpretation of the song. I feel like the phrase means that you are leaving the pain, but also simultaneously disconnecting yourself from the ability to be affected by the pain. This song is filled with few lyrics, but they all convey the emotion of learning to be alright with feeling pain, or becoming comfortably numb.
Gilmours “Comfortably Numb” solo is widely considered in the debate of top five guitar solos of all time. Throughout the solo, he works in the D major and minor pentatonic scales to craft a magnificent rhythm. Gilmours signature is an all black vintage Fender Stratocaster that first appeared in performance during a 1970 show.
Pink Floyd is a great band with an extremely wide variety of songs that all have unique meaning. Two of the original members, Syd Barrett and Richard Wright sadly passed away, meaning the band can no longer perform as they once did. However, Pink Floyd continues to rack in over twenty two million monthly listeners on Spotify, still impacting many with their music.
