Dr. Octopus
Footballguy
Was that because the track changed in the middle of it? That was a major drawback with 8 track tapes.
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FBG'S TOP 100 PINK FLOYD SONGS - #01 - Comfortably Numb from The Wall (1979) (6 Viewers)
- Thread starter Anarchy99
- Start date
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Yes. Most 8-tracks had a completely different song order / sequence than vinyl albums did. They had to rearrange songs to avoid breaking them up onto different tracks (which wasn't always possible). I only ended up with a stereo with an 8-track player because my older brother had moved out of the house and left it behind, so I inherited the stereo and a bunch of 8-tracks.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Yes, usually screwed up at least one song per album unless it was a double album which had one full side per track.
Dr. Octopus
Footballguy
My dad had a bunch on 8 tracks - seemed there were many songs that got interrupted by silence and then a loud click followed by more silence and starting back into the song. Thank god technology improved on that one.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Plus you couldn't rewind them and they sounded like crap. Otherwise they were great.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Speaking of Animals, as yet another example of how dysfunctional things got with the members of the band, apparently, they all agreed to re-release the album with a remixed, improved sound. The remastering took place in 2018. The reissue was held back due to internal squabbling and in-fighting over the liner notes to the album. The remixed album was finally released in 2022. It took them 4 years to agree on what content would go into the 32-page booklet that came with the deluxe edition of the album. Upon its initial release, the album peaked at #3 on the Billboard album charts. The re-release hit #21 on the same chart . . . 45 years later.
ericttspikes
Footballguy
I never knew about the different 8-track version before this thread. I've only owned the CD version of Animals. I'm not positive, but I think I remember hearing the complete song on the radio before. If so, guess it was that version.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Will give an update of where people stand once there are 25 songs left.
Dwayne Hoover
Footballguy
I would have expected Great Gig in the Sky before Any Colour You Like. ACYL is a miles better song.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
#27 - High Hopes from The Division Bell (1994)
Appeared On: 12 ballots (out of 33 . . . 36.4%)
Total Points: 105 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 12.7%)
Top Rankers: @Todem @Yambag @Galileo @Pip's Invitation @BroncoFreak_2K3
Highest Ranking: 3
Early Version, Outtake, Pulse, Meltdown, Remember That Night, Pompeii, Gdansk
Live Performances: DG'S PF: 110, DG: 94
Covers: Shark & The Smoke, Nightwish, Gregorian, Sylvan, Karelia, Caliban, Ray Wilson, Alexander Armstrong, Periplo
This was the last song written for The Division Bell album (and it's the last track on the countdown from that album). This song is about nostalgia, regret, and the end of things, as time runs its course. Its lyrics speak of the things one may have gained and lost in life, written from Gilmour's autobiographic perspective. Gilmour has said that the song is more about his early days, and leaving his hometown behind, than about the seeds of division supposedly planted in Pink Floyd's early days.
The lyrics refer to the band's early days in Cambridge, specifically before they started making music. It references landmarks such as "Long Road" and "The Cut", as well as Cambridge as a location for "magnets and miracles". The video also references ex-bandmate Syd Barrett. Its lyrics speak of the things one may have gained and lost in life, written from Gilmour's autobiographic perspective. Gilmour has said that the song is more about his early days, and leaving his hometown behind, than about the seeds of division supposedly planted in Pink Floyd's early days
Dave: "High Hopes was really the last one, it was written after all the others were in some form or another. I think I wrote it in July [1993] or something. It was very very quick. It's one of those ones that works quickly but beautifully almost immediately and I came up with a tiny bit of music, just had it on a cassette, just a few bars of piano and then I went off to get away to a small house somewhere with my girlfriend Polly and try and make some progress on lyric writing and she gave me a phrase, something about 'before time wears you down' and I took it from there and got stuck into a whole sort of thing about — I suppose it's autobiographical. I'd have to say on that one, it's about my life, Cambridge life, my childhood I suppose. We came up with it very very quickly, we wrote most of the words to it in a day and then I went back to the studio with no-one else there, the minute I got back and put a demo down of it, did everything myself on it, and it was virtually complete in a day."
In an additional allusion to the theme of (non-) communication on the album, at the very end of this track can be heard a brief and altogether unsuccessful telephone conversation between Steve O'Rourke (the band's manager) and Polly Samson's son Charlie.
An early version of the song appeared on the 2018 box set The Later Years Years and was released as one of the preview tracks. Unlike the album version, this features the final solo played on a regular electric guitar instead of a lapsteel.
High Hopes hit #4 on the French singles chart, #7 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart, and #26 on the UK singles chart. The lyrics of the song contain the name of this album (The Division Bell) and their final album (The Endless River), which was taken from the last line of the song.
Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 68
UCR Ranking (out of 167 songs): 83
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 17
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 18
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 34
Vulture Ranking (68 out of 165 songs): This is supposed to be The Division Bell’s saving grace — a major song from Gilmour and his girlfriend-cum-lyricist. The good news here is that Gilmour gets his hands on an actually singable five-note melody; the bad is that he takes those five notes and sings them over and over. And over and over and over again. You’d think that, in the five years following Momentary Lapse of Reason, Gilmour would have penned a few good songs.
UCR Ranking (83 out of 167 songs): Self-consciously styled by Gilmour and Samson to be Pink Floyd’s parting shot (it wasn’t, because of The Endless River, which gets its title from a lyric here), “High Hopes” makes a melancholy return to the singer-guitarist’s pre-Floyd days in Cambridge. It also seems to reference the band’s massive success both in the lyrics and in an instrumental section that nods at Welcome to the Machine. There’s a dark, sweeping majesty to the song, but it’s more than a little dreary as a capstone. Regardless, Louder than Words did it better, and sweeter, 20 years later.
Louder Ranking (17 out of 50 songs): Those who sneered at the ‘facsimile Floyd’ on A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, the band’s first album without Waters, had to think again after The Division Bell, on which Gilmour found his lyrical voice – less angry than Waters, certainly, but more perceptive in many ways. High Hopes is about setting out in life and gradually understanding how the past will inevitably affect your future. Yes, Gilmour had help from his writer wife Polly, but the places that he name-checks in Cambridge where he grew up are real enough, and the bell that tolls throughout the song is a familiar sound to anyone who grew up amid the spires of the university. The lyrics have been scrutinised for references to the feud with his childhood friend Waters, but in fact they rise above it to offer a more generalized observation. This is an older, more reflective Pink Floyd, one that ironically harks back to the early-70s Floyd before the distortion of the dark side took over. Although the album’s title is featured in the lyrics, it took an outsider, Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy author Douglas Adams, to suggest it. In their last-minute panic to find a title the band had completely overlooked it.
Billboard Ranking (34 out of 50 songs): The Division Bell: a lot better than you remember! The band made the curious decision to significantly back load the album, though — with all three singles coming on the second side — so you have to sit through a whole lot of new-age noodling before you get to the actual song-songs. But the finest of ’em comes at the end, when the clanging church bells of the Lost for Words outro give way to the blood-curdling piano plinks of High Hopes, a dolorous retrospective epic that’s maybe a little more Silent Lucidity than Comfortably Numb, but still comes the closest to the cinematic grandeur of classic Floyd than any other song since The Wall came down.
Tongue-tied and twisted, we move on to a song that stayed atop of Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart for 3 weeks . . . but failed to chart on the UK singles chart.
Appeared On: 12 ballots (out of 33 . . . 36.4%)
Total Points: 105 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 12.7%)
Top Rankers: @Todem @Yambag @Galileo @Pip's Invitation @BroncoFreak_2K3
Highest Ranking: 3
Early Version, Outtake, Pulse, Meltdown, Remember That Night, Pompeii, Gdansk
Live Performances: DG'S PF: 110, DG: 94
Covers: Shark & The Smoke, Nightwish, Gregorian, Sylvan, Karelia, Caliban, Ray Wilson, Alexander Armstrong, Periplo
This was the last song written for The Division Bell album (and it's the last track on the countdown from that album). This song is about nostalgia, regret, and the end of things, as time runs its course. Its lyrics speak of the things one may have gained and lost in life, written from Gilmour's autobiographic perspective. Gilmour has said that the song is more about his early days, and leaving his hometown behind, than about the seeds of division supposedly planted in Pink Floyd's early days.
The lyrics refer to the band's early days in Cambridge, specifically before they started making music. It references landmarks such as "Long Road" and "The Cut", as well as Cambridge as a location for "magnets and miracles". The video also references ex-bandmate Syd Barrett. Its lyrics speak of the things one may have gained and lost in life, written from Gilmour's autobiographic perspective. Gilmour has said that the song is more about his early days, and leaving his hometown behind, than about the seeds of division supposedly planted in Pink Floyd's early days
Dave: "High Hopes was really the last one, it was written after all the others were in some form or another. I think I wrote it in July [1993] or something. It was very very quick. It's one of those ones that works quickly but beautifully almost immediately and I came up with a tiny bit of music, just had it on a cassette, just a few bars of piano and then I went off to get away to a small house somewhere with my girlfriend Polly and try and make some progress on lyric writing and she gave me a phrase, something about 'before time wears you down' and I took it from there and got stuck into a whole sort of thing about — I suppose it's autobiographical. I'd have to say on that one, it's about my life, Cambridge life, my childhood I suppose. We came up with it very very quickly, we wrote most of the words to it in a day and then I went back to the studio with no-one else there, the minute I got back and put a demo down of it, did everything myself on it, and it was virtually complete in a day."
In an additional allusion to the theme of (non-) communication on the album, at the very end of this track can be heard a brief and altogether unsuccessful telephone conversation between Steve O'Rourke (the band's manager) and Polly Samson's son Charlie.
An early version of the song appeared on the 2018 box set The Later Years Years and was released as one of the preview tracks. Unlike the album version, this features the final solo played on a regular electric guitar instead of a lapsteel.
High Hopes hit #4 on the French singles chart, #7 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart, and #26 on the UK singles chart. The lyrics of the song contain the name of this album (The Division Bell) and their final album (The Endless River), which was taken from the last line of the song.
Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 68
UCR Ranking (out of 167 songs): 83
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 17
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 18
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 34
Vulture Ranking (68 out of 165 songs): This is supposed to be The Division Bell’s saving grace — a major song from Gilmour and his girlfriend-cum-lyricist. The good news here is that Gilmour gets his hands on an actually singable five-note melody; the bad is that he takes those five notes and sings them over and over. And over and over and over again. You’d think that, in the five years following Momentary Lapse of Reason, Gilmour would have penned a few good songs.
UCR Ranking (83 out of 167 songs): Self-consciously styled by Gilmour and Samson to be Pink Floyd’s parting shot (it wasn’t, because of The Endless River, which gets its title from a lyric here), “High Hopes” makes a melancholy return to the singer-guitarist’s pre-Floyd days in Cambridge. It also seems to reference the band’s massive success both in the lyrics and in an instrumental section that nods at Welcome to the Machine. There’s a dark, sweeping majesty to the song, but it’s more than a little dreary as a capstone. Regardless, Louder than Words did it better, and sweeter, 20 years later.
Louder Ranking (17 out of 50 songs): Those who sneered at the ‘facsimile Floyd’ on A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, the band’s first album without Waters, had to think again after The Division Bell, on which Gilmour found his lyrical voice – less angry than Waters, certainly, but more perceptive in many ways. High Hopes is about setting out in life and gradually understanding how the past will inevitably affect your future. Yes, Gilmour had help from his writer wife Polly, but the places that he name-checks in Cambridge where he grew up are real enough, and the bell that tolls throughout the song is a familiar sound to anyone who grew up amid the spires of the university. The lyrics have been scrutinised for references to the feud with his childhood friend Waters, but in fact they rise above it to offer a more generalized observation. This is an older, more reflective Pink Floyd, one that ironically harks back to the early-70s Floyd before the distortion of the dark side took over. Although the album’s title is featured in the lyrics, it took an outsider, Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy author Douglas Adams, to suggest it. In their last-minute panic to find a title the band had completely overlooked it.
Billboard Ranking (34 out of 50 songs): The Division Bell: a lot better than you remember! The band made the curious decision to significantly back load the album, though — with all three singles coming on the second side — so you have to sit through a whole lot of new-age noodling before you get to the actual song-songs. But the finest of ’em comes at the end, when the clanging church bells of the Lost for Words outro give way to the blood-curdling piano plinks of High Hopes, a dolorous retrospective epic that’s maybe a little more Silent Lucidity than Comfortably Numb, but still comes the closest to the cinematic grandeur of classic Floyd than any other song since The Wall came down.
Tongue-tied and twisted, we move on to a song that stayed atop of Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart for 3 weeks . . . but failed to chart on the UK singles chart.
FatMax
Member
Pretty sure that this is not the case .....
Anarchy99
Footballguy
OK. I'll play. What other song is there?
FatMax
Member
Nevermind ... already listed. I'm a idiot. Carry on.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Again, if you were getting serviced by the groupies, then it's certainly understandable.
BroncoFreak_2K3
sucker for Orange
Looking back I should have rated this one higher than I did. Love this song.
FatMax
Member
I would certainly like that to be the case. My wife is my only groupie anymore, and the servicing has been sporadic at best. I have no excuse.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Maybe if you changed your user name to AbsOfSteelMax you'd see more action.
FatMax
Member
Back to Pink Floyd .. I like High Hopes a lot. If my list were expanded to 30-35, this would have been on it. To me it's another classic Gilmour vocal, but it doesn't quite grab me like some of his other stuff. I think it's the slow, low register parts of the song that don't resonate as well. But I certainly don't skip it. Good tune.
And for this ....
I thought this next one would be higher ... like 15-18. It's probably the most recognizable song on that album. Though as I have learned here, there is less love for the album than I thought.
And for this ....
I thought this next one would be higher ... like 15-18. It's probably the most recognizable song on that album. Though as I have learned here, there is less love for the album than I thought.
zamboni
Footballguy
It’s all about the outro solo (yet again and again).
I remember this song vividly on TDB tour. I was in the Big Sombrero in Tampa....Sold out show.....tripping my balls off as the first set was coming to a close and all of a sudden.....the bell starts ringing.......the piano starts and I got lost in a place that was simply.....mindblowing. What a night.....what a show...what a trip.
This song was simply haunting.....and every time I listen to it.....I am transported right back to that show. Seeing the 3 girls shadows as they sang their parts in the chorus....watching the percussionist ringing that bell the entire song without fail. And Dave playing his sit down steel pedal slide guitar during the absolute epic soaring solo.
Live, this song is simply divine.
A masterpiece.
This song was simply haunting.....and every time I listen to it.....I am transported right back to that show. Seeing the 3 girls shadows as they sang their parts in the chorus....watching the percussionist ringing that bell the entire song without fail. And Dave playing his sit down steel pedal slide guitar during the absolute epic soaring solo.
Live, this song is simply divine.
A masterpiece.
PIK95
Footballguy
Yeah, it should be in the top 25. Disappointing really. I had it at 16 fwiw.
Ghost Rider
Footballguy
Wow, I thought High Hopes would finish top 25 for sure. A disappointing landing spot for a fantastic song.
I loved the way it was played on the Division Bell tour before they were playing all of Dark Side. They would play Time and the Breathe reprise and when the line, "the tolling of the iron bell," was sang near the end, they started the ringing of the division bell which carried on until the end and then kept going as they segued into High Hopes. Brilliant.
I loved the way it was played on the Division Bell tour before they were playing all of Dark Side. They would play Time and the Breathe reprise and when the line, "the tolling of the iron bell," was sang near the end, they started the ringing of the division bell which carried on until the end and then kept going as they segued into High Hopes. Brilliant.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
On the cassette, Pigs on the Wing was split into two parts, but so was Pigs (Three Different Ones). It starts at the end of side 1, fades out after the first verse, and picks up at the beginning of side 2.
Yambag
Footballguy
I knew this song was next based on Anarchy's clue and I thought all day about what I would write about so forgive me for the rambling. I had this at #6 and in retrospect I might push it even higher. Very surprised it did not make top 25, but as I saw so many Division Bell songs rank lower than I thought, I figured this song might get pushed down.
Imo, the best post RW song by far and hits me in the feels big time as soon as I hear the bell. I think due to my age (late 40's), songs reflecting on youth and what you thought life might be like speak to me. A little known artist, Ryan Star, has a song that affects me in a similar way called The World I Used to Know. Give it a listen if you have 5 minutes or at the very least check it out from 2:40 on. High Hopes gives me the same feeling as listening to Ryan sing "we wished for lots of things, when we were 17, we're waiting for it now. I've got a million dreams, there is a life for me, I'm waiting for it now." But now that I am older, I find I am more drawn to Gilmour's somber delivery as opposed to Ryan's.
What I find most interesting is that I have a good life and don't really regret at all. But something about this song really connects with me, maybe something I have not figured out yet or maybe nothing at all. To me that is the beauty of music, the way it makes us feel or takes us to a moment in time which many have stated in this thread. So that is my ramble about High Hopes, a song I am listening to as I type this and one of my absolute favorites.
FatMax
Member
Wonderful write-up! I think what I really need to do is give the Division Bell another listen, front to back, on the good system in the house. It's been years since I have done that with this album. I feel like I might be underrating it ... only one TDB song made my top 25 ... Coming Back to Life, which I had about 15 or so.
zamboni
Footballguy
I keep mentioning the Gdansk performance because I love it so much, in no small part to it being Rick's last recorded performance before he passed.
After seeing Gdansk for the first time, it brought High Hopes to a whole other level for me. Dave kills it in all his performances, but this one just seemed to resonate with me. That lap steel solo/acoustic outro is just from another planet.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
#26 - Learning To Fly from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason (1987)
Appeared On: 18 ballots (out of 33 . . . 54.5%)
Total Points: 116 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 14.1%)
Top Rankers: @Galileo @DocHolliday @FatMax @PIK95 @Yambag
Highest Ranking: 4
Demo, Video, Soundcheck, DSOT, Venice, Pulse
Live Performances: DG'S PF: 308
Covers: Aussie Floyd, Stick Men, Leather Strip, Ali Slaight, Onu Bella, Jazz & Floyd, William Shatner (Yes, THAT William Shatner)
Learning to Fly is about breaking free and the actual mechanics of learning to fly an airplane. Around this time, Dave was taking flying lessons. The idea was to incorporate phrases Gilmour would hear in his lessons as he was learning to fly a plane. Gilmour took quite an interest in flying and vintage aircraft, a hobby enabled in part by the commercial success of this song. He later started a company called Intrepid Aviation. Established in 1990 to manage Gilmour's collection of vintage aircraft, the company went on to be a major player in the airshow business. The Intrepid Aviation Company also supplied aircraft, pilots studio facilities, and consultancy services to the film industry for over 80 productions including Steven Spielberg's Band Of Brothers. Gilmour sold the company after about 10 years once it became a full-fledged business.
The song is written largely by DG. It describes David's thoughts of flying, for which he has a passion. The inspiration for the lyrics came about as Gilmour was learning to fly airplanes at the time of the recording, often spending time in the air during the mornings before arriving at the studio in the afternoon. It has also been interpreted as a metaphor for beginning something in 1992 that "we were, as Pink Floyd, learning to fly again."
Dave: "This was right after Live Aid, to be exact... I got Jon Carin round to my home studio... to do some stuff with me. I had to go down to the station to pick someone up. When I got back, he'd done this and so we pinched a bit of it. Simple." Dave talked about the inspiration that developed the lyrics and feel of the song: "It was inspired] by the fact that several mornings Anthony would be there hard at work, and I wouldn't show up. I'd call up and tell someone and they'd say, 'Dave's not coming in today 'cause he's learning to fly.' That was the starting point for something a bit wider..."
Also an avid pilot, drummer Nick Mason's voice can be heard in the middle of the song. The dubbed over voice of pilots talking is actually a recording of Mason during a flying lesson. According to his book Inside Out, both Mason and Gilmour were terrified of flying but eventually got their pilot licenses. Nick: "The first demo that Dave gave me had the Learning to Fly idea, it had the Dogs of War idea;everything was potentially a good track and that's what the album launched from. Learning to Fly actually started out more spiritually uplifting than it sounded when it was finished. I like it because every time I hear it, I hear my own voice doing this take-off." Nick refers to his pre-flight check and conversation with the control tower which had be heard in a garbled form in the middle section of the song.
The track was regularly performed live on the band's two post-Roger Waters tours, with touring guitarist Tim Renwick playing the song's guitar solos (although David Gilmour played the solos on the studio version of the track).
The song was the first CD-only single to be released on a global scale. The video went to #9 on MTV's Video Countdown and was the #60th best video of MTV's Top 100 Videos of 1987. The video also won the band its only Video Music Award for Best Conceptual Video in 1988.
Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 100
UCR Ranking (out of 167 songs): 41
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 20
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 35
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 14
Vulture Ranking (100 out of 165 songs): I hate this song for the same reason I hate Owner of a Lonely Heart or Permanent Vacation: It’s an overproduced, fraudulent piece of commercial crap designed to distract people from the fact that, while the name of the band on the label hasn’t changed, the creative people behind the music have.
UCR Ranking (41 out of 167 songs): The song’s mechanical ’80s crunch (created by collaborator Jon Carin) is irresistible, as are David Gilmour’s smooth-soaring vocals on this first post-Waters Pink Floyd hit. Is the subject of Learning to Fly as basic as the title suggests (both Gilmour and Mason are hobby pilots)? Or is the track a metaphor for Gilmour’s new role as Floyd’s undisputed leader, or even a rumination on souls departing this world? The answer is open to interpretation, which probably means the lyrics are well-chosen.
Louder Ranking (20 out of 50 songs): If there was a grain of truth in rock-press snipes that 1987’s A Momentary Lapse Of Reason was “fluffy tour merch”, then Gilmour’s four-way co-write with producer Bob Ezrin, Anthony Moore and Jon Carin flew close to vintage Floyd. The song’s clear-blue-sky feel was no accident (the guitarist had recently taken up aviation lessons), while the Bowie-esque soundscape suggested the post-Waters band still had a creative future. “It was a turning point,” recalled Ezrin. “It felt like a complete Floyd work, and that made everybody feel gratified, because that was what we’d been told by Roger we were incapable of doing.”
Billboard Ranking (14 out of 50 songs): After years of inter-band legal battling had left Pink Floyd depleted and spent in the mid-’80s, Gilmour may have been more emotionally invested in his aviation hobby than in his recording career by the time of Monetary Lapse‘s development — which would explain why the weightless Learning to Fly is the one song on the album that really connects. With panoramic production, a heart-swelling guitar hook and a chorus that soars well above the clouds, Learning to Fly became not just the band’s only true MTV-era hit but maybe the only undeniable counter-argument to Waters’ claims that the band’s fundamental DNA lay solely with him upon the time of his mid-’80s departure from the group.
That gets us to the Top 25. Up next, a song that hadn't been played for 23 years and was the first song played on the 1994 tour. It was later played on subsequent DG tours . . . even though Dave did not play on the original studio version.
Appeared On: 18 ballots (out of 33 . . . 54.5%)
Total Points: 116 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 14.1%)
Top Rankers: @Galileo @DocHolliday @FatMax @PIK95 @Yambag
Highest Ranking: 4
Demo, Video, Soundcheck, DSOT, Venice, Pulse
Live Performances: DG'S PF: 308
Covers: Aussie Floyd, Stick Men, Leather Strip, Ali Slaight, Onu Bella, Jazz & Floyd, William Shatner (Yes, THAT William Shatner)
Learning to Fly is about breaking free and the actual mechanics of learning to fly an airplane. Around this time, Dave was taking flying lessons. The idea was to incorporate phrases Gilmour would hear in his lessons as he was learning to fly a plane. Gilmour took quite an interest in flying and vintage aircraft, a hobby enabled in part by the commercial success of this song. He later started a company called Intrepid Aviation. Established in 1990 to manage Gilmour's collection of vintage aircraft, the company went on to be a major player in the airshow business. The Intrepid Aviation Company also supplied aircraft, pilots studio facilities, and consultancy services to the film industry for over 80 productions including Steven Spielberg's Band Of Brothers. Gilmour sold the company after about 10 years once it became a full-fledged business.
The song is written largely by DG. It describes David's thoughts of flying, for which he has a passion. The inspiration for the lyrics came about as Gilmour was learning to fly airplanes at the time of the recording, often spending time in the air during the mornings before arriving at the studio in the afternoon. It has also been interpreted as a metaphor for beginning something in 1992 that "we were, as Pink Floyd, learning to fly again."
Dave: "This was right after Live Aid, to be exact... I got Jon Carin round to my home studio... to do some stuff with me. I had to go down to the station to pick someone up. When I got back, he'd done this and so we pinched a bit of it. Simple." Dave talked about the inspiration that developed the lyrics and feel of the song: "It was inspired] by the fact that several mornings Anthony would be there hard at work, and I wouldn't show up. I'd call up and tell someone and they'd say, 'Dave's not coming in today 'cause he's learning to fly.' That was the starting point for something a bit wider..."
Also an avid pilot, drummer Nick Mason's voice can be heard in the middle of the song. The dubbed over voice of pilots talking is actually a recording of Mason during a flying lesson. According to his book Inside Out, both Mason and Gilmour were terrified of flying but eventually got their pilot licenses. Nick: "The first demo that Dave gave me had the Learning to Fly idea, it had the Dogs of War idea;everything was potentially a good track and that's what the album launched from. Learning to Fly actually started out more spiritually uplifting than it sounded when it was finished. I like it because every time I hear it, I hear my own voice doing this take-off." Nick refers to his pre-flight check and conversation with the control tower which had be heard in a garbled form in the middle section of the song.
The track was regularly performed live on the band's two post-Roger Waters tours, with touring guitarist Tim Renwick playing the song's guitar solos (although David Gilmour played the solos on the studio version of the track).
The song was the first CD-only single to be released on a global scale. The video went to #9 on MTV's Video Countdown and was the #60th best video of MTV's Top 100 Videos of 1987. The video also won the band its only Video Music Award for Best Conceptual Video in 1988.
Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 100
UCR Ranking (out of 167 songs): 41
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 20
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): NR
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 35
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 14
Vulture Ranking (100 out of 165 songs): I hate this song for the same reason I hate Owner of a Lonely Heart or Permanent Vacation: It’s an overproduced, fraudulent piece of commercial crap designed to distract people from the fact that, while the name of the band on the label hasn’t changed, the creative people behind the music have.
UCR Ranking (41 out of 167 songs): The song’s mechanical ’80s crunch (created by collaborator Jon Carin) is irresistible, as are David Gilmour’s smooth-soaring vocals on this first post-Waters Pink Floyd hit. Is the subject of Learning to Fly as basic as the title suggests (both Gilmour and Mason are hobby pilots)? Or is the track a metaphor for Gilmour’s new role as Floyd’s undisputed leader, or even a rumination on souls departing this world? The answer is open to interpretation, which probably means the lyrics are well-chosen.
Louder Ranking (20 out of 50 songs): If there was a grain of truth in rock-press snipes that 1987’s A Momentary Lapse Of Reason was “fluffy tour merch”, then Gilmour’s four-way co-write with producer Bob Ezrin, Anthony Moore and Jon Carin flew close to vintage Floyd. The song’s clear-blue-sky feel was no accident (the guitarist had recently taken up aviation lessons), while the Bowie-esque soundscape suggested the post-Waters band still had a creative future. “It was a turning point,” recalled Ezrin. “It felt like a complete Floyd work, and that made everybody feel gratified, because that was what we’d been told by Roger we were incapable of doing.”
Billboard Ranking (14 out of 50 songs): After years of inter-band legal battling had left Pink Floyd depleted and spent in the mid-’80s, Gilmour may have been more emotionally invested in his aviation hobby than in his recording career by the time of Monetary Lapse‘s development — which would explain why the weightless Learning to Fly is the one song on the album that really connects. With panoramic production, a heart-swelling guitar hook and a chorus that soars well above the clouds, Learning to Fly became not just the band’s only true MTV-era hit but maybe the only undeniable counter-argument to Waters’ claims that the band’s fundamental DNA lay solely with him upon the time of his mid-’80s departure from the group.
That gets us to the Top 25. Up next, a song that hadn't been played for 23 years and was the first song played on the 1994 tour. It was later played on subsequent DG tours . . . even though Dave did not play on the original studio version.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
Vulture dude’s constant hatred of post-Waters material has gotten unbearable.
zamboni
Footballguy
That’s one Vulture who hasn’t yet learned to fly.
Ghost Rider
Footballguy
Yeah, the Vulture reviews are always laughably terrible. Those should disappear.
As for Learning to Fly, I ranked it 23rd, and I suspect nostalgia played a strong role. Don't get me wrong, it's a good song, but it's not really one I reach for anymore. But, the song was my intro to Floyd, and was really the only song I knew well by them until I got into classic rock around 1990(-ish), so I felt it deserved to be in my top 25.
As for Learning to Fly, I ranked it 23rd, and I suspect nostalgia played a strong role. Don't get me wrong, it's a good song, but it's not really one I reach for anymore. But, the song was my intro to Floyd, and was really the only song I knew well by them until I got into classic rock around 1990(-ish), so I felt it deserved to be in my top 25.
Ghoti
Footballguy
Totally agree. I have no problem if armchair critics in here don't like something just because. But if you are claiming to be "professional" you probably need to lay out your rationale a little better. To say "the creative people behind the music have [changed]" is a little disingenuous - Waters didn't do everything.
As I've mentioned before, I appreciate this song and the rest of AMLOR for putting Floyd into the mainstream during my teenage years. It was a huge dopamine hit for me to see a Floyd song on MTV. Kids today certainly won't understand, but MTV was so big to us GenX kids at this point in time.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Good thing the vulture dude wasn't writing in 1968, or he would have dismissed everything post Syd.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Songs remaining:
23 - lardonastick
21 - Yo Mama
20 - Friend of PIK95, New Binky the Doormat
19 - Dwayne Hoover, Yambag, PIK95, Ridgeback, Desert_Power, turnjose7, DocHolliday
18 - AbsofSteelMax, Galileo, Ghost Rider, worrierking, BroncoFreak_2003, BassNBrew, Todem, Mt. Man
17 - ericttspikes, Dr. Octopus, Dan Lambskin, Brutal Penguin, Just Win Baby
16 - zamboni, Grace Under Pressure, Joe Schmo, Rand al Thor, Ghoti
15 - Mookie Gizzy
14 - Pip's Invitation
12 - Anarchy99
09 - jabarony
Average: 17.5
23 - lardonastick
21 - Yo Mama
20 - Friend of PIK95, New Binky the Doormat
19 - Dwayne Hoover, Yambag, PIK95, Ridgeback, Desert_Power, turnjose7, DocHolliday
18 - AbsofSteelMax, Galileo, Ghost Rider, worrierking, BroncoFreak_2003, BassNBrew, Todem, Mt. Man
17 - ericttspikes, Dr. Octopus, Dan Lambskin, Brutal Penguin, Just Win Baby
16 - zamboni, Grace Under Pressure, Joe Schmo, Rand al Thor, Ghoti
15 - Mookie Gizzy
14 - Pip's Invitation
12 - Anarchy99
09 - jabarony
Average: 17.5
FatMax
Member
FatMax
Member
I could have typed something similar. I have the song at 13, but if I were to redo my list today, it would probably be a bit lower, though still on my top 25. Nostalgic is a good way to describe my feelings for the song as well.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Points remaining . . .
Average points remaining: 263.8 (82.2% of all points)
Code:
Lardonastick 313
Dwayne Hoover 293
PIK95 291
New Binky the Doormat 291
Dan Lambskin 289
Alex (PIK95) 287
DocHolliday 287
Ridgeback 286
Just Win Baby 283
Yo Mama 281
BroncoFreak_2K3 280
Yambag 278
Mt. Man 277
Ghost Rider 274
turnjose7 271
Desert_Power 271
worrierking 269
Dr. Octopus 267
Galileo 261
zamboni 261
BassNBrew 261
Grace Under Pressure 259
ericttspikes 257
Joe Schmo 256
Rand al Thor 251
FatMax 249
Todem 248
Brutal Penguin 247
Ghoti 241
Pip's Invitation 233
Mookie Gizzy 224
Anarchy99 224
jabarony 143Average points remaining: 263.8 (82.2% of all points)
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Looking at the songs before we get to the Top 20 . . .
- We will see another track from The Wall (still not one of the Big 3). Given that there are so many Wall songs left, it's probably safe to say that in any 5 song stretch that there is a decent chance that one of them is from The Wall.
- All 5 songs come from different albums.
- None of the songs are from the album we haven't seen yet.
- The one surprise song in the Top 25 (at least to me).
- One of the two songs left that are essentially instrumentals.
- A Roger-era track that he didn't have a hand in writing.
- And of course, the last Syd song.
- We will see another track from The Wall (still not one of the Big 3). Given that there are so many Wall songs left, it's probably safe to say that in any 5 song stretch that there is a decent chance that one of them is from The Wall.
- All 5 songs come from different albums.
- None of the songs are from the album we haven't seen yet.
- The one surprise song in the Top 25 (at least to me).
- One of the two songs left that are essentially instrumentals.
- A Roger-era track that he didn't have a hand in writing.
- And of course, the last Syd song.
FatMax
Member
Reading between the lines, this means that every track on WYWH made the top 20. It really is a great album.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
We haven't seen anything from The Endless River yet.
zamboni
Footballguy
Outside of the last line of "High Hopes".
jabarony
Footballguy
Yo Mama
Footballguy
High on my list
zamboni
Footballguy
There’s good reason why many of the yet-to-come biggies will be ranked where they are.
Dwayne Hoover
Footballguy
Yeah, kind of expected that. I voted for all of them except WWYH but I fully expect that to be top 10
Dwayne Hoover
Footballguy
Im kind of surprised One of These Days is still on the board. Seems like it will come up at any point soon
Tau837
Footballguy
I'm not surprised at all. I will be surprised if it isn't top 10.
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