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FBG'S TOP 100 PINK FLOYD SONGS - #01 - Comfortably Numb from The Wall (1979) (1 Viewer)

My Submitted List...
  1. Comfortably Numb FBG #1
  2. Wish You Were Here FBG #3
  3. Brain Damage/Eclipse FBG #5
  4. Learning to Fly FBG #26
  5. On the Turning Away FBG #22
  6. Money FBG #19
  7. Time FBG #4
  8. Run Like Hell FBG #9
  9. Us and Them FBG #7
  10. Breathe FBG #18
  11. Shine On You Crazy Diamond 1-5 FBG #2
  12. Pigs FBG #11
  13. One Slip FBG #42
  14. High Hopes FBG #27
  15. Pillow of Winds FBG #46
  16. Echoes FBG #12
  17. Hey You FBG #13
  18. Have a Cigar FBG #14
  19. Astronomy Dominae FBG #25
  20. Welcome to the Machine FBG #8
  21. Another Brick in the Wall 2 FBG #17
  22. Mother FBG #15
  23. Nobody Home FBG #36
  24. The Dogs of War FBG #49
  25. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun FBG #31
 
Here's mine. This is what the correct list looks like, according me me and my groupies (which consists of my wife and couple of foul tempered cats).

  1. Wish You Were Here FBG #3
  2. Comfortably Numb FBG #1
  3. On the Turning Away FBG #22
  4. Shine On You Crazy Diamond 2 FBG #16
  5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond 1 FBG #2
  6. Time FBG #4
  7. One of My Turns FBG #34
  8. Brain Damage/Eclipse FBG #5
  9. Pigs (Three Different Ones) FBG #11
  10. Hey You FBG #13
  11. Mother FBG #15
  12. One of These Days FBG #10
  13. Learning to Fly FBG #26
  14. Not Now John FBG #47
  15. Coming Back to Life FBG #52
  16. The Trial FBG #68T
  17. Have a Cigar FBG #14
  18. Money FBG #19
  19. Your Possible Pasts FBG #68T
  20. Another Brick in the Wall (part 2) FBG #17
  21. The Great Gig in the Sky FBG #23
  22. Nobody’s Home FBG #36
  23. Run Like Hell FBG #9
  24. Young Lust FBG #24
  25. Welcome to the Machine FBG #8
 
Anarchy99 said:
Looking at the balloting, I don't really see any way that SOYCD1-5 had a path to outscoring CN. So many people had it in their Top 5 to begin with. I guess a couple of people that ranked the song in the teens may have ranked it higher if it was considered one song . . . but it needed a lot more points to catch up. Anyone out there that would have scored SOYCD way higher if it was considered one song instead of two?
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No. My top 4 are pretty set in stone. I had SOYCD I-V at 5 and VI-IX at 6. If they were combined it would have been 5.
 
My rankings

1 - Dogs - FBG 6
2 - Shine On You Crazy Diamond I-V - FBG 2
3 - Wish You Were Here - FBG 3
4 - Time - FBG 4
5 - One of These Days - FBG 10
6 - Speak to Me / Breathe - FBG 18
7 - Comfortably Numb - FBG 1
8 - Run Like Hell - FBG 9
9 - Sheep - FBG 20
10 - Goodbye Blue Sky - FBG 29
11 - Welcome to the Machine - FBG 8
12 - One Slip - FBG 42
13 - Hey You - FBG 13
14 - Brain Damage / Eclipse - FBG 5
15 - Dogs of War - FBG 49
16 - Pigs (Three Different Ones) - FBG 11
17 - Us and Them - FBG 7
18 - Shine On You Crazy Diamond VI-IX - FBG 16
19 - Money - FBG 19
20 - Young Lust - FBG 24
21 - Another Brick in the Wall pt 2 - FBG 17
22 - Mother - FBG 15
23 - Learning to Fly - FBG 26
24 - On the Turning Away - FBG 22
25 - Echoes - FBG 12
 
Here is my list:
  1. Wish You Were Here - FBG 3
  2. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) - FBG 2
  3. Comfortably Numb - FBG 1
  4. Time - FBG 4
  5. Hey You - FBG 13
  6. Echoes - FBG 12
  7. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) - FBG 16
  8. Speak To Me/Breathe - FBG 18
  9. One of These Days - FBG 10
  10. Pigs (Three Different Ones) - FBG 11
  11. Mother - FBG 15
  12. Brain Damage/Eclipse - FBG 5
  13. Welcome to the Machine - FBG 8
  14. Sheep - FBG 20
  15. Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1) - 32T
  16. Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) - FBG 17
  17. Dogs - FBG 6
  18. Goodbye Blue Sky - FBG 29
  19. Sorrow - FBG 51
  20. Nobody Home - FBG 36
  21. Us And Them - FBG 7
  22. Is There Anybody Out There? - FBG 38T
  23. Pigs on the Wing (Parts 1 & 2) - FBG 30
  24. Don't Leave Me Now - FBG 78T
  25. Learning to Fly - FBG 26
Notable omissions according to consensus:
  • Run Like Hell - FBG 9
  • Have a Cigar - FBG 14
  • Money - FBG 19
  • Fearless - FBG 21
  • On the Turning Away - FBG 22
  • The Great Gig In The Sky - FBG 23
  • Young Lust - FBG 24
  • Astronomy Domine - FBG 25
As I mentioned previously, if I redid my ranking, I'd have Run Like Hell at 25 and bump Learning to Fly out of my top 25. I also very strongly considered Young Lust, but none of the rest of these were serious contenders for my list.

This was fun. Thanks, David.
 
Anarchy99 said:
#02 - Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5) from Wish You Were Here (1975)

Appeared On: 31 ballots (out of 33 . . . 93.9%)
Total Points: 641 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 77.7%)
Top Rankers: @Dwayne Hoover @PIK95 @turnjose7 @Todem @New Binky the Doormat
Highest Rankings: 1 x 5, 2 x 7, 3 x 2, 4 x 3, 5 x 3
Non-Rankers: @jabarony @BrutalPenguin

Early Version, London - 1974, Los Angeles - 1975, Oakland - 1977, DSOT, Knebworth - 1990, Pulse, Remember That Night, Pompeii, RW - 2023

Live Performances: PF: 111, DG's PF 302, RW: 232, DG: 91

Covers: Steve Lukather, Transatlantic, Jack Irons, Les Claypool, Stone Temple Pilots, 48th Collective, Greg Hoy, Malachai, Christy Moore, Clawfinger, Umphrey's McGee

The song started out called Shine On as a tribute to Syd. It was used to open shows on the 1974 tour. It was the first track they started recording in 1975, but it was the final song completed for the WYWH album (and took 7 months to finish). The band was having chemistry and communication issues, and struggled to get along.

RW was keen to carry on working, despite obvious tensions. “We pressed on regardless of the general ennui for a few weeks and then things came to a bit of a head,” he recalls. “I felt that the only way I could retain interest in the project was to try to make the album relate to what was going on there and then – the fact that no one was really looking each other in the eye, and that it was all very mechanical.” RW’s vision was cemented at a band meeting. “We all sat round and unburdened ourselves a lot, and I took notes on what everybody was saying. It was a meeting about what wasn’t happening and why.”

Waters extended further still his ideas of general themes of absence and detachment by opting to write yet more new material. "I suggested that we change Shine On to somehow to make a bridge between the first and second halves. Dave was always clear that he wanted to do the other songs (that ended up on Animals). He never quite copped what I was talking about. But Rick did and Nicky did, and he was outvoted so we went on.”

With DG and RW – the principal players in the band – at complete cross purposes, recording carried on, even if DG wasn’t convinced: “After Dark Side we really were floundering around. I wanted to make the next album more musical. I always thought that Roger’s emergence as a great lyric writer on the last album was such that he came to overshadow the music.”

Even by agreeing to disagree there was also a sense they were being held back by general lethargy, promoted by an alarming divorce rate within the band. Although his own marriage had hit the skids very recently, RW was able to divert his energies into songwriting. But in NM’s case his impending split “manifested itself into complete rigor mortis. I didn’t quite have to be carried about, but I wasn’t interested. I couldn’t get myself to sort out the drumming, and that of course drove everyone else even crazier.”

Having finally settled on what it was they were going to record, they set about putting it all down on tape. Shine On eventually featured their tour saxophonist **** Parry, who switches between baritone and tenor sax. Particularly problematic were RW’s vocal sessions. “It was right on the edge of my range. I always felt very insecure about singing anyway because I’m not naturally able to sing well. I know what I want to do but I don’t have the ability to do it well. It was fantastically boring to record, and I had to do it line by line, doing it over and over again just to get it sounding reasonable.”

Consequently further tensions surfaced as the boredom of the process took its toll and band members became increasingly disinterested in turning up for sessions at all. “Punctuality became an issue,” NM recalled. “If two of us were on time and the others were late, we were quite capable of working ourselves up into a righteous fury. The following day the roles could easily be reversed. None of us was free from blame.

Layered on top of all that, there were constant technical and recording issues. When they finally recorded sections they were happy with, their were problems with the equipment. Or the technicians and engineers accidentally recorded over sections that had already been completed. At one point, the introductory section had a segment called Wine Glasses (most of which was absorbed into the main song. (They also recorded a track called The Hard Way, which I didn't have a good spot to list anywhere.)
Click to expand...
Had this #1 and part 2 #2. After part 2 appeared in the teens, I expected this to follow. Im surprised you all were able to separate the songs if you like this as much as you do. I really couldn't figure that part out
 
Dwayne Hoover said:
Anarchy99 said:
#02 - Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5) from Wish You Were Here (1975)

Appeared On: 31 ballots (out of 33 . . . 93.9%)
Total Points: 641 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 77.7%)
Top Rankers: @Dwayne Hoover @PIK95 @turnjose7 @Todem @New Binky the Doormat
Highest Rankings: 1 x 5, 2 x 7, 3 x 2, 4 x 3, 5 x 3
Non-Rankers: @jabarony @BrutalPenguin

Early Version, London - 1974, Los Angeles - 1975, Oakland - 1977, DSOT, Knebworth - 1990, Pulse, Remember That Night, Pompeii, RW - 2023

Live Performances: PF: 111, DG's PF 302, RW: 232, DG: 91

Covers: Steve Lukather, Transatlantic, Jack Irons, Les Claypool, Stone Temple Pilots, 48th Collective, Greg Hoy, Malachai, Christy Moore, Clawfinger, Umphrey's McGee

The song started out called Shine On as a tribute to Syd. It was used to open shows on the 1974 tour. It was the first track they started recording in 1975, but it was the final song completed for the WYWH album (and took 7 months to finish). The band was having chemistry and communication issues, and struggled to get along.

RW was keen to carry on working, despite obvious tensions. “We pressed on regardless of the general ennui for a few weeks and then things came to a bit of a head,” he recalls. “I felt that the only way I could retain interest in the project was to try to make the album relate to what was going on there and then – the fact that no one was really looking each other in the eye, and that it was all very mechanical.” RW’s vision was cemented at a band meeting. “We all sat round and unburdened ourselves a lot, and I took notes on what everybody was saying. It was a meeting about what wasn’t happening and why.”

Waters extended further still his ideas of general themes of absence and detachment by opting to write yet more new material. "I suggested that we change Shine On to somehow to make a bridge between the first and second halves. Dave was always clear that he wanted to do the other songs (that ended up on Animals). He never quite copped what I was talking about. But Rick did and Nicky did, and he was outvoted so we went on.”

With DG and RW – the principal players in the band – at complete cross purposes, recording carried on, even if DG wasn’t convinced: “After Dark Side we really were floundering around. I wanted to make the next album more musical. I always thought that Roger’s emergence as a great lyric writer on the last album was such that he came to overshadow the music.”

Even by agreeing to disagree there was also a sense they were being held back by general lethargy, promoted by an alarming divorce rate within the band. Although his own marriage had hit the skids very recently, RW was able to divert his energies into songwriting. But in NM’s case his impending split “manifested itself into complete rigor mortis. I didn’t quite have to be carried about, but I wasn’t interested. I couldn’t get myself to sort out the drumming, and that of course drove everyone else even crazier.”

Having finally settled on what it was they were going to record, they set about putting it all down on tape. Shine On eventually featured their tour saxophonist **** Parry, who switches between baritone and tenor sax. Particularly problematic were RW’s vocal sessions. “It was right on the edge of my range. I always felt very insecure about singing anyway because I’m not naturally able to sing well. I know what I want to do but I don’t have the ability to do it well. It was fantastically boring to record, and I had to do it line by line, doing it over and over again just to get it sounding reasonable.”

Consequently further tensions surfaced as the boredom of the process took its toll and band members became increasingly disinterested in turning up for sessions at all. “Punctuality became an issue,” NM recalled. “If two of us were on time and the others were late, we were quite capable of working ourselves up into a righteous fury. The following day the roles could easily be reversed. None of us was free from blame.

Layered on top of all that, there were constant technical and recording issues. When they finally recorded sections they were happy with, their were problems with the equipment. Or the technicians and engineers accidentally recorded over sections that had already been completed. At one point, the introductory section had a segment called Wine Glasses (most of which was absorbed into the main song. (They also recorded a track called The Hard Way, which I didn't have a good spot to list anywhere.)
Click to expand...
Had this #1 and part 2 #2. After part 2 appeared in the teens, I expected this to follow. Im surprised you all were able to separate the songs if you like this as much as you do. I really couldn't figure that part out
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Anyone who only wanted to devote one spot on their list to SOYCD gave the nod to the first half.
 
Here was my original top 25

Dropped Run Like Hell and ranked Us and Them and Any Color You like consecutively.


1. Shine on You Crazy Diamond Part 1
2. Comfortably Numb
3. High Hopes
4. Breathe
5. Wish You Were Here
6. Welcome To The Machine
7. Time
8. Us and Them/Any Color You Like
9. Brain Damage/ Eclipse
10. Dogs
11. Hey You
12. Have a Cigar
13. On The Turning Away
14. Poles Apart
15. Marooned
16. Keep Talking
17. Great Gig in the Sky
18. Pigs
19. Sheep
20. Learning To Fly
21. Young Lust
22. Mother
23. In The Flesh
24. Another Brick in the Wall PT2
25. Run
 
Dr. Octopus said:
Thanks for running this @Anarchy99 and for all of the work involved.
Click to expand...
I don't have a deep knowledge of Pink Floyd, mostly the hits, so this has been a quite interesting read.

Outside of the top six or so songs, I went to Tidal to become familiar with the particular title.

It has also been interesting to read quotes from Roger Waters. In the interviews I have seen with him he always gave off a Nigel Tufnel vibe. No matter how direct a question he was asked about songwriting or production or playing, he would respond with some variation of ".....this goes to eleven."

It is obvious there is more to him than that, and he is an intelligent guy.

Great thread.
 
Manster said:
It's crazy to me that Fearless doesn't make someones top 25 Floyd songs
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I agree, but as this thread has proven, people have wildly different taste in everything. I mean right now, some where in the deep south, there is a dude rocking an american flag banana hammock. And he thinks it looks FABULOUS. So yeah, it happens.
 
PIK95 said:
FatMax said:
PIK95 said:
I mean right now, some where in the deep south, there is a dude rocking an american flag banana hammock. And he thinks it looks FABULOUS.
Click to expand...

There's also a guy doing the same thing in Northern California, and he absolutely looks fabulous. Ask me how I know.
Click to expand...
BTW, is SoCal still stealing your water? :Jungle:
Click to expand...

Yes, but not any more water than they always have via the California Aqueduct. But the last two governers have been pushing for a LOT more (and at a massive cost), despite the fact that doing so would permanently ruin hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland by way of salt water incursion from the ocean. But SoCal sends a LOT of representation to the State Capitol, and they represent a lot of people with lawns. So here we are.
 
While a good effort overall, I'm still upset that my favorite audio dog didn't make the list.

I was in the kitchen
Seamus, that's the dog, was outside
Well, I was in the kitchen
Seamus, my old hound, was outside
Well you know, the sun sinks slowly
But my old hound just sat right down and cried
 
Leroy Hoard said:
While a good effort overall, I'm still upset that my favorite audio dog didn't make the list.

I was in the kitchen
Seamus, that's the dog, was outside
Well, I was in the kitchen
Seamus, my old hound, was outside
Well you know, the sun sinks slowly
But my old hound just sat right down and cried
Click to expand...
You and Steve Marriott 👍
 
PIK95 said:
Manster said:
It's crazy to me that Fearless doesn't make someones top 25 Floyd songs
Click to expand...
I agree, but as this thread has proven, people have wildly different taste in everything. I mean right now, some where in the deep south, there is a dude rocking an american flag banana hammock. And he thinks it looks FABULOUS. So yeah, it happens.
Click to expand...
And...

My divorcee partner calls it another brick and the balls, part 2.
 
1. Brain Damage/Eclipse
2. Fearless
3. Mother
4. The Narrow Way pt 3
5. Astronomy Domine

6. Wots...Uh the Deal
7. Free Four
8. If
9. Remember a Day
10. Nobody Home

11. Fat Old Sun
12. Run Like Hell
13. Interstellar Overdrive
14. Take it Back
15. The Great Gig in the Sky

16. Us and Them
17. Wish You Were Here
18. Coming Back to Life
19. In the Flesh
20. On the Turning Away

21. Learning to Fly
22. Atom Heart Mother Suite
23. Bike
24. HIgh Hopes
25. When the Tigers Broke Free


Obviously not chalky at all. Let me explain. I figured there were a few ways to approach this exercise.
A. List the songs objectively as a critic. - I don't have enough knowledge on music theory, etc. to even fake this.
B. List the songs in terms of popularity. - What's the point? I could just look up which of the PF songs had the most streams. Similarly, it may have been fun to predict the FFA results. But I missed my chance for that.
C. Subjectively list the songs that I enjoyed the most over the past 30 years.
D. Subjectively list the songs that I enjoy the most these days.

I went with D. My top 25 is essentially my current PF playlist. This leads to Comfortably Numb, objectively and at times personally, one of PF's top songs being left off my list. If I don't hear this song in the next 10 years, I won't feel at a loss. Same goes for Time, Money, and some other consensus high rankers.

My PF history was pretty basic - mid 90's local classic rock station played CN, Run Like Hell, etc. which led me to pick up the Wall. From there I just kept buying their albums, almost randomly. Luckily I didn't grab The Final Cut next, or I wouldn't have made it to this thread. :P My outside influences on PF listening were the classic rock station playing ~6 songs in heavy rotation, and that's it. My friends listened to terrible, terrible music (think Haddaway - What is Love?), and I had no older brother etc. so all my PF consumption was fresh and sans-influence. I'm also too young to know how these albums were received in the 70's. I'm pointing this out because the results of this poll were really interesting to me. I had no idea that Animals, Set the Controls..., and a few others were so well looked upon. I didn't think they were bad songs. Just surprised they were so loved. I also didn't list too many longer songs. Yes I'm a simpleton who needs bite sized, poppier songs.

There's very few PF songs I hate, so it's tough to argue with the consensus (except WTTM at #8. Gross!). Thanks Anarchy / all. Fun stuff. And I noticed there's a Led Zeppelin poll I missed. I'm excited to read that thread next.
 
#02 - Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5) from Wish You Were Here (1975)
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My rank: 5

Another contender for "most Floydian" song. It's spacey, it's incredibly well produced and arranged and its lyrics are much more emotional than what we usually see from "prog" bands. I put this one spot above the second half because it's got a more solid structure and deploys the musical themes exquisitely, but it's a really thin distinction. I've always viewed them as one.
 
#01 - Comfortably Numb from The Wall (1979)
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My rank: 9

One of the best synergies of music and lyrics you'll ever find. And one of the best synergies of the strengths of Waters and Gilmour. It's not my #1 due to overfamiliarity but it's easy to see why many people think of this as Floyd's greatest achievement.

Fun fact: Gilmour came up with the guitar part at the end of the sessions for his first solo album. Everyone there told him it was amazing -- and that it should be saved for the next Floyd album.
 
My full list:

1. Dogs (FBG #6)
2. Echoes (FBG #12)
3. Run Like Hell (FBG #9)
4. Us and Them (FBG #7)
5. Shine on You Crazy Diamond parts I-V (FBG #2)
6. Shine on You Crazy Diamond parts VI-IX (FBG #16)
7. One of These Days (FBG #10)
8. Sheep (FBG #20)
9. Comfortably Numb (FBG #1)
10. Money (FBG #19)
11. The Nile Song (FBG T#71)
12. Ibiza Bar (FBG #70)
13. Welcome to the Machine (FBG #8)
14. The Gold It's in the... (FBG #75)
15. Any Colour You Like (FBG #28)
16. Interstellar Overdrive (FBG T#38)
17. High Hopes (FBG #27)
18. Careful With That Axe, Eugene (FBG #50)
19. Fearless (FBG #21)
20. Cymbaline (FBG T#55)
21. Time (FBG #4)
22. See Emily Play (FBG T#31)
23. Pigs (Three Different Ones) (FBG #11)
24. One of My Turns (FBG T#34)
25. Summer '68 (FBG #62)

Thanks again to @Anarchy99 for putting this all together.
 
I didn’t get to participate with the rankings as I was beyond swamped but it’s funny how I would have had to submit 2 lists, one for how I listen to pink floyd now and one for pre military when i listened under the influence of mary jane.

The experience to certain songs is definitely different, at least in my mind :bag:

CN will always be #1 after a griffith park laserium show of the wall on shrooms back in 92, that song rippled through me
 
Huge shout out to @Anarchy99 for taking the time to put this thread together. It was a fantastic way to learn about and get exposed to some of the earlier stuff that I had not gotten to yet. Figured it would be interesting to revisit my list to see what songs would make a revised top 25:

One of These Days (overlooked the first time)
Not Now John
The Gold It's In The...
Childhood's End
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

I will definitely be revisiting the thread in the future!
 
#01 - Comfortably Numb from The Wall (1979)

Appeared On: 31 ballots (out of 33 . . . 93.9%)
Total Points: 685 points (out of 825 possible points . . . 83.0%)
Top Rankers: Just about everyone
Highest Rankings: 1 x 13, 2 x 3, 3 x 4, 4 x 1, 5 x 2

David Gilmour Demo, Dave Talking About Demo, The Doctor Demo, The Doctor Demo 2, Demo, Immersion Box Version, Single Version, Rehearsal, London - 1980, Film Version,
DG - 1984, DG - 1986, RW & Van Morrison, DSOT, Knebworth - 1990, Pulse, DG & Bowie, Live 8, Pompeii, RW & DG (Final Time Together - 2011), RW 2022 Version

Live Performances: PF: 32, DG's PF 210, RW: 705, DG: 169

Covers: Will add later

THIRTEEN people had this one as their #1 song. It was the final song RW and DG wrote together.

RW wrote the lyrics about what he felt like as a child when he was sick with a fever. "I remember having the flu or something, an infection with a temperature of 105 and being delirious. Then later, I had one guy once who thought I'd got food poisoning for an upset stomach. And he thought I had stomach cramps. He wasn't listening to me at all either. In fact, I discovered later I had hepatitis. He gave me this tranquilizer, it was for the 1997 tour in Philadelphia, and that was the longest 2 hours of my life. Trying to do a show when you can hardly lift your arm. If he'd just left me alone, the pain I could have handled. It was no sweat. I could hardly lift my arms or move any of my limbs. God knows what he gave me, but it was some very heavy muscle relaxant".

The sedative was given to help the pain, but at the show, his hands were numb "like two toy balloons." He was unable to focus, but also realized the fans didn't care because they were so busy screaming, hence "comfortably" numb. That experience gave him the idea for the song's lyrics. "A doctor backstage gave me a shot of something that I swear to God would have killed an elephant . . . 'That'll keep you going through the show'. I did the whole show hardly able to raise my hand above my knee. He said it was a muscular relaxant. But it rendered me almost insensible. It was so bad that at the end of the show, the audience was baying for more. I couldn't do it. They did the encore about me."

RW and DG disagreed about how to record the song as DG preferred a stripped-down, hard rock version. RW and Ezrin wanted the slower, orchestral version. In the end, RW' preferred opening and DG's final solo were used. They agreed that the orchestra would play for most of the song, with DG's second and final solo standing alone. He'd later say, "We argued over Comfortably Numb like mad. Really had a big fight, went on for ages."

DG: "Both solos on Comfortably Numb are pretty good." In a reader's survey by GuitarPlayer, the song was selected as the #1 guitar solo of all time. Most of the music for Comfortably Numb was written by Dave at the conclusion of the sessions for his 1978 self-titled solo album. Written too late for inclusion on the album, the melody was later revived for The Wall and rewritten with input from Roger, who of course also wrote all the lyrics.

During the original The Wall tour, a giant wall was constructed across the stage during the performance, and the song was performed with RW dressed as a doctor at the bottom of the wall, and DG singing and playing guitar from the top of the wall on a raised platform with spotlights shining from behind him. A backlit image created a giant shadow which bled over an enthralled audience. It was the first time the audience's attention was drawn to the top of the completed wall. According to DG, the final solo was one of the few opportunities during those concerts that he was free to improvise completely. DG: "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. 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 go 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."

After RW left the band, DG revised the verses to suit his "grungier" preference for live performances. Verse vocals were arranged for three-part harmony. In both 1987–88 and 1994, these were sung Richard Wright, Guy Pratt, and Jon Carin.

The"Time to go!" reference at the beginning of the song is a direct reference to Syd Barrett. During a festival show in 1967, the rest of the band was ready to take the stage but Syd was nowhere to be found. Their stage manager eventually found him in their dressing room. His blank stare registered not a flicker of recognition. As the milling audience grew restless, the stage manager kept knocking with his increasingly urgent summons: "Time to go! Time to go!' trying to get Syd up and get him together to go and play. He couldn't speak; he was absolutely catatonic. They helped him onto the stage, put his guitar around his neck, and stood him in front of the vocal mike. He just stood there, tripping out of his mind.
 
Last edited:
CGRdrJoe said:
CN will always be #1 after a griffith park laserium show of the wall on shrooms back in 92, that song rippled through me
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Holy crap, I also went to the PF laserium show there in ‘92. Have no idea the exact date since I was probably as stoned as I ever have been in my life.
 
Yo Mama said:
CGRdrJoe said:
CN will always be #1 after a griffith park laserium show of the wall on shrooms back in 92, that song rippled through me
Click to expand...
Holy crap, I also went to the PF laserium show there in ‘92. Have no idea the exact date since I was probably as stoned as I ever have been in my life.
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I saw that same show in '92 at the Planetarium in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Wasn't stoned or on shrooms. LSD was our drug of choice that evening. Mainly because you could score a sheet of acid (100 tabs) for next to nothing just a couple of blocks away on Haight St. Then of course we'd take a bunch of it back home to our friends with markup ... you know ... to cover expenses.
 
Comfortably Numb is the only song ranked in the Top 5 by all the outside rankers.

Vulture Ranking (out of 165 songs): 2
UCR Ranking (out of 167 songs): 5
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 1
WMGK Ranking (out of 40 songs): 3
Ranker Ranking (out of 132 songs): 2
Billboard Ranking (out of 50 songs): 4

Vulture Ranking (2 out of 165 songs): More than anything else, there is a wistful melody here in the chorus, and the band lets it sink in, and go on as long as it needs to, tension rising each step of the way — another rare instance when you want something Pink Floyd is doing not to end. But you can’t forget the first chord either, ominous yet graceful. The verses, articulated by Waters, in one of the more restrained uses of his soft voice, are somewhat menacing, as poor Pink is lured once again into trouble. The release of the chorus elevates what could have just been almost a novelty track on The Wall into one of the most beautiful pieces of music of the 1970s. (And Gilmour has gone out of his way to make it clear that that beautiful chorus came from him.) Again, someone — Waters? Ezrin? — urged Gilmour to dig deep in his singing, and helped him to find something soft and vulnerable in his vocals. And then he starts playing guitar! The roots of the band’s breakup are here, too. One never had the sense that Gilmour liked stardom, or reveled in it. (I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a picture of him wearing anything but a T-shirt.) But faced with a choice — and having to ask himself the question of whether he had the goods, the talent, the voice, and the core, to lead Pink Floyd without Waters — he answered yes. So far on, everyone’s basically forgotten the sleight of hand he pulled off. Gilmour remains implacable and a star in much of the world. (One of his solo albums was a No. 1 record in the U.K.) He’ll play Astronomy Dominé if he wants to; for his Live in Gdansk album, he played, improbably, both his own most recent album (Rattle That Lock, with lyrics by Polly Samson) in its entirety and then an eclectic overview of his work for Pink Floyd, making room for exactly one song (Comfortably Numb) from its Waters-dominated period and two from the band’s (musically moribund) post-Waters period. David Gilmour is very rich and very secure in his position; and Pink Floyd’s history, it was clear, was his to limn.

UCR Ranking (5 out of 167 songs): The Wall is Waters’ show and he wrote the lyrics and some of the music for “Comfortably Numb,” but its greatness belongs to Gilmour. What’s more sublime about his melancholy-turned-fiery contributions? Is it the instant when Gilmour emerges, floating in on the choruses (suggesting a temporary, drug-assisted respite from Pink’s suffocating problems) or the entirety of the guitarist’s two majestic solos (communicating a sadness and anger well beyond the capabilities of the song’s lyrics)? The choruses ache, but David’s second, more combustible solo might provide the only tangible link between sad-sack Side 3 and furious Side 4 of this rock opera. Every note matters.

Louder Ranking (1 out of 50 songs): Roger Waters was in agony. It was June 29, 1977, and backstage at the Philadelphia Spectrum he was suffering from such crippling stomach cramps that he faced a choice between cancelling that night’s show or getting a tranquilizer shot that “would have killed a ****ing elephant”. Waters played the show, despite the muscle relaxant rendering him unable to feel his hands or raise his arms. And from that anesthetized sensation came the seed for the key track on 1979’s The Wall.

The Wall was emphatically Waters’s album – with troubled protagonist Pink a proxy for himself – and he was naturally reluctant when David Gilmour pitched a chord sequence left over from his first solo album. Waters would accept Gilmour’s contribution under duress, and claw back a degree of ownership by supplying lyrics and verse music. But still there were ructions, with the Waters and Bob Ezrin favouring a version with lush orchestration by Michael Kamen, while Gilmour preferred a leaner, harder take. “I fought for the introduction of the orchestra on that record,” says Ezrin. “This became a big issue on Comfortably Numb, which Dave saw as a more bare-bones track. Roger sided with me.”

“We argued over Comfortably Numb like mad,” Gilmour told Rock Compact Disc magazine. “Really had a big fight, went on for ages.” Both sides thrashed out a settlement, with Comfortably Numb ultimately featuring a little of both men’s visions. “On the record,” Waters told Absolute Radio, “the first verse is from the version [Gilmour] liked, and the second verse is from the version I liked. It was a negotiation and a compromise.”

Thankfully there was no such debate over Gilmour’s two celebrated guitar solos, whose dazzling licks were performed from atop the wall on tour. “I banged out five or six solos,” he told Rolling Stone. “From there I just followed my usual procedure, which is to listen back to each solo and make a chart, noting which bits are good. Then, by following the chart I create one great composite solo by whipping one fader up, then another fader, jumping from phrase to phrase until everything flows together.”

For Pink Floyd as we knew them, the song was the terminal nail in the coffin (“I think things like Comfortably Numb, were the last embers of mine and Roger’s ability to work collaboratively together,” Gilmour reflected ). Yet it has also built bridges, notable as the final song performed by the reunited line-up at Live 8, and also played by Gilmour at Waters’s The Wall show on May 12, 2011.

“Dave wanted to do this thing called the Hoping Foundation,” said Waters. “Finally, I’d heard enough and I went: ‘I tell you what. I’m gonna be doing a few nights in the O2. You come and do Comfortably Numb one of those nights, and I’ll do the bloody Hoping Foundation.’ And I thought he’d just go: ‘F*** off.’ And he didn’t. He went: ‘All right.’ So we did it.”

WMGK Ranking (3 out of 40 songs): Probably David Gilmour’s finest moment. He composed the music while working on his debut solo album. He couldn’t figure out what to do with it on his own. Waters wrote lyrics inspired by an experience he had on the band’s most recent tour, where he needed tranquilizers to deal with stomach cramps.

Billboard Ranking (4 out of 50 songs): The ultimate in Pink Floyd as classic rock titans, an absolutely towering power ballad where both elements of that phrase feel individually and collectively insufficient to appropriately summarize the song’s might. Comfortably Numb is iconic from its opening line, and nails both the little things (the “pinprick” sound effect) and the big things (Gilmour’s GOAT-contending closing guitar solo) with such unquestioned mastery that the song endures as one of the most recognizable of its era, despite never charting pretty much anywhere. It might not be as mystifying or genre-blending as some of the group’s other signature moments, but it ensures they’ll have at least one standard circulating on classic-rock radio for as long as classic-rock radio is a thing.
 
Anarchy99 said:
Vulture Ranking (2 out of 165 songs): More than anything else, there is a wistful melody here in the chorus, and the band lets it sink in, and go on as long as it needs to, tension rising each step of the way — another rare instance when you want something Pink Floyd is doing not to end.
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Nice compliment, Vulture.
 
CGRdrJoe said:
I didn’t get to participate with the rankings as I was beyond swamped but it’s funny how I would have had to submit 2 lists, one for how I listen to pink floyd now and one for pre military when i listened under the influence of mary jane.

The experience to certain songs is definitely different, at least in my mind :bag:

CN will always be #1 after a griffith park laserium show of the wall on shrooms back in 92, that song rippled through me
Click to expand...

I loved going to see that show at Griffith Park. Went a few times in college. So much fun. Such a fantastic way to experience that album. My daughter goes to school in Boston and saw a similar laser show to Dark Side at the planetarium out there. I was very stoked for her and a little jealous. Would love to see it again.
 
Pip's Invitation said:
My favorite four musical passages from Floyd:

The “funky” part of Echoes
Part VIII of SOYCD
The opening guitar solo on Dogs
The closing guitar solo on Comfortably Numb
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Yup - I would probably agree with all of them, although I would include the soaring soloing on Echoes immediately preceding the funky part.

If I had to add a fifth, it would be the Time solo. Covers all of the big 5 albums that way.
 
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Big thanks to Anarchy and all the rest of you for a great thread.

my list:
1Comfortably Numb
2Wish You Were Here
3On the Turning Away
4One of These Days
5Hey You
6Time
7Astronomy Domine
8Brain Damage/Eclipse
9The Gunner's Dream
10Young Lust
11Careful With That Axe, Eugene
12Have a Cigar
13See Emily Play
14Money
15Fearless
16Shine on You Crazy Diamond Part 1
17Mother
18Echoes
19Sheep
20Welcome to the Machine
21The Final Cut
22Breathe
23Fat Old Sun
24Pigs on the Wing (Snowy White Version)
25Childhood's End
 
 
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