One of the most eminent and successful rock bands of all time can be no other than Pink Floyd. In a history span of more than 25 years Pink Floyd has produced many top selling hits among which is the famous The Wall, Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here. The band has amused millions of people with their music which has been, for the most part, a creation of one composer, David Gilmour. As a guitar player and a composer he found the secret of success which lies within experimenting with different styles of music such as Blues, Rock, Reggae, Jazz, and Oriental music.
David Gilmour was born on March 6, 1946 in Grantchester, a small village in the outskirts of Cambridge, England. His father Douglas Gilmour was a doctor and his mother Silvia was a college professor. Once David and his three brothers were of the age of 10, both of his parents left leaving them to live on their own. This wasn’t a huge problem to David who saw this as a chance to sneak around and cause trouble. At the age of 14, he borrowed his neighbor’s abandoned acoustic guitar and began to play on his own. He initially began to cover many American artists who were quite famous at that time in England such as Bill Hayley and Elvis Presley.
In these early years, David had a friend named Roger “Syd” Barret. Together they went to a strict boys-only-school named “The Perse Preparatory School for Boys”. After school he went to study Modern Languages but eventually quit and got to devote himself to what he liked most. After making his own band called the “Flowers” he began to tour Europe in a small van. During this time he was in severe need of cash and many times had to steal diesel to keep his van running. After this rather unsuccessful tour of Europe he was called to join Syd’s band named Pink Floyd.
During the years he was in Pink Floyd he played a huge part in creating the musical fusion of the band. Although he wasn’t the leader of the band, he made a huge effort to shape and sculpture Pink Floyd’s sound in their best selling albums. Apart form a guitarist he was also a very talented singer. He has a very distinct “angelic” voice which can be heard over various tracks. His guitar technique has a definite blues feel in some songs but on the other side he might just strum. He was never a pushy guitarist; rather he was composer who saw the general picture of a song and didn’t concentrate just on his guitar.
In Wish You Were Here, he begins with a typical strumming pattern which he fills with occasional riffs and after the first verse he has the whole band jump in giving a mod-erate blast effect. The song has a somehow mellow sounding with a repetitive motive. A repetitive motive is, was and will be a definite “must” for any modern composer who want his song to sell, be heard and not forgotten. The drum beats don’t change and they seem to serve the role of a metronome but by the same token a song such as this doesn’t require much effort or style. As the song progresses, Gilmour gives more emphasis on the piano, which plays chords and builds with occasional fills. When it comes to solo, Gilmour uses a difficult technique of playing the notes and singing them at the same time. This technique, although hard to master, is almost like a cliché derived from the blues masters such as BB King, Robert Johnson and SRV.
Probably the one of the words that are almost synonymous with Pink Floyd is The Wall. This album was “project” that Gilmour and the leader of his band Roger Waters had planned to do making not only an album but also recorded a show and a movie. The highlight of this album is the song Comfortably Numb which has Gilmour giving a master class of guitar and lyrics. The song begins with a very sad motive which has the bass having the lead role with keyboards and piano helping in the creating a sort of “cloudy” effect. Suddenly “the sun brakes the clouds” with the chorus. The cymbals add a sort of punch to the chorus making it very broad and warm. Gilmour sings in a very distant manner giving even more space for the song to breathe. Midway through the song there comes a bright solo with the band playing the chorus. As the song progresses, we once again have a gloomy picture with a small orchestra with violins adding to the scene. The next chorus is followed by the …No. 4 electric guitar solo of all time…”(Guitar World Mag). The solo just takes your mind away to a journey of some sort. It’s long and it rises steadily reaching it’s climax with the guitar tearing the listeners’ soul in pieces. The solo never ends with the song coming to fade out.
Another vastly discussed Pink Floyd album is the “Dark Side of The Moon”. This album was primarily inspired by the leader of the band, Roger Waters. He was directing the music in the album but nevertheless Gilmour still got to experiment with his guitar adding his touch to the whole picture. In the song Time, Gilmour gives a sort of upbeat Reggae feel which goes along side the lyrics that describe the wasting of time. The drums once again serve no important role with the keyboards and the David’s solo “stealing the show”. The solo is very bright and has a considerable amount of reverb, given in order to accent the importance of the theme of “time”. It doesn’t have fast parts but contains some rather brilliant harmonies which were a sort of improvisation of Gilmour.
David Gilmour was, is and will be a truly remarkable guitarist and composer. He has left his mark in rock history. Although he didn’t seem to be a flashy guitar hero he accomplished to be one of the most respected and gifted guitar players to ever walk this earth. His playing and singing have influenced many of today’s mainstream artists as well as metal and hard rock bands. Music is as diverse as life. We need to have examples from the past in order to progress in the future. David Gilmour fused his past with our future and has left his name in the books of Music History.
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