RIP David Sanborn / Wall vs Pros And Cons

[stonytokes]

On May 12th of this year, the gentleman who added such soulful sax to Roger's Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, David Sanborn, threw off his mortal coil. I'll admit I'm not really familiar with much of the rest of his work, but I absolutely LOVE his playing on P&C.

So, his passing in conjunction with several other recent threads have strange musings rolling through my brain. I personally happen to like P&C more than The Wall and consider it to be Roger's masterpiece, but I've always wondered what it would sound like with Gilmour's soaring solos instead of Eric's. Likewise, I wonder what The Wall would have sounded like if the boys had picked P&C instead. Would it have been an even more dark and turgid affair like the demos if Roger had complete control? Who would Rog have picked for the band to pull it off? Clapton handled Gilmour's parts pretty well on the early P&C dates but I can't really see him contributing to the songwriting like Dave did on The Wall. Not at this point in his career, anyway, if I recall correctly.

Both albums use the device of having a musical theme repeat throughout the piece so they're certainly similar in construction. Given my preference I'm glad things worked out as they did, but I'll always wonder what might have been...

Thoughts?

[Blackstrat]

I've not listened to the P&C tour for a long long time, but I seem to remember that Clapton avoided soloing in songs where Gilmour would have done, preferring instead to solo over songs that Gilmour never took solos in. Presumably so he could just be himself rather than be accused of copying anyone?

[stonytokes]

That sounds about right. As I recall, the P&C shows that I've listened to with Eric sounded like he was uncomfortable covering Dave's parts, but I do remember that Eric had an epic solo to end the first set on a Final Cut track, I think...

[Fungusmungus]

Besides Pros & Cons, I always associate David Sanborn with sitting in with "The World's Most Dangerous Band" on Letterman back in the day. He was the rock sax GOAT in my opinion (Dick Parry, obviously up there as well).

[DaveTheRave]

I personally happen to like P&C more than The Wall and consider it to be Roger's masterpiece, but I've always wondered what it would sound like with Gilmour's soaring solos instead of Eric's.
Thoughts?

I think that would have been the end of the band. Pros & Cons in my opinion is a bad album. It would have been a total dud coming after Animals and ruined the Roger-is-a-creative genius narrative. Then Roger goes off on his own to make the Wall, without David’s input. No telling where that would go, but the record company approving a double-LP for a first solo album seems unlikely.

[stonytokes]

I can't say that I agree. Who knows? Maybe P&C would have tanked if it was released as a Floyd project. We'll never know. I think it likely would have sold well being that it would have been the next PF album.

Opinions vary. Both Dave and Roger found out post-Final Cut that neither one of their solo albums sold very well without the Pink Floyd name attached to them. About Face didn't even certify as Gold in the US. I mean, I happen to think that A Momentary Lapse Of Reason is a bad album and would have sank like a stone if it didn't have the PF name attached to it. But release what is essentially a DG solo album under the PF moniker? Well, then we have a quadruple Platinum album.

Did we tell you the name of the game, boy?