WaPo article:
David Gilmour’s first album in nine years is a family undertaking. Polly Samson, his novelist wife, wrote most of the lyrics for “Luck and Strange,” and their 22-year-old daughter, Romany, sings harmonies and takes the lead on the moody “Between Two Points,” covering a song by British indie-pop duo the Montgolfier Brothers.
At 78, Gilmour says he feels liberated from his past, particularly his half-century with Pink Floyd as it catapulted from London’s psychedelic music underground to global platinum sellers who set the pace for progressive rock in the 1970s and ’80s. But his new record will inevitably remind fans of Floyd. The intimate, quietly aching vocal power of “Wish You Were Here” and “Comfortably Numb” is still very present, as are the soaring, melodic electric guitar leads that are unmistakably his. The title track even features the late Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, spliced in from a jam captured in 2007. But the music on “Luck and Strange” moves from baroque pop to arena rock to simple folk songs. Speaking last week from his home south of London, Gilmour said that as he worked on his new music, “I just felt totally at ease … to be a bit truer to the moment that I’m living in.”
Normally, I would say to all of my rock heroes, “Oh, my gosh, please don’t have a wife or a husband involved in an album. And definitely don’t let the kid sing.” But Polly’s writing is beautiful, and, as you say, this album is as much hers as yours.
I do say that. And it’s true. We collaborate on absolutely everything. I mean, I do my little bit toward helping her with research when she’s writing a book. And I think her lyrics are brilliant and I think particularly on this album, with the music, have come together to create something which for me is really exciting and satisfying.
The theme of aging is obviously quite dominant. Polly is really good at getting inside people’s heads. On the subject of covid, there was the belief at the beginning, which proved to not really be the case, that quite a percentage of the population could have died and particularly the elderly, of which I suppose I have to class myself. And she was worried about all that stuff. And that was part of the conversations we had during that period of time.
There are two things you’ve said that seem to be grabbing headlines as you talk about this album. Let’s start with your saying this is the best album you’ve made since “The Dark Side of the Moon.”
Well, let me say that, you know, I can remember the moment of sitting down in the control room of Studio 3 at Abbey Road in 1973 and listening to the whole “The Dark Side of the Moon,” because when you’re making it, it’s in bits, and you do joining bits and you do edits that connect all these things together. And there was a moment — the first and only moment when we all sat together and listened to it all the way through. That was a moment of great joy and of satisfaction and the feeling of achievement that we’d really gone that extra mile. That feeling is what I have had here. This is not a concept album or anything like that, but it feels like a cohesive thing. And the thrill of listening to the whole of this album all the way through was enormous. Nearly every car journey I take when I’m not walking that’s an hour long, I listen to the album again, and I absolutely love it.
The other big headline that you’ve made is: “David Gilmour backtracks on playing Pink Floyd songs in concerts.” So what’s that all about? First you said you’d play none. Now you’re saying you’ll play some. What should fans know as they come to these concerts?
Well, I’m doing songs from as early as 1969 to as late as 1994 of Pink Floyd and some songs from my solo career. I’m pointing them in a certain direction that seems to fit with what I am doing now. There are not that many of them, but I changed my mind a bit and I did at one point say none of those things, but I was obviously a bit grumpy that morning.
Do you feel something special when you play a song from 1973 or 1978, or is it like this is a dutiful role that I have to play for my fans?
I love the songs. I’m not ashamed of our career. We did great stuff. How could I not love it? But I don’t love them more than the songs on this album that I’m doing now, or some of the other solo songs that I’ve done. And I like some of the later Pink Floyd songs just as much as some of the earlier Pink Floyd songs.
It’s complicated, I imagine, to pick those set lists. As someone who wasn’t old enough for prime Pink Floyd, I wonder why you don’t play something off your early solo records. “There’s No Way Out of Here” or “Blue Light.”
Well, those first two albums, I haven’t got any of those on the list. This time I listened to them. It just doesn’t sound like the me that I am at the moment. And that’s a hard thing to explain. “There’s No Way Out of Here.” It was a lovely song, you know? Again, it was a cover, but a great song, but I’ve got so much material to do that I want to do that. Some things just don’t make the cut in the end. What can you do?
“The theme of aging is obviously quite dominant,” Gilmour says of his new album. (Anton Corbijn)
You’ve seen so many artists sell their masters or publishing. Is that being considered?
Yes. My reason for wanting to do it is I don’t want to burden my kids with that whole legacy. And I also have had enough of the burdens of looking after that f---ing legacy for the last nearly 40 years with the s--- and the arguments that go on. And I just want to be shorn of it.
There’s no fear of what happens when you’re gone. Do you become a hologram? Do you get used in a toilet paper commercial? I saw your Pink Floyd bandmate Nick [Mason] talking recently about an AI version of Pink Floyd. Do these things worry you?
No. I’ll be dead. Who gives a s--- what anyone does?
David Gilmour’s first album in nine years is a family undertaking. Polly Samson, his novelist wife, wrote most of the lyrics for “Luck and Strange,” and their 22-year-old daughter, Romany, sings harmonies and takes the lead on the moody “Between Two Points,” covering a song by British indie-pop duo the Montgolfier Brothers.
At 78, Gilmour says he feels liberated from his past, particularly his half-century with Pink Floyd as it catapulted from London’s psychedelic music underground to global platinum sellers who set the pace for progressive rock in the 1970s and ’80s. But his new record will inevitably remind fans of Floyd. The intimate, quietly aching vocal power of “Wish You Were Here” and “Comfortably Numb” is still very present, as are the soaring, melodic electric guitar leads that are unmistakably his. The title track even features the late Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, spliced in from a jam captured in 2007. But the music on “Luck and Strange” moves from baroque pop to arena rock to simple folk songs. Speaking last week from his home south of London, Gilmour said that as he worked on his new music, “I just felt totally at ease … to be a bit truer to the moment that I’m living in.”
Normally, I would say to all of my rock heroes, “Oh, my gosh, please don’t have a wife or a husband involved in an album. And definitely don’t let the kid sing.” But Polly’s writing is beautiful, and, as you say, this album is as much hers as yours.
I do say that. And it’s true. We collaborate on absolutely everything. I mean, I do my little bit toward helping her with research when she’s writing a book. And I think her lyrics are brilliant and I think particularly on this album, with the music, have come together to create something which for me is really exciting and satisfying.
The theme of aging is obviously quite dominant. Polly is really good at getting inside people’s heads. On the subject of covid, there was the belief at the beginning, which proved to not really be the case, that quite a percentage of the population could have died and particularly the elderly, of which I suppose I have to class myself. And she was worried about all that stuff. And that was part of the conversations we had during that period of time.
There are two things you’ve said that seem to be grabbing headlines as you talk about this album. Let’s start with your saying this is the best album you’ve made since “The Dark Side of the Moon.”
Well, let me say that, you know, I can remember the moment of sitting down in the control room of Studio 3 at Abbey Road in 1973 and listening to the whole “The Dark Side of the Moon,” because when you’re making it, it’s in bits, and you do joining bits and you do edits that connect all these things together. And there was a moment — the first and only moment when we all sat together and listened to it all the way through. That was a moment of great joy and of satisfaction and the feeling of achievement that we’d really gone that extra mile. That feeling is what I have had here. This is not a concept album or anything like that, but it feels like a cohesive thing. And the thrill of listening to the whole of this album all the way through was enormous. Nearly every car journey I take when I’m not walking that’s an hour long, I listen to the album again, and I absolutely love it.
The other big headline that you’ve made is: “David Gilmour backtracks on playing Pink Floyd songs in concerts.” So what’s that all about? First you said you’d play none. Now you’re saying you’ll play some. What should fans know as they come to these concerts?
Well, I’m doing songs from as early as 1969 to as late as 1994 of Pink Floyd and some songs from my solo career. I’m pointing them in a certain direction that seems to fit with what I am doing now. There are not that many of them, but I changed my mind a bit and I did at one point say none of those things, but I was obviously a bit grumpy that morning.
Do you feel something special when you play a song from 1973 or 1978, or is it like this is a dutiful role that I have to play for my fans?
I love the songs. I’m not ashamed of our career. We did great stuff. How could I not love it? But I don’t love them more than the songs on this album that I’m doing now, or some of the other solo songs that I’ve done. And I like some of the later Pink Floyd songs just as much as some of the earlier Pink Floyd songs.
It’s complicated, I imagine, to pick those set lists. As someone who wasn’t old enough for prime Pink Floyd, I wonder why you don’t play something off your early solo records. “There’s No Way Out of Here” or “Blue Light.”
Well, those first two albums, I haven’t got any of those on the list. This time I listened to them. It just doesn’t sound like the me that I am at the moment. And that’s a hard thing to explain. “There’s No Way Out of Here.” It was a lovely song, you know? Again, it was a cover, but a great song, but I’ve got so much material to do that I want to do that. Some things just don’t make the cut in the end. What can you do?
“The theme of aging is obviously quite dominant,” Gilmour says of his new album. (Anton Corbijn)
You’ve seen so many artists sell their masters or publishing. Is that being considered?
Yes. My reason for wanting to do it is I don’t want to burden my kids with that whole legacy. And I also have had enough of the burdens of looking after that f---ing legacy for the last nearly 40 years with the s--- and the arguments that go on. And I just want to be shorn of it.
There’s no fear of what happens when you’re gone. Do you become a hologram? Do you get used in a toilet paper commercial? I saw your Pink Floyd bandmate Nick [Mason] talking recently about an AI version of Pink Floyd. Do these things worry you?
No. I’ll be dead. Who gives a s--- what anyone does?
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