April 14, 2023     —–     Chart #191

Hello Music Friends,

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. Well I hate to bring it up, but this is tax return week. With that in mind I think we will go with something from “The Wall”. “Comfortably Numb” is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd from their eleventh album, The Wall (1979). It was released as a single in 1980, with “Hey You” as the B-side. The music was composed by guitarist David Gilmour. The lyrics were written by bassist Roger Waters.

“Comfortably Numb” is one of Pink Floyd’s most well-known songs, notable for its two guitar solos. In 2004, it was ranked number 314 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was re-ranked number 321 in 2010, and re-ranked number 179 in 2021. In 2005, it became the last song ever performed by Waters, Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright, and drummer Nick Mason together. An early version was included on the 2012 Wall “Immersion Box Set”.

The Wall is a concept album about an embittered and alienated rock star named Pink. In “Comfortably Numb”, Pink is medicated by a doctor so he can perform for a show. The song was inspired by Waters’ injection with a muscle relaxant to combat the effects of hepatitis during the In the Flesh Tour, while in Philadelphia. The song, together with “Mother”, is one of two tracks on The Wall that are not connected with an adjacent track. It is also the longest on the album at 6:21, followed by “Mother”, which is 5:32.

Guitarist David Gilmour recorded a wordless demo while working on his debut solo album in 1978. He did not use the chord sequence for that album, but kept it for future work. Bassist Roger Waters listened to the demo during sessions for The Wall but was reluctant to use it as he wanted to take sole responsibility for writing the album. Producer Bob Ezrin suggested that Waters should reconsider, agreeing that Gilmour’s demo needed fleshing out. Subsequently, Waters asked Gilmour to change the chord structure for the verses from E minor (as on the Immersion box set of The Wall) to B minor and David Gilmour also added a few bars of music for the “I have become Comfortably Numb” line, and Roger wrote lyrics inspired from an experience of being injected with tranquilizers for stomach cramps before a 1977 performance in Philadelphia on the In the Flesh Tour. “That was the longest two hours of my life,” Waters said, “trying to do a show when you can hardly lift your arm.” The song’s working title was “The Doctor”. Ezrin looked at the completed lyrics and said they “just gave me goosebumps”.

For the chorus, Gilmour and session player Lee Ritenour used a pair of acoustic guitars strung similarly to Nashville tuning, but with the low E string replaced with a high E string, two octaves higher than standard tuning. This tuning was also used for the arpeggios in “Hey You”.

David Gilmour has still got it. This is 2016:  https://youtu.be/LTseTg48568

The band disagreed about how to record the song. Waters and Ezrin preferred a mix containing numerous orchestral overdubs, overseen by Michael Kamen, while Gilmour preferred a stripped-down mix with heavier rock elements. Gilmour later said: “We argued over ‘Comfortably Numb’ like mad. Really had a big fight, went on for ages.” In the end, a compromise was reached where the main portion of the song would include the orchestral elements, while the final guitar solo would contain the stripped-down mix preferred by Gilmour. Ezrin later said he was happy with the final mix as it provided a good contrast, while Gilmour said it represented “the last embers of mine and Roger’s ability to work collaboratively together”.

To write the two guitar solos, Gilmour pieced together elements from several other solos he had been working on, marking his preferred segments for the final take. He used a Big Muff distortion and delay effects on the solos.

This one is a tune that will send your mind wandering off to unusual places. Hope you enjoy listening and playing along.

Keep Rockin’,

Stan Bradshaw