David Gilmour turns 63

David Gilmour the last lead guitarist of Pink Floyd turns 63 today. If you are a Floyd fan you know all the stories about Gilmour taking Syd Barrett’s spot. Gilmour leaving because of Roger Waters’ domination of the band. Floyd truly was two bands.

Although there are plenty of Pink Floyd videos on YouTube to choose from, I went with their last performance together from Live 8 in 2005 with two songs that Gilmour and Waters collaborated on. The first, Wish You Were Here was the only Floyd song where the lyrics were written first, which is probably because the theme of the song and album of the same name was about Syd Barrett and his breakdown.



If I have a favorite Floyd song it is Comfortably Numb. It is one of only two songs on the Wall that were not solely credited to Waters. Gilmour had already started his solo career by this time, for which he had written the music. Waters wrote the lyrics supposedly about being injected with tranquillizers to treat hepatitis prior to playing a show in Philadelphia.

Right... Just a little pin prick... was about hepatitis. Just like the mix of Hey Jude was about Julian and his mom.

Anyway the strength of Gilmour's voice impressed me in the Live 8 performance. I expected his guitar to be great, but his vocals were impressive for an old man. Happy Birthday.




JAWL