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The top ten instrumental moments
Throughout their history Pink Floyd have been famous for long instrumental passages. Some of Pink Floyd's finest moments occurred without lyrics. Many fans argue that the lyrics make Pink Floyd, while others argue that it's the music. It really is the combination of both that have made Pink Floyd what it is: a great rock band. But no one can argue with the musical mastery the band has shown again and again during their instrumentals. From eerie and depressing to spiritual and uplifting, instrumental Floyd is what got me hooked on the greatest rock music I ever heard.
But to simply list ten instrumental songs from the band's official releases would be way too easy, boring, and fairly predictable. So I've expanded the topic to include solo efforts as well as Floyd albums, to make it a little more interesting and a bit more fun to do. Then I thought, wait a minute, let's make all live material eligible too... and let's not limit it strictly to songs without lyrics. Let's go after the top ten Pink Floyd and solo instrumental moments ever. Now we're on to something good! Brilliant! So much to choose from and so difficult to pick just ten, but boy do I have my favorites.
10. "Interstellar Overdrive" - Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
This is pretty much where it all began. I've heard some folks downplay Syd's abilities on many occasion. Such talk is way off base. His influence on rock and roll is legendary, and cannot and should not be disputed. As far as his playing goes, it was a unique sound for sure. A soaring, almost frantic, kind of wail that always keeps the listener on the edge--just like Syd was back then. Most times, Syd's wonderful guitar playing is overshadowed by his singing and Rick Wright's keyboards. You really have to listen for it to appreciate it. But on "Interstellar Overdrive", it's pure instrumental and it's pure Syd. It's also one of Pink Floyd's first ventures into instrumental music and one of the band's best instrumental moments.
9. One of These Days" - Meddle
The thumping bass and the screeching slide guitar create a classic Floyd instrumental. The song almost represents a bridge between what the band was doing previously and what was to come. A soaring instrumental, but played with such precision and a bursting new-found talent, this was obviously the beginning of a new chapter for the band. The group was clearly coming into their own now. It shows on this first song on the album, and throughout the entire LP.
8. "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" - July 6, 1977, Montreal, Canada
"Come back pig! All is forgiven!" Wow. What can I say? Definitely one of my all-time favorite Pink Floyd instrumental moments. While the studio version has a semi-short instrumental passage, the live version extends that, which allows the band to really jam out. This jam session, on July 6, 1977, was something different altogether. Roger Waters was slowly getting fed up with the large, screaming crowds carrying on while he was trying to play throughout the '77 tour. It all came to a head this night. But it also brought us great music. During the "Pigs" jam the inflatable pig was hoisted up and rolled out above the crowd, putting them in a frenzy. Roger's calling out to the pig and yelling at the fans, the fireworks going off, all combined with David Gilmour's wild lead guitar created one of the most tense moments in instrumental rock that I know of. "Nineteen-Sixty, wow!" You go boys!
7. "Mihalis" - David Gilmour
If I were to choose a song from David Gilmour's first solo album, it has to be "Mihalis". While "Raise My Rent" is just as good an instrumental song, "Mihalis" is special to me. It is our introduction to David Gilmour's solo sound, it's the first song on the album, and it immediately lets us know what to expect the rest of the way. Beautiful instrumental jamming, soaring leads, and that distinctive Gilmour sound. The perfect fix we Floyd fans needed after Animals and before The Wall. "Mihalis" just has that Animals feel to it. In any case, the song is a great instrumental and fits right in here amongst other classic Pink Floyd instrumentals.
6. "Marooned" - The Division Bell
If anyone is going to discuss instrumental Floyd, this song has to be mentioned. While Roger Waters provided many instrumental ideas in the history of Pink Floyd, it was always David Gilmour and Rick Wright that brought those ideas to life with their playing. Even with Roger gone from the band, it is this instrumental song that comes closest to anything the foursome did together. The Floydian sound is there without any doubt. This song could fit right onto any album from Meddle to Wish You Were Here. Dave's soaring guitar and Rick's keyboards once again bring us music that moves us like no other.
5. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)" - Wish You Were Here
While this song has lyrics, it's the first eight-plus minutes of instrumental music that makes the song the anthem that it is for everyone. "Syd's Theme" is the defining moment, but Rick Wright's keyboards and David Gilmour's guitar work make incredible music here. The instrumentation is so... compelling... and so bluesy that you can almost hear the guitar weeping. No lyrics are needed to convey the point of the song. As an ode to Syd Barrett, you can tell the band were in the perfect mood for it. Certainly one of Pink Floyd's most emotional instrumental moments.
Honorable Mentions |
"Any Colour You Like" - The Dark Side of the Moon |
4. "The Narrow Way", Parts One and Two - Ummagumma
I love this song. Gilmour's playful acoustic guitar is the perfect opening. The electric guitar underneath is very reminiscent of Syd Barrett's sound; the influence is unmistakable, and David does it to perfection. It then leads right into one of the most menacing-sounding instrumental passages in the Floyd catalogue. It's all Gilmour, grinding it out on electric guitar. The same effect goes on for several minutes, again with the Barrett-like guitar wailing in the background. All of this leads up to Gilmour's sung coda in Part Three and a fine instrumental outro, but for us, Parts One and Two make this list for one of David Gilmour's finest instrumental moments ever.
3. "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" - any live version
Any version of this song will do; I'm not particular. The simple bass line, the eerie keyboards, Dave's perfect 'ooh's and 'aah's, all leading up to the big moment: Roger's gut-wrenching scream. Try that one in concert now! It's just a classic Floydian instrumental that has to make fan's top three. Just don't turn it up too loud; you may frighten the neighbors.
2. "Atom Heart Mother" - 17 October 1970, Pepperland Auditorium, San Rafael, CA
All the way up at number two is a song that the group has looked back on and laughed at in scorn. 'Rubbish' they called it. What do they know?! One of the Floyd's ultimate jam pieces, it's 20 minutes of all sorts of instrumental music. Each and everyone part, though, is distinctly Pink Floyd. A true instrumental without lyrics, the song has its finest moments in Gilmour's choir-like voice 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing again over Rick's keyboards. Don't go away though, because Roger Waters' funky bass kicks off another jam section. Can David get any funkier on lead guitar? How about Rick? Not possible. And let's not leave out the soaring lead guitar toward the end. You really can pick any version of this song and it would rank high on this list-- live or studio, with or without the choir. But in my opinion, this version from Pepperland is unparalleled.
1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)" - from May 9, 1977, Oakland, CA
Really, any live version of this song will rank number one. While the studio version is one of the finest pieces of music on record, the live versions from 1977 were the very definition of musical mastery. The howling wind and thumping bass moving at breakneck speed, the slide guitar leading into the lyrics. The long, drawn-out, instrumental coda is certainly one of Pink Floyd's greatest moments. The guitar play between Snowy White and David Gilmour is complemented beautifully by the rest of the band, ending with one of Rick Wright's finest moments on piano. The perfect Floydian jam, and number one on my list of the top ten instrumental moments.
A silence that speaks so much louder than words Roger Waters has no use for instrumentals anymore When Roger Waters left Pink Floyd behind in the mid-1980s, he spent a lot of time and money trying to convince the world that he was the sole creative force behind Pink Floyd. Some believed him. To this day, he seems to believe this himself. His solo albums and tours bear a striking resemblance to the music he made with Pink Floyd--familiar sounds, familiar themes, familiar song. But one thing that some fans may not have even noticed is the fact that by the time Roger Waters went solo he had pretty much given up on instrumentals. While the early Floyd relied heavily on instrumentals, and long instrumental passages were a key feature of the classic Floyd albums of the mid-1970s, among Waters' three major solo albums, there is only one instrumental: "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard", which features some ethereal synth chords and rhythmic drumming as background music to the story Alf Razzell tells of his experience in World War I. This is particularly telling--the music isn't the focus of the composition. The listener's attention is drawn to the spoken words. Some might argue that this is true of most of Waters' solo work: the music becomes secondary to the words. But this is not something that suddenly began when Waters left Pink Floyd. On 1983's The Final Cut, there are no instrumentals whatsoever. ("Of course," some would argue, "because Wright was gone and Gilmour wasn't willing to fight about it with Waters at this point.") On 1979's The Wall, there is only one instrumental ("Is There Anybody Out There?"), a brief wisp of a composition so simple that many aspiring guitarists teach it to themselves. ("Of course," some would argue, "because Wright was on his way out, and Waters kept adding lyrics to everything Gilmour contributed. And isn't it appropriate that the only Floyd instrumental credited to Waters alone is the simplest one of the lot?") On 1977's Animals and 1975's Wish You Were Here, there are no instrumentals at all, though the songs tend to be exceedingly long, with extended instrumental passages. ("Of course," some would argue, "because Waters was beginning exerting his influence on the band's direction.") And here is where I agree with the arguers. The Dark Side of the Moon marks the end of the 'old' Pink Floyd, and the beginning of Waters' increasing domination of the band's voice. It was the first album for which Waters wrote all of the lyrics, and the last to lean heavily upon instrumentals. From that point on, Waters took more and more control of the band's message, and the presentation of that message required fewer and fewer instrumentals. As Waters found himself with more to say, there was less room for instrumental music. Would he have found room for the instrumentals if he, like Gilmour and Wright, had been a more melody-driven musician? Perhaps. Would he have found room for the instrumentals if he had been unable to adequately express himself with words? Perhaps. Would he have found room for the instrumentals if he hadn't been so consumed by the desire to inject the group's work with political and social commentary. Perhaps. But don't fall into the trap of believing that Waters can't write instrumentals. To say that Waters was incapable of writing instrumentals without Gilmour or Wright to prop him up just doesn't seem fair. No one knows exactly how much input Waters had, relative to the rest of the band, in composing "A Saucerful of Secrets", or "Atom Heart Mother", or "One of These Days", or even "Any Colour You Like". We can--and do--speculate that Gilmour and Wright are the 'more musical' members, and that therefore they must have done the bulk of the instrumental composing. But to say that Waters is completely incapable of writing instrumentals is to completely negate his songwriting abilities. Rock instrumentals are more about performance than composition with paper and pen, which is why the Floyd shared co-writing credits for many of these songs. Waters continues to work with top-notch sidemen, and if he wanted, he could have turned almost any of his solo songs into an instrumental by removing the lyric and having his band play--and play with--his basic melody and harmonic structures. But he doesn't. Why? The answer is simple--he doesn't want to. He's more interested in telling the story and discussing the politics through lyrics than in playing instrumental music. For better or worse, Waters considers the message more important than the music that carries it. And he's operated this way for years.
Don't think that Waters can't write instrumentals. He just doesn't feel the need to.
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