David Gilmour

2005-07-07

Live 8 has now come and gone. Whether the efforts of the event will lead to a change in the policies of how the world's richest countries treat the world's poorest is a matter of debate and something that remains to be seen.

What should not be at debate is just how great some of the artists who performed last Saturday really are. Instead of spending any time or energy highlighting the acts that didn't quite make the cut, I'd rather focus on one particular group, and one member of that group that hit the ball out of the park: Pink Floyd, and specifically David Gilmour.

First, if you didn't see any of the day's events, no worries, AOL has posted a great number of the performances at aol.com (these will be available for the next six weeks) and I highly recommend checking them out as there were some really amazing moments, many from the London show.

Where Floyd is concerned, you'll find four performances for "Breathe," "Money," "Confortably Numb," and "Wish You Were Here."

As a lifelong fan of this band I was so ecstatic to see they had finally put their differences aside to re-group and perform live. I never had the chance to see them tour with Roger Waters, so this was a special moment for me; even if from afar on a computer screen.

I'm sure someone is going to disagree with me, but I never much cared for Syd Barrett, or understood his importance. If it was to unleash the genius of Roger Waters, then OK, he served a great purpose. Otherwise, I don't get it. The albums he appeared on don't hold a candle to the later ones and the songwriting was nowhere near as strong.

I was always a huge Waters fan because so much of what I loved about Pink Floyd came from his head; he was the creative center of the group. His songs inspired me and his lyrics spoke to me.

Listening to a Pink Floyd record was very special. It was something I did alone or with a small group of friends. This was not a party band, this was a band that made music you actively listened too - in other words, you didn't clean the house to Floyd - and the compositions and production unlocked your mind.

Sure, I recognized David Gilmour's talent, but as a young guitar player, I was more into guys who shredded like Eddie Van Halen. I wasn't as much into the subtleties of a Gilmour solo until a bit later.

When I finally recognized what he was doing it was like a ton of bricks hit me in the head. How could I have been so blind to how emotional his solos were? Gilmour played exactly the right amount of notes every time, and more importantly, he played the perfect notes with the perfect phrasing. He is one of the greatest guitarists ever to me and someone who I believe is overlooked more often than he should be.

His performances with Pink Floyd last Saturday solidified in my mind just how amazingly soulful this man is as a musician. While Waters' still holds a special place in my heart for what he created, his voice has thinned a bit with aging, and even though I wouldn't have said this 20 years ago, he really needed David Gilmour the other night. Gilmour's voice was strong, but it was his playing that blew me away. He never missed a note. I can only imagine how it would have felt to have been front and center.

As someone who saw two of the four recent Cream reunion shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London, I could appreciate as I watched on my computer what it must have felt like for all those lucky people in Hyde Park experiencing Pink Floyd live, and hearing what was coming out of David Gilmour's guitar.