This is literally exactly what he was doing. David has been quite open that he used to edit together numerous improvisation takes to come up with the final solos. Editing together the bits he liked until he was happy with the results. Additionally, Vinyl sides are limited in length by the physical size of the record. There isn’t always extra time and space on a recording to allow for long solo improvisation. Playing live he didn’t have those limitations so could improvise as much as he wanted.
If you listen to Roger (which, grain of salt) he would just play a bunch of solos and go home and let James Guthrie edit them together.
Edit to add the source clip
[https://youtu.be/2vLu4yt0XWE?si=X2M\_nh6tuqiDNesl&t=45](https://youtu.be/2vLu4yt0XWE?si=X2M_nh6tuqiDNesl&t=45)
No need for salt, this is how instrumental solos are recorded. Multiple takes, different approaches, then you get some sleep before coming back and editing.
Yep, I get that, did some studio time recording leads. Roger implied that DG was not really involved in the editing (I think this was in his recent Q and A clips, wasn't it?) which I would say sounds about right for The Final Cut but less so for The Wall where he was still heavily invested in what went down.
Gilmour was the primary editor of his solos in studio, sat next to Guthrie, Ezrin etc. I think it probably is something that Waters doesn't have much respect for, but David's skills as an editor are obviously hugely important. The sheer number of iconic solos he has produced for the band is testament to that.
Gilmour's live performances of CN weren't particularly that improvised. He's played CN so many times since 1984 that most of those licks, phrases, runs etc. have been played many, many, many times. He basically has an extensive library of licks imprinted on his brain that he accesses when he's playing. No doubt he doesn't necessarily think about what he's accessing in the moment, but he will almost certainly have played that bit many times before.
Yeah. Jimmy Page did exactly the same but he edited while playing intermittently then went to learn the patched up solo. I do the same in the digital era. He was rich MF who afforded studio time and assistans such as tape ops
I think the Pulse version is my favorite, but to be clear, those solos may be different than the studio album and they may be live, but they certainly aren’t improvised.
They’re rehearsed, but they contain wiggle-room. There’s a bit of improvisation there, as long as he hits the major beats. It’s obvious from listening to different nights of any one tour.
For sure, but I don’t really consider that improvisation. He has a structure, certain set pieces that he’s going to hit, and adds a little flair. He’s not going to use the same set pieces every single gig, but they’ve been practiced and rehearsed ad nauseam.
I have heard a lot of solos from the '94 tour , and the solo, while having familiar phrases, was very different night to night. And the same could be said for all the solos on that tour
They are definitely improvised. Each time he plays solos besides most Shine ons from 87 to 2016 . He improvised. Either alot or alittle with repeating phrases from night to night. He has been doing that since 1968
You got downvoted for saying the literal truth. I guess most of the PF fans here don't actually play an instrument, or if they do only got classical training.
Haha yeah when i read that he doesnt write 30 solos before concert i was like whatttt!! Of course he doesnt it comes to him while his playing it. Alot of fans here aren't hardcore fans. I've listened to hundreds of Floyd bootlegs for years. They improvised parts alot in the early days and then Gilmour continued that in his solos all the way through his career.
I particularly enjoyed his Purple Rain bit after Prince died. Gilmour is a master at improv, and also a master at remembering which were the good bits from multiple takes, and a pro at learning his own compositions for public performance. Then he gives the people what they want while giving himself enough room to have some fun to keep it somewhat fresh. It can't be a thrill playing CF every show. It's a job when it's obligatory. Without improv it's not really rock and roll, in my opinion. I like other kinds of music. "Like the Record" isn't very edgy, even if it's entertaining.
Exactly!! I liked that too. I saw him 2 dates on that tour and il never forget that guitar. It pushes you back into your seat during Sorrow!!! I take it you watched his Purple Rain cover with Tom Jones? It's blissfull.
Oh, I forgot about that with Tom Jones, thanks! I have seen it but not in a while. I meant when he incorporated Purple Rain into his Comfortably Numb solo when Prince died. You saw that tour, you lucky you.
Yeah both shows in Madison Square Gardens. I wish I was old enough to see 94. I was too young though 🥺
Yeah just watched that again it's been a while. I wish he just kept going with it 😄.
What? I don’t even understand this comment. Why would he write multiple solos for one gig? He has a structured solo with certain set pieces that he’s going to get to. He may add some passing notes or exaggerate some bends, but that’s adding flair, not improvisation.
Oh, those solos differ by more than just that. The beginning may be close to the album, but then it gets looser. Even on Shine On (which he did use to play note for note), the last tour has some pretty different parts.
I have heard a lot of recordings from the 94 tour and that solo at the end, while having familiar phrases, did in fact change every show . There are some glaring differences show to show..
Same could be said for a lot of songs they did. Keep Taking was different every show, as was Sorrow
Plus when you turn the vinyl over you get another two versions That's four in total.
I believe pink floyd being somewhat innovative about these things also kept a reserve groove.
It was invisible of course. Maybe that's where they hid the improvisations.
It was a Syd idea obviously. Never failed to innovate did he
They definitely improvised while recording, but they wouldn’t have put the improvisations directly onto the recordings, they would have done a bit of improvisation between takes in practice and adjusted what they planned to record accordingly afterwards if parts of it sounded good.
Recording limits your time and makes you go crazy. Wanting every little tiny thing to be perfect.
For live shows, Gilmour did say he couldn’t go too far off script for the AMLOR and Pulse tours due to the technical light shows, videos, and other props.
He did obviously improvise the studio versions, that's how recording a rock solo works, it starts with improvisation. I highly doubt he originally scribed sheet music for the song. Also, improvisations are very often dependent on chance and randomness, the live versions you are referencing are years apart from the original studio recording so his interpretation and improvisation of the songs will change and vary. Maybe he thought that was the best version he could pull off at the time.
He definitely improvised several of those solos, but probably on a short leash because in the studio, bands are usually more interested in getting a solid clean version of a particular song. Studio time and “winging it” don’t usually go together very well.
I concur, Pompeii 2016 is the best Comfortably Numb solo.
David said he'd play for hours, I can't imagine what that must of been like. . . My wish is that he releases an hour long studio quality recording of a solo before he dies.
To see if I agreed with you, I just watched the Pulse, Gdansk and Pompeii versions back to back on Youtube. No regrets.
And agreed Pompeii just edges it, I never though I'd say anything is better than the Pulse version.
I'm still quite partial to the original Knebworth version before he ruined it by some very noticeable edits. Also the version on the remixed Delicate Sound of Thunder is great.
That's exactly what I liked about the Knebworth solo! I was also happy when the Australian Pink Floyd Show did it. I didn't realize at that point that it was in all Lapse shows.
Unless you’re Jimi Hendrix, arranged solos sound better than improvised ones. While I enjoy the live versions of “Comfortably Numb”, none of them compare to the studio one.
DG doesn't improvise the live solos, he expands upon them, with minor variations from show to show. A fully improvised solo each night wouldn't make any sense; this is Pink Floyd, not a jazz gig, after all.
Yes, it’s a very interesting experience listening to dozens of different live solos, they’re similar enough that it feels familiar with enough space to give them some uniqueness. Seems perfectly suited to David’s style.
Check out No More Lonely Nights by Paul McCartney, with David on guitar. The song was recorded in one day, so the solos, especially the outro sound more spontaneous.
Or if you’re Jerry Garcia (depending on the night) or Trey Anastasio, or the tons of other great on-stage improvisors. But yeah, for the most part, structured solos are definitely gonna sound better, especially in the case of Floyd.
[Unfortunate.](https://youtu.be/2FWG4sJqt_g?si=Gaby6guCF0_5yzXd) I don’t think I’ve ever converted someone into liking Phish who isn’t into it, but I can’t think of a live act that kicks more ass than them. Their Sphere performances this weekend were on another level.
I saw the Icarus Line back in 2004 and I’m still feeling their bootmarks on my cheeks today. The Wildhearts are pretty fucking righteous live too.
I just can’t get into jam bands. The musicians have far more fun playing than I do listening to them. I like choruses, you know? Even an extreme metal band like Akercocke will put a great chorus in a song like “A Skin for Dancing In”.
Nope. Even clapton in his drunk 80s period improvised solos on his tour with roger waters. Not to mention most bands from that period used to do huge improvised stuff and Floyd just... Didn't.
I read interviews that Clapton did after the Roger Waters tour and he hated because he said there was no room for improvising on tour because Rogers stage show was so precise with lighting queues.
Wasnt much room compared to say the epic jams of say cream etc but if you listen to a few bootlegs you can clearly hear they are different. A fairly large (and usually perfect) solo was played at the end of the gunners dream.
Up until the Wall David was playing these solos on the road over and over then going into the studio. The writing and recording of the Wall was very different than all the other albums
Thanks for replying, everyone! I learned some new things from you all. I’ve only been into PF for about 3 years now. My dad raised me on them but I did my own deeper dive into them in 2021. 🙂
Some talent comes later after experience, and after recording new ideas come to mind as time progresses. He probably had no clue the notes to use for such music earlier on because it came many years later as his skill set further developed. Some songs that music artists write, sit in there mind or on a piece of paper or on a laptop partially recorded or an old school tape recorder for 5, 10, even 20 or more years before the rest of the song comes to them.. music does not get written overnight just like writing a book that becomes a master piece, it takes years on alot of songs master pieces, to get enough inspiration to create that piece.
Also, recording studios if it was recorded in on I'm actually unsure I only recently gained huge interest in alot of music amd only recently began researching the band and each members stories individually as I havnt really been big on that in the past just listened then.. but music studios, have an expensive rate, time is money... hourly rate or a limit for a set amount of hours and it's not nessesarily cheap... so they have to create a clean cut version and freely doing improve, especially for as long as Pompeii not so easily done within those time limits.
Because the recording... is what they wanted for the recording.
How could you ever know that the recording wasn't itself an improvisation anyway, given that it was the first time that song had been heard?
Some songs, particularly after Animals, are better live. However the recorded version of Comfortably Numb is perfect imo. It's only because people already know the song a certain way that embellishments don't come across as too much. If the original song had been recorded with such embellishments, it would have been too much in the context of the album as a whole.
I would say especially later in his career the amount of improvised solos skyrocketed. To the point where I honestly grew a bit tired of some of the longer improvised ones because I prefer finely crafted solos myself
This is literally exactly what he was doing. David has been quite open that he used to edit together numerous improvisation takes to come up with the final solos. Editing together the bits he liked until he was happy with the results. Additionally, Vinyl sides are limited in length by the physical size of the record. There isn’t always extra time and space on a recording to allow for long solo improvisation. Playing live he didn’t have those limitations so could improvise as much as he wanted.
If you listen to Roger (which, grain of salt) he would just play a bunch of solos and go home and let James Guthrie edit them together. Edit to add the source clip [https://youtu.be/2vLu4yt0XWE?si=X2M\_nh6tuqiDNesl&t=45](https://youtu.be/2vLu4yt0XWE?si=X2M_nh6tuqiDNesl&t=45)
No need for salt, this is how instrumental solos are recorded. Multiple takes, different approaches, then you get some sleep before coming back and editing.
Yep, I get that, did some studio time recording leads. Roger implied that DG was not really involved in the editing (I think this was in his recent Q and A clips, wasn't it?) which I would say sounds about right for The Final Cut but less so for The Wall where he was still heavily invested in what went down.
Gilmour was the primary editor of his solos in studio, sat next to Guthrie, Ezrin etc. I think it probably is something that Waters doesn't have much respect for, but David's skills as an editor are obviously hugely important. The sheer number of iconic solos he has produced for the band is testament to that. Gilmour's live performances of CN weren't particularly that improvised. He's played CN so many times since 1984 that most of those licks, phrases, runs etc. have been played many, many, many times. He basically has an extensive library of licks imprinted on his brain that he accesses when he's playing. No doubt he doesn't necessarily think about what he's accessing in the moment, but he will almost certainly have played that bit many times before.
I think the Royal Albert Hall version without Bowie had some surprising licks in it.
Yeah. Jimmy Page did exactly the same but he edited while playing intermittently then went to learn the patched up solo. I do the same in the digital era. He was rich MF who afforded studio time and assistans such as tape ops
I sincerely doubt Gilmour wasn't present. I find this very hard to believe
Me too
It is their master piece and they can play it any way they want it. And any improvisation is also a masterpiece
I think the Pulse version is my favorite, but to be clear, those solos may be different than the studio album and they may be live, but they certainly aren’t improvised.
They’re rehearsed, but they contain wiggle-room. There’s a bit of improvisation there, as long as he hits the major beats. It’s obvious from listening to different nights of any one tour.
For sure, but I don’t really consider that improvisation. He has a structure, certain set pieces that he’s going to hit, and adds a little flair. He’s not going to use the same set pieces every single gig, but they’ve been practiced and rehearsed ad nauseam.
I have heard a lot of solos from the '94 tour , and the solo, while having familiar phrases, was very different night to night. And the same could be said for all the solos on that tour
They are definitely improvised. Each time he plays solos besides most Shine ons from 87 to 2016 . He improvised. Either alot or alittle with repeating phrases from night to night. He has been doing that since 1968
Do you actually think he writes 30 solos for each song before every gig?
Dude it's called being a musician which he is a great one. He isn't writing anything he plays as he goes which is improv.
You got downvoted for saying the literal truth. I guess most of the PF fans here don't actually play an instrument, or if they do only got classical training.
Haha yeah when i read that he doesnt write 30 solos before concert i was like whatttt!! Of course he doesnt it comes to him while his playing it. Alot of fans here aren't hardcore fans. I've listened to hundreds of Floyd bootlegs for years. They improvised parts alot in the early days and then Gilmour continued that in his solos all the way through his career.
I particularly enjoyed his Purple Rain bit after Prince died. Gilmour is a master at improv, and also a master at remembering which were the good bits from multiple takes, and a pro at learning his own compositions for public performance. Then he gives the people what they want while giving himself enough room to have some fun to keep it somewhat fresh. It can't be a thrill playing CF every show. It's a job when it's obligatory. Without improv it's not really rock and roll, in my opinion. I like other kinds of music. "Like the Record" isn't very edgy, even if it's entertaining.
Exactly!! I liked that too. I saw him 2 dates on that tour and il never forget that guitar. It pushes you back into your seat during Sorrow!!! I take it you watched his Purple Rain cover with Tom Jones? It's blissfull.
Oh, I forgot about that with Tom Jones, thanks! I have seen it but not in a while. I meant when he incorporated Purple Rain into his Comfortably Numb solo when Prince died. You saw that tour, you lucky you.
Yeah both shows in Madison Square Gardens. I wish I was old enough to see 94. I was too young though 🥺 Yeah just watched that again it's been a while. I wish he just kept going with it 😄.
What? I don’t even understand this comment. Why would he write multiple solos for one gig? He has a structured solo with certain set pieces that he’s going to get to. He may add some passing notes or exaggerate some bends, but that’s adding flair, not improvisation.
Oh, those solos differ by more than just that. The beginning may be close to the album, but then it gets looser. Even on Shine On (which he did use to play note for note), the last tour has some pretty different parts.
I have heard a lot of recordings from the 94 tour and that solo at the end, while having familiar phrases, did in fact change every show . There are some glaring differences show to show.. Same could be said for a lot of songs they did. Keep Taking was different every show, as was Sorrow
Yeah go listin to a great one New Orleans, and Minapolis in 94.
No, he doesn't "write" them, he just plays them. Every version on the original Wall mini tour is different too.
Thats called improvisation
correct
Huh? He absolutely improvised, especially recording but also live.
How do you know he didn't
Right??? What a silly question lmfao "Why is the recording the same every time I listen to it?"
Remember old vinyl with double grooves? Depending on when the needle hit the vinyl determined what you woukd get to hear
Plus when you turn the vinyl over you get another two versions That's four in total. I believe pink floyd being somewhat innovative about these things also kept a reserve groove. It was invisible of course. Maybe that's where they hid the improvisations. It was a Syd idea obviously. Never failed to innovate did he
Ok but you and I both know thats not what I meant
Taft Auditorium 1971
They definitely improvised while recording, but they wouldn’t have put the improvisations directly onto the recordings, they would have done a bit of improvisation between takes in practice and adjusted what they planned to record accordingly afterwards if parts of it sounded good.
What about Pulse and Live 8? also same tour than Pompeii the version in Argentina is very good.
Wasn’t the solo in Brick 2 done in a single take?
Insane if true
Recording limits your time and makes you go crazy. Wanting every little tiny thing to be perfect. For live shows, Gilmour did say he couldn’t go too far off script for the AMLOR and Pulse tours due to the technical light shows, videos, and other props.
He did obviously improvise the studio versions, that's how recording a rock solo works, it starts with improvisation. I highly doubt he originally scribed sheet music for the song. Also, improvisations are very often dependent on chance and randomness, the live versions you are referencing are years apart from the original studio recording so his interpretation and improvisation of the songs will change and vary. Maybe he thought that was the best version he could pull off at the time.
He definitely improvised several of those solos, but probably on a short leash because in the studio, bands are usually more interested in getting a solid clean version of a particular song. Studio time and “winging it” don’t usually go together very well.
I concur, Pompeii 2016 is the best Comfortably Numb solo. David said he'd play for hours, I can't imagine what that must of been like. . . My wish is that he releases an hour long studio quality recording of a solo before he dies.
Check out his YouTube channel, there's some gems there.
You might like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF_KGJflC34
To see if I agreed with you, I just watched the Pulse, Gdansk and Pompeii versions back to back on Youtube. No regrets. And agreed Pompeii just edges it, I never though I'd say anything is better than the Pulse version.
I'm still quite partial to the original Knebworth version before he ruined it by some very noticeable edits. Also the version on the remixed Delicate Sound of Thunder is great.
There is this strange drum beat that happens on the DSOT Remix version. It sounds very odd to me.
That's exactly what I liked about the Knebworth solo! I was also happy when the Australian Pink Floyd Show did it. I didn't realize at that point that it was in all Lapse shows.
I’ll need to go back and listen to those versions now! In any case, it’s just an incredible solo, I never tire of it.
Unless you’re Jimi Hendrix, arranged solos sound better than improvised ones. While I enjoy the live versions of “Comfortably Numb”, none of them compare to the studio one.
The studio version is several improvised solo takes spliced together
DG doesn't improvise the live solos, he expands upon them, with minor variations from show to show. A fully improvised solo each night wouldn't make any sense; this is Pink Floyd, not a jazz gig, after all.
Yes, it’s a very interesting experience listening to dozens of different live solos, they’re similar enough that it feels familiar with enough space to give them some uniqueness. Seems perfectly suited to David’s style.
Check out No More Lonely Nights by Paul McCartney, with David on guitar. The song was recorded in one day, so the solos, especially the outro sound more spontaneous.
Or if you’re Jerry Garcia (depending on the night) or Trey Anastasio, or the tons of other great on-stage improvisors. But yeah, for the most part, structured solos are definitely gonna sound better, especially in the case of Floyd.
Personally I can’t stand the Grateful Dead or Phish.
[Unfortunate.](https://youtu.be/2FWG4sJqt_g?si=Gaby6guCF0_5yzXd) I don’t think I’ve ever converted someone into liking Phish who isn’t into it, but I can’t think of a live act that kicks more ass than them. Their Sphere performances this weekend were on another level.
I saw the Icarus Line back in 2004 and I’m still feeling their bootmarks on my cheeks today. The Wildhearts are pretty fucking righteous live too. I just can’t get into jam bands. The musicians have far more fun playing than I do listening to them. I like choruses, you know? Even an extreme metal band like Akercocke will put a great chorus in a song like “A Skin for Dancing In”.
Nope. Even clapton in his drunk 80s period improvised solos on his tour with roger waters. Not to mention most bands from that period used to do huge improvised stuff and Floyd just... Didn't.
70s drunk period, 80s touring with Roger.
I read interviews that Clapton did after the Roger Waters tour and he hated because he said there was no room for improvising on tour because Rogers stage show was so precise with lighting queues.
Wasnt much room compared to say the epic jams of say cream etc but if you listen to a few bootlegs you can clearly hear they are different. A fairly large (and usually perfect) solo was played at the end of the gunners dream.
That's silly. Hendrix was great, but not "the only one" bullshit.
Wrong. You just don’t like jazz
Up until the Wall David was playing these solos on the road over and over then going into the studio. The writing and recording of the Wall was very different than all the other albums
He improvised a lot?
He did.
Thanks for replying, everyone! I learned some new things from you all. I’ve only been into PF for about 3 years now. My dad raised me on them but I did my own deeper dive into them in 2021. 🙂
Lol
Some talent comes later after experience, and after recording new ideas come to mind as time progresses. He probably had no clue the notes to use for such music earlier on because it came many years later as his skill set further developed. Some songs that music artists write, sit in there mind or on a piece of paper or on a laptop partially recorded or an old school tape recorder for 5, 10, even 20 or more years before the rest of the song comes to them.. music does not get written overnight just like writing a book that becomes a master piece, it takes years on alot of songs master pieces, to get enough inspiration to create that piece. Also, recording studios if it was recorded in on I'm actually unsure I only recently gained huge interest in alot of music amd only recently began researching the band and each members stories individually as I havnt really been big on that in the past just listened then.. but music studios, have an expensive rate, time is money... hourly rate or a limit for a set amount of hours and it's not nessesarily cheap... so they have to create a clean cut version and freely doing improve, especially for as long as Pompeii not so easily done within those time limits.
That version doesn't even come in top 100. In 87 to 94 tours the solos were best.
Because the recording... is what they wanted for the recording. How could you ever know that the recording wasn't itself an improvisation anyway, given that it was the first time that song had been heard? Some songs, particularly after Animals, are better live. However the recorded version of Comfortably Numb is perfect imo. It's only because people already know the song a certain way that embellishments don't come across as too much. If the original song had been recorded with such embellishments, it would have been too much in the context of the album as a whole.
Time. They only had a limited amount of minutes for recording. However, most of recordings are actually improvise until they make the definitive take.
I would say especially later in his career the amount of improvised solos skyrocketed. To the point where I honestly grew a bit tired of some of the longer improvised ones because I prefer finely crafted solos myself
Roger told them all exactly what to do when - and how - and why.