Pink Floyd: Roger Waters Describes His Conflict With David Gilmour Over ‘Comfortably Numb’
Even before they became a legendary classic rock band, Pink Floyd had some famous fans. Paul McCartney predicted the band’s success as Floyd cut their debut album next door to The Beatles. Bassist Roger Waters and guitarist David Gilmour had a conflict while making The Wall song “Comfortably Numb,” but they actually arrived at an amicable compromise. That happened just before the egos within Pink Floyd eventually led to the band’s ugly split, just like The Beatles.
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and David Gilmour fought over the ‘Comfortably Numb’ rhythm track
McCartney wasn’t the only well-known Floyd fan. Jimmy Page praised original guitarist Syd Barrett and his no-holds-barred approach to music. Unfortunately for Barrett, he experienced a nervous breakdown and Gilmour replaced him before the band hit it big.
Fast forward more than a decade, and Pink Floyd was one of the most well-known bands in the world as they made The Wall. The 1979 double album produced several of the band’s most well-known songs, including “Comfortably Numb.”
Tensions were high within the band despite a run of success through the 1970s. The friction led to a bitter dispute and ugly split between Waters and the rest of the band in the 1980s. Despite frequently fighting while making the record, Waters and Gilmour overcame one conflict with a level-headed compromise (per Waters via YouTube):
“It’s probably one story where his memory and my memory would be almost exactly the same. We had made a rhythm track — so that would be the drums, bass, guitar, or whatever — and I loved it. He thought it wasn’t precise enough rhythmically and recut the drum track and something else and said, ‘There, that’s better.’ And I listened to it and went, ‘No, it’s not. I hate that.’ So that’s all the disagreement was.
“And in the end, the track that is on the record, the first verse is from the version I liked, and the second verse is from the version he liked, then a bit of chorus from mine and a bit from his, so it was a negotiation and a compromise.”
pink floyd’s roger waters
That kind of resolution rarely happened during that era of Pink Floyd’s career. Waters fired keyboard player Rick Wright while making The Wall. The bassist replaced drummer Nick Mason on the song “Mother.” Mason didn’t join in the mixing process as he worked on his solo album.
Despite the tension between Waters and Gilmour (and the rest of the band), Pink Floyd created an ambitious hit record with several memorable songs and one of their best album covers.
How did ‘Comfortably Numb’ and ‘The Wall’ perform on the charts?
“Comfortably Numb” makes the shortlist as one of Pink Floyd’s signature songs, but it never reached the singles chart in England or the United States. The misunderstood “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” from The Wall was the band’s only No. 1 hit in either country. It spent five weeks at No. 1 in the U.S. (per Billboard). It also topped the charts in England for five weeks (according to the Official Charts Company).
The Wall, however, became another hit album for Pink Floyd. It spent 68 weeks on the charts in the band’s home country, including 27 straight between December 1979 and June 1980. It was an even bigger hit in the U.S. The Wall held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart for 15 weeks and lasted more than three years among the top 200 albums.
The RIAA certified the double album, released in late 1979, platinum in mid-March 1980. The Wall has sold at least 23 million copies.
While making The Wall, the intraband strain included a conflict between Rogers Waters and David Gilmour. Neither musician could agree on the best backing track for “Comfortably Numb,” so they used snippets of each. That compromise was one of the last ones Pink Floyd made before the band’s ugly split in the 1980s.
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