Please humour me while I go on about a band that nobody who reads this blog probably gives a toss about...
I think I must have had my head stuck up my arse for the past few days because the death of Rick Wright completely passed me by, only hearing about it today on the weekly music news segment on Ken Bruce's show.
I'm not normally one of those people who makes a song and dance over a musician's death - I'm not going to indulge in a Classic Rock mag-style 'he's joined the great band in the sky with Hendrix etc' post - but this one drew me up short as it was completely unexpected. Pink Floyd have for a long time been one of 'my bands', and to have them lose a member so suddenly made me feel especially sad today. I don't know why that should be, I don't recall the death of, say, Kurt Cobain to fill me with shock - probably because his death wasn't exactly unexpected.
Anyway, as a member of Floyd, Wright was completely understated, always letting the others shine while he remained in the background. Even on his most famous composition, the awfully-named Great Gig in the Sky, while all the plaudits go to Claire Torry's orgasmic wailing, Wright's always there with his understated piano and rumbling, but never obtrusive Hammond organ. He is completely responsible for the Hammond organ being my second favourite musical instrument.
From what I saw of him in documentaries and read about him, he was one of the good guys. There have only ever been five members of Pink Floyd, there are now only three left.
I think I must have had my head stuck up my arse for the past few days because the death of Rick Wright completely passed me by, only hearing about it today on the weekly music news segment on Ken Bruce's show.
I'm not normally one of those people who makes a song and dance over a musician's death - I'm not going to indulge in a Classic Rock mag-style 'he's joined the great band in the sky with Hendrix etc' post - but this one drew me up short as it was completely unexpected. Pink Floyd have for a long time been one of 'my bands', and to have them lose a member so suddenly made me feel especially sad today. I don't know why that should be, I don't recall the death of, say, Kurt Cobain to fill me with shock - probably because his death wasn't exactly unexpected.
Anyway, as a member of Floyd, Wright was completely understated, always letting the others shine while he remained in the background. Even on his most famous composition, the awfully-named Great Gig in the Sky, while all the plaudits go to Claire Torry's orgasmic wailing, Wright's always there with his understated piano and rumbling, but never obtrusive Hammond organ. He is completely responsible for the Hammond organ being my second favourite musical instrument.
From what I saw of him in documentaries and read about him, he was one of the good guys. There have only ever been five members of Pink Floyd, there are now only three left.
2 comments:
I was taken aback, as I was when Barratt died. I'm a late convert to PF, as they represented all that was bad in music when I was younger.
I personally think Water's (post Barratt) Floyd are by far the stronger, and that they wouldn't have been as strong if Syd had remained. Feeding off his loss as they seemed to for so many years. Gilmour's (post Waters) Floyd lacked any real bite.
I'm a big fan of some of Syd's solo stuff is heartbreaking. Some of it is unlistenable.
I got the same impression as you of Rick from the docs and from Nick Mason's book. He did seem to be the most likeable of the bunch.
I wonder whether this'll kick off more "will they or won't they" in the music press, or whether it will bury if for good?
Yeah, Floyd post 85 should have been called Dave Gilmour's Pink Floyd Tribute Show. I'm not keen on either of those albums, especially AMLOR, as Waters put it at the time: "It's a pretty fair forgery".
I can't see them getting back together now, mind you, I couldn't before. Where Waters has mellowed over time, Gilmour seems to be getting mardier and mardier. They could never work together over a sustained period of time again. As Stuart Maconie recently said, 'they're the ultimate punk band because of their refusal to reform' unlike the Sex Pistols etc.
And Gilmour did nothing to ease the situation by referring to Waters as 'a passenger on the Pink Floyd bus' when they were inducted into the UK Rock Hall of Fame (whatever happened to that shite idea? It was probably the induction Robbie Williams that killed it).
I love Mason's sense of humour as well, I found Inside Out extremely light-hearted with, yes, jokes! I loved that bit on the most recent BBC documentary where he says 'Things got so bad with Syd that one of us nearly said something'. British reserve at its best.
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