Show Some Love For David Gilmour!!

Cafe Society
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I originally posted this to my LJ, but I think I’d like to put it here as well. It’s unedited from the original, so please forgive my conversational tone, as well as the numerous errors that probably plague it.

Also, if you’re not a Dave fan, you’re more than welcome to post, but please don’t post just to tell me how much he sucks. Thanks.

Saturday was officially the best day I’ve had in a long time. All the way 'round, a 100% perfect day. I got up fairly early, dropped the kids at my mom’s, and went to my dad’s for a day of relaxation and bonding. Most (all?) of you know that my dad is my favorite person in the world, so the prospect of spending an entire day just for the two of us was a welcome one. I was NOT disappointed. For a good eight hours, Dad and I watched concert footage and discussed music. I wish we had more days to do things like this, as I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun. Yeah, yeah, I know; to everyone else that’s the very definition of boring. It seems everyone always wants to be “doing” something. Not me! I’d much prefer analyzing the similarities and differences between Dad and his doppleganger, one David Gilmour.

Let me start by saying that the quality of the DVD was incredible. “Remember That Night,” Dave’s latest solo concert, is not only a pleasure to the ears, but the quality of the footage is superb in terms of both picture and extras. The angles are crisp and clear, and the lasers - a standard at any of Dave’s gigs - have an eerie unreality about them. They really do look solid. Hi-Def makes all the difference. The behind the scenes footage consists of rehearsals, interviews, and various tidbits to make any fan grin. My favorite bit in particular is when Dave is sightseeing while the stage is being set up. He comes upon a street musician, a man playing wine glasses to the tune of Für Elise. Dave asks the man if he’d like to join him on stage, to play for him at his concert. The man agrees, and opens the set by using the wine glasses to play the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond. It was breathtaking.

Anyway, I’m not really here to make a sales pitch for Dave, or even to blather on about my dad (though I’d like to; could write whole books about him!) The main reason I am posting now is to remark upon a realization that I came to while watching the concert. I finally - after spending my whole life wondering - figured out why Dave’s guitar playing grasps me by the heartstrings. I’ve always said that you can hear him pour his soul out through his instrument, and that’s certainly a part of it. But a handful of others do the same thing; the first that comes to mind is Carlos Santana, and he has no emotional effect on me at all. So what is it that sets Dave apart? It can’t just be that I’ve spent my whole life listening to him, can it? I mean, I also grew up hearing Zep and Sabbath and Deep Purple, and while I love and appreciate them all, it’s not the same. Lyrics? Is that it? Beautiful words that draw me in? No, there are many fantastic lyricists, some even better than Dave.

The one deciding factor is the persuasion that is lacking. All the others that I named - in fact, every musician I can think of - plays what they want you to feel. Dave doesn’t even try; instead, he plays what he feels. It sounds simple, really, and it is. So simple that I missed it for the first 27 years of my life. I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. He blinded me with science! (Okay, not so much that last, but it fits with the point I am trying to make.) Dave doesn’t give a shit what you feel, because he doesn’t play for you. He plays because he loves to play, and because music flows through him, and so he plays to describe himself. Perhaps that’s why, were you to ask twenty different fans of his music what his songs mean to them, you’ll end up with no two answers the same. Even between Dad and me, who are so very much alike, we feel differently about each song. Even the tunes that have a clear explanation, ones that Dave has told us the meanings, we still feel differently when we hear them.

I know this post probably means nothing to you guys. I didn’t figure it would. But for me, it was an epiphany, and I feel I am a better person for it. Music is my life, and this music more than any other. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to watch some more concerts.

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What, no replies yet? Well, I’m with you! I think Dave’s reputation suffers a bit because Floyd is so “out there” for a lot of people. Their music isn’t really suited for the casual listener.

Matter of fact, I’m about to slide DVD 1 of Live In Gdansk right now. I’ll report back later.

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Just want to pop in and say that Pink Floyd is my favorite band of all time, and I love David Gilmour. However, I am not that familiar with his solo stuff.

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Short and Sweet off his first solo album is absolutely one of the best songs ever.

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The contrast between Dave’s dignity, and Roger Waters’s trying-too-hard-ness at Live 8 was astonishing. He is just superbly talented, and a magnificent musician. Roger’s songwriting may be better, but Dave is The Man.

Don’t really know his solo stuff either, but his work in Pink Floyd is the height of genius.

How’s that?

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No worries, guys (and girls), you don’t have to know the solo albums to contribute. Though I do think you’re missing out!

I have more to say, but I’ll pump some caffeine into me first. Thanks for the replies; it’s good to know that others love him the way that I do! warm and fuzzy smile

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Seems I read or heard Gilmour saying the gig he had prior to sitting in for Syd was in a three piece doing Hendrix covers.
He has always connected with me in the same way as Jimi, through the heart, which might be the blues but seems more an aspect of character. There’s no lack of blues influenced players but few have such a unique voice I can ID them by hearing one or two notes.

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I’ve been a pretty hard core Pink Floyd fan for 30 years now. As time goes by I’ve come to realize that to a great extent I’m a really a David Gilmour (and Richard Wright – RIP) fan.

What has endured for me to enjoy about Floyd is the unique and innovative musicianship (which I attribute more to Gilmour and Wright) than the overwrought and overblown lyrics (primarily Waters) – especially post-DSOTM.

Like most of the rest of the guitar players I really respect, Gilmour has his own style – he sounds like nobody else and nobody else sounds like him.

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You know what song has a crazy-good and out-of-left-field David Gilmour guitar solo (actually, two of them)?

“No More Lonely Nights” by Paul McCartney.

I heard that song for the first time in a good 20 years a few months ago. I asked myself “did David Gilmour guest on that album?” Seriously – the solos are that good and reminiscent of Gilmour’s playing.

Well, heck – it turned out that it was David Gilmour :cool:

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I’ve always liked Gilmour and like the Gilmour-fronted/post-Waters Pink Floyd (though I like the Waters stuff as well). Strangely though, the couple solo albums from him I listened to failed to impress me. One seemed heavy-handed and preachy (About Face) and his first self-titled one I couldn’t even make it through. I’m really a lyrics guy when it comes to music though so, as much as I enjoy his playing, I’m guessing that’s the difference. Did Gilmour write his own lyrics for his solo stuff and did he write lyrics for, say, “Momentry Lapse of Reason”? Because the two sound nothing alike to me. Obviously you try new and different stuff solo but I was surprised at how differently I felt about his Pink Floyd stuff vs solo.

Just to prove my lyrics thing, I enjoyed the Waters solo stuff despite them being some of the crappiest albums, musically speaking, I’ve ever owned.

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Have any hardcore Gilmour fans here heard The Final Cut or The End Complete(V?) by Coheed and Cambria (yes, i’m referring to the Co&Ca song called The Final Cut…even the name is an obvious callout)

While they certainly don’t rank amongst my favorite guitar work ever, they remind me of Gilmour’s Wall-and-later work more than any other stuff I’ve heard.

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Pink Floyd is also my favorite band. I’ve been listening since the late 60s and never get tired of them. Saw ‘em twice, and I consider them the best concerts of my life. They aren’t everyone’s cup o’ tea, but the label “out there” really doesn’t fit, except for some of the earlier “Syd Years” stuff. I think “sophisticated” when I think of them.

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I love him. His guitar playing is so distinctive that I’ve immediately identified his playing in session work on other bands a few times just from his flair and technique.

Particular albums I recall spotting, that you wouldn’t expect the Davemeister to be playing in the background, are:

Berlin, Count 3 and Pray
Warren Zevon, Transverse City

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If nothing else, he has my eternal gratitude for discovering, recording and promoting Kate Bush.

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Have any of you heard any of Dave’s stuff with Joker’s Wild? They predate Floyd by a couple of years. There’s nothing - and I mean nothing - funnier than hearing the sophisticated Mister Gilmour playing in a teenybopper boy band! I don’t think there is any way to get a legit copy of it (at least that I or my dad have ever heard tell of). Dad has a bootleg copy of nearly everything you could imagine Floyd related, as well as “real” copies of anything available; he made me a copy awhile back.

Thanks for the heads-up on the tangentially Dave-related stuff! I’m also partial to Dream Acadamy, which he was involved with.

Right now I’m off to see if I can get my hands on a copy of Live in Gdansk. crosses fingers and says a prayer to the guitar gods

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I’m a major fan of the man as well as the musician.

Several years ago Gilmour sold his house in Maida Vale (London) for about £4 million and gave the cash to a Crisis, an organisation that exists to help the homeless. He’s donated money to several other charities also.

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He got the title for The Division Bell this way. He couldn’t think of a title, and asked Douglas Adams for a suggestion. Adams agreed, provided Gilmour made a donation to Adams’ rhino fund, Gilmour cut the check, and Adams gave him the title.

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I am a huge Dave Gilmour fan - On An Island is great, and I love all later (post The Final Cut) Pink Floyd albums (as well as the earlier stuff).

His stuff is idiosyncratic - he plays what he wants to, and it works for me.

And he has a social conscience - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason has songs that really hit you if you listen to the lyrics Dogs Of War, On The Turning Away, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason.

I am hanging out for Later… with Jools Holland on Friday night (BBC2). Dave Gilmour performs Remember A Day - a Richard Wright penned early Floyd number. Wright was due to perform with him, but sent a text three weeks ago saying that he could not make it. The rest we know. :frowning:

Si

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Total love for David Gilmour here. Both of his early solo albums are among my all-time favorites (the new one didn’t thrill me, he sounds too old) and my favorite Pink Floyd songs include “Comfortably Numb”, “Run Like Hell”, “Us and Them”, and just about everything from A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

(It’s my understanding that there used to be a Pink Floyd member named “Roger” something…)

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Roger Keith Barrett? :smiley: