Song For Friday: In Memoriam of Richard Wright – Comfortably Numb

A special and sad one today. In memoriam of Richard Wright, the keyboard player from Pink Floyd who died this week, too young at 65 from liver cancer. I have been listening to a lot of Floyd this week.

I never liked Floyd much when I was a kid. I was more into punk. Many of my friends were huge fans and thought I was a dope. How could I not love this band? I even had the view of the Battesea Power Station from my window, made famous by the cover of Animals. Stupid really. I missed seeing them live in their prime. It was later as my tastes matured that I grew to appreciate and love their music.

They are such a classic band and their music is so enduring. Much more so than the stuff I was listening to in my pseudo-angry teen years. It's wonderful that even now, their music still attracts new fans. My  teenage son came to them on his own. It's so amazing when you see young guys wearing a DSOM prism shirt or other Floyd paraphernalia, not just because it's retro cool but because they genuinely love their music.

I think this quote by David Gilmour summed up the guy. Here he is opening Comfortably Numb with David Gilmour.

“In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick’s enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognized Pink Floyd sound.”

It was hard to find a good video of Richard Wright as he fell out with Roger Waters and never played with Floyd again whenever Roger Waters was in the band. I found the one below from a recent concert with David Gilmour. .