It just came over the wire that Richard Wright has passed away. The original Pink Floyd keyboard player lost his brief battle with cancer a short time ago. Wright was an original member of Pink Floyd, and other than a brief period of departure in the early 80’s, he remained with the band throughout their history. Rick most recently toured with David Gilmour on his worldwide On An Island tour in 2006-07.
RIP Richard Wright.
Peace and Comfort to the Family.
Shine On, old friend……………
thanks for the Beauty.
( & we’ll “see you on the Dark Side of the Moon”)
the lyrics to a beautiful Wright-penned song that featured both him on keyboards and vocals and on slide guitar, Syd Barrett.
Remember a day before today
A day when you were young.
Free to play alone with time
Evening never came.
Sing a song that can’t be sung
Without the morning’s kiss
Queen – you shall be it if you wish
Look for your king
Why can’t we play today?
Why can’t we stay that way?
Climb your favorite apple tree
Try to catch the sun
Hide from your little brother’s gun
Dream yourself away
Why can’t we reach the sun?
Why can’t we blow the years away?
Blow away
Blow away
Remember
Remember
“Last night I must have had too much to drink…”
Only Richard Wright could make those words sound like a sweet lament. He was the George Harrison of the group, demure, self effacing. Bill Evans was a big influence, as you can hear if you’re lucky enough to have the 4 cd Complete Soundtrack to the film Zabriskie Point (Not the single cd original release). There’s a fifteen minute grand piano solo that tells it all.
Gilmour and Wright split the duties equally when it came to creating the Pink Floyd sound, and by their own admission Waters and Mason were more the creators of concepts and lyrics. When Waters ego took over the group – leading to a nice long ride of good albums up until the highly uneven Wall album – Wright retreated into the wall of keyboards and really opened up new ground in the cross-over history of electronic sound in popular music. If you want to hear some great less popular Richard Wright work then buy a copy of “More” (1969) a soundtrack to a Barbet Schroeder film of the same name that the band put together in two weeks of recording.
One of the his signature samples of electronica, the opening note that permeates the album “Wish You Were Here” was actually not a synthetic sound. It came from months of the band trying to make an album using only non-instruments. The only thing they took away from the session was a sound made by running s finger around a crystal glass filled with different levels of water and layering the sound until it became THAT sound.
A lot of people know these old stories. sorry if it’s repetitive. Those people also know that Richard Wright lived his life after the 80’s on a sailboat in the Mediterranean. He performed with David Gilmour on his last CD, “On an Island”, which was recorded in a 19th century barge that Gilmour converted into a private studio.