The Pennsylvania State University
The Graduate School
School of Music
SNAPSHOTS IN THE FAMILY ALBUM:
THE STRUCTURE, CONTENT, AND CONTEXT
OF THREE PINK FLOYD GUITAR SOLOS
A Master's Paper
by
David E. Chávez
© Copyright 2007 David E. Chávez
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Master of Music in Composition/Theory
May, 2007
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Introduction
The guitar solos of David Gilmour, lead guitarist of British rock band Pink Floyd, have
proven enduringly popular despite his relatively low public profile for a rock musician.1 Pink
Floyd's songs “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” and “Comfortably Numb” include famous
examples of Gilmour performing blues-based, improvised-sounding electric guitar solos.
These solos are used by Pink Floyd as crucial instruments of storytelling and meaning
within the whole of the concept album The Wall. In “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” the
guitar solo symbolizes an escape from an environment of suffocating conformism. In
“Comfortably Numb,” the guitar solos express the pain in which the album's main character is
trapped. These solos fill their roles through well-crafted large-scale structure and rhythm, deftly
executed figuration and ornamentation, exciting timbral choices, appropriate backing
instrumentation, and precise recording-studio craft and composition.
Methodology
This paper will begin with a short discussion of Schenkerian analysis—a significant
feature of the analyses that follow. This is followed by a brief overview of the electric guitar 1 Cliff Jones writes in his preface to the encyclopedic Another Brick in the Wall: The Story of Every Pink Floyd
Song: “Pink Floyd are a cult of unpersonality, a band who, after the departure of Syd, were bereft of a personal focal point and so let the icons and imagery of their albums do the job for them. This created one of the great marketing strategies of all time – the anti-image image. This is a band who are not only aware of their own cultish appeal, but who exploit it at every possible turn, seeding their albums with secret messages, puzzles and visual cues that lead some to assume there is some higher power at work behind it all. Think about the powerful icons the band have created – huge visual monoliths that dominate their covers: pigs, power stations, walls, and prisms. These are amongst the most recognised and evocative images on earth, reinforcing the Pink Floyd global brand image, yet their creators could walk through any shopping mall in any country unrecognised. Roger Waters has quipped that the band's image is so strong that the band could conceivably still be playing in 200 years time – the mantle simply passed down through the generations to other anonymous-looking musicians.” (1996, 6) The legendary images of Pink Floyd's album covers are the work of Storm Thorgeson (http://www.stormthorgerson.com) and Hipgnosis, a graphic design studio specializing in creative photography, which Thorgeson cofounded. Thorgeson and Hipgnosis also designed album artwork for Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Styx, Syd Barrett, Yes, and others.
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solo and the blues before 1979, and a biographical sketch of Pink Floyd's career up to The Wall
(1979). These sections culminate in an analysis focusing on the guitar solos of “Another Brick
in the Wall, Part 2” and “Comfortably Numb.”
The analysis of each song is divided into sections on pitch, rhythm, timbre, and other
(non-guitar) instruments, all of which are unified in a section discussing extra-musical meaning.
Though the sections on pitch also discuss Gilmour's local-level pitch construction and
ornamentation, a primary focus is placed on finding larger-scale structure. A creative application
of Schenkerian principles aids in understanding and fruitfully hearing Pink Floyd's broad (for
rock music) musical structures.
For purposes of clarity, it is necessary to establish a common vocabulary for the
characters and creators of this semi-autobiographical album. The main character in the plot of
The Wall is a rock star named Pink Floyd. In this paper, the name “Pink Floyd” will be used to
refer to creators of the musical material, while the name “Pink” will refer to the main character
of the concept album's story. Therefore, this paper employs the name “Pink Floyd” at times to
refer not only to the band members themselves, but to any producers, session musicians,
recording engineers, or other parties who had a significant influence on any aspect of the finished
recording. By nature, a finished recording of a rock song is usually the work of multiple authors,
even if the song had only a single “songwriter.” As Moore explains, there is an important
distinction between the “primary text” for studying a classical piece and what we should consider
as the primary text for the study of rock music. He writes:
The primary medium of transmission of music throughout the European art tradition is, and for centuries has been, stave notation. The primary medium of transmission of rock, since at least mid-1950s' rock'n'roll, has been the recording. This distinction is
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fundamental. European art music is performed with reference to a pre-existent score, which is accepted as an encoded version of the sounds intended by the composer. The rock score, where one exists, is actually a transcription of what has already been performed and produced. Therefore, although the analysis of art music is, normally, the analysis of the score, an analysis of rock cannot follow the same procedure. It must refer to the primary text, which is, in this case, what is heard. (2001, 34-35)
Though primarily written from study of the recorded “text,” this paper does make extensive use
of Western stave notation. Moore adds a wise caveat for the support of notation as a still-
valuable tool for studying rock music: “And yet, we cannot ignore notation altogether, since it
does play a role (sheet music remains available), and can be valuable if its use is carefully
considered” (2001, 35). While Western notation cannot adequately convey the local-level
subtleties of pitch inflection which are so fundamental in rock and blues guitar styles, notation
can provide a useful analytical tool for seeing larger-scale structure.
Schenkerian Analysis
Early in the twentieth century, Austrian theorist Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935)
developed enormously influential theories about the structure of tonal music based almost
entirely on music of earlier centuries. He is credited with discerning a relatively small number of
elemental patterns that seem to define large-scale tonal structure for common-practice-period
musical works of all genres, lengths, and levels of surface complexity.2
As he was developing the theories that would become his best-known legacy, Heinrich
Schenker was also teaching, performing, and composing. He intended his theoretical models to
2 For a more detailed introduction to Schenkerian analysis and suggestions for further reading, see Cadwallader and Gagné's text titled Analysis of Tonal Music or Pankhurst's web-based Schenkerguide.com: A Guide to Schenkerian Analysis.
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aid in the practical side of music. Indeed, the ideas for this paper grew from a simple discovery
the author made while completing an assignment for a class on Schenkerian analysis. By
discovering an upward-moving structural level behind the foreground in the guitar solo from a
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”, the author could not only conceptualize but hear an
important way in which the solo maintained a sense of direction and motion, even through rests
and foreground-level changes in direction. More importantly, the analysis of the developing
canon of rock music can aid not only in our understanding as theorists, but also in our
appreciation as listeners and our active music-making as composers, songwriters and performers.
While there are many books on popular-music guitar technique and many writings on the
texts and subtexts of rock music, these writings often avoid an in-depth discussion of medium-
and large-scale musical structure, at least in musical terms. By adapting Schenker's approach
and applying other analytical tools, this paper deconstructs the solos in question in an effort to
better understand how they function as tools of music and storytelling.
The Electric Guitar Solo and the Blues
...Well you know the blues got pregnantAnd they named the baby rock & roll.
-Muddy Waters3
Like the music Schenker studied, 1970s rock music is descended from a number of
vernacular and art music genres. The genre which exerted the most direct influence on rock
guitar solos was the blues.
In Rock: The Primary Text, Allan F. Moore writes :
Improvisation, that seemingly most ineffable of musical
3 Lyrics from “The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll.”
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techniques, is surrounded by myths that treat it as somehow magical, in that it purports to bypass the mind's conscious mechanisms, providing a vehicle for performers to express themselves in a fashion unmediated by any other concerns, thus bringing them closer to pre-verbal or pre-conceptual expression. Now it may be true that improvisers do not think through their actions verbally, especially when they are executed at speed, but it cannot and does not follow that these actions escape conscious control. Because what actually happens runs counter to popular intuition, it is vital that the practice of improvisation is subjected to some scrutiny. (2001, 83)
By 1979, the electric guitar solo had already become an important form of emotional and
musical expression in blues and rock music. The instrument's technique had developed
significantly through the work of player/composers from Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert
Johnson, and T-Bone Walker to Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Jimmy Page.
From the second and third decade of the twentieth century, Jefferson, Johnson, Walker
and others developed many of the pentatonic-based figures and musical mannerisms essential to
later blues and rock guitar music. Beginning in the 1930s, advances in electric-guitar making
and amplification enabled performers like Walker to expand the instrument's expressive
possibilities and viability for live performance. These pioneers gave the blues electric guitar a
language of voice-like expressive inflection that would compete with and eventually surpass the
popularity of the saxophone and other popular music instruments.
In the 1950s, players like Chuck Berry introduced virtuosic electric guitar music to white
audiences as rock and roll became the commercially-dominant genre of American and British
popular music. The 1950s also saw the development of two instrument models which remain
dominant and mostly unchanged today: the Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster.
By the 1960s, American blues players including Muddy Waters inspired a new generation
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of British guitarists, both with live performances in British clubs and through newly available
recordings. A British revival of the blues began, in part as a reaction to “the banality of the hit-
parade material and of rock and roll (which by the early 1960s had lost its power to surprise)”
(Moore, “Blues-rock” n.d.). This underground movement began as a search for what was
considered more authentic, acoustic blues, but would fundamentally shape the music of the
Beatles, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, and many others.
Clapton's guitar playing is strongly and purposefully based in the blues. From the
formation of the British trio Cream in 1966, Clapton's music included experiments that would
become fundamental to progressive rock. Moore writes: “...until the advent of Eric Clapton,
[guitar solos] tend to remain secondary to the song itself” (2001, 41). Simultaneously, his
playing prompted a fan following which revered him as a “guitar god.” In the hands of Clapton
and others, the guitar solo took on a new level of social and musical importance in rock.4
Beginning especially from his tenure as the opening act for Cream, Jimi Hendrix pushed
the envelope of the electric guitar with his dazzling and influential combination of showmanship,
facility on his instrument, and use of electronic effects. John Piccarella writes: “His
revolutionary guitar technique and his innovative use of the recording studio as a compositional
environment have had a greater impact on rock music than the work of any other musician.”
Hendrix songs like “Machine Gun”5 and “All Along the Watchtower”6 helped redefine the sonic
potential of the electric guitar, both in live performance and in the studio. Clapton and Hendrix
were only two of many important guitarists in a period of musical and social experimentation.
4 The live recording of “Crossroads” on the Cream compilation album Gold is a fine example of Clapton's exciting live improvisation.
5 A good rendition is included on the live recording Band of Gypsys (1970). Hendrix marries explosive blues-based pitch combinations with guitar sound effects evoking machine guns and other sounds of war.
6 A studio version, including moving panning, is second-to-last song on Electric Ladyland (1968).
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Common Features of Blues-Based Guitar Solos
The pitch world of blues melody is built on the foundation of a repeated 12-bar chord
progression and its variants.
Chord: I I I I IV IV I I V V (or IV) I I
Bar #: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Table 1: Basic 12-bar blues chord progression
Rock musicians whose melodies are blues-based often eschew this chord progression as a whole.
However, 12-bar blues is one precursor of the IV-I harmonic motions commonly found in rock
music.
Blues melodies often to employ a third, a seventh, and sometimes a fifth which are flatted
(fully or microtonally) in relation to the major scale (see Figure 1). These pitches are referred to
as “blue notes.”
The pitch world of blues melody is strongly marked by tension and fluidity between the major
and minor versions of the third diatonic scale degree (Eb and E natural in C tonality). A similar
tension and fluidity occurs between the tritone and the diatonic-major scale degrees adjacent to it
(F#/Gb surrounded by F and G). Blues players move among the members of these and other
Figure 2: C-major scale with blue notes
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pitch groupings and their microtonal inflections with a freedom of portamento unavailable in
common-practice Western art music performance practice. Indeed, a blues musician's treatment
of pitch and other parameters is descended from the conflict and confluence of African
(including pentatonic and other non-Western scales) and Western musical traditions.7
Many common blues figurations are based on ornamented stepwise motion through the
pentatonic scale (see Figure 3).
A common upward-motion figure is shown below.
In terms of form, the guitar solo most commonly functions as a bridge section between
repeats of sung verses and/or refrain material. However, the blues-based electric guitar solo was
and is also used as the most important part of a closing jam section (coda) as in “Another Brick
in the Wall, Part 2.” Other examples include “The Thrill is Gone” by B.B. King and “Free Bird”
by Lynryd Skynyrd.
Numerous blues and rock songs include electric guitar solos in more than one section.
7 See Middleton's chapter titled “Some Aspects of the Blues” in Pop Music and the Blues.
Figure 4: A pentatonic scale and sample figuration
Figure 5
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The solos from “Comfortably Numb” and “Free Bird” exemplify the way in which fundamental
changes in tempo, timbre, harmony, and/or other parameters can give a second (or third) solo a
sense of having arrived somewhere new from an earlier solo. In “Free Bird,” the title character
finishes apologizing and chooses instead to fly, depicted in a guitar solo of frenetic momentum.
In the movie version of The Wall, the initially catatonic rock star erupts into violent action at the
start of the second guitar solo. Traditionally, a blues song's story was more static. The song
might describe a situation with growing intensity, but by the end of the song, the situation
remains unchanged. Writing on harmonic patterns and formal structures, Moore comments,
It seems that types of patterns may well acquire specific connotations. Patterns involving a minimal number of elements may connote 'stasis' and 'timelessness' (the guitar solo of the hippy era was frequently executed over a harmonic drone). It also seems to me that sequences which stick rigidly within a single mode (as opposed to using altered triads) may similarly connote certainty, stability, acceptance and even resignation: not for nothing are blues conventionally content to describe the situation. (2001, 55)
Therefore, some multiple-guitar-solo songs transcend the stationary narratives common to
more pure blues. The sequence of guitar solos takes the story somewhere new. In The Wall,
Gilmour's solos both serve and enhance the song-level and album-level narratives.
By 1979, the blues-based electric guitar solo was a well-established type of instrumental
performance with a canon of widely-recognizable techniques and devices. Gilmour's solos in
The Wall have nowhere near the experimental edge of some of the greatest recordings by
Hendrix, Clapton, Led Zeppelin, or of Pink Floyd's earlier recordings. However, like Mozart in
some of his finest arias, Gilmour seeks in the Wall guitar solos to raise an established musical
idiom to its highest potential; he concentrates on doing the idiom extremely well as opposed to
experimenting in search of a startlingly new idiom.
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Pink Floyd
Syd Barrett (guitar and vocals), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar and
vocals), and Rick Wright (keyboards) formed Pink Floyd in 1965 while they were students in
London. Barrett studied painting, while the other three were architecture students. According to
Mikal Gilmore, writing in Rolling Stone magazine's recent Pink Floyd cover story,
...what would bring Waters, Barrett, Mason and Wright together was a passion for the promising sounds of rock & roll, blues and R&B. Like other key British musicians -- including John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page -- Pink Floyd would take the spirit of experimentation that they gained from art school and apply it to the raw form of rock & roll, with results that would transform the culture around them. (2007)
Barrett, the band's original chief songwriter, named Pink Floyd after two legendary
bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The band became the unofficial house band of the
drug-infused London psychedelic music scene,8 armed with an improvisational, experimental,
and engaging style accompanied by an innovative light show. Their debut album, Piper at the
Gates of Dawn, (1967) was recorded at Abbey Road around the same time that the Beatles were
recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album captures their experimental,
improvisatory style. The lyrics, harmony, and timbres sound at times childlike, and at times
enigmatically complex or absurd. The quirky yet melodic sound of tracks like “Matilda Mother”
displays the influence of the melodic pop and psychedelic pioneering of the Beatles (“Strawberry
Fields,” “I am the Walrus”). The extended, chaotic instrumental jam “Intersteller Overdrive”
[sic] is closer to the aleatoric experiments of the modern-classical avant-garde. Close listening
8 According to Moore: “[Psychedelic rock] featured extended blues-based improvisations, surrealist lyrics with performances often loud and accompanied by lavish light-shows. The effect was intended to evoke or support a drug-induced state” (“Psychedelic rock” n.d.).
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reveals extreme, moving panning9 used as a musical device—an experiment with the potential of
the recording studio as a creative tool. The influence of various avante-garde styles (particularly
musique concrète) and the recording studio as a compositional tool were important parts of Pink
Floyd's music-making throughout their careers.
When Barrett's erratic behavior rendered him impossible to work with, his friend David
Gilmour joined the band as a guitarist/vocalist, first to fill in for Barrett and then to replace him.
Drugs and mental illness were reportedly involved with Barrett's breakdowns. He would go on
to record more albums (aided by his former bandmates), but within a few years departed from
the public eye altogether. Barrett's personality and vision remained influential in Pink Floyd's
music and lives. Though the band increasingly found their own style, they ensured that Barrett
received his royalties, and various songs from their post-Barrett output reference him—never by
name, but by strong implication.
Over the coming years, Roger Waters would take the artistic helm of Pink Floyd. Though
the other band members would still make important creative contributions,10 Waters came
eventually to see himself as Pink Floyd, an attitude which would contribute to the band's
division. His lyrics often dealt with themes of alienation, mental illness, and the evils of modern
life.
A Saucerful of Secrets (1968), containing only one Barrett-written track, was followed by
Ummagumma (1969), a double album including live performances and studio recordings. Atom
Heart Mother (1970) was a collaboration with composer Ron Geesin featuring orchestra and
chorus. Meddle (1971) included a second side of one 23-minute song, “Echoes.”
9 The final minute of “Intersteller [sic] Overdrive” can be a dizzying listening experience if heard through headphones.
10 For an example, listen to Wright's four-movement, orchestra-embellished keyboard solo “Sysphus” on Ummagumma.
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The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) was Pink Floyd's breakout international hit, remaining
on the American album charts for more than 14 years. Composed primarily by Waters, the work
is a concept album11 exploring madness. Superstardom brought excitement and stresses, one of
which was a change in the makeup of their audience. Gilmour is quoted in Rolling Stone saying,
“We were used to all these reverent fans who'd come and you could hear a pin drop.” He goes
on to characterize the change that came with Dark Side: “We'd try to get really quiet, especially
at the beginning of 'Echoes' or something that has tinkling notes, trying to created a beautiful
atmosphere, and all these kids would be there shouting, 'Money!'” (Gilmore 2007, 64).
Their next two albums, Wish You Were Here (1975) and Animals (1977) dealt further with
the themes of alienation and modern society's pitfalls. Wish You Were Here includes multiple
references to the band's alienation from each other, including the title track and “Shine on You
Crazy Diamond,” which is often interpreted as a tribute to Barrett. Animals is an Orwellian
allegory of different groups in society, represented by pigs, dogs, and sheep. As punk was
transforming rock music with short, up-tempo songs involving few chords, Pink Floyd continued
to record long, complex, often slow music.
The Wall (1979) a semi-autobiographical12 double-album, became a phenomenal
commercial success second only to Dark Side (among the band's output). The album was also
the final chapter in Pink Floyd's collaborative creativity.13 Though the liner notes credit most of
the writing to Waters, Gilmour and Waters do share writing credit for “Young Lust,”
11 According to David Buckley writing in Grove, a concept album consists of “a selection of songs either unified by one pivotal idea, for example the work of the Moody Blues, which centred [sic] around eastern mysticism and spirituality, or built around a narrative sequence, as in the cases of the Who’s Tommy and Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”.”
12 The main autiobiographical elements relate to Waters' and Barrett's lives. These include a father who died in war, struggles with madness, and alienation from and/or disdain for rock concert audiences.
13 The Final Cut (1983), Pink Floyd's last album with Waters, carries the subtitle “A requiem for the post-war dream by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd.”
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“Comfortably Numb,”14 and “Run Like Hell.” According to Gilmour, “things like Comfortably
Numb are really the last embers of Roger and my ability to work collaboratively together – my
music, his words” (“Sold on Song Top 100”).
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” [The Wall, Disc 1, Number 5 of 13]
Form
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” is, on its surface, a fairly simple, strophic song,
almost nursery-rhyme-like. The brief, famous lyrics, printed below, contain the song's strongest
hooks, especially the oft-repeated opening line.
[Verse]We don't need no educationWe don't need no thought controlNo dark sarcasm in the classroomTeacher leave them kids aloneHey teacher - leave them kids aloneAll in all it's just another brick in the wallAll in all you're just another brick in the wall
[Repeat of verse with children's voices]
[Guitar Solo]
The verses are framed on one side by the guitar solo (functioning as a coda) and the “The
Happiest Days of Our Lives” (which functions as an introduction). “The Happiest Days” which
directly precedes “Another Brick, Part 2” is listed as a separate “song” in the liner notes, and is
given a separate track number on compact disc distributions of The Wall. However, “The
Happiest Days” proceeds seamlessly with an attacca transition into “Another Brick, Part 2.”
“The Happiest Days” also marks a departure from “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1,” in part by
14 According to Jones: “Most of the music for 'Comfortably Numb' was written by Dave at the conclusion of the sessions for his 1978 eponymous solo album ... Written too late for inclusion on the album, the melody was later revived for The Wall and rewritten with Waters, who wrote all the lyrics.” (1996, 133)
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introducing a more prominent, “danceable”15 drum pattern close to that of “Another Brick, Part
2.” Musically, “The Happiest Days” is both a transition out of “Another Brick, Part 1” and an
introduction to “Another Brick, Part 2.”
Pitch
Though the solo from “Another Brick, Part 2” is not designed to dazzle with note-to-note
perpetual-motion speed, Gilmour's precise string bending and judiciously-applied vibrato are
expressive forms of virtuosic pitch manipulation nonetheless.16 Any guitar player can attest to
the skill and experience required to bend strings with precision and apparent ease, choosing
when to leave and when to return to equal-tempered pitches.
On the surface, the guitar solo is a collection of mostly-common figures in a stylishly
inflected pentatonic idiom. Like a skilled jazz or soul vocalist (for example, Clare Torry on “The
Great Gig in the Sky” from The Dark Side of the Moon) Gilmour applies vibrato and
expressively bends (the pitch) into and/or out of many notes rather than attacking, sustaining, and
releasing them right on the equal-tempered pitch. The pentatonic pitch-world of the guitar solo
is most notably ornamented with the second scale degree of D-minor (E).17 Gilmour floats up to
a slightly sustained E three times. He arrives through a string bend, and stays on the E long
enough to effect a slight a agogic accent.
The pitch world of the verses in “Another Brick, Part 2” is fairly static, employing easy-
15 “Most who bought the single knew little of Pink Floyd, but because of the song's (gasp!) danceable Chic-style disco production and beat, and the controversial theme, which became a playground rallying cry, it became a universal anthem.” (Jones 1996, 126)
16 For one of many other examples of such virtuosity in a blues context, see Eric Clapton's guitar work on the song “Hideaway” with John Mayall from the album “Bluesbreakers.”
17 A pentatonic scale built on the D-minor triad consists of D, F, G, A, and C. Therefore, E is a non-scale pitch—an ornament in terms of the pentatonic scale. Gilmour's emphasis of E helps give the solo a feeling of lift and upward motion up until the registral climax in the 24th measure.
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to-follow harmonic rhythm, long stretches of tonic harmony, and a simplistic melody reminiscent
of a schoolyard chant. The sung melody comes to rest securely on scale-degree 1, as shown by a
middleground graph of the verse (Figure 6). This solid descent to scale-degree 1, coupled with
the effect of the VII-i cadence on the words “another brick in the wall,” is analogous to a perfect
authentic cadence coupled with a descent to scale-degree 1 in common-practice music.18 The
downbeat-struck VII chord is even directly preceded by a very clearly articulated downbeat
movement to III—a chord often employed in rock music to function similarly to a common-
practice pre-dominant chord. Essentially, the verses are, by themselves, structurally complete
(Figure 7).
Gilmour constructs his solo (whether consciously or not) around a gradual, almost-linear
upward motion, creating an increasing musical tension up until the final measures. The tension
is most clearly articulated through a registral ascent, and it is here that Gilmour's jazz- and blues-
player-like patience displays itself at its best. The ascent from the initial downbeat D to the later
18 Burns writes in her analysis of Tori Amos' “Crucify,” “The harmonic effect of the stop on [VII] is comparable to a half cadence; it is a dissonance that requires resolution” (Everett 2000, 226). Note that Burns is analyzing the VII chord within a particular context and is not making a general statement about all subtonic major chords.
Figure 6: Middleground level of verses from“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”
Figure 7: Background level of verses
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D an octave above occurs across an unhurried series of registral peaks (Figure 8, with numbers
indicating how many measures into the 31-measure solo each registral peak occurs). Directly
following this ascent, the falling solo line and cadential harmony bring the song to its close,
leading into a gradual fadeout of the backing instruments over the sounds of children playing and
teacher admonishing.
Figure 9 shows a middleground level of the ascent, revealing an elegant unfolding of the
tonic triad through the registral peaks.
Obviously, to take a more Schenkerian perspective (as much as one can in a disco- and
blues-influenced rock song with VII-i cadences), the solo prolongs tonic harmony and the tonic
soprano note, ascending through an octave space, but always over a tonic pedal. We might begin
to see the solo's middleground upward motion as a long initial ascent (considering the solo
alone), or perhaps as an ascent from an inner voice. Taking into account that (a) the song has
already accomplished its background structural descent before the solo even begins, (b) the bulk
of the solo happens within the middleground ascent described above, (c) the chord voicings in
Figure 9: Unfolding of the tonic triad in the guitar solo from “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”
Figure 8: Registral peaks in the guitar solofrom “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”
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the solo's organ accompaniment exhibit a concurrent gradual upward motion, and (d) the solo's
eventual downward cadence, while clear, is followed by a drum fadeout and other sounds rather
than a tutti cutoff, is it is safe to say that the solo is more strongly marked by upward rather than
downward motion.
Whether or not Gilmour or the rest of Pink Floyd were consciously aware of the solo's
middleground level (or its structural relationship with the rest of the song) during the recording
sessions is impossible to say for sure. We might guess that such middleground structure was
mostly the product of musical intuition or just plain coincidence during recording sessions.
There is, however, some evidence that Pink Floyd may have been, at least to some extent,
disposed toward thinking about large- and medium-scale structure. In addition to the fact that
most of Pink Floyd began while the founding members were architecture students, consider
Gilmour's own somewhat contradictory words in 1972:
There aren't any guidelines; we just play whatever we feel like playing. We sometimes draw pictures of how it should be, in terms of where there are going to be climaxes and such. It's kind of a mental picture if you like. The songs tend to create mental pictures in other people, although the images are often not the same ones we started out with. (qtd. in “Heavy Mental Epics,” Guitar Player)
As further proof of their attention to structural detail, one need only perform the astonishing
synchronization of The Dark Side of the Moon with the classic film The Wizard of Oz. If the
viewer triggers Dark Side at the right moment, various events in the music and lyrics coincide
precisely with and refer to events in the film.19
19 For their recent Pink Floyd cover story, Rolling Stone has conveniently provided some “sync-ups” on their website in video format. See http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/03/20/video-mashup-dark-side-of-oz/.
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Rhythm
Considering the whole ensemble, rhythms in the guitar solo section are neither as regular
as the sung verses, nor as heavily syncopated as certain measures of the introduction. The
rhythms of the verse are eminently singable and sometimes speechlike (particularly in the cry of
“Hey teacher - leave them kids alone”). By differentiating the guitar solo, Pink Floyd adds
interesting variety to a song whose main body is rhythmically fairly simplistic.
In his solo, Gilmour treats rhythm with style and patience, finessing rather than attacking
the chord changes. In terms of hypermeter, the measures fit neatly into groups of four, laying
down a straightforward canvas for the solo guitar. At the local level, Gilmour often employs
simple rhythmic cells, the most notable of which is two sixteenth notes followed by one eighth
note (filling one beat). Despite these fairly ordinary qualities, Gilmour uses spaces of guitar
silence and syncopation to give the solo a sense of surprise and freshness. His note groups are at
first separated by long rests (while the underlying groove carries on), then become more closely
spaced during the registral ascent. Even after these groups become more closely spaced, he takes
time to linger on certain notes, giving the harmony and pitch contours room to be heard.
Timbre
Gilmour chooses a slightly distorted tone as the timbral basis of his guitar solo,
contrasting with the more distorted timbre of the rhythm guitar present in the verses.20 When
amplified with a smaller amount of distortion, the electric guitar exhibits exceptionally rich
variability in timbre. Interesting changes in noise and overtone content become audible as the
20 Throughout, this paper uses the term “distortion” to refer the white-noise-infused timbral effect created with a combination of guitar effects pedals and amplifier settings.
Chávez 20
instrument moves through changes of register, texture, and dynamics. This richness gives the
tone what was by 1979 already a classic sound, hearkening back to the blues and earlier rock
guitar sounds of players like B.B. King, Clapton, and Hendrix. Before and during the guitar
coda, an eclectic collection of sounds tell Pink's story.
Other Instrumentation
The helicopter sound that ends “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1” and begins “The
Happiest Days” has a strongly regular rhythmic content, but one that clashes with the pulse of
the more conventional music around it. A teacher's abusive admonishments add to the sense of
chaos. The re-entrance of the guitar coincides with a drum entrance which is halting at first; the
drums and bass guitar briefly question the placement of the downbeat during four measures in
which they strongly punctuate the second eight note of beat four, separated by long rests. This
strong, spaced out syncopation temporarily calls into question the placement of the downbeat.
Finally, a regular drum kit pattern—something absent from “Another Brick, Part 1”—begins, and
the singer enters. The rhythmic and metrical ambiguity lends freshness and a sense of surprise to
the disco-like rhythmic regularity of the song to come. In his book What to Listen for in Rock,
Ken Stephenson writes, “When offering this kind of ambiguity, an introduction, rather than just
coming first in the piece, fulfills an interesting function appropriate to its position: providing a
chaos out of which the order of the song emerges” (2002, 127-128). Ironically, this same sense
of order and regularity is simultaneously oppressive to the protagonists and a vehicle for their
protest.
The style-world inhabited by the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar on the sung verses is
Chávez 21
recognizably disco. “Good Times” by Chic contains a similar, slightly faster disco groove. Both
songs have a straightforward, tightly-in-tempo drum kit pattern including bright hi-hats and
consistent emphasis on the first and third beats. The harmony of both songs is in part filled out
by precise, repetitive rhythm electric guitar strumming with subdivision of the beat on a
sixteenth-note level.
During the guitar solo, the drum kit maintains a pattern similar to the rest of the song, but
provides more space for the solo. Mason only hits the snare drum on beat four, as opposed to the
consistent snare hits on beats two and four during the sung verses.
In addition to the fat, pure-blues-invoking tone of the lead electric guitar, Pink Floyd adds
a layer of sustained drawbar organ chords, replacing the rhythm guitar for the guitar-solo section.
The organ adds interest, drama, and differentiation from the sung verses both in timbre and
harmony. Its timbre is not only new, but also has a sense of motion, in part through the use of
changing Leslie-speaker rotation speeds. As mentioned above, the organ chord voicings play an
important role in the rising motion of the guitar solo; the organ chords also add new colors to the
harmony, especially as its chords move from dorian-mode harmonies employing B natural to the
later, aeolian-mode harmonies emloying B flat.
Like the rest of the album, “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” is immaculately recorded
and mixed—a prime example of the high-quality audiorecording technology available in the late
1970s put to use. The musique concrète21 techniques of the beginning and end of the song
(considering it together with “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”) are executed with seamless
precision, giving the listener opportunity to absorb meaning unmediated by flaws in the
21 Musique concrète is a genre of electro-acoustic music. Created in 1948 in Paris by Pierre Schaeffer, the term came to be associated with the use of recorded real-world sounds as opposed to electronically synthesized sounds.
Chávez 22
technology. This precision helps draw the listener into Pink's world of madness and conflicting
realities by making the physically impossible (a helicopter within the recording studio, for
example) sound as close as reality. Like Pink, the listener hears the repeated admonishments of
his schoolteacher as if it were yesterday, without any hint of tape-loop seams or copy
degradation.
Gilmour's guitar exists therefore in a world of too-perfect sonic purity. His carefully
constructed guitar solo belies no hint of studio-edited, punch-in-punch-out compositional
technique, though such techniques may well have been used. Considering the purity of the
recording, the meanings depicted seem even more harsh.
Meaning
After being jarred and jaded by the absence of his father (killed in war) as expressed in
“Another Brick, Part 1,” Pink is subjected to cruelty by his schoolteachers. In “Another Brick,
Part 2” the singers' (particularly the children's) words are a a battle cry—the beginnings of anti-
establishment rebellion. The guitar solo is a release of that rebellion, the very creative voice
which the teachers sought to suppress.
When considered within the album as a whole, the rebellious lyrics of “Another Brick,
Part 2,” become much more than a juvenile rant. Rather, they are the reflections of a young adult
who is dealing with lasting mental and emotional damage inflicted during his school years.
According to Jones:
Consistently misinterpreted, much to Waters's chagrin, this is not an anti-education rap. Instead, it seeks to convey the message that vindictive and bitter teachers, and factory schooling, can break a child for life. The effect on such children is one of demoralising
Chávez 23
them to the point where they repress their innate creativity. (1996, 124)
Jones also briefly quotes Waters himself on his creativity-crushing school years; Waters makes
clear that he is not against good schooling.
In the movie version of The Wall, the students are shown marching in time to the beat and
reciting facts in a classroom. Their music in the verses is simplistic, with a middleground
dominated by unsurprising downward motion. When they sing the second verse, the film depicts
the students arranged in neat, motionless rows. During a break in the music, a teacher ridicules
young Pink's poetry.22
When the film reaches the guitar solo, the steady beat marches on, but its marchers have
abandoned oppressive order in favor of anarchy. The apparent laid-back ease of the guitar solo is
juxtaposed with a sudden and intense student riot. The students trash their classroom, and are
soon seen burning the school building and throwing school-related objects into a large bonfire.
Just as the string bending up to E and the middleground trajectory of the solo float above the pull
of tonic, the students are freeing themselves from the downward-pulling suffocation of their
schooling. The guitar recording emerges from the pristine, clean-cut sound-environment of the
recording studio, and yet it is revealed as a soundtrack for violence in Pink's mind. The lyrics of
the verses and the action on screen confirm the guitar solo as the voice of justified rebellion—
creativity and authenticity emerging from and literally rising above oppressive sameness.
As mentioned above, the contrast between verses and guitar solo is a vehicle for meaning
partially because of how uncharacteristic disco style is within Pink Floyd's body of work. The
disco-like groove of the verses can be interpreted as symbol of the music industry money-
22 The verses the teacher reads mockingly to the rest of the class include lyrics from the song “Money,” a hit single from The Dark Side of the Moon.
Chávez 24
machine, with the guitar solo representing artistic authenticity.
Though the music industry had made them rich men, Pink Floyd held the industry in
great disdain, especially after the grueling whirlwind of superstardom that had enveloped them
since The Dark Side of the Moon only a few years earlier. The Wall contains both obvious and
subtle critiques of that industry, including the fans that fueled it.
By 1979, disco had reached the apex of its popular-music domination, gaining mass
acceptance among mainstream white audiences. By contrast, the sounds of blues and soul had
often been watered down for acceptance as “pop” music or had fallen into obscurity. On The
Dark Side of the Moon, African-American vocalists added an authentic “soul” factor. On The
Wall, it is largely up Gilmour's guitar to dirty things up and keep that authentic, expressive sonic
grit. In “Another Brick, Part 2,” his solo signifies the (temporary) triumph of true artistry,
emerging out a bland, mass-produced backdrop.
After the fadeout of the teacher's voice and children playing, followed by the sound of a
sigh, “Another Brick, Part 2” is divided from the next song, “Mother,” by a moment of silence—
relatively rare in an album marked mostly by no-break divisions between songs. “Mother”
introduces immediate contrast; it is in a different key, moves at a different tempo, uses a very
different drum pattern, and employs acoustic rather than electric rhythm guitar. Perhaps more
importantly, “Mother” takes on a new “brick” in Pink's “wall.”
As the album goes on, the listener hears of more bricks in Pink's wall. By “Comfortably
Numb,” the wall is complete, but, as shown below, it does not adequately protect Pink from the
combination of present reality, memory and insanity that weighs upon him.
Chávez 25
“Comfortably Numb” [The Wall, Disc 2, Number 6 of 13]
Form
Pink cries out at various points in the album for salvation from his sad state, but, when
disc two is half over, he is still experiencing the acute pain of the present while dimly recalling
his childhood. The lyrics of “Comfortably Numb” are printed below with section designations
added.
[Verse 1] Hello,Is there anybody in thereJust nod if you can hear meIs there anyone homeCome on nowI hear you're feeling downWell I can ease your painGet you on your feet againRelaxI'll need some information firstJust the basic factsCan you show me where it hurts
[Chorus 1] There is no pain, you are recedingA distant ship smoke on the horizonYou are only coming through in wavesYour lips move but I can't hear what you're sayingWhen I was a child I had a feverMy hands felt just like two balloonsNow I've got that feeling once againI can't explain, you would not understandThis is not how I amI have become comfortably numb
[First Guitar Solo]
[Verse 2] O.K.Just a little pin prickThere'll be no more aaaaaaaah!But you may feel a little sickCan you stand up?I do believe it's working, good
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That'll keep you going through the showCome on it's time to go
[Chorus 2] There is no pain, you are recedingA distant ship smoke on the horzonYou are only coming through in wavesYour lips move but I can't hear what you're sayingWhen I was a child,I caught a fleeting glimpseOut of the corner of my eyeI turned to look but it was goneI cannot put my finger on it nowThe child is grownThe dream is goneI have becomeComfortably numb
[Second Guitar Solo]
Pitch
Figure 11 is a graph representing a middleground level of the verses in Comfortably
Numb. This structural level is identical to the adjacent higher-middleground level, a four-
measure musical phrase which is played a total of three times (with changing lyrics) to comprise
each verse.
Figure 10: Middleground level of verses from “Comfortably Numb”
Chávez 27
The verse is made up of two relatively simple contrapuntal lines. The melody line hovers
around scale-degree 5, while the bass line maintains a heavy, downward trajectory whose pull is
rhythmically accentuated in the three-note descent G-F#-E. In addition to locally portraying
downward motion, The three-note motif present in the bassline exhibits motivic parallelism with
other parts of The Wall, including the middleground descent from the verses of “Another Brick in
the Wall, Part 2,” the repeated electric-guitar motive at the end of “The Happiest Days of Our
Lives,” and the heavy-handed distortion guitar melody just before the vocalist's entrance during
both instances of “In the Flesh.”
The descending bass line and hovering melody of the “Comfortably Numb” verses can be
further reduced to the next deeper structural level: a prolongation of scale-degree 5 over a tonic
in the bass (not shown).
Figures 11 and 12 show middleground and background level graphs for the sung
choruses.
Though the final arrival on D is, in the background, a resolution back to the chord from
the beginning of the chorus, within the more local harmony it sounds like opening up a new
harmonic world; this new world is introduced through the portal of a cadence that is plagal (IV-
Figure 11: Middleground level of the sung choruses from “Comfortably Numb”
Figure 12: Background level
Chávez 28
I), yet almost deceptive given the elements of harmonic surprise directly preceding it,
particularly the surprising shift from the G chord to the A chord. The freshness of D harmony is
greatly aided and perhaps upstaged by the burst of a new timbral palette (see Other
Instrumentation).
The first guitar solo is built on the same foreground chord progression as the chorus
which has just ended. If we consider the foreground chord progression alone, this solo is just a
repeat of the chorus with the voice joining in at the end for the final statement: “I have become
comfortably numb.” Where the chorus had begun its journey on the tonic note of its D major
chord, the guitar solo increases the intensity, breaking into a pealing F#. Figures 13 shows a
middleground graph for the first guitar solo.
The prevalent foreground motion in both “Comfortably Numb” solos is downward, either
a falling scale or arpeggio. However, observing Figure 13, we see a middleground that displays
buoyancy as much as downward weight, and ends on the same open-ended open-fifth cadence as
the preceding chorus.
According to the profile in the February 1994 issue of Guitar Player magazine, “Gilmour
developed his solos by noodling aimlessly until he came up with something he liked. Often he
would mix parts of several different solo tracks into one” (“Heavy mental epics”). Such is the
Figure 13: Middleground level of the first guitar solo from “Comfortably Numb”
Chávez 29
case with the solo from “Comfortably Numb,” which was compiled by splicing portions from
two takes (Jones 1996, 133). The studiocraft involved is executed with precision and
transparency, maintaining the illusion of one pristine, improvised recording. In truth, though
perhaps not written out note by note, the final recorded product was carefully constructed using a
time-consuming process.
The second solo is a large closing gesture, filled with excitement, but more intent on a
single harmony and a tonic arrival than either the solo from “Another Brick, Part 2” or the first
solo from “Comfortably Numb.” In the foreground, the second solo proceeds through a series of
descending adventures down an ornamented pentatonic scale and is in this way not unlike the
foreground and middleground of the first “Comfortably Numb” solo.23 Gilmour emphasizes the
members of the B-minor triad and takes few opportunities to place emphasis on other pitches,
even when supporting bass pitches are available.
As the supporting chord progression repeatedly takes a downward journey to the note B,
the guitar soloist uses the B a major seventh above middle C as a focal pitch. The solo is broken
into four-measure phrases, the first of which arrives on the B above middle C. For the next few
phrases, this B remains a registral center for Gilmour's explorations. In the sixth phrase,
Gilmour increases the intensity, transposing the guitar's pitch world (including the focal pitch) up
an octave. Figure 14 shows the highest and lowest notes of the second phrase through the sixth
phrase (each phrase separated by a barline), with the focal B displayed in the middle for
reference.
23 These foreground and middleground descents and register transfers also effectively depict the “waves” referred to in the lyrics.
Chávez 30
The seventh phrase is played over a fade to silence. The final audible gesture is a descent
down the pentatonic scale to arrive on the B above middle C.
Figure 16 depicts the background level of the entire song.
Rhythm and Meter
The presence of triplets throughout both guitar solos recalls the pervasive presence of
triple subdivision in more traditional blues. These triplets contrast with the duple-subdivision
world of the backing instrumentation around them, clashing most in the second guitar solo.
The first guitar solo is marked by lingering downbeat-struck high notes. Gilmour also
makes frequent use of eighth-note triplets, interacting with but not disturbing or deterring the
gentle and persistent duple meter of the backing instrumentation.
Figure 16: Background level of “Comfortably Numb”
Figure 15: Analysis of selected phrases of the second guitar solo from "Comfortably Numb"
Chávez 31
In the second solo, Gilmour's rhythms are significantly less tied to the even eighth note
subdivisions maintained by the backing instrumentation. His solo gains more momentum as
well. Faster figurations abound, and the eighth-note triplets of the first solo are replaced with
numerous sixteenth-note triplets.
The first chorus is comprised of four four-measure phrases with a three-measure phrase
added at the end: 4+4+4+4+3. The second chorus adds an additional measure at the end
(4+4+4+4+4) for a stronger sense of closure and completion. The additional measure also
contributes toward a greater sense of arrival and finality as the music transitions into the second
guitar solo.
Timbre
Gilmour's distorted guitar has a ringing, almost plaintive timbre, with a sound that is
more contemporary and bright than the more nostalgic timbre of the solo from “Another Brick,
Part 2.” Most importantly, his timbre has a much stronger white noise component in the second,
post-singer solo compared with the first intra-verse solo. The first note of the second solo is so
rich in upper harmonic partials that the fundamental of the tone is almost subsumed and perhaps
overshadowed. This note has a pungent timbre that cuts through the texture and perfectly
demonstrates the rich timbral possibilities of the electric guitar, even from one note to the next.
The combination of noise on the attack, noise in the sustain, and rich overtones increases in
intensity when Gilmour breaks up monophony part way through his second solo, first with m7
chords24 and, just before the end of the fadeout, with frenetically repeated minor triads. The
24 The pop chord chart designation “m7” refers to a minor triad with a minor seventh added—a minor-minor-7th
chord.
Chávez 32
contrast between the more mellow timbre of the first solo and the heavier-rock timbre of the
second solo helps draw the listener into a visceral and kinesic experience of Pink's madness.
Music which depends on heavily distorted electric guitar has a history of eliciting physical
movement from its listeners, especially concertgoers.25 Whereas the solo from “Another Brick in
the Wall, Part 2” was ironically laid-back, the intensity of the second solo from “Comfortably
Numb” makes use of the cultural lexicon of electric guitar such that it is hard for the listener not
to literally feel some of Pink's thrashing catharsis (see references to the movie in the section on
Meaning).
Other Instrumentation
From the opening moments of the song, the non-solo-guitar instruments display a
smooth, gentle evenness which contrasts with the intensity of the final guitar solo. This
smoothness is disturbed most notably in the distant scream of “aaaaaaaah!” in the lyrics of the
second verse.
Michael Kamen's memorable orchestral background, particularly the brass, provides a
bed of timbral warmth for the singers' and solo guitar's storytelling. The orchestra is mostly
content to play sustained chords, branching out to slowly flowing, decorated arpeggios on the
choruses and first guitar solo.
The supporting instrumentation (rock instrumentation and orchestra) prepares the
listener's ear for the entrance of the first guitar solo with an arresting change in color. With a
25 Robert Walser ends his Grove article on Heavy Metal with an almost comically dry statement: “Heavy metal fans became known as ‘headbangers’ on account of the vigorous nodding motions that sometimes mark their appreciation of the music.” Walser is not referring specifically to the effect of electric guitar solos but rather to the effect of the music as a whole. At the second guitar solo of “Comfortably Numb,” the whole ensemble (led by the solo guitar) employs a musical style more closely related to heavy metal than the smoother style of the rest of the song (verses, choruses, or first guitar solo).
Chávez 33
sound like turning the knob to fully open a bandpass filter, the wash of orchestral color and
tinkling percussion complete a Hollywoodesque sound, evoking something like the opening of a
door, creating a short and exciting transition into the first guitar solo.
The bass guitar and the bass drum of the drum kit are locked together for much of the
song, providing gentle rhythmic punctuation which most often falls on changes of harmony. For
the first guitar solo and almost the entirety of both verses, the bass guitar and bass drum play in
rhythmic unison.
The drum kit pattern for the verses is acoustically dry and musically simple, using the
crash cymbal infrequently and mostly avoiding any other kind of decoration. Eighth notes on the
ride cymbal combine with barely-audible acoustic guitar strumming and an increase in the
orchestral color palette to add more high frequency content and therefore a brighter sound to the
choruses and guitar solos. The acoustic guitar strumming also continues through the second
verse, providing a slight increase in timbral saturation and inner motion in comparison with the
first verse.
Just before the downbeat of the second guitar solo and as the distortion guitar is gaining
strength, the organ player increases the Leslie speaker rotation, helping to disturb the foreground
smoothness. At the same time, Waters lets his last bass note fall downward in a glissando that
further disturbs the dying smoothness and foreshadows the downward pentatonic-scale
adventures of the guitar solo to come.
Throughout the second guitar solo, the drum kit increases in intensity in tandem with the
solo guitar; this buildup occurs most noticeably through more frequent use of the crash cymbal
as well as the addition of more than one type of crash cymbal.
Chávez 34
Meaning
The central irony of “Comfortably Numb” is that it does not end up that way (neither
comfortable nor numb). Despite the smoothness and beauty of timbre, texture, and harmony
throughout much of the song, its final destination is with the painful cries of the solo guitar.
“Comfortably Numb” begins out of a brief moment of silence, in contrast with the no-
break transitions between most of the songs from The Wall (though similar to the silence which
precedes “Mother,” the song which follows “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”). A crescendoing
chorus of speaking and singing voices has just ended in Pink's lonely question, reprising the only
lyric from the earlier song of the same name: “Is there anybody out there?” The reverberation of
the spoken words hangs in midair for a few moments, and just as it has faded into silence,
“Comfortably Numb” begins with a straightforward two-measure introduction. Immediately
thereafter, the vocals enter with “Hello, is there anybody in there?” This questions and its
counterpart just posed by Pink (“Is there anybody out there?”) demonstrate how completely
Pink's wall has cut him off from human interaction.
Among other downward motions, the repeated descending bass line of the verses and
final guitar solo—particularly the three-note G-F#-E stepwise motif in the middle—depict Pink's
seemingly inevitable descent into sadness, alienation, and mental illness. Pink is also nearing a
descent into hostility. The feelings of isolation and hostility in “Comfortably Numb” and “In the
Flesh” stem partly from Waters' experiences on a 1977 tour, especially a confrontation with a
audience member which included Waters spitting in the audience member's eye. According to
Jones, Waters was “horrified by his own behavior” and this event catalyzed Waters' image of a
Chávez 35
physical barrier—a wall—between himself and the audience (1996, 122).
The three-note stepwise motif exists in inversion as the initial ascent in the verses of
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.” This ascending version will be repeated over and over in a
melodramatic, sinister style during “The Trial” as Pink listens to the accusatory voices in his
mind.
In the movie version of The Wall, live action gives way to surreal animation at the start of
the first guitar solo. The hopeful flight of a bird gives way to a post-apocalyptic wasteland, filled
with images of death and decay. Similarly, though the first guitar solo contains harmonic
buoyancy and a greater timbral restraint, the second solo descends into the relative minor and lets
loose the timbres of angst.
The second solo comes after another verse-chorus cycle. By this time, Pink is being
forced to the stage, though he is in no condition to perform. In the film version of The Wall, Pink
explodes into a violent rampage at the beginning of the second solo, throwing objects around the
room to the terrified dismay of his female companion. He soon is shown being arrested and then
encased in a surreal, fleshy cocoon, with a face reminiscent of the masks the children wore in
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.”
The focused melodic and harmonic finality of the final solo, further emphasized through
the more harshly distorted timbre of Gilmour's guitar, gives a final answer to the implied
question of whether or not being “comfortably numb” is an effective balm. Instead of the
hopeful, floating D major which sounded so fresh at the end of each chorus and the first guitar
solo, the true destination of this song is an angst-filled B-minor.
The soon-to-be-reprised opening song “In the Flesh” caricatures heavy guitar anthems,
Chávez 36
disparaging large-scale rock concerts as a mode of communication. “Comfortably Numb”
displays a greater degree of patience and good taste applied to a similar distortion guitar sound;
Gilmour and company patiently delay the most intense timbres until the second guitar solo to
memorably convey a painful chapter in Pink's story.
Conclusion
No matter how many how many attributes we analyze, there remains something
inexpressible and unquantifiable that makes certain music endure, at least in the ears of the
individual listener. However, rather than just succumb to an analytical/musicological philosophy
of blanket positivism or bland neutrality, further research is warranted. It is fully possible that
many or all of the same structural and functional properties observed above would also apply to
other less-timeless works. According to Moore, “In rock contexts (as in almost all improvising
styles worldwide), improvisation consists of the re-playing of formulae, learnt either
systematically or in an ad hoc fashion, these formulae representing the rules shared by the
community” (2001, 83). Certainly, this statement applies to the foreground-level of Gilmour's
solos; the statement may also hold true at deeper structural levels. However, there may also be
qualities that tend to characterize those rock guitar solos that make their way into an evolving
canon of “classics” as opposed to the solos which are less rewarding for repeat listening.
Gilmour and his bandmates have created classics of the genre in The Wall, songs which
borrow from the blues without necessarily conforming to the harmonic stasis or other norms of
the blues. In “Another Brick in the Wall, Part II,” the solo brings musical closure and interest to
the song while representing the non-conformism longed for in the lyrics. The two solos from
Chávez 37
“Comfortably Numb” encapsulate the downward trajectory of the song—moments of comfort
give way to depths of anguish. While the first solo seems to float above the downward pull
apparent in the verses, the second solo focuses on the piece's destination, crying out from within
(but also conforming to) the verse harmony.
Gilmour's place in the “canon” of rock guitar is assured. His legacy rests not only on his
famous “tone” (timbral voice) and vocal-like string bends, but also on his skill at crafting
memorable solos that function effectively within the songs and song cycles (albums) in which
they live. Though they may not have created their instrumental solos entirely in moment-by-
moment improvisation, Pink Floyd's combination of spontaneity and careful studiocraft resulted
in music that still sounds fresh decades later.
Chávez 38
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