Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is one of the greatest rock guitarists ever. Preferring a cerebral, emotive approach over the brash technical peacocking that guitar heroes often do, his finest moments rank among some of his era’s most impactful. Whilst numerous flourishes stand out in Gilmour’s oeuvre, no one can doubt that his performance on ‘Comfortably Numb’ lodges a strong claim for the crown. The guitar solo is one of the most iconic in history.
The song is a highlight of the British band’s seminal 1979 album, The Wall, a record marred by the ongoing schism in the band that saw vocalist and bassist Roger Waters becoming increasingly atomised from the rest of the group, Gilmour and Nick Mason.
During this period, keyboardist and original member Richard Wright would leave under somewhat acrimonious circumstances. However, much of the tension during this period and the following one was centred on the increasing rivalry between Waters and Gilmour, the two most dominant personalities in the group. This would play a significant role in their decades-long feud that is still ongoing today.
Gilmour and the album’s co-producer, Bob Ezrin, looked back on this during a 2015 conversation with Guitar World. After Ezrin outlined the antithesis between Gilmour and Waters, the former revealed the ingenious way he devised the guitar solo on ‘Comfortably Numb’.
“My job was to mediate between two dominant personalities,” Ezrin started his account. “I fought for the introduction of the orchestra on that record.” He continued: “This became a big issue on ‘Comfortably Numb,’ which Dave saw as a more bare-bones track. Roger sided with me. So the song became a true collaboration—it’s David’s music, Roger’s lyric and my orchestral chart.”
It was revealed that the track’s highlight, Gilmour’s guitar solo, was cut using a combination of Gilmour’s Hiwatt amplifiers and Yamaha rotating speaker cabinets. The producer then noted how equipment comes secondary to the guitarist’s talent: “You can give him a ukulele, and he’ll make it sound like a Stradivarius.”
Following this, Gilmour described his meticulous system for creating his epic guitar solo. “I banged out five or six solos,” Gilmour said. “From there, I just followed my usual procedure, which is to listen back to each solo and make a chart, noting which bits are good. Then, by following the chart, I create one great composite solo by whipping one fader up, then another fader, jumping from phrase to phrase until everything flows together. That’s the way we did it on ‘Comfortably Numb.’”
Listen to ‘Comfortably Numb’ below.
