.....I can't explain, you'll definitely not understand.why have I become Comfortably Numb? According to most Floyd followers,this shoulda been the first one to discuss in this blog.But its such an overwhelming experience for me,I could never bring myself to describe it,cos I really can't.
But anyway,I've done it enough injustice now.It is,quite simply,the greatest song I've heard in my entire fuckin life,its an experience that transports me to alternate levels. I enjoy it soo fuckin much that I'm afraid anyday they're gonna declare it illegal. I'm quite in the state that Pink is in during this song(in the movie).
So what is so great about this one?Hmmm.....everything I guess. Waters wrote the lyrics,and Gilmour wrote most of the music,and their collective effort,a rare thing at the time when the album was recorded,does show up as something exceptional in comparision to the rest of the album. Gilmour himself has said about the recording sessions,"We [Gilmour and Waters] argued over Comfortably Numb like mad. Really had a big fight, went on for ages".They were absolutely at loggerheads during the entire recording.Waters had written the lyrics in continuity with the entire album.At this stage in the album,the protagonist Pink is in a state of delirium,nearly comatose.The show is about to start and his manager desperately tries to bring back his consciousness,even as the doctor protests pleading that his condition is too bad.
The lyrics are basically a conversation between the Doc and Pink.The parts that Waters sings (starying with the haunting "Hello,hello....") are the doc's words,as he enquires Pink about his condition.Gilmour's part("there is no pain....") is Pink's reply.Gilmour being basically a musician,prefers to divide the song into 2 parts musically.Dark(the doctor's part) and Light (pink's reply).If u don't know what that means and haven't heard the song,listen to it and you'll understand it perfectly.Needless to say,the words are BEAUtiful.Waters is a magician,theres no two ways about it.
But the reason the song has gone on to become both Floyd and Classic rock's flagship number is definitely Gilmour's magic with his Fender strat.When you listen to the song for the first time,the music does invade your senses much faster than the lyrics and its only after a period that you start to pay attention to the lyrics.Gilmour's overall musical arrangement for the song and his two soarin-like-an-eagle-and-haunting-like-a-haunted-house guitar solos hits you so hard you get addicted instantaneously.He had written the music for it seperately for his solo album and brought it to the recording sessions. The two legends argued over the opening part and in the end Waters won.As it appears to me the conversation apparently ended in a "Ok-you-sing-your-part-I-sing-mine" kind of a truce,cos that is what they did.
The song starts of with Waters dark and haunting voice calling out "Hello,hello,hello....." and later gives way to the Light part sung by Gilmour.The first solo follows which immediately catches hold of me and takes me as high as the first note.Then its a crashing fall as the Dark Knight Returns(whoopsiedaisies!).The second verse is followed by one of the most famous solos in the history of rock n roll.I love the original version(The Wall) but I'm simply addicted to the one Gilmour played in Pulse.Its a couple of minutes longer and many levels higher than the album version.People try to convince me all the time that I'd enjoy it much,much more if I were stoned,but I try to make them realise that if I enjoyed it any more it would be positively illegal.
Man,why have modern day musicians given up on the guitar???Some psycho serial killer please eliminate all the rappers and hip-hoppers and pop stars and boy bands and shakiras and remix artists and punjabi musicians so that its the rule of rock-n-roll all over again.Why wasnt I alive in the 70's?Why,why,why???
