Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb Lyrics, Videos and Facts
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Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd
This lens is about my all time favorite song and guitar solo - Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd.
Comfortably Numb is a song by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd from their 1979 double album The Wall. It is one of only three songs on the album for which writing credits are shared between Roger Waters and David Gilmour - melody and most of the music on "Comfortably Numb" was written by Gilmour, while Waters contributed the lyrics and some additional notes. "Comfortably Numb" is one of the most famous Pink Floyd songs, and is known especially for its guitar solos. In 2004, the song was ranked #314 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Lyrics came from Roger Waters' experience when he was injected with tranquillizers for hepatitis by a doctor prior to playing a Pink Floyd show in Philadelphia on the band's 1977 tour for the Animals album.
This song features two guitar solos by David Gilmour, and is a particular favorite with Pink Floyd fans. The final solo is widely revered by fans worldwide as one of Gilmour's best, and is the archetypal rock guitar solo and it is frequently within the top of all guitar solo polls, such as a poll by listeners of digital radio station Planet Rock, in which it was named the best solo of all time. The guitar solo was chosen 4# on Guitar World's "100 Greatest Guitar Solos".
The song is one of the most famous Pink Floyd songs and renowned especially for its guitar solos. In 2004, the song was ranked number 314 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2005, it was the last song ever to be performed by Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason together. In 2011, the song was ranked 5th in the BBC Radio 4's Listener's Desert Island Discs choices.
Comfortably Numb is a song by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd from their 1979 double album The Wall. It is one of only three songs on the album for which writing credits are shared between Roger Waters and David Gilmour - melody and most of the music on "Comfortably Numb" was written by Gilmour, while Waters contributed the lyrics and some additional notes. "Comfortably Numb" is one of the most famous Pink Floyd songs, and is known especially for its guitar solos. In 2004, the song was ranked #314 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Lyrics came from Roger Waters' experience when he was injected with tranquillizers for hepatitis by a doctor prior to playing a Pink Floyd show in Philadelphia on the band's 1977 tour for the Animals album.
This song features two guitar solos by David Gilmour, and is a particular favorite with Pink Floyd fans. The final solo is widely revered by fans worldwide as one of Gilmour's best, and is the archetypal rock guitar solo and it is frequently within the top of all guitar solo polls, such as a poll by listeners of digital radio station Planet Rock, in which it was named the best solo of all time. The guitar solo was chosen 4# on Guitar World's "100 Greatest Guitar Solos".
The song is one of the most famous Pink Floyd songs and renowned especially for its guitar solos. In 2004, the song was ranked number 314 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2005, it was the last song ever to be performed by Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason together. In 2011, the song was ranked 5th in the BBC Radio 4's Listener's Desert Island Discs choices.
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Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb Facts
some interesting facts about the song
- Roger Waters wrote the lyrics. While many people thought the song was about drugs, Waters claims it is not. The lyrics are about what he felt like as a child when he was sick with a fever. As an adult, he got that feeling again sometimes, entering a state of delirium, where he felt detached from reality. He told Mojo magazine (December 2009) that the lines, "When I was a child I had a fever/My hands felt just like two balloons" were autobiographical. He explained: "I remember having the flu or something, an infection with a temperature of 105 and being delirious. It wasn't like the hands looked like balloons, but they looked way too big, frightening. A lot of people think those lines are about masturbation. God knows why."
- In a radio interview around 1980 with Jim Ladd from KLOS in Los Angeles, Waters said part of the song is about the time he got hepatitis but didn't know it. Pink Floyd had to do a show that night in Philadelphia, and the doctor Roger saw gave him a sedative to help the pain, thinking it was a stomach disorder. At the show, Roger's hands were numb "like two toy balloons." He was unable to focus, but also realized the fans didn't care because they were so busy screaming, hence "comfortably" numb. He said most of The Wall is about alienation between the audience and band.
- Exploring further, Mojo asked Waters about the line, "That'll keep you going through the show," referring to getting medicated before going on-stage. He explained: "That comes from a specific show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia (June 29, 1977). I had stomach cramps so bad that I thought I wasn't able to go on. A doctor backstage gave me a shot of something that I swear to God would have killed a f---ing elephant. I did the whole show hardly able to raise my hand above my knee. He said it was a muscular relaxant. But it rendered me almost insensible. It was so bad that at the end of the show, the audience was baying for more. I couldn't do it. They did the encore about me." (thanks, Cody - San Diego, CA)
- Dave Gilmour wrote the music while he was working on a solo album in 1978. He brought it to The Wall sessions and Waters wrote lyrics for it.
- Gilmour believes this song can be divided into 2 sections, dark and light. The light are the parts that begin "When I was a child...," which Gilmour sings. The dark are the "Hello, is there anybody in there" parts, which are sung by Waters.
- Waters and Gilmour had an argument over which version of this to use on the album. They ended up editing two takes together as a compromise. Dave Gilmour said in Guitar World February 1993: "Well, there were two recordings of that, which me and Roger argued about. I'd written it when I was doing my first solo album [David Gilmour, 1978]. We changed the key of the song's opening the E to B, I think. The verse stayed exactly the same. Then we had to add a little bit, because Roger wanted to do the line, 'I have become comfortably numb.' Other than that, it was very, very simple to write. But the arguments on it were about how it should be mixed and which track we should use. We'd done one track with Nick Mason an drums that I thought was too rough and sloppy. We had another go at it and I thought that the second take was better. Roger disagreed. It was more an ego thing than anything else. We really went head to head with each other over such a minor thing. I probably couldn't tell the difference if you put both versions on a record today. But, anyway, it wound up with us taking a fill out of one version and putting it into another version."
- This was the last song Waters and Gilmour wrote together. In 1986 Waters left the band and felt there should be no Pink Floyd without him.
When they played this on The Wall tour, a 35 foot wall was erected between the band and the audience as part of the show. As the wall went up, Gilmour was raised above it on a hydraulic lift to perform the guitar solo. It was his favorite part of the show. - In the movie The Wall, this plays in a scene where the main character, a rock star named "Pink," loses his mind and enters a catatonic state before a show. It was similar to what Syd Barrett, an original member of the band, went through in 1968 when he became mentally ill and was kicked out of the band.
- This song is the final step in Pink's (Roger Water's) transformation into the Neo-Nazi, fascist character you see in the movie The Wall. Medics and the band manager come in and give Pink a shot to pull him out of his catatonic stupor, the manager pays protesting Meds some cash to shut up and let him take Pink to the concert in the state he's in (obviously a threat to his health, but the Meds, who probably don't make enough money, accept). In the movie Pink begins to melt on the way there, and underneath he finds that he is the cruel, fascist model of a Nazi party representative by the time he arrives at the concert. Supporting this, afterwards are the songs "The Show Must Go On" (Pink realizing as he gets to the show that there isn't really any turning back, and he's forced to go on-stage), "In the Flesh II" (the redone version of the first song on the album, now with Nazi-Pink singing, threatening random minorities), and "Run Like Hell" (after the crowd, loving nazi-Pink, has been whipped into a frenzy, now hunting minorities in the street, much like late 1930 Germany). While it does seem that this is a song about the "joy of heroin," it has little, if any connection to heroin even if it's condition resembles that of somebody who's totally wasted. (thanks, Alex - Town, CT)
A dance version by the Scissor Sisters was a #10 UK hit in 2004. It was released as the B-side of their first single, "Electrobix," but drew much more attention. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France) - Van Morrison played this with Roger Waters at a 1990 concert Waters organized in Berlin to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall. This version was used in the movie The Departed and also appeared in an episode of The Simpsons.
- Gilmour's second guitar solo on "Comfortably Numb" regularly appears in Best Guitar Solo of All Time polls. In an August 2006 poll by viewers of TV music channel Planet Rock it was voted the greatest guitar solo of all time. For the solo, the Pink Floyd guitarist used a heavy pick on his Fender Strat with maple neck through a Big Muff and delay via a Hiwatt amp and a Yamaha RA-200 rotating speaker cabinet. Gilmour told Guitar World that the solo didn't take long to develop: "I just went out into the studio and banged out 5 or 6 solos. From there I just followed my usual procedure, which is to listen back to each solo and mark out bar lines, saying which bits are good. In other words, I make a chart, putting ticks and crosses on different bars as I count through: two ticks if it's really good, one tick if it's good and cross if it's no go. Then I just follow the chart, whipping one fader up, then another fader, jumping from phrase to phrase and trying to make a really nice solo all the way through. That's the way we did it on 'Comfortably Numb.' It wasn't that difficult. But sometimes you find yourself jumping from one note to another in an impossible way. Then you have to go to another place and find a transition that sounds more natural."
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Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb Lyrics
Hello,
Is there anybody in there
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone at home
Come on now
I hear you're feeling down
I can ease your pain
And get you on your feet again
Relax
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts
There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand
This is not how I am
I have become comfortably numb
O.K.
Just a little pin prick
There'll be no more aaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working, good
That'll keep you going through the show
Come on it's time to go.
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
And I have become
Comfortably numb.
Comfortably Numb Guitar Solo
one of the best guitar solos of all times!
This song features two guitar solos by David Gilmour. The chorus guitar solo is in the key of D major, and the long outro solo is in the key of B minor. In 1989, the readers of the Pink Floyd fanzine, The Amazing Pudding, voted this song the best Floyd song of all time. David Gilmour's solo was rated the 4th best guitar solo of all-time by Guitar World magazine, in a reader poll. Also on Guitar World, there are details on David Gilmour's "Comfortably Numb" solo, stating that the solo (most likely the outro solo) was pieced together from several other solos that he had been experimenting with at the time. In August 2006, it was voted the greatest guitar solo of all time in a poll by listeners of digital radio station Planet Rock. In addition, Gilmour's guitar tone in the song was named best guitar sound by Guitarist magazine in November 2010. Best Comfortably Numb Solo
Comfortably Numb solo from P.U.L.S.E.
Comfortably Numb Guitar Solo by David Gilmour - P.U.L.S.E 1994, The Best Guitar Solo Ever.
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more info about Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb
Below you can find even more interesting and useful information about Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. Check out more song facts and lyrics meanings, find more detailed info about the song and some other cool stuff about Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb.
- Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd Songfacts
- Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position
- Pink Floyd Online
- Comprehensive and Interactive fan site. Some features include Pink Floyd news, chat, message board, lyrics, discography, tabs, shirts, store, and more.
- Comfortably Numb on Last.fm
- About Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb on Last.fm.
Comfortably Numb Videos
Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb on YouTube
Comfortably Numb on Amazon
Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb on iTunes
buy the song on iTunes!
Below you can find different versions of Comfortably Numb that you can find and buy on iTunes.
| Track | Artist | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comfortably Numb (Live) | Pink Floyd | Pulse (Live) | |
| Comfortably Numb (Live) | Pink Floyd | Delicate Sound of Thunder (Live) | |
| Comfortably Numb | Roger Waters featuring Van Morrison & The Band | The Departed (Music from the Motion Picture) | |
| Comfortably Numb (Live) | Roger Waters | In the Flesh (Live) |
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Guestbook Comments
share your comments about Comfortably Numb
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Danzuc
Oct 10, 2011 @ 10:23 am | delete
- One of my favorites from Pink Floyd. Nice lens.
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verkeerd
Sep 9, 2011 @ 1:24 pm | delete
- I felt the same pleasure reading your well documented lens as listening to the song again. Thank you!
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riff999
Aug 2, 2011 @ 5:03 pm | delete
- Great tribute lens to a great song! Blessed.
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Travel_Zone
Jul 29, 2011 @ 6:30 am | delete
- great lens
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand
do u know the meaning of these line??
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Travel_Zone
Jul 29, 2011 @ 6:30 am | delete
- great lens
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand
do u know the meaning of these line??
-
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Pink Floyd The Wall
The Wall
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The Wall is less a collection of songs than a single work, which is sometimes frustrating; the plot lacks enough coherence to hold the snippets of music together. However, there are occasional flashes of brilliance on what ranks as Pink Floyd's most ambitious project. Most of these come from the fully developed songs, which have become classics in their own right. "Hey You," "Mother," and especially "Comfortably Numb" are subtle, incredible pieces of music. Though complex, they move at a relaxed pace, allowing the listener to absorb them slowly; this kind of pacing was something Pink Floyd excelled at. Also worth noting is the "Another Brick in the Wall/The Happiest Days of Our Lives" medley, which has become a staple of rock radio. --Genevieve Williams
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This lens is about my all time favorite song and guitar solo - Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd.
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