Understanding Comfortably Numb

Is there anybody out there? Pink Floyd's The Wall is a masterpiece, fusing a complex narrative with brilliantly written music, and possibly its greatest moment is Comfortably Numb. It shows the main character trapped within his own head, and juxtaposes the doctor trying to pull him back against his own internal monologue, but how? Musically speaking, what's the trick? Well, with some very clever uses of relatively simple musical ideas, the song manages to create two wildly different harmonic worlds to carry the two halves of the song's story. Plus, we take a look at what is considered by many to be one of the greatest guitar solos ever, and break down a bit of the structure underneath that, too!
dannym3141says...

That's why Gilmour's solos are so good! Everyone talks about people with insane technical skill, but this... well, it just sounds really, really good. And that's what it's about!

ChaosEnginesaid:

Fascinating analysis of a *quality song.

And the solo damn near brings me to tears everytime I hear it. Such an amazing piece of playing... as he says, it's not super technical, but the feel Gilmour puts into every bend.... it's magic.

Also, it's insanely cool that you can play it in harmony with itself.

Paybacksays...

Of all the things about The Wall that I love, the most amazing (to me) is how utterly timeless it is. Nothing in it dates it. You only get that with truth.

shagen454says...

Ah, the only track off The Wall I ever liked. It's always bothered me that early Floyd is killer and all of those junior high / high school The Wall worshippers (who did not listen to early Floyd) really put me off on the Floyd until I got into bands that I consider even better than Floyd - like Faust and CAN, and once my head was straight for real psychedelic music of the late 60's & early 70's - went back into the Floyd catalog and found out how great they were before The (fucking) Wall. Check out Live at Pompeii if you're a Floyd fan and never seen it.

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