Yay! Today is David Gilmour's 63rd birthday!!
So I encourage all of you today to listen to "Comfortably Numb" turned up real loud -- especially during that guitar solo we all know and love. That solo is #4 on Guitar World's 50 Greatest Guitar Solos (after #3 Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird", #2 Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption" and #1 Led Zep's "Stairway to Heaven").
Me and my dad always joke that the mini-solo after the first chorus could easily have put him in the top 10. (In the video below, the "mini-solo" starts at 2:16. The big momma starts at 4:39.)
Here's a video from that Bluray/DVD I was telling you all about, Remember That Night, which is absolutely spine-tingling. However, I am still on the fence about having David Bowie singing the verses... not sure if he does the song justice, but Gilmour's guitar work makes up for it :)
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4 comments:
Awesome...don't forget he not only plays the solo, he WROTE it. The story of HOW he wrote it is very interesting...maybe the topic of a future blog? :)
Gilmour in my oppinion is the greatest guitarist in rock. His sound is completely his own and he plays the guitar with so much soul.
I also would have preffered if Bowie didn't sing on the song, but as long as he didn't interupt David's solo then it's not too bad. Seeing him perform this song live a few years ago was quite possibly the most memorable concert experience of my life.
As much of a fanboy I am of guys like Clapton, SRV, and Alex Lifeson, there is no guitar solo that evokes such raw emotion in me than Gilmour's virtuoso performance in Comfortably Numb. It's pure magic.
Comfortably Numb will always remind me of the birth of my kids (totally appropriate when you are waiting for that epidural). My brother-in-law made me "labor tapes" (that's right, cassette tapes) to listen to while I was in labor and CN was one of the songs among other classics. Not only did it make labor more bearable, but my kids are now young adults and love music from the '70s.
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