Sorrow (Pink Floyd song)

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"Sorrow"
"Sorrow" cover
Song by Pink Floyd
from the album A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Released September 7, 1987 (UK)
September 8, 1987 (US)
Recorded June 1986-1987
Genre Progressive rock
Length 8:46
Writer(s) David Gilmour
A Momentary Lapse of Reason track listing
A New Machine (Part 2)
(9)
"Sorrow"
(10)
N/A

Sorrow is the final track from Pink Floyd's 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason. It was written and composed by guitarist David Gilmour. Gilmour has stated about the song that though lyrics aren't his strong point that "Sorrow" is one of his strongest lyrical efforts [1]. Drummer Nick Mason has since stated that Sorrow was almost entirely crafted by David Gilmour alone over the space of one weekend on his houseboat, The Astoria. When he returned from the weekend, only "some spit and polish," according to Mason, was needed. As with many tracks from the album, Gilmour played a Steinberger GL "headless" guitar on this song [2], contributing to the overall cold, "sad" feel of the music. The guitar intro was recorded inside the LA sports arena, piped through Pink Floyd's massive sound system, thus giving the tone an extremely deep, cavernous sound. The drum machine on the song was programmed by David Gilmour - for the studio recording, no real drums were used.

[edit] Other versions

Live versions of the song are featured on 1988's Delicate Sound of Thunder album and 1995's P*U*L*S*E album, with running times of 9:27 and 10:49 respectively, mostly taken up by extended solos by Gilmour and an additional outro. A slightly shortened version of the song appears on Pink Floyd's greatest hits collection, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, which is edited so that the song "Sheep" segues into Sorrow. David Gilmour played the song at the "Strat-pack" guitar concert, an event which commerated the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]