Learning to Fly (song)

"Learning to Fly" is the second song on Pink Floyd's album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The first single released from the album, it reached #70 on the Billboard Chart and #1 on Mainstream Rock Tracks. Many fans and critics consider it Pink Floyd's best song after the departure of Roger Waters from the band.

1 Background
2 Music Video
3 Personnel
4 External links

[edit] Background

The song is written largely by David Gilmour. It describes Gilmour's thoughts on flying, for which he has a passion, although some listeners and musical commentators have interpreted it as a metaphor for beginning something new, experiencing a radical change of life, or, more specifically, Gilmour's feelings about striking out as the new leader of Pink Floyd after Roger Waters' departure. Gilmour confirmed the latter interpretation on the Pink Floyd 25th Anniversary Special in May of 1992. Also an avid pilot, drummer Nick Mason's voice can be heard around the middle of the song. The song is the first CD-only single to be released on a global scale. "Learning to Fly" was included on Pink Floyd's greatest hits collection Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.

The track was regularly performed live on the band's two post-Roger Waters tours, with touring guitarist Tim Renwick playing the song's guitar solos (although David Gilmour played the solos on the studio version of the track).

[edit] Music Video

It was filmed in Canada, 50 to 75 km west of the City of Calgary, Alberta during rehearsals for the band's 1987/88/89 tour directed by Storm Thorgerson. The video combined performances of the band with a Native American working in a field who then runs and jumps off a cliff to turn into a hawk. The original video also depicts a factory worker who turns into an aeroplane pilot as well as a child who breaks free from his mother and dives off a cliff into a deep river, swimming away. The video went to #9 on MTV's Video Countdown in November of 1987 and was the #60th best video of MTV's Top 100 Videos of 1987. The video also won the band its only Video Music Award for Best Conceptual Video in 1988. The red aircraft seen in the video is a somewhat rare Beechcraft Staggerwing.