David Gilmour (album)

David Gilmour
Studio album by David Gilmour
Released	25 May 1978 (UK) 17 June 1978 (US)
Recorded	December 1977–January 1978 at Super Bear Studios, France
Genre	Blues rock, progressive rock
Length	46:18
Label	Harvest (UK) Columbia (US)
Producer	David Gilmour
David Gilmour chronology
David Gilmour (1978) About Face (1984)
Singles from David Gilmour
"There's No Way Out of Here" Released: 1978

David Gilmour is the first solo album by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. The album was released in May & June 1978 in the UK and the US respectively. The album reached number 17 in the UK,^[1] while number 29 on the Billboard US album charts and was certified Gold in the US by the RIAA. The album was produced by Gilmour, and consists mostly of bluesy, guitar oriented rock songs except for the piano-dominated ballad "So Far Away".

History

The album was recorded at Super Bear Studios in France between December 1977 and early January 1978 with engineer John Etchells. Then the album was mixed at the same studio in March 1978 by Nick Griffiths. The cover was done by Hipgnosis and Gilmour. There was no credit for playing guitar (which Gilmour did) on the original EMI pressings of the original album LP-cover. Gilmour is credited for contributing "Keyboards, Vocals". The CBS/Columbia pressings (outside Europe) listed Gilmour for contributing "Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals". Among those depicted on the sleeve are Gilmour's then-wife, Ginger. Session musicians include Peter Frampton's former bassist Rick Wills and drummer Willie Wilson, who (with Gilmour) used to be part of Jokers Wild.

Single and songs

The album's only single was "There's No Way Out of Here" which flopped in Europe, but the song is still played on US FM radio today, on stations with an AOR or classic rock format—stations most likely to play Pink Floyd. The song was originally recorded by the band Unicorn (then titled "No Way Out of Here") for their 1976 album Too Many Crooks (Harvest Records, US title Unicorn 2), which Gilmour produced.^[2][3] The song was also covered later by New Jersey stoner metal band Monster Magnet on their Monolithic Baby! album.

One unused tune he wrote and demoed at the time would evolve, via collaboration with Roger Waters, into Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" from The Wall. However, a song included on this album, the piano ballad "So Far Away", uses a chorus progression not unlike the chorus to "Comfortably Numb", albeit in a different key.^[4]

Likewise, the song "Short and Sweet" can be seen as a musical precursor to "Run Like Hell" (also from The Wall), with its shifting chords over a D pedal point, using a flanged guitar in Drop D tuning.^[5] "Short and Sweet" was written in collaboration with Roy Harper, who recorded his own version for his 1980 album The Unknown Soldier.

Promotion

A five song promotional film was made to promote the album. The band comprised Gilmour himself on guitars and vocals plus the two musicians on the album (bass player Rick Wills and drummer Willie Wilson) plus David Gilmour's brother Mark on rhythm guitar and Ian McLagan on keyboards and performed "Mihalis", "There's No Way Out of Here", "So Far Away", "No Way", and "I Can't Breathe Anymore". There were additional female backing singers on "There's No Way Out of Here" and "So Far Away".

Also, Gilmour promoted the album with his first ever interviews with North American media and FM rock radio stations. The promotion paid off as the album made a respectable showing on the Billboard album charts peaking at number 29, which - until 2006's On an Island - was Gilmour's highest charting solo album in the US, eventually going Gold.

Song variations

The performances of the tracks in the promotional film differed to the album versions. "Mihalis" had an extended ending guitar solo. "There's No Way Out of Here" was slightly shorter as one of the verses was deleted but the ending guitar solo was different from that on the album and had a clean ending instead of fading out like on album version. "So Far Away" had an extended ending guitar solo on this performance and ended in a faster tempo than the album version.

The performance of "No Way" had Gilmour playing regular lead guitar solos at the end of the track on his Fender Esquire (with distortion) instead of the lap steel guitar solos (with distortion) that had appeared on the album version and had a clean ending instead of fading out like on the album (the remastered CD version of the album had Gilmour's lap steel solo extended this time to feature a duel between himself playing high notes on his lap steel and lower notes on his trademark Stratocaster during the fadeout on the remaster). The middle part of the album version, for where the first of two lap steel guitar solos were on the album version, was deleted.

"I Can't Breathe Anymore" had Gilmour playing a regular guitar solo at the end of this song's performance while on the album version (and on the remastered CD in an extended coda), a distorted lap steel guitar countered the ending guitar solo. The ending of the promo performance of "I Can't Breathe Anymore" was longer than on the album.

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[6]
Tentative Reviews	[7]
Piero Scaruffi	(4/10)[8]

The album was released in the UK on 25 May 1978, and on 17 June 1978 in the US, on Harvest and Columbia respectively.

In an interview with Circus Magazine in 1978, Gilmour said this: "This album (David Gilmour) was important to me in terms of self respect. At first I didn't think my name was big enough to carry it. Being in a group for so long can be a bit claustrophobic, and I needed to step out from behind Pink Floyd's shadow."

David Gilmour was re-released by EMI Records in Europe as a digitally remastered CD on 14 August 2006. Legacy Recordings/Columbia Records released the remastered CD in the US and Canada on 12 September 2006.

Track listing

All songs by David Gilmour, except as noted.

Side one

1. "Mihalis" – 5:46
2. "There's No Way Out of Here" (Ken Baker) – 5:08
3. "Cry from the Street" (Gilmour/Electra Stuart) – 5:13
4. "So Far Away" – 6:04

Side two

5. "Short and Sweet" (Gilmour/Roy Harper) – 5:30
6. "Raise My Rent" – 5:33
7. "No Way" – 5:32
8. "It's Deafinitely" – 4:27
9. "I Can't Breathe Anymore" – 3:04

Personnel

• David Gilmour – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, keyboards, lap steel guitar on "No Way" and "I Can't Breathe Anymore", piano on "So Far Away", harmonica on "There's No Way Out of Here", producer, cover design
• Rick Wills – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Willie Wilson – drums, percussion
• Mick Weaver – additional piano on "So Far Away"
• Carlena Williams – backing vocals on "There's No Way Out of Here" and "So Far Away"
• Debbie Doss – backing vocals on "There's No Way Out of Here" and "So Far Away"
• Hipgnosis – cover design, photography
• Sangwook Nam – remastering on 2006 remaster
• Doug Sax – remastering on 2006 remaster

Charts

References