"
Sorrow" is the final track from
Pink FloydPink Floyd were an English rock band who, in the late 1960s, earned recognition for their psychedelic and space rock music, and in the 1970s, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music. Pink Floyd's work is marked by philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album cover art,...
's 1987 album,
A Momentary Lapse of ReasonA Momentary Lapse of Reason is a studio album by Pink Floyd released by EMI Records on 8 September 1987, in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States by Columbia Records. It was the band's first release after the departure of Roger Waters from the band in 1985...
although it was the seventh song from the album performed in the Momentary Lapse set of the 1987/88/89/90 tours. It was written and composed by guitarist
David GilmourDavid Jon Gilmour CBE is an English musician, best known as the guitarist, lead singer, and one of the songwriters in the rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a record producer for a variety of artists, and has enjoyed a successful career as a solo...
. Gilmour has stated about the song that though lyrics aren't his strong point that "Sorrow" is one of his strongest lyrical efforts , even though the opening lines were appropriated from
John SteinbeckJohn Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and the novella Of Mice and Men . He wrote a total of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories...
's
The Grapes of WrathThe Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers, the Joads, driven from their home by drought,...
.
Drummer
Nick MasonNicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason is the drummer for Pink Floyd. He has been the only constant member of the band since its formation in 1964. He also competes in auto racing events, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans...
has since stated that Sorrow was almost entirely crafted by David Gilmour alone over the space of one weekend on his houseboat, The Astoria.
"
Sorrow" is the final track from
Pink FloydPink Floyd were an English rock band who, in the late 1960s, earned recognition for their psychedelic and space rock music, and in the 1970s, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music. Pink Floyd's work is marked by philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album cover art,...
's 1987 album,
A Momentary Lapse of ReasonA Momentary Lapse of Reason is a studio album by Pink Floyd released by EMI Records on 8 September 1987, in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States by Columbia Records. It was the band's first release after the departure of Roger Waters from the band in 1985...
although it was the seventh song from the album performed in the Momentary Lapse set of the 1987/88/89/90 tours. It was written and composed by guitarist
David GilmourDavid Jon Gilmour CBE is an English musician, best known as the guitarist, lead singer, and one of the songwriters in the rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a record producer for a variety of artists, and has enjoyed a successful career as a solo...
. Gilmour has stated about the song that though lyrics aren't his strong point that "Sorrow" is one of his strongest lyrical efforts , even though the opening lines were appropriated from
John SteinbeckJohn Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and the novella Of Mice and Men . He wrote a total of twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books and five collections of short stories...
's
The Grapes of WrathThe Grapes of Wrath is a novel published in 1939 and written by John Steinbeck, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers, the Joads, driven from their home by drought,...
.
Drummer
Nick MasonNicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason is the drummer for Pink Floyd. He has been the only constant member of the band since its formation in 1964. He also competes in auto racing events, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans...
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 GLSteinberger refers to a series of distinctive electric guitars and bass guitars, designed and originally manufactured by Ned Steinberger. The word Steinberger can be used to refer to either the instruments themselves or the company that produced them...
"
headlessHeadstock or peghead is a part of guitar or similar stringed instrument. The main function of a headstock is holding the instrument's strings. Strings go from the bridge past the nut and are usually fixed on machine heads on headstock...
"
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
on this song , contributing to the overall cold, "sad" feel of the music. The guitar intro was recorded inside a sports arena in
L.ALos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
, piped through Pink Floyd's massive sound system, thus giving the tone an extremely deep, cavernous sound. The
drum machineA drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums and/or other percussion instruments. Drum machines are very useful instruments for a wide variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
on the song was programmed by David Gilmour - for the studio recording, no real drums were used.
Other versions
Live versions of the song are featured on 1988's
Delicate Sound of ThunderDelicate Sound of Thunder is a Pink Floyd live double album from the David Gilmour-led era of the band which was recorded over five nights at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, New York in August 1988 and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in September 1988. It was released on 22 November 1988, through...
album and 1995's
P*U*L*S*EPulse is a live double album by Pink Floyd, released through EMI Records on 29 May 1995, in the United Kingdom and by Columbia Records on 6 June 1995, in the United States, containing songs from their albums The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, The...
album, with running times of 9:27 and 10:49 respectively, mostly taken up by extended
solosGuitar solos are a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which often contain varying degrees of improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, rock, metal and jazz styles such as swing and jazz...
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 FloydEchoes: The Best of Pink Floyd is a compilation album by Pink Floyd. It was released by EMI Records on 5 November 2001, in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States through Capitol Records. It debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart on 24 November 2001, at number 2 with sales...
, which is edited so that the song "
Sheep"Sheep" is a song by the English band Pink Floyd. It was released on the album Animals in 1977. It was originally titled "Raving and Drooling".-History:...
"
segueA segue is a smooth transition from one topic or section to the next.-In music:In music, "segue" is a direction to the performer. It means continue without a pause. It comes from the Italian "it follows". The term attacca is also used in classical music.For written music it implies a transition...
s into
Sorrow.
David GilmourDavid Jon Gilmour CBE is an English musician, best known as the guitarist, lead singer, and one of the songwriters in the rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a record producer for a variety of artists, and has enjoyed a successful career as a solo...
played the song at the "Strat-pack" guitar concert, an event which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the
Fender StratocasterThe Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top horn for balance while standing...
.
Personnel on studio version
- David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour CBE is an English musician, best known as the guitarist, lead singer, and one of the songwriters in the rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a record producer for a variety of artists, and has enjoyed a successful career as a solo...
- guitar, vocals, keyboards, programming, synthesizer and drum machineA drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums and/or other percussion instruments. Drum machines are very useful instruments for a wide variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
- Richard Wright
Richard William "Rick" Wright was an English pianist, keyboardist, vocalist and songwriter, best known for his career with Pink Floyd. Wright's richly textured keyboard layers were a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd's sound...
- Kurzweil synthesizer
- Tony Levin
Tony Levin is an American bass guitarist.Levin is best-known for his work with progressive rock pioneers King Crimson and Peter Gabriel...
- bass guitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
- Bob Ezrin
Robert Alan "Bob" Ezrin is a Canadian record producer, known for his work with artists including Alice Cooper, Kiss and Pink Floyd...
- additional keyboardsA musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...
- Darlene Koldenhaven, Carmen Twillie
Carmen Twillie is a studio singer and actress, not to be confused with the Douglass College dean of the same name. She is a long time friend of Tommy Morgan and has appeared as guest soloist with Morgan's choir....
, Phyllis St. James, Donnie Gerard - backing vocals
Personnel on Delicate Sound and PULSE versions
- David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour CBE is an English musician, best known as the guitarist, lead singer, and one of the songwriters in the rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a record producer for a variety of artists, and has enjoyed a successful career as a solo...
- Guitar, Vocals
- Nick Mason
Nicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason is the drummer for Pink Floyd. He has been the only constant member of the band since its formation in 1964. He also competes in auto racing events, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans...
- Drums
- Richard Wright
Richard William "Rick" Wright was an English pianist, keyboardist, vocalist and songwriter, best known for his career with Pink Floyd. Wright's richly textured keyboard layers were a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd's sound...
- Keyboards, backing vocals
- Guy Pratt
Guy Pratt is a well-known session bassist and also a songwriter, actor and comedian. He is the son of actor Mike Pratt. In Kensington and Chelsea, London, in 1996, Pratt married Gala Wright, the daughter of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright...
- Bass GuitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
- Jon Carin
Jon Carin is a producer, artist and musician best known for his association with Pink Floyd, and more specifically its guitarist David Gilmour and former member Roger Waters over the last twenty five years. In the early eighties, he gained fame as the front-man for the band Industry...
- Keyboards, Backing Vocals and programming
- Tim Renwick
Timothy John Pearson 'Tim' Renwick is anEnglish guitarist.-Career:Renwick started playing guitar in the 1960s. He performed with many bands, including Little Women, Wages of Sin, Junior's Eyes, The Hype, Quiver and Lazy Racer...
- Rhythm Guitar
- Gary Wallis
Gary Wallis is a drummer/percussionist trained at the London Symphony School of Music. He is best known as the secondary percussionist for Pink Floyd in the post-Waters era for live performances...
- Percussion, Drums
- Margret Taylor, Rachel Fury (both on Delicate Sound version), Durga McBroom
Durga McBroom is a singer and actress, born October 16, 1962 in California, who has performed backing vocals for Pink Floyd. She had a long stint with them, being the only backing vocalist to appear consistently on all of the A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Delicate Sound of Thunder and The Division...
(Delicate Sound and PULSE versions), Sam Brown and Claudia FontaineClaudia Fontaine is a backing vocalist from Bethnal Green, London, England. She has sung with Betty Boo, Dusty Springfield, Claudia Brucken, Julia Fordham and the bands Pink Floyd and The Beatmasters...
(latter two backing vocals on PULSE) - backing vocals