“I've been in The Who, I've been in The Beatles and I've been in Pink Floyd! Top that!”
Record Collector (May 2003)
David Jon Gilmour, is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a longtime member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He joined the group as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1968, effectively as a replacement for founder member Syd Barrett, who was dismissed from the band shortly afterwards.
Pink Floyd subsequently achieved international success with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall. By the early 1980s, they had become one of the most critically acclaimed and best-selling acts in the history of popular music; it was estimated that by 2012 the band had sold over 250 million records worldwide, including 75 million units sold in the United States. Following the departure of another founder member, Roger Waters, Gilmour assumed leadership of Pink Floyd in 1985.
In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has produced a variety of artists, for example the Dream Academy, and has had a solo career which has included four studio albums: David Gilmour, About Face, On an Island, and Rattle That Lock. As a member of Pink Floyd, he was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2005, Gilmour was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music. He was awarded with the Outstanding Contribution title at the 2008 Q Awards. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 14 in their list of the greatest guitarists of all time. Additionally, Gilmour was voted number 36 in the greatest voices in rock by Planet Rock listeners in 2009.
He has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to such subjects as animal rights, homelessness, poverty, environmentalism, wildlife conservation, human rights, and music therapy. He has married twice and is the father of eight children.
“I've been in The Who, I've been in The Beatles and I've been in Pink Floyd! Top that!”
Record Collector (May 2003)
Source: The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and Son
“I mean that it's all right to go to bed with an asshole but don't ever have a baby with one.”
Source: The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and Son
“It's about the quality of the worry," I said. "I have happier worries now than I used to.”
Source: The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and Son
“And so all things time will mend,
So this song will end.”
"Childhood's End", on Obscured by Clouds (1972)
Context: Who are you and who am I
To say we know the reason why
Some are born, some men die,
Beneath one infinite sky?
There'll be war, there'll be peace,
But everything one day will cease,
All the iron turned to rust,
All the proud men turned to dust,
And so all things time will mend,
So this song will end.
On Roger Waters, as quoted in Rock Compact Disc (September 1992)
As quoted in Sounds : Guitar Heroes (May 1983)
Context: My technique is laughable at times. I have developed a style of my own, I suppose, which creeps around … I don't have to have too much technique for it. I've developed the parts of my technique that are useful to me. I'll never be a very fast guitar player. I don't really know what to say about my style. There's always a melodic intent in there.
“All the fears never voiced say you have to make your final choice.”
"Childhood's End", on Obscured by Clouds (1972)
Context: You find your eyes are growing moist.
All the fears never voiced say you have to make your final choice.
"Childhood's End", on Obscured by Clouds (1972)
Context: Who are you and who am I
To say we know the reason why
Some are born, some men die,
Beneath one infinite sky?
There'll be war, there'll be peace,
But everything one day will cease,
All the iron turned to rust,
All the proud men turned to dust,
And so all things time will mend,
So this song will end.
Listening to The Man with the Child in His Eyes
The Kate Bush Story (2014)
… We were making — Pink Floyd was making the Wish You Were Here album, and I think we had the record company people down at Abbey Road, in number 3, and I said to them "Do you want to hear something I've got? And they said "sure", so we found another room, and I played it to them, "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", and they said "Yep, thank you – we'll have it."
On first hearing 15-year-old Kate Bush's demo tapes, and meeting with her.
The Kate Bush Story (2014)
"Childhood's End", on Obscured by Clouds (1972)
Context: You shout in your sleep.
Perhaps the price is just too steep.
Is your conscience at rest if once put to the test?
You awake with a start to just the beating of your heart.
Just one man beneath the sky,
Just two ears, just two eyes.
As quoted in Musician (December 1982)
“It's crazy that America gives such a paltry percentage of its GNP to the starving nations.”
Comment regarding the Pink Floyd reunion concert to protest G8 policies, as quoted in The Scotsman (June 2005) http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4681299
Ruling out the possibility of a permanent reunion of Pink Floyd in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica (February 2006)
“Where would rock and roll be without feedback?”
Dark Side of the Moon Sessions
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)
“Jimi Hendrix isn't as good as me!”
Dark Side of the Moon Sessions
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)
“Obviously, they're all a gang of idiots. But, you know… live and let live.”
About the band, in Dark Side of the Moon Sessions
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)
On guitar solos, in an interview in Time, quoted in Classic Albums: Pink Floyd – The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon (2003)