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Buried in Pink Floyd’s 1979’s double LP release The Wall , Comfortably Numb has become a favourite with Floyd fans over the years and a highlight of their live shows.

Pink Floyd Song facts

Composer
Gilmour/Waters

Genre
Rock

Album
The Wall

Year of Release
1979 The song started life during sessions for Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour’s 1978 solo album, but it was not included on the final release. The song did resurface during recording sessions for The Wall , when Gilmour was encouraged by other members of the band to come up with some ideas for the album. The making of The Wall was a stormy process and was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for the future of Pink Floyd as a creative force that could acommodate Roger Waters and the other members of the band. Dave Gilmour stated that “things like Comfortably Numb are really the last embers of Roger and my ability to work collaboratively together – my music, his words". The inspiration for these words came from the ‘Doctor Feelgoods’ that are part of life on the road for a rock band, employed to make sure they make it on stage however bad they might feel. Waters complained that “they’re not interested in any of these problems, all they are interested in is how many people there are and tickets have been sold and the show must go on, at any cost to anybody”.

Sir Bob reveals his love of the song.

Listen to Bob Geldolf

Bob Geldof talks about his love of Comfortably Numb.
 
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Listen to the Scissor Sisters

  Listen to the Scissor Sisters singing Comfortably Numb.

Pure genius. A dark, emotional experience, that leaves you thinking you've just heard something of great invention.
Tim Woods
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