Bob Ezrin: Comfortably Numb Solo war David Gilmour’s erster Versuch

Apropos Comfortably Numb Solo, das von Jon Carin abwertend dargestellt wurde, wegen der verwendeten Spiegelkugeln, Lasershow und dem wahrscheinlich viel zu langen Gitarrensolo. Es soll Leute geben, die, die Ursprungsversion, also mit Gitarre und so … schätzen. Der renommierte Musikproduzent Bob Ezrin beispielsweise berichtete vor ein paar Wochen, in einem Interview für das Total Guitar Magazin (8/2022), von seinen Erinnerungen, als David Gilmour im Studio das Solo von Comfortably Numb im ersten Versuch auf das Brett nagelte!

Diesen Moment hat Ezrin bis heute nicht vergessen und sagte, dass Gilmour der beste Gitarrist sei, mit dem er je zusammengearbeitet hat. Ich denke, das sagt viel aus und bildet den Stellenwert von Gilmour ab.

Einen solchen Musiker hätte jede Band gern, oder? Einen Gitarristen, der mit zu den besten gezählt wird, egal, was er spielt. Vielleicht kann er auch noch gut singen, sieht passabel aus, haut ein geniales Solo nach dem andere raus, okay, das wäre dann doch zu viel des Guten …

BOB EZRIN ÜBER DAVID GILMOUR’S COMFORTABLY NUMB SOLO

The second solo in Comfortably Numb, which may be the best solo of all time, is actually a first take. It was so powerful when I heard it and saw him play it, it literally brought tears to my eyes – and it has many times since then.

Even though this is a record that I participated in, and by all rights by now should be fairly dry for me, that moment is still, for me, one of the most emotional moments in all of music.

It was always that first moment of inspiration that produced the magic.

BOB EZRIN ÜBER DAVID GILMOUR’S TALENTE

He has an innate musicality that’s informed by the blues. So he’s incredibly lyrical and melodic, and all his melodic structures are built on a blues foundation. And that makes them really soulful. 

Aside from that he has a majesty of tone, and that comes from the combination of his slow vibrato and his really precise picking and how strongly he holds the strings, so that the notes ring a long, long time. Add to that an amazing instinct for what’s going to work where, and you end up with one of the greatest guitar players of all time.

For me, the bottom line about David Gilmour is you could give him a ukulele and a Pignose amp and he’d still make it sound majestic, beautiful and stirring.

It’s in the fingers, ultimately, and he has an exquisite left hand. He massages the music out of the guitar. And also his right hand – the combination of picking and the occasional use of the tremolo bar, again it’s kind of caressing the instrument and pulling the sound out of it…

I’ve had the privilege of working with some truly great guitar players in my career, but I have to say that David Gilmour is my favorite of all of them, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Quelle: Guitar World – David Gilmour’s legendary solo in Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb was his first take