Clare Torry über die The Great Gig in the Sky Aufnahmen

Noch wenige Wochen vor der Veröffentlichung von The Dark Side Of The Moon im März 1973 wusste die Band immer noch nicht, was genau mit Great Gig geschehen soll. Viele verschiedene Varianten wurde im Laufe der Tour 1972 und im Studio erprobt.

• The Morality Sequence
• The Lord’s Prayer (Bibel) gelesen von Malcolm Muggeridge (Aufnahme des Autors und Satirikers Malcolm Muggeridge, der war für seine konservative Religionsinterpretation bekannt war)
• Sounds: Hühner …

Schließlich war es Alan Parsons, der mit dem Namen einer jungen Sängerin daherkam, Clare Torry sollte es richten. In einem Interview schildert Torry, wie ihr Gesangbeitrag auf The Great Gig in The Sky zustande kam. Die Band konnte ihr dabei nicht viel helfen. Am Ende war es vielleicht doch ein kühles Heinecken, das David Gilmour der Sängerin servierte, mitentscheidend.

CLARE TORRY: I don’t remember ever working with Alan Parsons. I knew him because he was an EMI engineer at Abbey Road. So, I suppose if I was there I must have noticed him, special because he was very tall, and I’m very short. Apparently, he said he heard my voice on one of these cover versions. Do you remember you could buy them for 10 schillings at Woolworth? Top Of The Pops they were called. And he apparently heard something I had done.

ABBEY ROAD STUDIO – 21. Januar 1973

So, I knew nothing about this. I just had this call from his guy who worked at Abbey Road, called Dennis, who rang me up, and said, “Are You Free to do a Session?”. I was getting quite busy at the time and I couldn’t do what the wanted at the time. No name was mentioned. I had no idea who it was for and didn’t ask. He said, „Oh, they are very keen to you to do something.” Well, I said the only time can do it is next Sunday in the evening. So, he said, I call you back. So, he called me back, and I said, “Who is it?”, and he said Pink Floyd.

I have to be honest. I wasn’t a mad keen fan. So, I went up to Abbey Road and no idea what it was, nobody told me. I didn’t know if walk into the studio and there was being a choir, two other girls, three other girls, no idea. I walked in with my then boyfriend and went into the control room and … the band were there. They presided to explain to me that they were doing this album, it was nearly finished and the concept of the album, birth, and death and everything else in between. They played me the backing track and said, “What do you want?” Basically, they had no idea.

If I look back, I was fairly new to this sort of world and probably quite naive. But anyway, I listened to the track a couple of times. I, personally, had no idea what to do. I said the best thing for me is go into the studio, put the cans on and have a go and see what happens. I started off by going “Ooh-aah, baby, baby — yeah, yeah, yeah”, which is one is tented to do, sort of start. And they said, “no, no, no, we don’t want any words“, well, that really stumped me.

DAVID GILMOUR

So, David Gilmour, I have to say that he was the one that directed me. There wasn’t a word from anybody else, as far as I can remember. David said, would like that I write the chord sequence and I said, „No, No, No“. It sort of happened, when I sort “oh i really don’t know what they want“. And I said that many times before, and It’s absolutely true, that I thought I have to pretend as if I’m an instrument and that gave me an avenue to explore. So, I started doing something, and they said, “we like that“. Okay, and I said to Alan put the red light on and record this, cause usually the first take is the best because it’s very spontaneous and bumm. So, he put the red light on and I started singing and did it. I think exhausting it was.

HEINECKEN

And the funny thing was, and I may have made this up, but, David Gilmour said, “do you like a drink, would like a can of beer?” And I said, “Well that would be nice, yes“. It was a can of Heinecken, so maybe it was done by Heinecken. Then we did another run. And then David said, “I think you could approve on that” and didn’t think I could. So, I started a third track and in the middle stopped and said, “Listen, I think that you really got enough” because it felt very complete.

So, I went into the control room, and they played it and Alan mixed it a bit and not a lot was said and aid “Thank you very much, goodbye” and left. I was very convinced it was never going to see the light because they have not commented, they haven’t said great, awful, nothing. I honestly thought they didn’t like it. I didn’t gave it much thought because I never thought anybody would hear it. I did feel at the time it was an experiment, they weren’t quite sure they might very sure put a saxophone solo on it, or I don’t know, a string quartet.

As I said, I didn’t gave it much thought until, in about march, I was going back to my flat. I had no idea when the album was coming out. I was on my way home and the used to be a record shop in Kings Road just past the Glossy potter, which was near where I lived. There in the window was this now familiar Cover “Pink Floyd New Album” and I thought “Oh, was that was i did?” See, I had no idea.

SCAT

So, I walked in, opened the Album, I think it did not had an title when I was doing the singing. It was just called scat. And there it was “Great Gig In The Sky” Vocal Clare Torry, so, I thought, “Oh, I have to buy that“. I did, and I put some headphones on and listened to the album from beginning to end, and it was really good, and I thought oh thank you very much.

And then that was it, on to the next job. Never gave it much thought. Several months later, I was doing something at Abbey Road and Alan was there, and he said, “Oh, the album was doing really well“. So, I said, “What Album” and he said “Dark Side Of The Moon, yes It’s weird it’s doing well in America“. Oh, fine jolly good … and that was it, really.

How did it happen, who knows? I often wonder because it’s given me some grief over the years. I often think was it the devil griefing up in me or god smiling down on me. Did not figure it out who had the final say. But it was one of those things that happen. I think Roger once said, “A happy accident” that happened in the studio that day in the evening. Strange.

YT: Pink Floyd Clare Torry “The Great Gig in the Sky” interview

Mit Pink Floyd sang Torry 1973 und 1990 in Knebworth The Great Gig In The Sky Live und dreimal engagierte sie Roger Waters 1987.

Im Jahr 2004 beschloss Tory, die Band auf Songwriting-Tantiemen zu verklagen. Die Angelegenheit wurde außergerichtlich beigelegt. The Great Gig In The Sky wird seither Wright / Torry zugeschrieben.

Stream: The Great Gig In The Sky” (2023 Remaster) From The Dark Side Of The Moon 50th Anniversary Edition