I was a high school junior when this album was released, and today, it's difficult to describe to people just how amazing this was , compared to everything else on the radio.
@@ffjsb Indeed. With no auto-tune bullshit! They played their instruments and sang their songs and that was it. Of course, they used the recording tools they had at hand to make certain effects but it was all done analog. No computers to make it correct. They had to do it themselves.
If crying, wailing and singing can be fused as one in a space, this is it. Clair Torre's haunting vocal in this track is one of the greatest vocal performances in music history.
@Hieronymous_Lane; @@kelleewolfe2834 @kskgrrl973 Each of You clearly, obviously, certainly are full of false ideas, concepts, misconceptions, misinformation, disinformation, false inDOCtrination, Sense Nonsense !! 😞 Death as in Birth nor actual life, have no choice by the physical human; only within the life per each instance, direction, which are also influenced, affected, often directed, certainly actually effected, executed by The Creator. =>Thus, even each one that completely denies, refused The Creator, still has no choice post death, thus includes what happens, occurs post with the body including the funeral; certainly all the more so to the spiritual entity for that hat accept this reality too. Certainly Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart knew these, though wrote a Funeral progression, procession Requiem prior to his death. Good Luck
For me personally, the studio version of this song is simply unbeatable. This was an era where there is no faking it, you hear what they delivered. Claire's take in the studio version was a once in a lifetime. You can't replicate the raw emotion she put out on that take. Live, people will try to mimic it, but it will never be replicated with that moments emotion that Claire delivered in the studio. Such a beautiful song.
10 years ago, I was lying in critical care. My lungs were full of fluid, my kidneys had failed, and Mt pancreas was rumbling. I was given 5% chance of survival, the minister had prayed and my family said goodbye. I was vaguely aware what was going on, plus in a drug induced haze. I heard a voice say if you can hear this, please squeeze my hand. I thought, in the fog, that if I didn't squeeze the hand, I would leave this world, never see my boys with careers, wives, children etc. There was so much to live for, and so I squeezed for all I was worth, just to make sure. Next, I heard a scream. I had nearly broken the nurses hand, and I relaxed in the knowledge I was going to be OK. That was the start of an enormous fight back to normality. OK, I am on dialysis and will be until I die, but I returned to work and can see my boys growing up, with a wedding due. Whenever I look back at the fight life, Claire Torry is in my head at full volume.
Clare Torry was told only that she was to represent vocally (without words) the five emotional stages one goes through when they are dying. First, Denial, then Anger, Bargaining, Depression and finally Acceptance. Her performance was totally improvised and was done over 2 1/2 takes !
She demonstrated a genius that took all of us decades to appreciate. Absolutely remarkable in a way that is one in a lifetime. I thank god that I am here to here this brilliant performance. Say amen.
@@darrenconlon4538 and of course YOU were there ! Other music industry journalists AND Clare herself say 2 1/2 takes and the best parts edited together.
@@darrenconlon4538 According to Clare herself you're wrong. And so is @ppheanix. In an interview (not sure when it was done) she explained how it all went down. All Clare knew beforehand was that it was for a Pink Floyd project. When she got to the studio they explained the concept of the album. In her words it was about "birth and death and everything in between." They then played the backing track. When Clare asked what they wanted from her, they had no idea. So she went into the recording studio and started singing, Oh, baby baby. Yeah, yeah, baby baby (her description, not mine). They stopped her and said, Noooo, we don't want any words. Still clueless of what they did want, and getting no direction from the band, a thought popped into her head that she needed to pretend she's an instrument. Clare felt this gave her something to play with so she went back into the studio and began singing similar to the masterpiece we all know and love. The band said they liked it. She said great, told Alan Parsons to hit record, and did the first take. Once finished, and without any feedback, someone said to do another. She said OK, and after she finished the second take Gilmour said he thought she could improve upon it. She said she didn't think so but agreed to a third. Halfway thru, Clare stopped and told them she thought they had enough (her belief was that the first take is almost always the best). When she left she had no idea whether they liked it or hated it and thought her vocals would never be used. The way she found out she had been included in the final mix was when she saw the new album in the window of a record store while walking home one day. She went in, opened the album, and saw her name in the credits.
Clare Torry's vocals are to represent the 5 stages of grief mourning: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. She improvised the entire vocal portion and she basically just let it rip. Also, Claire Torry's vocal is astonishing, but the chord progressions that Rick Wright plays (and wrote) on piano are unique. He was the soul of Pink Floyd.
If you have evidence that Torry chose to represent Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief, please cite it. Her own interview on the song indicates she didn't.
Excellent post. David Gilmour and Roger Waters get all the accolades, but Pink Floyd wouldn’t have been the same without Wright. “Echoes” is another example of Wright’s genius.
I played this song, (on a boom box), at my brother’s funeral, we were band mates, and played and both loved Pink Floyd. Plus the spoken parts, “I’m not afraid of dying, everybody has to go sometime”, was so much like something he would say! Not everyone at the funeral was a Pink Floyd fan, or ever heard this song before, but it seemed to touch everyone’s Heart! I was bawling, and everyone else too. It is still hard to listen to, I got tearful just posting this comment!
I got evicted for playing this on repeat in 1975 every night, couldn't fall asleep without the Dark Side after suddenly losing my husband. I still think it sounds best high volume. I was v inconsiderate but in emotional distress
@@KateBates22zabu That must have been very difficult for you. I'm sorry you had to go through that.
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Es un testimonio muy triste pero dulce. La realidad es compleja, es lo que transmite este álbum y el repertorio de Pink Floyd: Tristeza, dulzura, paradojas, sueños e ilusiones. Nada más sintomático para esta pieza que en algún momento llegó a llamarse "La secuencia de la mortalidad". Larga vida para esta bella obra musical , The Dark Side of the moon , Feliz 50 aniversario. Saludos desde Santiago de Chile.
@Kate Bates oh no. Another one who used this album to battle insomnia. We need to market this somehow, because I went to bed for months with dark side of the moon in headphones in the early 90s.
My mom passed in 2018, and she requested we play this song. She was born in 1933 and had no idea who Pink Floyd was until she heard me listening to this album when I was a teenager. She asked me to sit with her and listen to the album with her, and I did. From that point on Floyd was her favorite rock band, well, them and Simon and Garfunkel. We played Bridge Over as well. Damn I miss her. Coolest old person ever.
As others have pointed out, Clare Torry improvised this on the spot when recording this after she was told to just make it raw emotion with no words. But what kills me is that after she was done, she apologized because she didn't think it was all that good. But of course, we have one of the greatest vocal performances ever. She contributed so much to the song, that later she was credited with Richard Wright as a co-writer of the song. Just incredible.
I guess after Pink Floyd made millions of dollars from the song, they did throw her a bone with some royalties 30 years after that fateful recording session. Nice seeing a good artist get some due patronage.
@@j_freed I think she had to sue them for more than just the standard rate for doing a session. It was a smart move and well deserved, yes Rick Wright wrote the chord progression, however the singing MAKES this song… she deserves every penny she won from that lawsuit!
@Tom McMurtry Imagine the song as an instrumental - no vocals - and tell Pink what her vocals were worth. They were right to pay up, even if late and under duress.
The BEST non-lyrical vocal track in the history of ALL music...nothing is even close IMHO. Just pure brilliance everytime I listen to this track, and I've listened to it thousands of times. Some days I still tear up listening to her anguish and torment. I fully believe Clare released something that night she recorded this.
The backstory is interesting that she was just paid 30 pounds for it, and years later sued and got more, arguing she was a co-writer of the song. It seemed a friendly resolution, she was then invited for a live version.
@@craig2347 I like that the group was the ones that ASKED her to sue for credit because the record company wouldn't give it freely at the request of the group, and the members of Pink Floyd wanted her to have credit AND residuals.
So agree. Bought 3 copies of the album, back in the 70's, because one would get a little scratch and it would take away from the experience. Clare deserves any and all royalties for her 'writing' efforts on this song. Doesn't ever lose its emotional impact.
It wasn't recorded 'at night'...it was recorded on a sundaymorning. The engineer Alan Parsons (yes the one) knew a talented singer that might be suited to do the vocals on this track. She only had time on sunday morning. They asked to improvise not using words just sound. The bandmembers didn't react while she did her parts. She thought they wouldn't use it while leaving the studio...
I was in my teens when I heard this. I am now 34. When I first heard this I actually felt music and soul, I could not explain it but it opened my mind and heart.
@@rudivonstaden Carlos Santan Dylan, Dead, Clapton, Young, Tull, The Who, Bowie, Gabriel.... I could go on and on Metallica, cheap trick, Elton, Joel,... 😄 the best music by far
I actually prefer the studio version over any of the live versions. There is just a rawness and spontaneity to Clare Torry's performance that achieved magical results that hold up perfectly even a half-century later! This version you're analyzing is nothing short of amazing and, for me, has not been bettered since then.
I agree because it was the first version I heard. And when you hear pulse you see that the first singer did not try to mimic her. At the end of pulse you don't have the same feeling of abandon, peace after the fight. She gave an unity that can't be matched by multiple singers, that's the beauty of the track. Though alternatives are interesting and very challenging for the singer
I totally agree! But a few days ago I listened to a covered version by Atom (sung by Vivianne Donner I think) and I must admit it was really not bad at all (which is not easy to say as a die hard (post Sid Barret) PF fan!
Claire’s version hasn’t been duplicated as far as I know by any other signers. She sang with such force and emotions that driven by her youth and creativity that anyone trying to emulate that effort hasn’t been successful convincing us who listen to her first time on that scratchy LP. It was amazing then and it still gives me chills. Bravo Claire!
@@grateful86 love me some Floyd but it's definitely subjective . Don't forget Zep wrote Achilles Last Stand. To me, that was always their Echoes. Top tier musicianship, you just can't tell me Nick Mason is a better drummer than John Bonham. It just comes down to taste at the end of the day. Pink Floyd just wrote more profound music imo, shit that sticks to your soul
Call me cynical, but I have a hard time believing that these people are actually hearing these songs for the first time. Sure, you can spend your time on opera mostly, but you’re still not living under a rock.
David Gilmour said he was jealous of everyone who ever listen to their music the first time because, he never got that chance.......meaning that he heard the song tracks in the studio as they were built over time so by the time he heard the whole mix of the song they had been listening to it being built piece by piece and never had a chance to listen the impact it makes all at once without ever hearing any piece of being built into a final mix over time like he did in the creation of it..........what a profound and insightful critique of the liability of being the creator of a song as opposed to the listener hearing the finished product all at once.
Thank you for doing this. It’s a tremendous album; it spent _ 736 nonconsecutive weeks_ on the Billboard 200 album charts from from 17 March 1973 to 16 July 1988. It means a whole lot to tens of millions of people. It’s a genuine work of art.
Only fell off because of the CD! People were buying multiple copies over the years when it was only records and tapes that that would wear out! (Mine included) It's just one of those albums I never tire of, even after probably hundreds and hundreds of listens. The recording process and the cutting edge synthesizer tech of the time proved to actually be truly futuristic.
Love your enthusiasm.. will you consider doing.. Ozzy Osborne "diary of a madman " and or.. "so tired ".. also.. did you know.. a lot of the background talking vocals are actually a couple of the Beatles.. George Harrison in particular.. and I believe Ian hunter of mot the Hoople... who just happened to be at the same studio that day
Since I first heard this aged 16, it always brings a lump to my throat and often tears in my eyes! So emotive and they don’t make em like they used to. Sublime.
This is one of a few Pink Floyd songs to use a female vocal. Alan Parsons, who engineered the album, brought in a singer he knew of named Clare Torry. Parsons explained in Rolling Stone, March 12, 2003: "She had to be told not to sing any words: when she first started, she was doing 'Oh yeah baby' and all that kind of stuff, so she had to be restrained on that. But there was no real direction - she just had to feel it." David Gilmour stated in Mojo, March 1998: "We'd been thinking Madeleine Bell or Doris Troy and we couldn't believe it when this housewifely white woman walked in. But when she opened her mouth, well, she wasn't too quick at finessing what we wanted, but out came that orgasmic sound we know and love." Source: Sonfacts
That's right, gorgeous female backing vocals are what lift some Pink Floyd songs from being just ordinary. Giving Torry a lead part of just vocalizations could be the best musical representation of all these exceptional women who worked on their PF albums and solo stuff.
@@richardlaiche8303 key word is background. The OP is refering to female LEAD vocals which Clare is lead vocalist in this song. Roger and David did a majority of lead, Rick did a few and Nick did the narration in One of These days and Learning to Fly.
She walked by the guys in the band as she headed for the door as she had to be somewhere, they didn't say a word - speechless, totally blown away by her performance.
She cried afterward, because she thought she'd done terribly. Got paid, no-one said a word and they were all looking at her with a strange look on their faces.
My Christmas wish this year will be for you to carve out 45 minutes to open a bottle of red wine, turn down the lights, and listen to this album from start to finish (no interruptions). It's an entire story that really benefits from a complete read/listen. On a personal note, the guitar solo in "Time" is just about the greatest thing ever committed to a recording... it is essentially an instrumental "retelling" of the sung lyrics of the song itself and I cry Every. Single. Time I hear it (despite having heard it countless times at this point).
In my opinion, this vocal performance is what the mind goes through when dying. The anger through to the acceptance of death. Very powerful and makes me cry everytime.
Unquestionably. First she's struggling, resisting, fighting to cling on to life. Then it switches to sorrow for the loss of self, regret and unfulfilled intentions, then finally settles into peaceful acceptance and almost a quiet celebration of a life at the moment of leaving it. No lyrics are needed nor could do it better justice.
This is one of those albums that even though there are individual songs, you really need to listen to the whole album all the way through start to finish.
True!!! Especially after “Time”, which focused on the futility of our lives, and just being “one day closer to death”! This was an enormous release after that!
That's exactly as the band intended it. Each song on its own is wonderful, but the album is actually a single extended song best listened to from the opening heartbeat of "Speak to Me" all the way through the heartbeat ending with Gerry Driscoll's closing words "There is no dark side of the moon. As a matter of fact, it's *all* dark."
One of the greatest vocal performances ever recorded, incredible that it was improvised with so little forethought and planning yet delivers such incredible emotion and energy.
It's as though the band took a lovely voiced woman and supercharged her with the emotion they wanted. Her voice took over and wrote that emotion across our world.
@@tonygallo983 First take was full of “oh baby” kinda stuff and the band stepped in and told her that’s not what they were going for. The 2nd take was mainly what you hear on the album. The last 0.5 take … she got partway through it and stopped saying that she wasn’t going to top the previous one.
@@tonygallo983 You're wrong. That is a myth. She worked with Alan Parsons who put this together bit by bit. Her doing it in one take is an urban legend.
The fact that Clare Tory did this in dang near one take and left thinking that she had done terribly. I get chills every single time I hear this song. This album has my whole heart. Huge fan of Sam Brown but this version is epic 🤍
@@user-yk4gd1fl4z There are different interviews with her Richard Wright, & Alan Parsons that differ on exact number of takes; it was more than 1 and less than 5, but exact number will likely never be known. Whatever the number was, it is a very impressive performance.
Clare Torrey was also offered a can of Heineken lager, along with the 30 quid. At the time Heineken was running an extremely popular and iconic TV commercial in the UK using the punchline "Heineken reaches parts of you, that other beers never can" The punchline comes after the actor in the TV commercial performs an outrageous task ...Clare Torrey relates (mumbles quicky) this at the end of her eponymous and wonderfully matter of fact interview. She infers that she too had a Heineken moment.
Way back, I was 18yo and had my 1st "party" apartment when this album was released, I was just drawn to just what the male voice was saying in the beginning, so I played it over and over to be able to "hear" what his words were. (I didn’t have a great stereo system.) As I replayed it over, I wrote down the words I was hearing onto a sheet of paper. I was happy that I finally figured it out, and didn’t think much about it. Some friends came over and one of my girl friends saw and read the lyric notes that I'd written down, and she became very concerned that those notes were what I was feeling at that point in my life. She started asking me if I was doing OK, and did I need to talk. Once I realized that she was seriously concerned with my well being..., at that moment I found out what a True Friend could do for a person's well being! Once I assured her that it wasn't MY thoughts, but the lyrics of a song, I had to leave the room because I started to get weepy because I knew at that moment that I had a True Friend. Because I moved away shortly after, I haven't seen her in 49 years. I hope that she's had a great life!
Dark Side of the Moon is a one of a kind masterpiece. Every element is perfect, from Clare Torry's brilliant improve to Gilmore's distinct style to Nick Mason's perfectly matched percussions. Everything all the way down to Alan Parsons' fantastic studio engineering. These are all reasons why Dark Side of the Moon literally charted for many decades. This album is album rock's ultimate album. It needs to be heard in its entirety, from start to finish.
It has been noted that Dark Side only came off the charts when CDs became commonplace. The theory is that fans always wanted a pristine copy so they bought a new one if their record got scratched or their cassette eaten. I know this was true for me.
That vocal brings tears and fear! That was INCREDIBLE!!! The only vocal as an instrument that I've ever heard that has stayed with me all of these years (since 1973).
Nearly 45 years of consistent exposure to the album Literally, thousands of times listening to this track It's as easy today to hear it today, with the same WOW FACTOR it gave 40+ years ago Glad you enjoyed ❤
The engineering genius of Alan Parsons is a big part of this albums success. He is a great artist's, songwriter, and performer in his own right. Any track from the Alan Parsons Project is worth a listen 🎶
A brilliant visionary, extraordinary talent and exceptional producer. The ability and articulation presented to the artist,as well as the engineer, are what make the magnificent. Alan Parsons is truly one.
The Mount Everest of female vocal performance. As if her stunning performance wasn't enough--that she came up with this in 5 minutes is an almost frightening level of talent. Claire Torry, the GOAT.
Elizabeth ---- so many of us are so glad that you did finally give an analysis of the studio version of this most incredible song. There really is no other version that can do justice to the vocals that were done without editing, without autotuning, without written vocals to follow or copy. I'm almost 58 years young and I've been listening to this song and album since my oldest sister bought it when it first dropped into the stores, which would make me about six years old. The album as most people know is a masterpiece and the longest charting album of all time in the U.S. Billboard charts. In my opinion, about 50% of those record album sales and charting records is due to Clare Torrey and her amazing vocals on this one track. No one has or ever will, be able to achieve the emotion, the toneality, the various styles, and I'll say again, the emotion she brings into this song. I get tears in my eyes every damn time I hear this song. She's singing about finding out she is dying and the shock and fear of finding out is apparent in her opening and then it turns to anger and frustration because there is so much more she wanted to do and or say, then she changes to a softer more soulful feel with her acceptance of the inevitable and she becomes calm, and there is no more pain or sorrow but joy for the life she had and for the love and beauty of her time on Earth and how it will be better where she is going and she is ready to take that new journey to the unknown. Expressing all that without saying a single word is absolutely a God given talent. I am awestruck every single time I listen to this song. Thanks, Elizabeth for listening to our requests and some demands, I'm sure. But, I believe you now know why everyone continued to push this one for so long and so hard. You will forever be effected and affected by listening to this original album version and Clare's vocals. I can guarantee that.
On one of Roger’s solo tours in the early 2000s the singer that he had with him on tour nailed it. Just one singer, absolutely nailed it. At the end of the song the crowed erupted with an ovation that I’ve rarely seen, and smiled a beaming smile like a cat who just ate the canary. I’ve never seen another artist perform it in its entirety, and nail it. An absolutely unforgettable moment.
😊 There's a reason so many of us were pestering you to listen to the album version. Many of us have had the pleasure of listening to this masterpiece for 40 odd years. The live version was very good: this is transcendent. Thank you!
I have been listening to Pink Floyd for 50 years. When I am by myself, tears well up in my eyes so that it obscures my vision a little, and I still feel the urge to cry when I listen to this song.
Ditto I remember my very first time listening to this album all the way through when I was in junior high school, listening to the vinyl on an old console stereo unit with big headphones. "The Great Gig in the Sky" closes the first side of the vinyl, and I was so stunned after having listened to it that I had to steady myself for over a minute before I could muster the will to turn the vinyl and listen to the other side. Clare's singing on this was a singular achievement, one that will be remembered centuries from now.
Musically, this song is all Richard Wright. Then, Clare Tory ran with the vocals. Just magical to listen to! I’m so glad you did listen to the album version of the song. It so interesting watching you react to each part and breakdown each section. Even the band said it was everything coming together and blowing them away. This whole album never gets old as many times I listen to it.
Nothing more to add about the genius of Richard Wright and the absolute power and beauty and emotion pouring out of Clare Tory but...man, the band is just laying down an amazing groove underneath. I never fail to hum Waters' bass line while listening to this track. And Richard's organ/synth/whatever he was using...wow! Just...simply perfection from beginning to end.
Imagine you're Claire Torry. Alan Parsons brings you into a studio and the band just gives you an instrumental track and only the vaguest of instructions. You walk out a couple hours later with 30 quid in your pocket, sure you've botched the session, only to find out later you've laid out one of THE GREATEST rock vocals of ALL TIME. :D :D :D
Beth, when you realize Claire Torrey was hired as a studio musician, did this piece in 2 takes, and was paid 100£ for her contribution, it’s almost depressing. However, years later she was approached by David Gilmour, where it was agreed upon that she would receive due compensation and writing credits for this song… Better late than never. This was always my favorite song off of Dark Side of the Moon !!!
I cannot hear this song and not cry. Pink Floyd and Clare Tory do that to me. Every time. And I'm glad they do. It's one hell of an emotional release, and sometimes we need that. I'll never stop listening to this song, or this album.
I says about Tom Waits in all his horribleness of loneliness and desperation "its like someone ramming a dagger in your guts and all you can say is "More, deeper!"" Somehow Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind" gets my emotions, even though I could not tell you why. It is a good song, but not one on the emotional side. Regarding the "intellectual" emotion, there was Mike & The Mechanics' (I wish I would have told him in the ) "Living Years". When that came out, my father was still halfway OK. Then last year I stumbled over James Blunt's "Monsters". Not that I would be a fan of him. He wrote that song when his father, who had donated a kidney long ago, had kidney failure and urgently needed a new one or he would die. It is the song from a son that tells his dad "It's all OK, you have done your job and done it well, now it's time for our generation to chase the monsters away". Hearing that song when your father is in a nursing home, his brain is mush, the cancer is slowly eating him up - OMG.
As a musician and retired music teacher, i am very impressed with your musicality and ability to evaluate on very high levels. ...but the more I watched you....your voice, expressions with your eyes and eyebrows, the more i was sad I didn't meet someone like you to live a lifetime with....your husband or partner is VERY VERY lucky to have found you .
This is one of those songs that I simply can't have loud enough. It never fails to amaze me how Clare Torry just sells the HELL out of this without saying a word. She even somehow managed to foreshadow the quiet passages right in the middle of the wailing. An absolutely unbelievable performance. Great choice!!
So glad you did this analysis of Clare Tory’s studio rendition of Great Gig in the Sky. It is incredibly creative and yet on point, daring and yet masterful, and most of all, an authentic masterpiece. Your analysis breaks it down really well but just as important, your professional appreciation for what she accomplished lends even greater validation of her unique approach. There is no other song like this, and though there are countless ways to reinterpret it, Clare’s inspired takes are priceless gems of vocalization.
Truly one of the high points of recorded rock music. I hope that the undisclosed sum she was awarded was very generous. It's one for the ages and she wrote it all herself in real time AND executed it perfectly. That's not just talent, that's genius.
To get it first time, that's genius, agree. Though RW wrote the core, and it would have been good just with keyboards, CT made it so much more special.
@@BeijingBuzzz-China-Travel He wrote the chord progression but she came up with the vocals, all the more amazing because she did it in real time, after being asked to capture the five stages leading to death, which couldn't have been easy. She wasn't just singing. She was acting.
One of the most gorgeous songs ever recorded. While her voice isn't used to sing lyrics, she transcends mere words to elevate us all into a state where we're able to comprehend her meaning. Sometimes, words can get in the way.
@@steveswafen2528 Thank you. I say this very same thing to Claire Torry and Pink Floyd whenever I hear this astonishingly beautiful miracle of a song. Well, everything but the have a wonderful day/evening part. lol
Folks now say her sounds represent the multiple stages of death, and include feelings of shock, denial, fear, pain, guilt, anger, confusion, bargaining, loneliness, despair, reflection, and acceptance. Some experts say there are up to 7 stages. Here's an interview with Clare Torry about her work on "The Great Gig in the Sky" studio track: ua-cam.com/video/mIW7xZSlZoM/v-deo.html .
I have a quad surround version of this mixed by Alan Parsons over at Abbey Road. In this her voice is isolated front and center and the instruments are placed further back. It is incredible to hear after hearing it in stereo all these years. You feel like you are in the studio with her and the band. Just when you think you think you've heard it all...
To me this is the absolute pinnacle of the greatest album in rock history. I've heard it hundreds of times and I get chills every time I hear Claire belt it out. Truly inspired.
The emotion in her sound! It's a once in a lifetime thing. The live version will never be the same! What she was feeling that day, what she was hearing while recording. Whatever...never the same thing twice. That's why this hits it! Love love love it! And yes, she should have been paid way well! Thank you for this!
The live version was great and was a wonderful moment to witness in concert, but nothing beats Clare Torry's original creation. She makes you FEEL the gamut of emotions she is running through. The fact that the live version from years afterwards required three singers to even attempt to reproduce speaks volumes as to just how astonishingly good Clare's contribution really is. Personally, I'm gratified that you've covered this redo as no one could possibly do proper justice to the original. Thank you, Elizabeth.
It wasnt just the one bloody track that needed three singers, you doofus. You think all three of them stood on stage for three hours for just one song, FFS? You forgot about Time, Money, Us & Them, Comfortably Numb, Brick In The Wall Part 2, Sorrow, Keep Talking and the rest of the Pulse set?
The way she portrays the stages of facing grief/death with denial and agony, to letting go and acceptance is absolutely incredible. Will go down in history as the most incredible portrayal of human emotion without saying a single word.
They did their best to come close, they did it good, but whatever, it was an imitation of the original. Not even Clare Torry herself might be able re reenact that exactly. It is this one unrecoverable time in the universe that will never come again. Trouble for the cover singers is that the range and emotions are so extreme and the people know every millisecond so well that you are trapped in having to recreate this, and have no room left to do your own thing, your own style - which then might produce a new, independent result with its own merits. But we all stand there and say "but when it is not EXACTLY so like when we were 18 and heard the song the first rime, we are disappointed" - that must make it hard as singer when you know that.
I remember somewhere David Gilmour said her vocal melodies basically are the guitar solo for the song. There's no recreating the passionate and powerful emotion in her vocals here live. It's a piece of magic.
I’ve never been able to find a live version of Great Gig in the Sky that’s better than the studio version. I’m so happy you decided to listen to it. Such a beautiful piece of music from start to finish.
There is a video of a much older Clare Torry doing this song live with the band, I can't remember where or when but it should be easy to find... and no it doesn't compare to the studio version... that being said I've heard the Great Gig performed live a couple of times and it was always moving
Again, I gotta say, I've seen numerous reactions to this singular piece of brilliant music. And most of them have incredibly appreciative and blow away by it. But this reaction by a trained vocalist who truly grasps the epic aspects of this performance, is one of my top if not the top favorite. Stellar work, thank you.
Listen to the whole album, because it is a masterpiece! This song is about death, stages anger, pain, sorrow and acceptance. She expresses it so clearly. Thank you 😍
And if you want to see her performing this song w. PF live, there is a video here, The great Gig in the Sky Live at Knebworth 1990! She is one with music 🥹💗
First i am so happy you decided to reexamine this amazing song with the amazing Claire Torry, and is the best version you will ever find tbh, this song gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it
It's a song about death, ultimately. The best one I know of. That's why she was wailing. And then it goes through all the stages of grief. A masterpiece.
Let us all admit, we all come here because we are envious of the people that are blessed by being allowed to make that experience for the first time. A feeling that I have had over 40 years ago.
YES YES YES! This is the One! Your expression when you hear her wailing was priceless. About 7min. As a normy audio lover ( non-musician) I heard this on a tape boombox as a Teenager in the 90's and was hooked. Endless Respect. I'm so glad you listened to your subscribers and listened to this version. Beautiful Communion of Fan and Artist! I feel like the world is a better place. True Holy Justice! Thank you.
GREAT, GREAT channel. I'm 57 and in the last 18 months I have almost totally lost the power of speech due to a very rare neurological condition. I was told to watch this by someone studying Jazz singing (we were discussing PF). Because of my illness I resisted out of fear. But I'm glad I did. I love your analysis/reactions!!
The story of the recording reminds me of Picasso in his elder years. He'd go to the ocean during low-tide and draw pictures in the sand, gifting them to world as the water consumed them. This recording is a gift to the world. Clare Torry didn't know we'd all get the chance to tear up to this song, which probably reduced any inhibition. The subject matter of inevitable death as the price for life; The first 2/3 of the song show the frustration of mortality, the final third the beauty in acceptance. If there're very few vocal performances that truly inspire awe: This is one of them.
When I first heard this song as a young teenager, way back in the 70's I simply thought it was cool as hell. 50 years later, it can almost bring me to tears simply from the anticipation of you experiencing this masterpiece for the first time.
I have listened to this song 100s of times - I have never heard another vocal performance touch me SO utterly deeply. It makes me feel like I am experiencing my own birth, life and death. Still brings me to tears every time.
I have listened to and owned this album when it first came out ❤❤❤ Thousands of times listening and i still hear things new everything on it master class pure art with humility
The band didn't really know what they wanted but they knew what they DIDN'T want and Claire delivered! Unprecedented in rock music 😱! I LOVE this SOOOO MUCH 🥰🍄✨🌈☮️🎉😎!!!!!!
Thank goodness. I am so glad you are doing the studio. There is a great interview with her describing the recording process worth your time as well…. Pink Floyd is just other worldly in every sense.
I'm so glad you decided to listen to this version. Not that the live versions are not well done; it's just that Clare Torry is the originator with this. I also have to commend the production part of this. The way that this was edited is so incredible. They took what Clare Torry did and, for my viewpoint and opinion, it sounds like a soul fighting to stay alive but ended up submitting to that "Great Gig In The Sky". Very much reminding me of Irish Keening.
As a huge Pink Floyd fan this song was a masterpiece. It gets the message across better than any written lyric could, and I don’t think they could’ve made a more powerful song other than this vocal solo.
I love how much Clare’s wailing adds to the theme of death and rebirth of the song (originally called “the mortality sequence”). Like the intro narration (that I believe was the doorman at the recording studio) of people being asked introspective questions and his reply of not being “frightened of dying” and how there’s “no reason for it, we all have to go sometime” This song always makes me think of death. But not in a bad way
Gerry O’Driscoll the Irish doorman from Abbey Road. Completely immortalised. The voices on the album are what make it (for me), a set of questions were written on cards, each person would read the question, answer it, and turn over the next one…. Only one of the voices, Roger “The Hat” (one of Floyd’s roadies) was not done with the cards, it was done as an interview with Roger Waters. “If you give ‘em a quick, short, sharp, shock, they don’t do it again….” At the beginning of Us & Them.
Clare Torry turned up and PF said to sing - no lyrics and she let her heart go and created the finest "Gig in the Sky" created. The way she uses her voice to express the pain and the defiance and finally the succumbing to the inevitable that we all will face is beyond words. Her sound is from the soul. The best version in MHO ever sung. She did a live version some years ago, and you see the emotion in her body language that exposes the raw primal sound she has in her soul.
My Mom once shared with me in confidence that she was fairly certain that I was conceived while this track was playing on the stereo in the background. 🥰 I've loved this performance all of my life. In a way, it IS my life. 🙏
Thanks so much Elizabeth for doing this, and listening to your subscribers. Such a serendipitous and momentous musical event. I don't think any of them realised just how momentous at the time, including Clare. Incredible to know she was just 'jobbing'. Your analysis is way too advanced for this non-singer, but your enthusiasm and excitement is palpable. Good to see you've researched the background to the session, too. A truly timeless track on a timeless album.
Listening for the first time, I closed my eyes and listened to the whole album until this piece came on...then I opened them to see my friend doing the exact same open-mouthed disbelieving.
Her version of this solo always brings tears to my eyes for some reason. It seems like all this emotion is coming out at once. I think someone could out of depression if they just let go and tried this in privacy.
As for the "for some reason," having heard this my whole life (was born in 68, first heard it when I was perhaps 10 listening to my dad's records while he was away in the mental institution) I can offer at least my lifelong perspective on that reason. As a young kid it blew me away because I had simply never heard a woman just go crazy with her voice like that. Maybe Aretha Franklin, but honestly I had no great appreciation of vocals at that early age in terms of rare raw talent. It was just so expressive, and untethered sometimes hinging on madness, later sadness, and later soothing. Skip to adulthood, I was moved to tears, I could then realize the beauty, the humanity, and be blown away by the sheer emotion. Now I'm older- looking back on life, and I feel the vibe of the actual song- the mortality aspect of not being afraid of dying, and it just hits.. hard. It's such a beautiful concept for a song- and then there's also the song's context within the album itself. There's a good reason, many actually.
Some months ago I go to a tribute show for Pink Floyd and in this song I cried too. I think its was because I was told that the band that made the tribute was really great and I was full on hype and I really love Pink Floyd soo its was like the closer moment I could be in a real concert. Even i have a tattoo of The Dark Side of The Moon hahaha
That's an absolutely iconic vocal performance. I love that she had no idea it was in the final version until she saw the album in the store, though having to sue to get what she deserved for it (well more than 30£, for sure) sucks. At least she got it. I can't imagine this song without her performance, it _is_ the song, imo. It conveys so much emotion without any words. Brilliantly done. Loved your analysis as always.
50 years and this album still holds its own. The vocals in this track are stunning.
More then holds its own, nobody will ever better it! The ultimate musicians standard.
I was a high school junior when this album was released, and today, it's difficult to describe to people just how amazing this was , compared to everything else on the radio.
@@peccatumDei And this was all done on analog equipment YEARS before digital...
971 weeks still on the billboard charts
@@ffjsb Indeed. With no auto-tune bullshit! They played their instruments and sang their songs and that was it. Of course, they used the recording tools they had at hand to make certain effects but it was all done analog. No computers to make it correct. They had to do it themselves.
If crying, wailing and singing can be fused as one in a space, this is it.
Clair Torre's haunting vocal in this track is one of the greatest vocal performances in music history.
She's practically screaming at some points, its so powerful
When I was a teen I sought it's a man so I tried to sing this if if can I can as well. I thing I was good but the people nearby didn't agreed.
Clare Torry
And yet she doesn't sing a single word.
Her pay , 10£ an hour.
If The Great Gig in the Sky is not played at my funeral I am not showing up!
Same.
Agreed
@Hieronymous_Lane; @@kelleewolfe2834 @kskgrrl973
Each of You clearly, obviously, certainly are full of false ideas, concepts, misconceptions, misinformation, disinformation, false inDOCtrination, Sense Nonsense !! 😞
Death as in Birth nor actual life, have no choice by the physical human; only within the life per each instance, direction, which are also influenced, affected, often directed, certainly actually effected, executed by The Creator.
=>Thus, even each one that completely denies, refused The Creator, still has no choice post death, thus includes what happens, occurs post with the body including the funeral; certainly all the more so to the spiritual entity for that hat accept this reality too.
Certainly Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart knew these, though wrote a Funeral progression, procession Requiem prior to his death.
Good Luck
It's already in my 5 funeral song list..
@@CTree.Po. Good Luck dude 😞
For me personally, the studio version of this song is simply unbeatable. This was an era where there is no faking it, you hear what they delivered. Claire's take in the studio version was a once in a lifetime. You can't replicate the raw emotion she put out on that take. Live, people will try to mimic it, but it will never be replicated with that moments emotion that Claire delivered in the studio. Such a beautiful song.
It really is such a lightning in a bottle performance. What a day to be in that studio.
To beat it they would have to improvise themselves. Yet that will result in failure a million times in a row if people tried
Yep, have to agree just sublime.
Sometime something absolutely magical happens, and it is just sheer perfection. This was certainly one of those times.
Well, no such thing as ‘Autotunes’ back then, ya couldn’t fake it till ya made it…like 90% of the, how do I put it, ‘artists’ today🤔👍🤟
10 years ago, I was lying in critical care. My lungs were full of fluid, my kidneys had failed, and Mt pancreas was rumbling. I was given 5% chance of survival, the minister had prayed and my family said goodbye. I was vaguely aware what was going on, plus in a drug induced haze. I heard a voice say if you can hear this, please squeeze my hand. I thought, in the fog, that if I didn't squeeze the hand, I would leave this world, never see my boys with careers, wives, children etc. There was so much to live for, and so I squeezed for all I was worth, just to make sure. Next, I heard a scream. I had nearly broken the nurses hand, and I relaxed in the knowledge I was going to be OK. That was the start of an enormous fight back to normality. OK, I am on dialysis and will be until I die, but I returned to work and can see my boys growing up, with a wedding due. Whenever I look back at the fight life, Claire Torry is in my head at full volume.
A year later... all I can say is "Damn dude/dudette" May your life be grand!
Love this.
❤WOW.
Clare Torry was told only that she was to represent vocally (without words) the five emotional stages one goes through when they are dying. First, Denial, then Anger, Bargaining, Depression and finally Acceptance. Her performance was totally improvised and was done over 2 1/2 takes !
She demonstrated a genius that took all of us decades to appreciate. Absolutely remarkable in a way that is one in a lifetime. I thank god that I am here to here this brilliant performance. Say amen.
@@gregself2461Amen and Amen, brother.
Wrong. It was the 1st take. She came out of the recording and apologised to the band because she said it wasn’t good and they all said it’s perfect.
@@darrenconlon4538 and of course YOU were there !
Other music industry journalists AND Clare herself say 2 1/2 takes and the best parts edited together.
@@darrenconlon4538 According to Clare herself you're wrong. And so is @ppheanix. In an interview (not sure when it was done) she explained how it all went down. All Clare knew beforehand was that it was for a Pink Floyd project. When she got to the studio they explained the concept of the album. In her words it was about "birth and death and everything in between." They then played the backing track. When Clare asked what they wanted from her, they had no idea. So she went into the recording studio and started singing, Oh, baby baby. Yeah, yeah, baby baby (her description, not mine). They stopped her and said, Noooo, we don't want any words. Still clueless of what they did want, and getting no direction from the band, a thought popped into her head that she needed to pretend she's an instrument. Clare felt this gave her something to play with so she went back into the studio and began singing similar to the masterpiece we all know and love. The band said they liked it. She said great, told Alan Parsons to hit record, and did the first take. Once finished, and without any feedback, someone said to do another. She said OK, and after she finished the second take Gilmour said he thought she could improve upon it. She said she didn't think so but agreed to a third. Halfway thru, Clare stopped and told them she thought they had enough (her belief was that the first take is almost always the best). When she left she had no idea whether they liked it or hated it and thought her vocals would never be used. The way she found out she had been included in the final mix was when she saw the new album in the window of a record store while walking home one day. She went in, opened the album, and saw her name in the credits.
Clare Torry's vocals are to represent the 5 stages of grief mourning: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. She improvised the entire vocal portion and she basically just let it rip.
Also, Claire Torry's vocal is astonishing, but the chord progressions that Rick Wright plays (and wrote) on piano are unique. He was the soul of Pink Floyd.
Clare Tory reportedly got paid 30 pounds for her part. It wasn’t until she sued and, in 2005, got an out-of-court settlement that gave her her dues.
Brings me back to my high school days😊
Really? I thought it was supposed to represent a climax
If you have evidence that Torry chose to represent Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief, please cite it. Her own interview on the song indicates she didn't.
Excellent post. David Gilmour and Roger Waters get all the accolades, but Pink Floyd wouldn’t have been the same without Wright.
“Echoes” is another example of Wright’s genius.
I played this song, (on a boom box), at my brother’s funeral, we were band mates, and played and both loved Pink Floyd. Plus the spoken parts, “I’m not afraid of dying, everybody has to go sometime”, was so much like something he would say! Not everyone at the funeral was a Pink Floyd fan, or ever heard this song before, but it seemed to touch everyone’s Heart! I was bawling, and everyone else too. It is still hard to listen to, I got tearful just posting this comment!
Reading this made me tear up. Truly sorry for your loss 😔
I got evicted for playing this on repeat in 1975 every night, couldn't fall asleep without the Dark Side after suddenly losing my husband. I still think it sounds best high volume. I was v inconsiderate but in emotional distress
@@KateBates22zabu That must have been very difficult for you. I'm sorry you had to go through that.
Es un testimonio muy triste pero dulce. La realidad es compleja, es lo que transmite este álbum y el repertorio de Pink Floyd: Tristeza, dulzura, paradojas, sueños e ilusiones. Nada más sintomático para esta pieza que en algún momento llegó a llamarse "La secuencia de la mortalidad". Larga vida para esta bella obra musical , The Dark Side of the moon , Feliz 50 aniversario. Saludos desde Santiago de Chile.
@Kate Bates oh no. Another one who used this album to battle insomnia. We need to market this somehow, because I went to bed for months with dark side of the moon in headphones in the early 90s.
My mom passed in 2018, and she requested we play this song. She was born in 1933 and had no idea who Pink Floyd was until she heard me listening to this album when I was a teenager. She asked me to sit with her and listen to the album with her, and I did. From that point on Floyd was her favorite rock band, well, them and Simon and Garfunkel. We played Bridge Over as well. Damn I miss her. Coolest old person ever.
❤
As others have pointed out, Clare Torry improvised this on the spot when recording this after she was told to just make it raw emotion with no words. But what kills me is that after she was done, she apologized because she didn't think it was all that good. But of course, we have one of the greatest vocal performances ever. She contributed so much to the song, that later she was credited with Richard Wright as a co-writer of the song. Just incredible.
I guess after Pink Floyd made millions of dollars from the song, they did throw her a bone with some royalties 30 years after that fateful recording session. Nice seeing a good artist get some due patronage.
@@j_freed She sued them to get that, they didn't do it out of the kindness of their heart.
She was 70% of a one of a kind masterpiece in the writing and presence of thag song.
@@j_freed I think she had to sue them for more than just the standard rate for doing a session. It was a smart move and well deserved, yes Rick Wright wrote the chord progression, however the singing MAKES this song… she deserves every penny she won from that lawsuit!
@Tom McMurtry Imagine the song as an instrumental - no vocals - and tell Pink what her vocals were worth. They were right to pay up, even if late and under duress.
The BEST non-lyrical vocal track in the history of ALL music...nothing is even close IMHO. Just pure brilliance everytime I listen to this track, and I've listened to it thousands of times. Some days I still tear up listening to her anguish and torment. I fully believe Clare released something that night she recorded this.
The backstory is interesting that she was just paid 30 pounds for it, and years later sued and got more, arguing she was a co-writer of the song. It seemed a friendly resolution, she was then invited for a live version.
@@craig2347 I like that the group was the ones that ASKED her to sue for credit because the record company wouldn't give it freely at the request of the group, and the members of Pink Floyd wanted her to have credit AND residuals.
God bless you Clare Torrey.
So agree. Bought 3 copies of the album, back in the 70's, because one would get a little scratch and it would take away from the experience. Clare deserves any and all royalties for her 'writing' efforts on this song. Doesn't ever lose its emotional impact.
It wasn't recorded 'at night'...it was recorded on a sundaymorning. The engineer Alan Parsons (yes the one) knew a talented singer that might be suited to do the vocals on this track. She only had time on sunday morning. They asked to improvise not using words just sound. The bandmembers didn't react while she did her parts. She thought they wouldn't use it while leaving the studio...
This album is why we who matured during the 70's will always believe we had the best music.
Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. No need to continue, the argument is already won.
The late 60's and all the 70's would have been empty for me if there was no PF.
Absolutely!
I was in my teens when I heard this. I am now 34. When I first heard this I actually felt music and soul, I could not explain it but it opened my mind and heart.
@@rudivonstaden Carlos Santan Dylan, Dead, Clapton, Young, Tull, The Who, Bowie, Gabriel.... I could go on and on Metallica, cheap trick, Elton, Joel,... 😄 the best music by far
Richard Wright was the ultimate keyboard player, imo. Also, a very humble man from what I saw. Rest in peace, Rick. You are sorely missed.
And Dickflute Waters fired him.
The day Pink Floyd truly died. Fuck cancer!
Rick was very basic in terms of technical skills, but his sense of both, harmonies and sound, was second to none.
@@philburns5656 Yes
I miss him so much.❤
I actually prefer the studio version over any of the live versions. There is just a rawness and spontaneity to Clare Torry's performance that achieved magical results that hold up perfectly even a half-century later! This version you're analyzing is nothing short of amazing and, for me, has not been bettered since then.
You got it in that word: spontaneity. The moment and going with it. :)
I agree because it was the first version I heard. And when you hear pulse you see that the first singer did not try to mimic her. At the end of pulse you don't have the same feeling of abandon, peace after the fight.
She gave an unity that can't be matched by multiple singers, that's the beauty of the track.
Though alternatives are interesting and very challenging for the singer
I totally agree! But a few days ago I listened to a covered version by Atom (sung by Vivianne Donner I think) and I must admit it was really not bad at all (which is not easy to say as a die hard (post Sid Barret) PF fan!
No other words needed!!! I totally agree with you!!!
Me too. The studio version NEVER fails to touch me in my soul
Claire’s version hasn’t been duplicated as far as I know by any other signers. She sang with such force and emotions that driven by her youth and creativity that anyone trying to emulate that effort hasn’t been successful convincing us who listen to her first time on that scratchy LP. It was amazing then and it still gives me chills. Bravo Claire!
The more I listen to Led Zeppelin, The Who and The Beatles, the more I appreciate the genius of Pink Floyd.
Brilliantly said
100% agree
I think, although not as historically popular, Floyd is slightly, the better of the 3, musically
explain?
@@grateful86 love me some Floyd but it's definitely subjective
. Don't forget Zep wrote Achilles Last Stand. To me, that was always their Echoes. Top tier musicianship, you just can't tell me Nick Mason is a better drummer than John Bonham. It just comes down to taste at the end of the day. Pink Floyd just wrote more profound music imo, shit that sticks to your soul
@@FFadeaway agree
Thank you Elizabeth for giving Clare the respect she is due. A true masterpiece.
Amen!
Totally agree!
I'm so jealous of people hearing Pink Floyd's greatest songs for the first time that I watch their reactions on UA-cam and weep.
I find tremendous joy in people hearing music for the first time.
It is beautiful.
Call me cynical, but I have a hard time believing that these people are actually hearing these songs for the first time. Sure, you can spend your time on opera mostly, but you’re still not living under a rock.
Ironically, the vocals weren’t planned. Very much spontaneous.
David Gilmour said he was jealous of everyone who ever listen to their music the first time because, he never got that chance.......meaning that he heard the song tracks in the studio as they were built over time so by the time he heard the whole mix of the song they had been listening to it being built piece by piece and never had a chance to listen the impact it makes all at once without ever hearing any piece of being built into a final mix over time like he did in the creation of it..........what a profound and insightful critique of the liability of being the creator of a song as opposed to the listener hearing the finished product all at once.
Every time I listen to this song I get goosebumps and often cry.
I get so emotional every single time I hear The Great Gig In The Sky...
This is truly a masterpiece!
lo stesso per me
lo stesso per me
Same here. I`m allways in tears when I listen to it.
Several Places in the album to that to me... Us and them is so powerful, Time's solo, the climatic Eclipse...
Same, not sure if more this or Time...
Thank you for doing this. It’s a tremendous album; it spent _ 736 nonconsecutive weeks_ on the Billboard 200 album charts from from 17 March 1973 to 16 July 1988. It means a whole lot to tens of millions of people. It’s a genuine work of art.
First album I ever won from a Radio Station contest!!! (in NYC.)
Only fell off because of the CD! People were buying multiple copies over the years when it was only records and tapes that that would wear out! (Mine included) It's just one of those albums I never tire of, even after probably hundreds and hundreds of listens. The recording process and the cutting edge synthesizer tech of the time proved to actually be truly futuristic.
This album will ETERNALLY remain relevant 😎
I heard that on average it still sells some 450k copies/year ans in good / particular years up to 900k/yr. Those are impressive figures !
Love your enthusiasm.. will you consider doing.. Ozzy Osborne "diary of a madman " and or.. "so tired ".. also.. did you know.. a lot of the background talking vocals are actually a couple of the Beatles.. George Harrison in particular.. and I believe Ian hunter of mot the Hoople... who just happened to be at the same studio that day
Since I first heard this aged 16, it always brings a lump to my throat and often tears in my eyes! So emotive and they don’t make em like they used to. Sublime.
This is one of a few Pink Floyd songs to use a female vocal. Alan Parsons, who engineered the album, brought in a singer he knew of named Clare Torry. Parsons explained in Rolling Stone, March 12, 2003: "She had to be told not to sing any words: when she first started, she was doing 'Oh yeah baby' and all that kind of stuff, so she had to be restrained on that. But there was no real direction - she just had to feel it."
David Gilmour stated in Mojo, March 1998: "We'd been thinking Madeleine Bell or Doris Troy and we couldn't believe it when this housewifely white woman walked in. But when she opened her mouth, well, she wasn't too quick at finessing what we wanted, but out came that orgasmic sound we know and love."
Source: Sonfacts
That's right, gorgeous female backing vocals are what lift some Pink Floyd songs from being just ordinary.
Giving Torry a lead part of just vocalizations could be the best musical representation of all these exceptional women who worked on their PF albums and solo stuff.
@@richardlaiche8303 key word is background. The OP is refering to female LEAD vocals which Clare is lead vocalist in this song. Roger and David did a majority of lead, Rick did a few and Nick did the narration in One of These days and Learning to Fly.
@@richardlaiche8303 yup…20 feet from stardom.
@@Doc62J and let's tip our hats to Roy Harper for "have a cigar."
@@j_freed the backing vocals is what really makes Pink Floyd's music so good. Can't imagine their music with out them
She walked by the guys in the band as she headed for the door as she had to be somewhere,
they didn't say a word - speechless, totally blown away by her performance.
She cried afterward, because she thought she'd done terribly. Got paid, no-one said a word and they were all looking at her with a strange look on their faces.
Perhaps they were dumbfounfed by her performance.
I’m still blown away too
I cried during lmao
So glad she went back and told them she wanted royalties for that job, they originally just paid her a small lump sum for backing vocals!
Probably the most beautiful, captivating, haunting, melodic, and technically proficient vocal performance ever recorded. And it was improvised.
My Christmas wish this year will be for you to carve out 45 minutes to open a bottle of red wine, turn down the lights, and listen to this album from start to finish (no interruptions). It's an entire story that really benefits from a complete read/listen.
On a personal note, the guitar solo in "Time" is just about the greatest thing ever committed to a recording... it is essentially an instrumental "retelling" of the sung lyrics of the song itself and I cry Every. Single. Time I hear it (despite having heard it countless times at this point).
And a bit of cannabis
Amen to this!!! It is one thing to appreciate the music but, another to find the the thought of it as a whole.
Same here with Time. It kills me all the time.
I love the guitar solos in High Hopes and On the Turning Away. They are 2 of favourite pink floyd songs
My man. I feel every word of this and wish to reiterate it.
In my opinion, this vocal performance is what the mind goes through when dying. The anger through to the acceptance of death. Very powerful and makes me cry everytime.
Nailed it
Finally, someone who gets it. Thanks. I've ranted at her, to everyone, to listen to it with the stages of death in mind.
Brings me back to my parents passing every time.
It's such a powerful song.
Unquestionably. First she's struggling, resisting, fighting to cling on to life. Then it switches to sorrow for the loss of self, regret and unfulfilled intentions, then finally settles into peaceful acceptance and almost a quiet celebration of a life at the moment of leaving it.
No lyrics are needed nor could do it better justice.
The five stages - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance .0
Transcendent ❤
This is one of those albums that even though there are individual songs, you really need to listen to the whole album all the way through start to finish.
💯
True!!! Especially after “Time”, which focused on the futility of our lives, and just being “one day closer to death”! This was an enormous release after that!
That's exactly as the band intended it.
Each song on its own is wonderful, but the album is actually a single extended song best listened to from the opening heartbeat of "Speak to Me" all the way through the heartbeat ending with Gerry Driscoll's closing words "There is no dark side of the moon. As a matter of fact, it's *all* dark."
That's what I was going to say. Elizabeth should listen to the whole album end to end, even if it's not for a UA-cam video.
YES!
WHen words fail, there's always Clare Torry.
Thanks
One of the greatest vocal performances ever recorded, incredible that it was improvised with so little forethought and planning yet delivers such incredible emotion and energy.
Also done in 1 take, she was given a directive, she did it, she wasn't happy with it...
@@tonygallo983 It was npt done in one take. The record is a mix of 2.5 takes. Incredible performance anyways.
It's as though the band took a lovely voiced woman and supercharged her with the emotion they wanted. Her voice took over and wrote that emotion across our world.
@@tonygallo983
First take was full of “oh baby” kinda stuff and the band stepped in and told her that’s not what they were going for.
The 2nd take was mainly what you hear on the album.
The last 0.5 take … she got partway through it and stopped saying that she wasn’t going to top the previous one.
@@tonygallo983 You're wrong. That is a myth. She worked with Alan Parsons who put this together bit by bit.
Her doing it in one take is an urban legend.
The fact that Clare Tory did this in dang near one take and left thinking that she had done terribly. I get chills every single time I hear this song. This album has my whole heart. Huge fan of Sam Brown but this version is epic 🤍
it was comped from 3 or 4 takes...not that it matters.
@@user-yk4gd1fl4z There are different interviews with her Richard Wright, & Alan Parsons that differ on exact number of takes; it was more than 1 and less than 5, but exact number will likely never be known. Whatever the number was, it is a very impressive performance.
Clare Torrey was also offered a can of Heineken lager, along with the 30 quid. At the time Heineken was running an extremely popular and iconic TV commercial in the UK using the punchline "Heineken reaches parts of you, that other beers never can" The punchline comes after the actor in the TV commercial performs an outrageous task ...Clare Torrey relates (mumbles quicky) this at the end of her eponymous and wonderfully matter of fact interview. She infers that she too had a Heineken moment.
Way back, I was 18yo and had my 1st "party" apartment when this album was released, I was just drawn to just what the male voice was saying in the beginning, so I played it over and over to be able to "hear" what his words were. (I didn’t have a great stereo system.) As I replayed it over, I wrote down the words I was hearing onto a sheet of paper. I was happy that I finally figured it out, and didn’t think much about it.
Some friends came over and one of my girl friends saw and read the lyric notes that I'd written down, and she became very concerned that those notes were what I was feeling at that point in my life. She started asking me if I was doing OK, and did I need to talk. Once I realized that she was seriously concerned with my well being..., at that moment I found out what a True Friend could do for a person's well being! Once I assured her that it wasn't MY thoughts, but the lyrics of a song, I had to leave the room because I started to get weepy because I knew at that moment that I had a True Friend. Because I moved away shortly after, I haven't seen her in 49 years. I hope that she's had a great life!
I've easily heard this track over a hundred times. Hearing it still gives me goosebumps.
Dark Side of the Moon is a one of a kind masterpiece. Every element is perfect, from Clare Torry's brilliant improve to Gilmore's distinct style to Nick Mason's perfectly matched percussions. Everything all the way down to Alan Parsons' fantastic studio engineering. These are all reasons why Dark Side of the Moon literally charted for many decades. This album is album rock's ultimate album. It needs to be heard in its entirety, from start to finish.
Stop the dickriding fr
With a bong hit or two…
It has been noted that Dark Side only came off the charts when CDs became commonplace.
The theory is that fans always wanted a pristine copy so they bought a new one if their record got scratched or their cassette eaten.
I know this was true for me.
Not to mention Roger Waters' songwriting and lyrics.
@@topangus123 We used to get extremely high and play this when it first came out. (Yes, I'm that old.)
That vocal brings tears and fear! That was INCREDIBLE!!! The only vocal as an instrument that I've ever heard that has stayed with me all of these years (since 1973).
Nearly 45 years of consistent exposure to the album
Literally, thousands of times listening to this track
It's as easy today to hear it today, with the same WOW FACTOR it gave 40+ years ago
Glad you enjoyed ❤
Couldn't agree more!
The engineering genius of Alan Parsons is a big part of this albums success. He is a great artist's, songwriter, and performer in his own right. Any track from the Alan Parsons Project is worth a listen 🎶
The Alan Parsons Project is great too.
Agreed, big Alan Parsons fan.
Can't Take it With You!!!!! Listen to that by APP!!!!!!!
A brilliant visionary, extraordinary talent and exceptional producer. The ability and articulation presented to the artist,as well as the engineer, are what make the magnificent.
Alan Parsons is truly one.
Standing on Higher Ground or Turn of a Friendly Card are good choices too. Maybe Prime Time.
The Mount Everest of female vocal performance. As if her stunning performance wasn't enough--that she came up with this in 5 minutes is an almost frightening level of talent. Claire Torry, the GOAT.
Elizabeth ---- so many of us are so glad that you did finally give an analysis of the studio version of this most incredible song.
There really is no other version that can do justice to the vocals that were done without editing, without autotuning, without written vocals to follow or copy.
I'm almost 58 years young and I've been listening to this song and album since my oldest sister bought it when it first dropped into the stores, which would make me about six years old.
The album as most people know is a masterpiece and the longest charting album of all time in the U.S. Billboard charts. In my opinion, about 50% of those record album sales and charting records is due to Clare Torrey and her amazing vocals on this one track.
No one has or ever will, be able to achieve the emotion, the toneality, the various styles, and I'll say again, the emotion she brings into this song. I get tears in my eyes every damn time I hear this song.
She's singing about finding out she is dying and the shock and fear of finding out is apparent in her opening and then it turns to anger and frustration because there is so much more she wanted to do and or say, then she changes to a softer more soulful feel with her acceptance of the inevitable and she becomes calm, and there is no more pain or sorrow but joy for the life she had and for the love and beauty of her time on Earth and how it will be better where she is going and she is ready to take that new journey to the unknown.
Expressing all that without saying a single word is absolutely a God given talent. I am awestruck every single time I listen to this song.
Thanks, Elizabeth for listening to our requests and some demands, I'm sure. But, I believe you now know why everyone continued to push this one for so long and so hard.
You will forever be effected and affected by listening to this original album version and Clare's vocals. I can guarantee that.
Truely the best commentary of the performance by the band (Richard) and Claire.) I've ever seen written..
On one of Roger’s solo tours in the early 2000s the singer that he had with him on tour nailed it. Just one singer, absolutely nailed it.
At the end of the song the crowed erupted with an ovation that I’ve rarely seen, and smiled a beaming smile like a cat who just ate the canary.
I’ve never seen another artist perform it in its entirety, and nail it. An absolutely unforgettable moment.
😊 There's a reason so many of us were pestering you to listen to the album version. Many of us have had the pleasure of listening to this masterpiece for 40 odd years. The live version was very good: this is transcendent. Thank you!
Absolutely. ❤
Ive only heard the live.
I feel I've missed so much!!!
Thank You all for this!!!!!
It's FKN AMAZING!!!!
There IS the reason you mean 😊
I have been listening to Pink Floyd for 50 years. When I am by myself, tears well up in my eyes so that it obscures my vision a little, and I still feel the urge to cry when I listen to this song.
That's the only song that, no matter how many times I listen to, I get emotional and get chills. Both studio and live version.
Ditto
I remember my very first time listening to this album all the way through when I was in junior high school, listening to the vinyl on an old console stereo unit with big headphones.
"The Great Gig in the Sky" closes the first side of the vinyl, and I was so stunned after having listened to it that I had to steady myself for over a minute before I could muster the will to turn the vinyl and listen to the other side.
Clare's singing on this was a singular achievement, one that will be remembered centuries from now.
@Gunners_Mate_Guns I'm so glad that you "got it"! I felt it too.
Musically, this song is all Richard Wright. Then, Clare Tory ran with the vocals. Just magical to listen to! I’m so glad you did listen to the album version of the song. It so interesting watching you react to each part and breakdown each section. Even the band said it was everything coming together and blowing them away. This whole album never gets old as many times I listen to it.
Nothing more to add about the genius of Richard Wright and the absolute power and beauty and emotion pouring out of Clare Tory but...man, the band is just laying down an amazing groove underneath. I never fail to hum Waters' bass line while listening to this track. And Richard's organ/synth/whatever he was using...wow! Just...simply perfection from beginning to end.
Your right about Wright, he does not get the credit he deserves most of the time .
Richard did well, but the real credit for the song goes to Alan Parson’s who said his mom used to sing this song to him as a child.
@@ugadawgs1990 wtf, total bollocks!
Imagine you're Claire Torry. Alan Parsons brings you into a studio and the band just gives you an instrumental track and only the vaguest of instructions. You walk out a couple hours later with 30 quid in your pocket, sure you've botched the session, only to find out later you've laid out one of THE GREATEST rock vocals of ALL TIME. :D :D :D
And you did it in just 2 1/2 takes!
Alan Parsons?
@@chriswaddle6995 Parsons was the recording engineer on Dark Side of The Moon
[Corrected - I originally erroneously said Parsons produced the record]
Which is why she ultimately sued for a writing credit on this track and won.
Beth, when you realize Claire Torrey was hired as a studio musician, did this piece in 2 takes, and was paid 100£ for her contribution, it’s almost depressing. However, years later she was approached by David Gilmour, where it was agreed upon that she would receive due compensation and writing credits for this song… Better late than never. This was always my favorite song off of Dark Side of the Moon !!!
Even after 50 years Clare's voice communicates directly with my emotional core.
I cannot hear this song and not cry. Pink Floyd and Clare Tory do that to me. Every time. And I'm glad they do. It's one hell of an emotional release, and sometimes we need that. I'll never stop listening to this song, or this album.
I says about Tom Waits in all his horribleness of loneliness and desperation "its like someone ramming a dagger in your guts and all you can say is "More, deeper!""
Somehow Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind" gets my emotions, even though I could not tell you why. It is a good song, but not one on the emotional side.
Regarding the "intellectual" emotion, there was Mike & The Mechanics' (I wish I would have told him in the ) "Living Years". When that came out, my father was still halfway OK.
Then last year I stumbled over James Blunt's "Monsters". Not that I would be a fan of him. He wrote that song when his father, who had donated a kidney long ago, had kidney failure and urgently needed a new one or he would die.
It is the song from a son that tells his dad "It's all OK, you have done your job and done it well, now it's time for our generation to chase the monsters away".
Hearing that song when your father is in a nursing home, his brain is mush, the cancer is slowly eating him up - OMG.
My problem as well
Me too, typing with tears running down my cheeks.
As a musician and retired music teacher, i am very impressed with your musicality and ability to evaluate on very high levels. ...but the more I watched you....your voice, expressions with your eyes and eyebrows, the more i was sad I didn't meet someone like you to live a lifetime with....your husband or partner is VERY VERY lucky to have found you .
This moves me EVERY time I hear it ....EVEN for the hundredth/hundredth time. A true piece of art.
This is one of those songs that I simply can't have loud enough. It never fails to amaze me how Clare Torry just sells the HELL out of this without saying a word. She even somehow managed to foreshadow the quiet passages right in the middle of the wailing. An absolutely unbelievable performance. Great choice!!
So glad you did this analysis of Clare Tory’s studio rendition of Great Gig in the Sky. It is incredibly creative and yet on point, daring and yet masterful, and most of all, an authentic masterpiece. Your analysis breaks it down really well but just as important, your professional appreciation for what she accomplished lends even greater validation of her unique approach. There is no other song like this, and though there are countless ways to reinterpret it, Clare’s inspired takes are priceless gems of vocalization.
Clare Tory gives me chills. Full body chills, not just up the arms. She blew my mind back in the day and she still is the best.
I've never seen her go so long without a pause. Definitely deserved for one of the best vocal performances of all time.
"I never said I was frightened of dying..." So softly spoken it's almost lost in the background, chills every time
Truly one of the high points of recorded rock music. I hope that the undisclosed sum she was awarded was very generous. It's one for the ages and she wrote it all herself in real time AND executed it perfectly. That's not just talent, that's genius.
To get it first time, that's genius, agree. Though RW wrote the core, and it would have been good just with keyboards, CT made it so much more special.
@@BeijingBuzzz-China-Travel He wrote the chord progression but she came up with the vocals, all the more amazing because she did it in real time, after being asked to capture the five stages leading to death, which couldn't have been easy. She wasn't just singing. She was acting.
One of the most gorgeous songs ever recorded. While her voice isn't used to sing lyrics, she transcends mere words to elevate us all into a state where we're able to comprehend her meaning. Sometimes, words can get in the way.
Thanks for articulating what I was thinking & feeling. Have a wonderful day/evening.
"Sometimes words get in the way"
Perfect 👍
@@steveswafen2528 Thank you. I say this very same thing to Claire Torry and Pink Floyd whenever I hear this astonishingly beautiful miracle of a song. Well, everything but the have a wonderful day/evening part. lol
Folks now say her sounds represent the multiple stages of death, and include feelings of shock, denial, fear, pain, guilt, anger, confusion, bargaining, loneliness, despair, reflection, and acceptance. Some experts say there are up to 7 stages.
Here's an interview with Clare Torry about her work on "The Great Gig in the Sky" studio track: ua-cam.com/video/mIW7xZSlZoM/v-deo.html .
@@oahuhawaii2141 Cheers for the info & the link, gonna go check it out 👍
I have a quad surround version of this mixed by Alan Parsons over at Abbey Road. In this her voice is isolated front and center and the instruments are placed further back. It is incredible to hear after hearing it in stereo all these years. You feel like you are in the studio with her and the band. Just when you think you think you've heard it all...
@@nelsonclub7722 I thought I replied. But yes, it is available on the web, just search. You'll of course need the equipment to play it.
Kinell! I wrote about the disappointing mixes... above... just now.
To me this is the absolute pinnacle of the greatest album in rock history. I've heard it hundreds of times and I get chills every time I hear Claire belt it out. Truly inspired.
The emotion in her sound! It's a once in a lifetime thing. The live version will never be the same! What she was feeling that day, what she was hearing while recording. Whatever...never the same thing twice. That's why this hits it! Love love love it! And yes, she should have been paid way well! Thank you for this!
" She's amazingly good at storytelling without any words whatsoever"
Yup. Nailed it!
The live version was great and was a wonderful moment to witness in concert, but nothing beats Clare Torry's original creation. She makes you FEEL the gamut of emotions she is running through. The fact that the live version from years afterwards required three singers to even attempt to reproduce speaks volumes as to just how astonishingly good Clare's contribution really is. Personally, I'm gratified that you've covered this redo as no one could possibly do proper justice to the original. Thank you, Elizabeth.
Search for Brit Floyd's version with Eva Avila. One voice, no one else required, amazing
God, why did no one film this? All we have from this session is Waters piddling about on a VCS and 10 minutes of them eating!
It wasnt just the one bloody track that needed three singers, you doofus. You think all three of them stood on stage for three hours for just one song, FFS? You forgot about Time, Money, Us & Them, Comfortably Numb, Brick In The Wall Part 2, Sorrow, Keep Talking and the rest of the Pulse set?
One of the few songs that gives me goosebumps, emotional response. Such a classic, beautiful and unforgettable experience.
That is the sound of grief. I have lost so many people in the last few years and this song helped me release the agony of the loss.
The way she portrays the stages of facing grief/death with denial and agony, to letting go and acceptance is absolutely incredible.
Will go down in history as the most incredible portrayal of human emotion without saying a single word.
The 3 women who did the live version of this track, while great, are still no comparison to here. Simply perfect.
The live versions are following this as a score - but can’t beat the original.
They did their best to come close, they did it good, but whatever, it was an imitation of the original. Not even Clare Torry herself might be able re reenact that exactly. It is this one unrecoverable time in the universe that will never come again.
Trouble for the cover singers is that the range and emotions are so extreme and the people know every millisecond so well that you are trapped in having to recreate this, and have no room left to do your own thing, your own style - which then might produce a new, independent result with its own merits.
But we all stand there and say "but when it is not EXACTLY so like when we were 18 and heard the song the first rime, we are disappointed" - that must make it hard as singer when you know that.
I’m glad you did this the 2nd time, the lady’s voice Clare Torre is incredible here.
I remember somewhere David Gilmour said her vocal melodies basically are the guitar solo for the song. There's no recreating the passionate and powerful emotion in her vocals here live. It's a piece of magic.
I’ve never been able to find a live version of Great Gig in the Sky that’s better than the studio version. I’m so happy you decided to listen to it. Such a beautiful piece of music from start to finish.
There is a video of a much older Clare Torry doing this song live with the band, I can't remember where or when but it should be easy to find... and no it doesn't compare to the studio version... that being said I've heard the Great Gig performed live a couple of times and it was always moving
@Allyson Hall totally agree
@@matf9325 Live at Knebworth 1990 Pink Floyd with Clare Torry
Again, I gotta say, I've seen numerous reactions to this singular piece of brilliant music. And most of them have incredibly appreciative and blow away by it. But this reaction by a trained vocalist who truly grasps the epic aspects of this performance, is one of my top if not the top favorite. Stellar work, thank you.
This is one of my favorite pieces of music. I am so happy you enjoyed it this much. What a great gift she gave us with this gorgeous vocal.
Listen to the whole album, because it is a masterpiece! This song is about death, stages anger, pain, sorrow and acceptance. She expresses it so clearly. Thank you 😍
And if you want to see her performing this song w. PF live, there is a video here, The great Gig in the Sky Live at Knebworth 1990! She is one with music 🥹💗
It would take her ten years with all the repeating of the same parts over and over and the one part music to ten parts talking...
@@corneliuscrewe677 😂😂😂
First i am so happy you decided to reexamine this amazing song with the amazing Claire Torry, and is the best version you will ever find tbh, this song gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it
It's a song about death, ultimately. The best one I know of. That's why she was wailing. And then it goes through all the stages of grief. A masterpiece.
This is a prime example of saying nothing but telling you everything with emotion. A true masterpiece.
Let us all admit, we all come here because we are envious of the people that are blessed by being allowed to make that experience for the first time.
A feeling that I have had over 40 years ago.
Can we get Elizabeth to try singing this for us? I would love to here her rendition.
Yes - that would be interesting!
Kind of amazing that a song without any sung lyrics can be so amazingly descriptive.
YES YES YES! This is the One! Your expression when you hear her wailing was priceless. About 7min. As a normy audio lover ( non-musician) I heard this on a tape boombox as a Teenager in the 90's and was hooked. Endless Respect. I'm so glad you listened to your subscribers and listened to this version. Beautiful Communion of Fan and Artist! I feel like the world is a better place. True Holy Justice! Thank you.
GREAT, GREAT channel. I'm 57 and in the last 18 months I have almost totally lost the power of speech due to a very rare neurological condition. I was told to watch this by someone studying Jazz singing (we were discussing PF). Because of my illness I resisted out of fear. But I'm glad I did. I love your analysis/reactions!!
❤
The story of the recording reminds me of Picasso in his elder years. He'd go to the ocean during low-tide and draw pictures in the sand, gifting them to world as the water consumed them. This recording is a gift to the world. Clare Torry didn't know we'd all get the chance to tear up to this song, which probably reduced any inhibition. The subject matter of inevitable death as the price for life; The first 2/3 of the song show the frustration of mortality, the final third the beauty in acceptance. If there're very few vocal performances that truly inspire awe: This is one of them.
Every time this plays I believe that the angels in haven hush one another and just listen with a tear drop in their eyes
When I first heard this song as a young teenager, way back in the 70's I simply thought it was cool as hell. 50 years later, it can almost bring me to tears simply from the anticipation of you experiencing this masterpiece for the first time.
So it wasn't only me getting a little misty-eyed - good to know! That's what love for music can do..
It brings me to tears realizing I will be there soon! Not fearing it, but embracing it! “Everybody’s got to go sometime”!
I want this played at my funeral...Dark Side was a huge musical influence for me and still is today
Same experience, it has so more depth when you are older.
How could so young guys be so phylosophical...
@@dunsar61I'm having "Free bird" played at mine.
I have listened to this song 100s of times - I have never heard another vocal performance touch me SO utterly deeply. It makes me feel like I am experiencing my own birth, life and death. Still brings me to tears every time.
I have listened to and owned this album when it first came out ❤❤❤ Thousands of times listening and i still hear things new everything on it master class pure art with humility
There has been many other singers do it but no one has nailed it in the same way. She still has it.
The band didn't really know what they wanted but they knew what they DIDN'T want and Claire delivered! Unprecedented in rock music 😱! I LOVE this SOOOO MUCH 🥰🍄✨🌈☮️🎉😎!!!!!!
Thank goodness. I am so glad you are doing the studio. There is a great interview with her describing the recording process worth your time as well…. Pink Floyd is just other worldly in every sense.
link to interview ua-cam.com/video/mIW7xZSlZoM/v-deo.html
Our friend Elizabeth has a FANTASTIC voice.
I, for one, would love to hear her cover of "Great Gig in the Sky." Please Please with sugar on top!
I'm so glad you decided to listen to this version. Not that the live versions are not well done; it's just that Clare Torry is the originator with this. I also have to commend the production part of this. The way that this was edited is so incredible. They took what Clare Torry did and, for my viewpoint and opinion, it sounds like a soul fighting to stay alive but ended up submitting to that "Great Gig In The Sky". Very much reminding me of Irish Keening.
I can't listen to this song and not tear up a little. It's just a perfect expression of the human experience of letting go.
The greatest thing about these vocals is that every take was improvised . One of the greatest vocals in music history.
As a huge Pink Floyd fan this song was a masterpiece. It gets the message across better than any written lyric could, and I don’t think they could’ve made a more powerful song other than this vocal solo.
I love how much Clare’s wailing adds to the theme of death and rebirth of the song (originally called “the mortality sequence”). Like the intro narration (that I believe was the doorman at the recording studio) of people being asked introspective questions and his reply of not being “frightened of dying” and how there’s “no reason for it, we all have to go sometime”
This song always makes me think of death. But not in a bad way
Gerry O’Driscoll the Irish doorman from Abbey Road. Completely immortalised. The voices on the album are what make it (for me), a set of questions were written on cards, each person would read the question, answer it, and turn over the next one….
Only one of the voices, Roger “The Hat” (one of Floyd’s roadies) was not done with the cards, it was done as an interview with Roger Waters.
“If you give ‘em a quick, short, sharp, shock, they don’t do it again….” At the beginning of Us & Them.
Clare Torry turned up and PF said to sing - no lyrics and she let her heart go and created the finest "Gig in the Sky" created. The way she uses her voice to express the pain and the defiance and finally the succumbing to the inevitable that we all will face is beyond words. Her sound is from the soul. The best version in MHO ever sung. She did a live version some years ago, and you see the emotion in her body language that exposes the raw primal sound she has in her soul.
You have said all that is needed - its the torment of the soul. Clarre just lets it happen and puts her soul out there
My Mom once shared with me in confidence that she was fairly certain that I was conceived while this track was playing on the stereo in the background. 🥰 I've loved this performance all of my life. In a way, it IS my life. 🙏
😅❤
Thanks so much Elizabeth for doing this, and listening to your subscribers. Such a serendipitous and momentous musical event. I don't think any of them realised just how momentous at the time, including Clare. Incredible to know she was just 'jobbing'. Your analysis is way too advanced for this non-singer, but your enthusiasm and excitement is palpable. Good to see you've researched the background to the session, too. A truly timeless track on a timeless album.
Listening for the first time, I closed my eyes and listened to the whole album until this piece came on...then I opened them to see my friend doing the exact same open-mouthed disbelieving.
Her version of this solo always brings tears to my eyes for some reason. It seems like all this emotion is coming out at once. I think someone could out of depression if they just let go and tried this in privacy.
As for the "for some reason," having heard this my whole life (was born in 68, first heard it when I was perhaps 10 listening to my dad's records while he was away in the mental institution) I can offer at least my lifelong perspective on that reason. As a young kid it blew me away because I had simply never heard a woman just go crazy with her voice like that. Maybe Aretha Franklin, but honestly I had no great appreciation of vocals at that early age in terms of rare raw talent. It was just so expressive, and untethered sometimes hinging on madness, later sadness, and later soothing. Skip to adulthood, I was moved to tears, I could then realize the beauty, the humanity, and be blown away by the sheer emotion. Now I'm older- looking back on life, and I feel the vibe of the actual song- the mortality aspect of not being afraid of dying, and it just hits.. hard. It's such a beautiful concept for a song- and then there's also the song's context within the album itself. There's a good reason, many actually.
Some months ago I go to a tribute show for Pink Floyd and in this song I cried too. I think its was because I was told that the band that made the tribute was really great and I was full on hype and I really love Pink Floyd soo its was like the closer moment I could be in a real concert. Even i have a tattoo of The Dark Side of The Moon hahaha
So much looking forward to this. Because this is something else. Puts the live version into shadow.
That's an absolutely iconic vocal performance. I love that she had no idea it was in the final version until she saw the album in the store, though having to sue to get what she deserved for it (well more than 30£, for sure) sucks. At least she got it. I can't imagine this song without her performance, it _is_ the song, imo. It conveys so much emotion without any words. Brilliantly done. Loved your analysis as always.
What separates Pink Floyd from
EVERYBODY ELSE is their attention to detail. They have the most amazing backup singers! They are truly unsung heroes.
They also pioneered the use of tape recorders in music (the voices, sound effects etc.).