S Poddar
David Gilmour’s new album, Luck and Strange, follows as one of the most expected releases this year. This is the first solo album from the former Pink Floyd guitarist in almost ten years, since 2015’s Rattle That Lock. The album is not only highly awaited but also features contributions from the late Richard Wright, Pink Floyd’s longtime and extremely talented keyboardist.
Founding member Wright took on enormous responsibility when Syd Barrett left the group in 1968, and with Gilmour and bassist Roger Waters, he formed one-third of one of history’s most successful songwriting and arrangement teams. He was heavily involved in creating some of Pink Floyd’s most beloved cuts, including the epic “Us and Them” on The Dark Side of the Moon. His vocal work on “Time” is one of his best-recognized.
In the late 1970s, Wright’s influence within the band waned as Waters exerted a greater level of creative control over Pink Floyd. During the fractious recording sessions for 1979’s The Wall, Wright even got fired but remained a touring member of the group until 1981. Once Waters left in 1985 after The Final Cut, Wright rejoined Pink Floyd as a session musician on 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason before returning as a full member for 1994’s The Division Bell.
Wright passed away from cancer of the lungs on September 15, 2008, at his home in London. His recordings with the group have since surfaced on what has been marketed as Pink Floyd’s last album, The Endless River, issued in 2014.
Gilmour’s latest album Luck and Strange, to be released on September 6, allows listeners the opportunity to hear Wright’s compositions in an entirely new context. In a recent interview with The Sun, Gilmour explained how Wright’s playing made it onto that album.
“It’s quite a curious thing to be using recordings from over 20 years ago,” Gilmour said. “After the ‘On an Island’ tour in 2006, I was so impressed with how well we were playing together that I decided to bring the core band-Rick [Wright], Guy [Pratt], and drummer Steve DiStanislao-into a barn for a session.”
Despite the barn being “effing freezing,” Gilmour and the band managed to capture a song. “I had this little riff, and we jammed for 15 minutes,” he recalled. “That jam session yielded what became ‘Luck and Strange.’ The verses, the intro, and the outro were all there in that first take—no rehearsal, no nothing.”
Of his late friend, Gilmour called Wright a “one-off” who had his very own style. “Rick had heart and soul,” Gilmour said. “Although we didn’t always see eye to eye, he was an invaluable collaborator.”
Gilmour has made it a habit to continue using Wright’s recordings, a habit many classic rock legends practice. At the end of 2023, The Beatles released a final song, “Now and Then,” using archival recordings by John Lennon and George Harrison. It is one growing practice among bands: honoring legacies of their past bandmates through new projects.
