‘High Hopes’: What did Pink Floyd’s true swan song mean?

Very few bands have a history quite like Pink Floyd’s. The members have always altered throughout different periods of the band, and with these differing members, the style and sound of the band have persistently changed. It means that when you go through the band’s discography, you experience a range of different styles, each of which is unique and makes for an incredibly exciting listen.

In their early days, the majority of songwriting duties were headed by Syd Barrett. This was still during the period when psychedelic rock was still establishing itself, and it meant that the songs often worked on an individual level, but the albums being made didn’t have a whole load of direction.

Roger Waters has criticised some of the band’s early work because of this apparent lack of direction. Take Piper at the Gates of Dawn, for instance, when he was giving his opinion on some of the work Pink Floyd have been responsible for, he criticised this record for not having a clear direction or overall message. He put his money where his mouth is with some of the following Pink Floyd albums, which seemed to be solely directed.

Once Syd Barrett left the band, Waters decided to focus on more in-depth projects, which meant elongated concept albums where the songs were connected and flowed. Some of the bands most popular albums such as Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall came from this period.

Despite the creative direction of the band seemingly in safe hands during this period, there is no escaping the fact that the band continued having difficulties moving forward, and that led to Roger Waters leaving. David Gilmour and other members continued making music, much to the disdain of Waters, and it was music that a lot of fans seemed to resonate with. Granted, some of those earlier albums are still seen as fan favourites, but people were still keen to listen to the albums that Waters wasn’t involved in.

It looked as though the final Pink Floyd album would land in 1994 with The Division Bell. The album was viewed by many as the band’s final outing, and their final song on the album feels like a real swan song. It was one of the first records written for the album, but used as the final recording, and it seems to act as the full stop on the band.

Albums seem to refer to things coming to an end, but the real nail in the coffin comes at the end of the song, when Charlie, David Gilmour’s son, hangs up the telephone on Pink Floyd’s manager, Steve O’Rourke. The notion seemed to imply that Gilmour was hanging up the phone on the band in a bid to spend more time with their family. It’s a sweet way to end the album, but it didn’t mark the end of the band’s music, which instead came ten years later.

The Endless River was released in 2014, and the album was named after a closing lyric from the song ‘High Hopes’. During an interview, David Gilmour admitted that the reason he did that was to suggest that the beginning of that album is a continuum of the end of The Division Bell. While ‘High Hopes’ might not have been the official ending to Pink Floyd, it is seen by many as the official swansong of the band.