“A rehabilitation process for us”: The only way Pink Floyd tried to heal themselves

Not every band can weather the storm of the music business on their own. There are bound to be a handful of moments when things don’t work out, but the best part about the business is being able to rise like a phoenix from the ashes than worrying about how to get over the biggest heap of bullshit that anyone has been given. And in terms of progressive rock, there aren’t many bands that have faced as many setbacks as Pink Floyd did during their time together.

Although the band is officially retired, not many artists of their generation have had to go through three different frontmen throughout their career. Syd Barrett had already been the glue keeping them together in the early days, but once Roger Waters took the reins after Barrett lost his way, the band started to settle into the form that most people know them as today, when making albums like Dark Side of the Moon.

David Gilmour may have been the group’s official mouthpiece in many respects, but there are also many instances where he was kept at arm’s length when it came to writing songs. He had the potential to make something great on tunes like ‘Fat Old Sun’, but it never really mattered when there were tracks like ‘Time’ and ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ to work on their classic albums.

When Waters had had enough after The Wall, though, Gilmour was convinced that he had the chops to carry on by himself. The Final Cut had practically been a Roger Waters solo album, and despite most of the band playing on it, Gilmour knew it was time for them to go back and become the musicians they always wanted to be. However, whereas the last album was a vehicle for Waters, A Momentary Lapse of Reason started off this new lineup with a few rough edges.

“When the three of us sit down and play, it sounds like Pink Floyd.”- David Gilmour

The music itself was far from terrible, but the massive reverb around everything made the record feel like one big slog whenever they started working, which often held songs back that could have been classics like ‘Learning to Fly’ and ‘On the Turning Away’. Even though the band were still at half-capacity with only Nick Mason and Richard Wright alongside Gilmour, he knew the best way for them to get better was to take to the road.

And looking back on the shows captured on the Delicate Sound of Thunder tour, Gilmour felt that they helped heal those old wounds, saying, “The album and the tour were a rehabilitative process for all of us. When the three of us sit down and play, it sounds like Pink Floyd. There’s a very distinct value in that, which was important for me to discover. There’s something bigger than any one person’s ego.”

It still stung that Waters wasn’t involved anymore to bring his grand visions to life, but his belief that he was the heart and soul of the band was also proven wrong with these shows. He had the ability to make great records with people behind him, like on Amused to Death, but The Division Bell was the first time the band took a concept and fleshed it out without Waters’s involvement, resulting in tunes that can stand beside their classics like ‘High Hopes’.

Nothing was going to be the same once Waters left, but there was still room for the band to breathe a bit more with the new lineup. They hadn’t completely found their way out of the woods on A Momentary Lapse of Reason, but since it’s all about the number of times you get back up after being knocked down, this was the beginning of the band moving in the right direction again.