The guitarist who left David Gilmour completely “dumbstruck”

Jimi Hendrix never got a chance to see psychedelic rock grow into the genre that we know and love today. When he was alive, there were bands who dabbled in that style of music, but they did so with a lack of direction, a general idea as to what they were trying to achieve, but not a lot of knowledge on how they could get there. Subsequently, he wasn’t a huge fan of Pink Floyd.

“Here’s one thing I hate man,” said Hendrix when he was talking about the newly inspired acid-rock scene that was taking over the capital, “When these cats say, ‘Look at the band. They’re playing psychedelic music!’ All they’re doing is flashing lights on them and playing ‘Johnny B. Goode’ with the wrong chords. It’s terrible.”

Hendrix’s comments are pretty fair, while the majority of people who admire psychedelic rock might roll their eyes at his take on the genre, even dominant figures in the scene, such as Roger Waters, have said he felt as though the band had little direction during that period. When discussing his least favourite Pink Floyd albums, he spoke about the disdain he had towards Piper At The Gates of Dawn.

“I don’t want to go back to those times at all,” he said, “There wasn’t anything ‘grand’ about it. We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn’t play at all, so we had to do something stupid and ‘experimental’.”

Eventually, though, Pink Floyd did manage to establish a sound that not only had a direction but was also celebrated as one of the greatest sounds in rock music. Some of their longer and more conceptual albums, such as The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon, are frequently revered as some of the greatest LPs ever made. There are a number of factors which contributed towards the band’s success, but the unique guitar tone of David Gilmour was a huge help.

Hendrix would have likely changed his mind about psychedelic music if he had heard Gilmour in his prime. Gilmour was certainly a big fan of Hendrix, as he would attend his shows in London before the guitarist had even released anything. He caught him at a gig in South Kensington in 1966 and, upon going to a record shop the next day to pick up music by him, realised he hadn’t actually released anything yet.

I say with confidence that Hendrix would have likely been a fan because Gilmour’s track record speaks for itself. His work is truly inspirational, so much so that a lot of artists who famously work independently have been keen to collaborate with him. The best example of this is Pete Townshend, who famously worked on his own both with The Who and as a solo artist, but he changed his mind on the solo when given the chance to play with Gilmour.

Gilmour was honoured as a big fan of Townshend and revelled their time in the studio together. “I was dumbstruck,” admitted Gilmour, “But he said he was having difficulty writing music, but had loads of words. I sent over two or three tracks and he came back with lyrics.”

Gilmour also said, “Pete has always been one of my heroes. When I was very young, I hitchhiked from Cambridge to London to see him play at the Marquee Club. It was the very beginning of the Who. He is incredible. He rarely plays lead, well, he could very well do…”