Mon, 15 September 2008
I'm speechless, in shock and very saddened... I can't remember the last time I was this teary eyed.
Wright appeared on the group's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside lead guitarist Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason. David Gilmour joined the band at the start of 1968 while Barrett left the group shortly afterwards. Wright penned songs on classic albums including The Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here. Wright's spokesman said: "The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness that Richard died today after a short struggle with cancer. "The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time." Comments[86]
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- Shine on Rick - Give . . . .
Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick
And I think of You
Caught up in circles confusion
is nothing new , Flash back - Warm night
Almost left behind
Suitcases of memories ,
time after . . . .Wright My second Father , have a nice day with Syd in Heaven and Peace for all in all pink floyd fans club in earth
If You're Lost you can look - ( Brain damage ) and you will find me ( The Definitive ) Time after time ( Pink floyd ) If you fall I will catch you ( Radio show ) I'll be waiting
Time after Time
Demos Floyd fans Code 10350 Java Island
Good Bless You all From Indonesia - the words from Remember a Day, performed by David Gilmour Sept 23 in tribute to the writer, his friend and bandmate of 40 years, Richard William Wright.
Rest in Peace.
Remember a Day
(Richard Wright)
Remember a day before today
A day when you were young.
Free to play alone with time
Evening never came.
Sing a song that can't be sung
Without the morning's kiss
Queen - you shall be it if you wish
Look for your king
Why can't we play today
Why can't we stay that way
Climb your favorite apple tree
Try to catch the sun
Hide from your little brother's gun
Dream yourself away
Why can't we reach the sun
Why can't we blow the years away
Blow away
Blow away
Remember
Remember
posted by: Michael from South Carolina on 2008-09-25 12:05:00
- Roger Waters issued a statement:
I was very sad to hear of Rick's premature death, I knew he had been ill, but the end came suddenly and shockingly. My thoughts are with his family, particularly [his children] Jamie and Gala and their mum Juliet, who I knew very well in the old days, and always liked very much and greatly admired. As for the man and his work, it is hard to overstate the importance of his musical voice in the Pink Floyd of the '60s and '70s. The intriguing, jazz influenced, modulations and voicings so familiar in 'Us and Them' and 'Great Gig in the Sky,' which lent those compositions both their extraordinary humanity and their majesty, are omnipresent in all the collaborative work the four of us did in those times. Rick's ear for harmonic progression was our bedrock. I am very grateful for the opportunity that Live 8 afforded me to engage with him and David [Gilmour] and Nick [Mason] that one last time. I wish there had been more.
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason told Entertainment Weekly:
Like any band, you can never quite quantify who does what. But Pink Floyd wouldn’t have been Pink Floyd if [we] hadn’t had Rick. I think there’s a feeling now -- particularly after all the warfare that went on with Roger and David trying to make clear what their contribution was -- that perhaps Rick rather got pushed into the background. Because the sound of Pink Floyd is more than the guitar, bass, and drum thing. Rick was the sound that knitted it all together... He was by far the quietest of the band, right from day one. And, I think, probably harder to get to know than the rest of us... It's almost that George Harrison thing. You sort of forget that they did a lot more than perhaps they’re given credit for.
- I Just listened again to the Docs \"Richard Wright\" Podcast and thought it was fantastic as is. I was wondering what people have as their favorate Richard Wright songs. Lists? I have not heard to much of his solo work. Anyone have any recomendations? - Thanks Duane
- Rick's Obit from "The Times"
Master of Floyd's keys
September 18, 2008
OBITUARY: Richard Wright. Rock musician. Born Pinner, England, July 28, 1943. Died London, September 15, aged 65.
18sept-pinkfloyd
BOWING OUT: Pink Floyd's Richard Wright (far right) has died, aged 65.
RICHARD Wright's keyboard playing was a vital ingredient of the sound that made Pink Floyd one of the biggest selling acts in the history of rock music. A founding member of the band, he also sang lead on several tracks on the group's early albums and co-wrote music for several of their best-selling albums, including The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.
He later fell out with singer-bassist Roger Waters, who fired him from the group during the recording of The Wall. Wright continued to work with the group as a hired musician but was restated to full membership after Waters left in the 1980s.
Richard William Wright was born in 1943 in Pinner, Middlesex, northwest of London. His father was chief biochemist at Unigate Dairies and he grew up in a large and comfortable house in nearby Hatch End with his two sisters. Educated at Haberdashers' Aske's school, he played piano, trumpet and trombone as a boy, adding the guitar to his repertoire at the age of 10. His first musical passion was jazz and by the time he was in his mid-teens he was hanging out at London clubs watching Humphrey Lyttelton and Kenny Ball.
In 1962 he enrolled to study architecture and the following year joined a band called Sigma 6, which included his future Pink Floyd colleagues Waters and Nick Mason. In 1964 the band became the Abdabs (sometimes the Screaming Abdabs), with Wright's girlfriend, Juliette Gale, sometimes singing with them. By the summer of 1964 the couple had married. Wright dropped out of his course and went travelling across Greece before returning in 1964 to enrol at the London College of Music.
With Syd Barrett added to the line-up and with Wright restored alongside Waters and Mason in a group now known as the Tea Set, they played R&B songs in a style similar to the early Rolling Stones. By late 1965 they had begun experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs and the experience was reflected in a more experimental style musically, a proto-psychedelic sound based on extended improvisation between Wright's keyboards and Barrett's guitar.
There was also another change of name, to the Pink Floyd Sound, after two American blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, which was trimmed to Pink Floyd.
The band's timing was perfect. The London underground scene was just emerging and Pink Floyd became its house band. With Barrett starting to write songs, Pink Floyd became a fixture at counterculture venues such as the UFO club and at benefits for radical causes such as the London Free School. They also began to accompany their performances with a light show and at the end of 1966 they recorded two tracks for Peter Whitehead's film Tonite Let's All Make Love in London, although they failed to appear in the film.
With the mainstream music industry waking up to the commercial potential of the new psychedelic sound, the group signed to EMI and made the Top 20 with its first two Barrett-written singles, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, both released in1967.
Their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, followed later that summer and was a landmark in the development of British psychedelic music, combining the whimsy of Barrett's songs with a free-form sound in which Wright's keyboards featured prominently, the avant-garde quality enhanced by the use of stereo panning and other studio techniques that areold hat today but at the time weregroundbreaking.
Wright also sang lead on several tracks, including Astronomy Domine and Matilda Mother.
By the time of the release of their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets (1968), however, Barrett had become one of rock music's first acid casualties and was replaced by guitarist David Gilmour. If they missed Barrett's songs, they did not miss his LSD-induced unreliability, and the increasingly complex structures of their compositions helped to define the new notion of progressive rock far removed from the three-chord, three-minute-single format of pop music.
The band's next important release, Ummagumma (1969), featured all four members on extended solo compositions, Wright's contribution being a four-part, 13-minute avant-garde instrumental suite called Sysyphus.
Atom Heart Mother (1970) found the band recording with an orchestra for the first time on the title piece, a 23-minute rock-orchestral suite, while side two of the album included Wright's nostalgic Summer '68. It was the band's first No1 and was followed by Meddle (1971) which, minus the orchestra, cemented the epic, post-psychedelic Pink Floyd sound that was to make their next album, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), one of the biggest selling and most influential albums of all time.
Although the concept for the album belonged to Waters, Wright's jazz background exerted a strong influence in various ways, including the prominent use of a saxophone and his singing with Gilmour on Time, one of the album's most famous tracks.
Wish You Were Here (1975) was almost equally successful and included a nine-part suite Shine on You Crazy Diamond as a tribute to Barrett. Part of it was sung by Wright, but it was to be his last lead vocal until 1992, when the group re-formed without the dominant presence of Waters.
On Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979), Wright's influence was much diminished, and he was fired during the recording of the latter by Waters, who was calling all the shots as de facto leader.
By then Wright had a heavy cocaine addiction and when he refused to return early from his summer holiday to finish the album it was the final straw. Waters claimed there was no alternative but to dismiss him from the group, although Gilmour and Mason later claimed they had opposed his sacking. Wright finished the album and continued to perform live with the band as a hired hand on a fixed wage. By - Just to fill in a bit more detail about next week's BBC schedules for david Gilmour;
Tuesday 23rd Sept - 10:00 BBC 2 - Later with Jools Holland - an appearance by David Gilmour
Extended version of this show on Friday 26th Sept BBC 2 11:35
Also on Friday 26th Sept BBC4 - David Gilmour;
9:10 - 10:10 - Live in Gdansk
10:10 - 10:40 Gdansk Diary
10:40 - 11:40 Which One's Pink (repeat of documentary from earlier this year). - I know I am selfish, but the loss of Rick really puts an end to 20 years of hope that the band could reform. It sucks, but in a way we can move on from that debate, now I guess. We now will have to treasure the Live 8 performance, and I\'ll probably even get the Gdansk video. Sad, sad, sad, unexpected and unfortunate. He was the heartbeat, the harmony.
- I hope that Rick knew, and appreciated, the significance of his contribution to music in the second-half of the 20th century, and of the joy and wonder he gifted to PF fans. (Apologies if that sounds fatuous, but I'm not sure that it is overstatement.)
Almost anyone can be brilliant, but to be brilliant *and* humble, ... well that just takes class.
Thanks, Rick. I hope you knew how much you were loved. - ... His bleeding heart... not beating much...
He turned on the night... wore its darkness with an empty smile...
We should remember the happiness he brought to all of our memories. Newer generations and probably people younger than me might just have a fuzzy foggy kind of understanding of what Pink Floyd means to us; We always try our best to introduce them to this period of history which will surely be unforgottenable for all us and hopefully for future races...
Shine on Pink Floyd, Shine on Richard Wright ans Syd Barrett, and Shine on us... We are lucky to know them and spend our time with them - For me, Rick's themes & melodies were sublime, capable of lifting my spirit so that I soared above the mundane dreariness that is sometimes this world. He appeared quiet & shy but his keyboards filled out and gave life to the music that was Pink Floyd. Such a pity that there will be no more Wright stuff. A humble man but a great musician. A quiet achiever who penned brilliant music.
- I've been trying hard to hold back the tears but after reading what David said on his website...
I have to admit, I lost it and quietly had it out.
The next podcast will be this weekend, naturally a tribute to Richard... but I'm not sure yet if I'll repost "The Wright Stuff" (show 72) or something slightly different. I've only slept 2 hours in the past 36 and the news has made it impossible for me to sleep at all. I feel emotionally drained. - Hadn't been to Roger's page in a long time but now it's just showing a large pic of candles and flowers (?). I think Rog is speechless, too.
Doc, I put on Wish You Were Covered today thinking it would cheer me up and ended up crying about halfway through.
*sigh*
Im so sad im speachless. Why !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We just lost Syd it seems. Well I guess Live 8 will be the swansong. Im going to play some early floyd now and be really really sad. I know everyone here can share in my pain. Thank you Doc for all your hard work here and the floyd updates. I just knew this was the place to go after I found out about RW's death. I lost someone close to cancer just a few weeks ago. I'm so ugh!!!!! I feel for his family friends and floyd fans.
Duane- from http://www.davidgilmour.com/
No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend.
In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten.
He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.
I have never played with anyone quite like him. The blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in 1971 on 'Echoes'. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow. After all, without 'Us and Them' and 'The Great Gig In The Sky', both of which he wrote, what would 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' have been? Without his quiet touch the Album 'Wish You Were Here' would not quite have worked.
In our middle years, for many reasons he lost his way for a while, but in the early Nineties, with 'The Division Bell', his vitality, spark and humour returned to him and then the audience reaction to his appearances on my tour in 2006 was hugely uplifting and it's a mark of his modesty that those standing ovations came as a huge surprise to him, (though not to the rest of us).
Like Rick, I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously.
David Gilmour
Monday 15th September 2008
- In the words of Rex Harrison: Damn damn damn damn damn damn DAMN.
Mighty bummer all 'round, but figure he's in a much better state now. His legacy will not soon be forgot, which is no finer state in which to leave this plane.
Hope to see you on the flip side, man. - the lyrics to a beautiful Wright-penned song that featured both him on keyboards and vocals AND.... Syd on slide guitar.
Remember a day before today
A day when you were young.
Free to play alone with time
Evening never came.
Sing a song that can't be sung
Without the morning's kiss
Queen - you shall be it if you wish
Look for your king
Why can't we play today?
Why can't we stay that way?
Climb your favorite apple tree
Try to catch the sun
Hide from your little brother's gun
Dream yourself away
Why can't we reach the sun?
Why can't we blow the years away?
Blow away
Blow away
Remember
Rememberposted by: Michael from South Carolina on 2008-09-15 21:26:00
- When Syd died it happened on my best friends birthday. He was the first one to tell me, and I didn't believe me. My life has gone through some changes since, and my new best friend told me this news on his birthday. It was the worst case of Deja Vu. I always felt he was the silent one of the band, and he has always been my favorite. I always compare him to John Entwistle of the Who, whomb is my favorite member (deceased or alive) of that band. I have nothing much more I can express that has not been expressed before, except I always found Paintbox, to be so sad and haunting, although it's one of my favorite songs, and now it's only more haunting.
We need another all Richard Wright podcast, it's the least he deserves. - ........ that's all i can really say. My world has stopped and i can't seem to function. My dream of the Floyd getting back together for one last cd or tour...will never,ever happen. My prayers and wishes to the Wright Family....your loss will never be gained. To all the people reading this...it is sad to have lost a loved one, being that we know them or not. Today...shed a few tears, remember the great times you had with his music, smile, light up some candles and roll a BIG FAT one for the backbone of Pink Floyd.
We all love you Richard...and tell Syd, all of us down here miss him terribly. On a lighter note...Heaven's gonna have a killer band!!
Bye R.W.W. R.I.P. - Shine On, Rick. Have fun playing the great gig in the sky. i am very deeply saddened, but i'm glad he is not suffering anymore.
See You On The Dark Side of the Moon,
Richard
This so bizarre. I am wearing a dark side shirt today and listened to matilda mother this afternoon. i am so sad.
WYWH, Rick - Hard to put in words. I rarely get choked up on news items like this. I tend to say, yeah that's sad but on to the next news item. This completely floored me. I had to call my cousin who is a big floyd fan and could hear in his voice his disbelief. Reading comments from other site its hard to hold back tears for a musician who has contributed so much to my memories of staying up all night as a teen listening to his textured sounds from DSotM flowing through my headphones.
I hope you and Syd are now together in peace. Take care brother. - I did not know Richard as a man but his music has enriched my life for as long as I can remember. My sadness cannot be in any measure compared to those who knew him. I am lucky to be distanced enough to know that his legacy remains,will continue to give pleasure and hope that one day his family may have this as well as their treasured memories. Thankyou richard. xxxx
- Richard Wright...An underrated keyboard hero, and THE man for the atmospherics that made Pink Floyd. I hate to say, but with his passing, the sound of the band dies as well. No disrespect to David, Nick, Roger, or (of course) Syd, but Rick Wright is what took the band above and beyond for me, ad many others. God bless you...RIP
- Richard William Wright...
I remember we closed our university back in Tehran the day we found Syd Barrett has died and most of out professors and teachers joined us.
Here; nobody seems to worry...
I wish at least we were in London now...
I just feel to empty inside. Why nobody is crying here %$&@#?!?!!!
ANYBODY HERE HAS ANY NEWS FROM LONDON? WHAT IS GOING ON THERE? - I was floored when I found out. Tonight I will listen to as much Richard Wright penned Floyd songs and Broken China tracks as possible. This is a HUGE loss and any reunion without Wright would be hollow. Rest In Peace Rick and know that while the world is a sadder place without you in it, we will always have your stunning songs as a reminder of you and your importance to Pink Floyd.
- When I saw it as a Yahoo news item, I felt like I got punched in the chest. His music has been a huge part of my life for more than 30 years. Peace to Rick and peace to his family. I wonder if he could have ever imagined how many people his music touched. Thank you for the music Rick. I am humbly grateful to you.
- Rick,dude,it always made me feel sad that you put yourself and your songs down in interviews.To me your songs were always something to look forward to.I was thrilled when at my first Floyd gig,there you were playing the intro to Shine on ,back in the band where you belonged.I cried with happiness then, I cry with sadness now.But it's with the knowledge that you were happy on Davids last tour and like David said on the DVD, I love you man.Sail On.....
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