Pink Floyd's Richard Wright, forgotten genius?

There's three of them actually.

Ack, correcting myself. There two Wright solo albums and then the Zee album.

wright does kinda get left out in discussions about synth-players. not as technically proficient or over-the-top as wakeman or emerson, not as inspired or futuristic as eno or kraftwerk -- an influence of sorts on techno and electro, yes, but certainly not a major one to be mentioned in the same breath as kraftwerk/eno/numan/vince clarke/tangerine dream (the orb notwithstanding). in the end, he was a perfectly competent keyboardist/synth-player who at his best added just what was needed for PF at a given moment.

Amazingly I find myself in agreement with Geir - tho there's a possibility he might be joking (there's no possibility that i'm joking by the way). I don't know about Rick Wright's synth playing but he was a great organ player and was the only other person in the original band, other than Syd, who had any musical talent or imagination. When Syd left the Floyd, Peter Jenner asked Wright to come with him - why would he ask waters or Mason? Of course, after Syd left, Roger Waters went off and, being the diligent hard-working bore that he is, studied his Lennons and Townshends and Dylans long and hard until he learned how to write boring songs. And then, being a blustering egotistical bully, had no problem squashing the meek Wright and making him pay for all those nights in the early Floyd when Wright (or Peter Jenner) had to tune Waters' bass for him because he didn't know how to.

I can understand immigrants in the UK are not too keen on copying "white" styles such as Music Hall (which makes it impossible for them to sound English anyway), but why on Earth do they have to ape American styles. It was a lot more natural when bands such as UB40 did reggae in the 80s - at least reggae was based on the music from where they originally came from, not some imported US crap.

Looking at the ethnic origin of most immigrants in the UK, reggae elements and Bollywood elements would be the most natural elements in their music - besides typically English elements such as Music Hall, of course...

Wet Dream really has "several very substantial songs"? As much as I like him, I almost find that hard to believe...

This was always my impression too, that Mason was only along for the ride (and to keep every amused with his tonsorial shenanigans). That said, he plays a surprisingly central role in the recently re-released Live at Pompeii.

The drugs really must've taken a big toll on those guys though, as he sounds like a totally different and much more energetic drummer on, say, a Saucerful of Secrets.

as substantial as the ones he gave to the band, anyways... it's a fluffy album. but it's got moments, especially for those pre-inclined.

yeah, I'd say the Who is a pretty good reference point for those More tracks ... hmmm .. the guitar tone even sounds like Townshend (did he and Gilmour play the same model? maybe it's just that attack)

I had that Dark Side of the Moo boot as well. It's flabbergasting that they still haven't given those stray single tracks an easily obtainable release! In the early 90s I stumbled into this generally crappy used CD store just looking to kill some time, and lo and behold they had a copy of the bonus early Singles CD that accompanied the Shine On box! I couldn't believe it, and snapped it up. I don't know if some deluded soul just sold it out of the box cuz he disliked it .. or maybe there was in fact some kind of individual promo issue of it or something.

They could have totally tacked all that stuff onto Relics when they finally - after a ridiculously long delay - gave that one a CD issue. What a joke. Relics by the way was I think the first Floyd record I ever owned. "Remember a Day" was always one of my favorite songs on there; just loved Wright's piano lines on the song.

"Bridges Burning" from Obscured by Clouds is him too, isn't it?

Assuming that it WAS, indeed, Rick Wright playing those squigglies (and with Roger Waters' increasingly controlling ways around that time, you never really know), I suppose it can be said that RW made quite the impression on the our Gary — and, by association, perhaps chilly-synth New Wave...

Punk in general had a love/hate relationship with floyd, maybe because they loved the early stuff so much and hated the later stuff so much. John Lydon would wear his "I Hate Pink Floyd" T-shirt while the Damned would try to get Syd to produce their second record, but settle for Nick Mason, who admitedly did a terrible job. I'm sure Lydon/PIL loved early Floyd...

Thee exact same thing happened to me, and of course I snapped it up pretty quickly as well. I don't think there was a seperate promo release of it, a lot of places part stuff like that out when they get it in, like at the same shop I got the cocteau twins cd single box, b/c i went in just after they parted one out and put it all on the racks - they gave me discount for buying all the discs, and threw in the box as well.

Now that's high comedy, Dan. There's nothing quite as painful as losing discs of a boxed set -- I had the same thing happen to me w/ the Eno instrumental box, and now that's OUT OF FUCKING PRINT.

That said, I think that early Floyd disc was available seperately -- I think we had it at the Coop Bookstore, actually (Dan will know what I'm talking about -- we both worked there!)...

My friend Jim, I made him watch it, and he was like "Hey, this is totally like..." and then the shot of the speaker cabs w/ "Pink Floyd London" stenciled on them came up and he just laughed his ass off. It was pretty good.

I don't know if Lydon did ever like early Floyd but it as actually Malcolm McLaren who first had the idea of getting in Syd Barrett as a producer - tho, knowing him, that might have been some sort of situationist prank.

but yes, lovely harmonies, esp. Summer '68 and Shine 1 & 9, and i snapped up that funny little singles cd too when i saw it secondhand, and i like that (and yes, why of all things would someone sell that ?)

There's a scene in Fellini's Roma where all the "hippy free-lovers" are doing their thing juxtaposed with the "decadent ruling bourgeoisie" looking down at them from a majestrial private balcony, a mildly operatic scene, and there's a guy that looks _just_ _like_ Richard Wright in the middle of the "hippies", staring at the camera -- not Pompeii, but close time/place -- maybe something to do with "mates" like Antonioni or that weirder Barbet Schroeder (whose 2 PF movies i've found hard to find, and although critical consensus warns they're dire, i always imagined PF just suppressed them -- i just want to see the music in action as soundtrack)

Both More and La Vallee are easy to find on video and/or DVD. Amazon has them both. I haven't gotten around to La Vallee yet, but More is a pretty good little hippie nihilist junkie movie.

Fellini's Roma, that's summer '72. I figure it is Wright, centre stage middle of the free-loving transistor-toting Italian hippies, reprising "Summer '68" as he stares at the camera with a sad "is this it" expression on his face, not participating feverishly like the other long-hairs. Probably my imagination, and there's no "Alberto Sordi/ Gore Vidal/ Federico Fellini/ Marcello Mastroianni as himself" credit for Wright, but then that would be Wright's almost anonymous style.
Fellini's Roma _is_ a movie i have put effort into obtaining. The vignettes are too beautiful and mostly all too plausible (except for the Vatican City Liturgical Fashion Show, which is _clearly_ o.t.t., far too camp and spooky to be anything but specious and spurious, _definitely_, but it's the best audio-cinematic music video short of high-church communion with incense, possibly the main reason i obtained the film).

That's Wright singing the verse parts on "Matilda Mother", isn't it?

It occurs to me, though, that there's more to this story for me — a part that I forgot to mention, but seems relevant. My classical piano teacher—a geeky, bespectacled guy with a deviated septum who knew nothing about popular music—gave up teaching me classical around the time I was 13 or 14 because pop tunes were the only thing I really cared about. And one of the songs I INSISTED this guy teach me was "Summer '68" — which he begrudgingly did (though I'm sure that beat helping me figure out J Geils Band organ solos and so forth).

In retrospect, there's no way I would have kept up w/ music if the guy had insisted we keep doing Beethoven. But really, had this guy not taught me this song, not only might I have never attended the Oberlin Conservatory, but I never would have even met Dan Selzer! How's that for kizmit?

Thank you, Richard Wright!

Gilmour's first solo record since 1984, feat. Ricky, Phil Manzenera and Robert Wyatt among others.

At least I hope to hear "Fat Old Sun" at Radio City (and just maybe some of the lesser-known/played Floyd songs). Can happily pass on any Floyd material post-Animals.

And you know, I recently came across an mp3 of Robert Wyatt singing Roger's part on a solo Dave version of "Comfortably Numb"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3m_RzweM0E

This is really gorgeous.

happy birthday...

http://gozie.com/video/A98DXBYDUR38/Pink-Floyd--Paint-Box

wright is rad! i think lots of proggy bands would've benefitted from someone like this guy, who wasn't into flash so much as mood/heaviness.
is this good?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/Rick_Wright_Wet_Dream_album_300.jpg

oh, see there's some discussion up thread

this sounds tight. representative of the rest of the record?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEISO8cGKyo

Summer '68 is my jam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNvEWtNa33c



This is really gorgeous.
--Euler

New web site that his family put up. Worth checking out if you're a PF fan.
https://rickwright.com

All the interviews on this site make me wonder whether someone was working on a documentary film at some point. It's interesting to hear the perspectives of collaborators like Manzanera and Anthony Moore, who are sort of tangential to the conventional Pink Floyd story.

I'm puzzled, though, why there aren't any pages specifically about his solo albums. I guess there are fan sites that have that information, but it seems disrespectful somehow to deal with his work so obliquely. Incidentally, it seems that the Zee album was reissued last year as Identity 2019, credited to Wright and Harris. Despite the "new" title, it seems to be the original album with bonus tracks.

I only recently discovered Wet Dream, it's a really good record and probably has more of the flavors that make Pink Floyd great than anything Gilmour or Wright ever did separately.

yeah I think Wet Dream has aged well - when I was a teenager it seemed unlistenably smooth but 2020 ears are much more forgiving - lyrically there’s a sense of someone with not much to say making a solo album because “the others are”, but I guess I find that charming now as well! and yep there’s plenty of lovely Floydy chord sequences (& high end production)

heh I just posted abt that record today

Pink Floyd - Animals (Poll and discussion thread)

Full 80min interview unearthed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URbiyWY-szY

Details on the reissue of Wet Dream, obligatory Steven Wilson remix, etc.
https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/latest/richard-wright-wet-dream-reissue-with-steven-wilson-remix-release-de.html

When "balearic" was originally described to me, my first thought was, "Oh, like Richard Wright's Wet Dream record?"

All I've ever really known about this record is that he recorded it while he was on vacation or living in the Mediterranean -- something the pool suggests. I remember listening to it and hoping it would sound like the synths on DSOTM/WYWH/Animals, with his pillowy "Summer '68" vocals and being mostly disappointed.