Longtime Pink Floyd singer/guitarist David Gilmour recently sat down with YouTube host, musician, and producer Rick Beato for a wide-ranging interview. During the chat, Gilmour was asked to name he would consider to be a perfect song.
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“Well, I bet a lot of people would say ‘Waterloo Sunset,’” David said, referring to the classic 1967 Kinks tune. “And I think that would certainly be up there for me.”
The 78-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer then also mentioned Elvis Presley’s 1956 breakthrough hit, “Heartbreak Hotel.”
“‘Heartbreak Hotel’ as a song and as a recording, it’s like three instruments or something,” Gilmour noted. “Just so perfect, every bit of it. It’s just, it couldn’t be more alive, and give you the atmosphere of something more perfectly than that.”
He added with a laugh, “There’s a lesson to be learned in there somewhere that I haven’t learned yet.”
“Waterloo Sunset” was written by Kinks frontman Ray Davies, and was a No. 2 hit in the U.K. It also was included on the band’s fifth studio album, Something Else by The Kinks.
“Heartbreak Hotel” was co-written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden. It became Presley’s first major U.S. hit, topping multiple charts in the spring of 1956.
Gilmour on His Own Songwriting and Recording Process
Gilmour recently wrapped up a 2024 tour promoting his latest solo album, Luck and Strange, which was released in September. During the interview with Beato, David talked about his songwriting process for the new record, and in general. Since 1994, Gilmour’s main lyricist has been his wife, novelist Polly Samson, who continued in that role for Luck and Strange.
Beato asked Gilmour whether the lyrics or the music comes first.
“The lyrics usually come when it’s quite progressed,” David noted, “but, I mean, a lot of this progressing is just me at home … in a studio. You create something that is a mockup of where you intend to go later with musicians. … Some of them turn out to be pretty good. I just sing a tune, going ‘la la la’ … is the usual.”
Beato also asked Gilmour how he knows if a song is finished with regard to a track being complete.
“When you’ve left the control room and you think, ‘That’s brilliant,’” David responded. He then explained, “There’s what you think is finished at the time, and there’s what you think would’ve been finished a year later, when you think, ‘Actually, I could’ve done that.’ There’s always little things [you might want to change].”
With regard to Luck and Strange, Gilmour noted, “I’m not sure there’ll be many with this record, ’cause I think this record has a sort of cohesive wholeness to it.”
About a Possible Follow-Up to Luck and Strange
At the end of the interview, Beato asked Gilmour if he thought he’ll make more new music with his current backing band.
“I see no reason why I wouldn’t,” David replied. “Yeah, absolutely, I’d love to.”
He added about plans for recording a follow-up album to Luck and Strange, “Obviously, that’s what I do. And Polly and I are intending to go back to work as soon as we can … starting off with other bits of music that I’ve got. And that process of listening back to old demos and things usually starts a process of new ideas rising to the surface as well. That’s what we hope for anyway. So yeah, our intention is to get on with that.”
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