The “Internalized Misogyny” That Almost Kept This Crucial Writing Credit off an Iconic Pink Floyd Album

The Pink Floyd of the mid-1990s was vastly different from the Pink Floyd of the mid-1970s (and, even earlier, the late 1960s). The 1994 album Division Bell was the band’s second without founding member, bassist, and songwriter Roger Waters. It was also the first to be recorded on the other side of the contentious legal battles and drama that came out of Waters’ departure.

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Additionally, Pink Floyd’s fourteenth studio album featured a brand new member of the songwriting team: Polly Sampson, novelist and fiancée of David Gilmour. Sampson provided Gilmour with a great deal of support and guidance during this tumultuous time in his life. Thus, their writing collaboration fell together naturally. Seven out of nine tracks with lyrics feature Sampson as a co-writer, including “What Do You Want From Me” and “High Hopes”.

However, if Sampson had gotten her way during the album’s production process, no one would have known that.

Why Polly Sampson Didn’t Want a Writing Credit on ‘Division Bell’

Co-writing nearly every track of an album released by one of the biggest rock bands of the 20th century is no small feat. However, Polly Sampson wasn’t chomping at the bit to have her name on the album. Pink Floyd fans were already up in arms about Roger Waters’ then-recent departure. She knew that if she were to openly accept a place on the band’s songwriting roster, Waters’ diehard fans would respond with vitriol she wanted to avoid if at all possible.

“I know this sounds crazy now,” Sampson told Tidal in 2015. “But the idea of my name being attached to Pink Floyd was like some nightmare. That’s how it felt at the time. I said to [David], ‘Look, I’m really happy to be paid for my work. But please leave my name off it. I just would feel so scrutinized.”

Speaking to The Telegraph in 2025, “The fans of Pink Floyd at that point were very much a divided community. I mean, they want Mummy and Daddy not to be divorced anymore. I was like some sort of mistress who’d gone along and taken Daddy away from Mummy.” She added that there was likely a tinge of “internalized misogyny” that kept her from wanting to receive writing credit for Division Bell.

Ultimately, though, Gilmour insisted. “Nothing that I said to him could make him change his mind,” Sampson told Tidal. So, Sampson did receive credit for the songs she co-wrote on Division Bell. And eventually, she said, “I got used to David singing the words I’d written.”

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