{"id":698729,"date":"2026-07-18T17:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T17:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698729\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T17:34:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T17:34:15","slug":"the-1971-pink-floyd-song-david-gilmour-adores-but-wont-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698729\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1971 Pink Floyd song David Gilmour adores but won’t play"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"David<\/p>\n

Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n

Sat 18 July 2026 16:35, UK <\/p>\n

There are a vast number of reasons as to why artists choose to retire songs from their sets, and few are more emotionally-motivated than one decision by Pink Floyd\u2019s David Gilmour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you go to see Gilmour in concert, as much as you can begrudgingly accept to hear plenty of songs from his newest release, there\u2019s also an expectation that he\u2019ll perform a variety of Pink Floyd classics, which warrant the entry fee.<\/p>\n

As much as Gilmour has reinvented himself musically on many occasions throughout his solo career, he will always remain intrinsically tied to Pink Floyd. His relationship with Roger Waters has been nonexistent for decades, yet their personal hatred doesn\u2019t mean Gilmour can\u2019t look back with immense pride from a musical perspective at what they created.<\/p>\n

Together, they captured something magical that continues to live on and inspire. However, they didn\u2019t miraculously become one of the defining forces in rock history without putting in the hard yards and sacrificing themselves for the sake of their art.<\/p>\n

While there are a million things that made Pink Floyd special, it was their instinct for experimentalism and crafting compositions which broke the mould that was the most significant. They let their peers spend their time chasing the next hit single, tailoring their sound to suit the radio requirements, while Pink Floyd cared exclusively about albums<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/a>Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n

For them, all the songs needed to match up contextually to create a body of work that was more than the sum of its parts. A fine example of this admirable trait, which made Pink Floyd great, is \u2018Echoes\u2019 from 1971\u2019s Meddle. With a running time of 23 minutes, Pink Floyd displays their most exceptional attributes throughout the track, providing the first glimpse of the sonic trajectory that would come to define them.<\/p>\n

The undisputed highlight of \u2018Echoes\u2019 is the beautiful duelling between Gilmour and keyboardist Richard Wright. Due to their special bond and Wright\u2019s irreplaceable contribution, it sits in a league of its own for \u2018Gilmour\u2019, even though you\u2019ll never hear him play it in a concert again.<\/p>\n

During Gilmour\u2019s online Von Trapped series of videos in 2021, he spoke about his love of \u2018Echoes\u2019 when asked about his favourite Pink Floyd<\/a> song. \u201c\u2018Echoes\u2019, I would think,\u201d he snappily responded, before elaborating, \u201c\u2018Echoes\u2019 was terrific fun to play, particularly on my last solo tour with Rick Wright, a duet thing between him and me. Couldn\u2019t and shouldn\u2019t be played again now he\u2019s dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilmour has stayed true to his word regarding \u2018Echoes\u2019, which he last performed in 2006, two years before Wright\u2019s sad death. Since then, he has continuously toured on a regular basis, which sees him play a number of Pink Floyd favourites such as \u2018Comfortably Numb\u2019 and \u2018Wish You Were\u2019; \u2018Echoes<\/a>\u2018 remains off limits.<\/p>\n

Although realistically, Gilmour could hire a session musician to fill in for Wright, it would be bereft of the chemistry that made \u2018Echoes\u2019 special in the first place.<\/p>\n

According to Gilmour, the song was crucial to the band\u2019s development and made Meddle what it was. Looking back upon the album with Guitar World in 1993, he said, \u201cWell, I think \u2018Echoes\u2019 is the masterwork of the album \u2013 the one where we were all discovering what Pink Floyd is about. \u2018One Of These Days\u2019 is a little subsidiary piece that came out of the work on \u2018Echoes\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI always loved it. It\u2019s seminal, I suppose, yeah. A lot shorter, in any case \u2013 better for radio play. Meddle is really the album where all four of us were finding our feet \u2013 the way we wanted Pink Floyd to be. Much more than on Ummagumma or Atom Heart Mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only is \u2018Echoes\u2019 a stand-out track from Pink Floyd\u2019s repertoire, which put them on the path to creating rock history with The Dark Side Of The Moon, but it\u2019s also a poignant reminder of the irreplaceable bond he shared with his late friend.<\/p>\n

While Gilmour could perform \u2018Echoes\u2019 and deliver a tribute to Wright every time he steps on stage, in this case, the most moving homage is to allow the song to rest in the past with dignity.<\/p>\n

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