SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN...

I liked Rick Wright a lot. His numerous psychedelic keyboard excursions were one of the most consistently interesting and beautiful elements of Pink Floyd. Of particular note are all the albums leading up to arguably their most popular record (DSide of the Moon). I really love those crazy transistor organ runs (all done with a Farfisa Duo) from the first two albums, all tweaked out with Echoplex and phase. He eventually switched to a Hammond organ, like everybody else at the time, but was also amazing at piano. The only times I can recall a piano being used would be the crazy improv shit (like Saucerful...) or go completely the other way with like amazingly lush melodic Satie-esque lines (like "Us and Them"). Never solo'd a lot, which was very unusual in that era, despite having great jazz chops. Subtle and really underrated.

I always appreciated when watching Floyd interviews or documentaries how quiet, selective, and modest he is. I think Syd Barrett is obviously the lifeforce of that band and was sad about his lifelong mental descent, who died two years ago. Roger Waters is still around and is the other crucial foundation of the early stuff, but he is also responsible for all the bloated, over-produced shit records I don't like as well. He also seems (used to be?) arrogant and over-entitled to how much he thinks the band was and is his. He also fired Rick Wright from the band sometime in the late 70's because he didn't think he was contributing enough, although he was also not letting anyone do so at the same time. Nick Mason is an awesome drummer, seems cool. David Gilmore also seems like a nice guy, but I think it would have been most fun to hang out with Syd or Rick, or both, on acid.

-RIP- Richard William Wright (1943-2008)
...Fancy lad, fellow cosmonaut, and the main reason I bought a Farfisa.






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