On The Road Again: Pink Floyd "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason"

viernes, 15 de diciembre de 2017

Pink Floyd "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason"

A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the thirteenth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in the UK and US on 7 September 1987, on the labels EMI and Columbia. It followed guitarist David Gilmour's decision to include material recorded for his third solo album on a new Pink Floyd album with drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright. Although for legal reasons Wright could not be re-admitted to the band, Wright and Mason helped Gilmour craft what became the first Pink Floyd album since the December 1985 departure of bass guitarist, singer, and primary songwriter Roger Waters.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason was recorded primarily on Gilmour's converted houseboat, Astoria. Its production was marked by an ongoing legal dispute with Waters as to who owned the rights to Pink Floyd's name, an issue resolved several months after the album was released. Unlike many of Pink Floyd's studio albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason has no central theme and is instead a collection of songs written by Gilmour, sometimes with outside songwriters.

Though it received mixed reviews and was derided by Waters, A Momentary Lapse of Reason outsold Pink Floyd's previous album The Final Cut (1983), and was supported by a successful world tour. In the US, it has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.

After the release of Pink Floyd's 1983 album The Final Cut, viewed by some to be a de facto Roger Waters solo record, the band's members worked on individual solo projects. Guitarist David Gilmour expressed feelings about his strained relationship with Waters on his second solo album, About Face (1984), and finished the accompanying tour as Waters began touring to promote his debut solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Although both had enlisted the aid of a range of successful performers, including in Waters' case Eric Clapton, their solo acts attracted fewer fans than Pink Floyd; poor ticket sales forced Gilmour to cancel several concerts, and critic David Fricke felt that Waters' show was "a petulant echo, a transparent attempt to prove that Roger Waters was Pink Floyd". Waters returned to the US in March 1985 with a second tour, this time without the support of CBS Records, which had expressed its preference for a new Pink Floyd album; Waters criticised the corporation as "a machine".

After drummer Nick Mason attended one of Waters' London performances in 1985, he admitted that he missed touring under the Pink Floyd name. His visit coincided with the release in August that year of his second solo album, Profiles, on which Gilmour sang. With a shared love of aviation, Mason and Gilmour were taking flying lessons and later together bought a de Havilland Dove aeroplane. Gilmour was working on other collaborations, including a performance for Bryan Ferry at 1985's Live Aid concert, and co-produced The Dream Academy's self-titled debut album.

In December 1985, Waters announced that he had left Pink Floyd, which he believed was "a spent force creatively". However, after the failure of his About Face tour, Gilmour hoped to continue with the Pink Floyd name. The threat of a lawsuit from Gilmour, Mason and CBS Records was meant to compel Waters to write and produce another Pink Floyd album with his bandmates, who had barely participated in making The Final Cut; Gilmour had been especially critical of that 1983 release, labelling it as "cheap filler" and "meandering rubbish". The lawsuit left Waters with only one other option: to formally resign from Pink Floyd in order to protect himself from a lawsuit that, he said, "would have wiped me out completely".

According to Gilmour, "I told [Waters] before he left, 'If you go, man, we're carrying on. Make no bones about it, we would carry on', and Roger replied: 'You'll never fucking do it.'" Waters had written to EMI and Columbia declaring his intention to leave the group and asking them to release him from his contractual obligations. He also dispensed with the services of Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs. This left Gilmour and Mason, in their view, free to continue with the Pink Floyd name.

In Waters' absence, Gilmour had been recruiting musicians for a new project. Some months previously, keyboard player Jon Carin had jammed with Gilmour at his Hookend studio, where he composed the chord progression for what later became "Learning to Fly", and so was invited onto the team. Gilmour invited Bob Ezrin (co-producer of 1979's The Wall) to help consolidate their material; Ezrin had turned down Waters' offer of a role on the development of his new solo album, Radio K.A.O.S., saying it was "far easier for Dave and I to do our version of a Floyd record". Ezrin arrived in England in mid-1986 for what Gilmour later described as "mucking about with a lot of demos". At this stage, there was no firm commitment to a new Pink Floyd release, and Gilmour maintained that the new material might end up on a third solo album. CBS representative Stephen Ralbovsky hoped for a new Pink Floyd album, but in a meeting in November 1986, told Gilmour and Ezrin that the music "doesn't sound a fucking thing like Pink Floyd". Gilmour later admitted that the new project was difficult without Waters. Gilmour had experimented with songwriters such as Eric Stewart and Roger McGough, but eventually settled on Anthony Moore, who would be credited as co-writer of "Learning to Fly" and "On the Turning Away". Instead of writing a concept album, Gilmour settled for the more conventional approach of a collection of songs without a thematic link. By the end of that year, he had decided to turn the new material into a Pink Floyd project.

Careful consideration was given to the album's title. The initial three contenders were Signs of Life, Of Promises Broken and Delusions of Maturity. For the first time since 1977's Animals, designer Storm Thorgerson was employed to work on a Pink Floyd studio album cover. His finished design was a long river of hospital beds arranged on a beach, inspired by a phrase from "Yet Another Movie" and Gilmour's vague hint of a design that included a bed in a Mediterranean house, as well as "vestiges of relationships that have evaporated, leaving only echoes". The cover shows hundreds of hospital beds, placed on Saunton Sands in Devon (where some of the scenes for Pink Floyd – The Wall were filmed). The beds were arranged by Thorgerson's colleague Colin Elgie. A hang glider can be seen in the sky, a clear reference to "Learning to Fly". The photographer, Robert Dowling, won a gold award at the Association of Photographers Awards for the image, which took about two weeks to create. To drive home the message that Waters had left the band, the inner gatefold featured a group photograph – of just Gilmour and Mason – shot by David Bailey. Its inclusion marked the first time since 1971's Meddle that a group photo had been used in the artwork of a Pink Floyd album. Richard Wright was represented only by name, on the credit list, although he also appears in photographs included in later reissues.

Track listing

All lead vocals performed by David Gilmour except where noted.

Side one

"Signs of Life" (Instrumental, with spoken vocals by Nick Mason) Gilmour/Ezrin 4:24
"Learning to Fly" Gilmour/Anthony Moore/Ezrin/Jon Carin 4:53
"The Dogs of War" Gilmour/Moore 6:05
"One Slip" Gilmour/Phil Manzanera 5:10
"On the Turning Away" Gilmour/Moore 5:42