Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 1975?

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Jimi Dean Barrett
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Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 1975?

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

Was listening to end of SOYCD and I thought... it was never the same for Rick after this was it?
He lost out to the two party fight the band became and I was wondering if you think it would have been a good idea if he left the band in 1975 after the Knebworth shows? (And what a high to go out on?)
Was his electric piano playing really the highlight of Animals?
Did he really play on "Nobody Home" or was that another Kamen job? Where was his songwriting credit if he did?
This is a question that can't change anything what's been and done. I'm just asking.
I think he should of really. It would have saved him a lot of hassle, and would have made his comeback on TDB that little more special than him slowy returning to the band as a sideman etc..
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

...aaaannnnd 28 views later it seems nobody agrees with me!
But that's ok see the forum seethe... it'll look great on the TV!
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by snifferdog »

Don't worry. The replies will come. Some folk need to ruminate on things for a while ;)
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by kupietz »

-1 doesn't like. Rick did a LOT more on Animals than that electric piano part, and I don't think anybody but him could have made that album as polished as it was. You have to remember, Rick was a jazz guy at heart, and Animals found him at his most restrained and orchestral. There's a lot of places in that album where the keyboard interlock with the guitar parts, either harmonically, or by picking up the guitar parts themselves... he and Gilmour never worked so classsily together as on that album. Plus, remember Rick was the guy who took Roger's songs and added those characteristic "Pink Floyd" touches... the jazz turnaround at the end of "Breathe" (copped from Miles Davis, by Rick's own admission,) etc. Who knows what genius details he was personally responsible for on Animals and The Wall?

Pink Floyd were the premiere ensemble performers of 70s rock 'n' roll... more than any other band, I believe, they were a unit, which would not have been as good if even a single one of them had left or been replaced. The various later albums which feature only 2-3 of them bear this out. "The Final Cut" and "Momentary Lapse Of Artistic Integrity" are clearly solo albums. And "The Division Bell" is an album by the best Pink Floyd tribute band ever. None of them are Floyd albums proper.
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by CHR15 »

No way! Animals is my favorite PF album and Rick Wright was an integral part of that album. The music would have suffered greatly, we wouldn't have Animals or the live version of the wall(which Ricks playing contributed to greatly) sounding anywhere near the same.

For the music both Rick & David would have been better off sticking with Roger and compromising with him and not being so down on his ideas... he was the brilliant song writer, they were fantastic musicians who contributed heavily to the PF sound. Imagine how much better Amused to Death, Radio Kaos or Pros and cons ect... would have sounded as PF albums a long with a few of David and Ricks ideas thrown in with RW lyrics over top. They could have pumped out a few more masterpeices if only they had been able to stick together.
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by pinksmile »

Yeah, you could be right jimi in saying wrights departure after WYWH would have been appropriate. Given, that if you had to choose a time in Pink Floyd history for him to leave the band on a high note, that would have been it (in my opinion). As the keyboard parts that were layed down on the albums that followed dont sound as dreamy or spacey (to my ears). I still liked what keyboard stuff he did put down on Animals and The Wall, but it didn't have quite the same feel as previous stuff (for me anyway).
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by lostplay »

Jimi Dean Barrett wrote:...aaaannnnd 28 views later it seems nobody agrees with me!
But that's ok see the forum seethe... it'll look great on the TV!
rick in 75 was still rick
rick in 71 turn ed lazy in rogers eyes and did not complete the tasks roger set forth for the 2 soundtrack albums and AHM

So roger was spiking and bugging rick every day.
all day for yrs .
Ricks fantastic PING was long time ago i guess.
Rick was a fantastic music man ..Rick magic tied DDSOM into a single piece
BY 1976 ricks marriage was failing and rick was sniffing coke .
by 78 wall work rick sat in the studio stoned out on blow and added zippo to The miz .. Rick kept on begging roger for a bone ..Roger proceded to plot Ricks ouster and even wrote in the words no one home referring to Ricks poor skills .

So dude i really miss your point here .

Rick was a great guy .
Rick needed help with drug addiction issues .
Ricks best buddy syd was long gone. So he was kinda alone when things happened.
PINK FLOYD was deep in debt and had a large bonus if the wall soundtrack was finished early . So the pressure was on .

Dave and Nick also took rogers side

YET nick admits himself that all the wall drumming was backed up by other drummers since nick never learned his parts.

So rick was not even a member of PINK FLOYD by Final Cut release and Rick was a paid musican on nicks/daves 2 oldies tours .
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by Peter Harold »

Jimi Dean Barrett wrote:[...]
He lost out to the two party fight the band became and I was wondering if you think it would have been a good idea if he left the band in 1975 after the Knebworth shows? (And what a high to go out on?)
[...]
Did he really play on "Nobody Home" or was that another Kamen job? [...]
You have a good point! It's worth thinking about this question.

Yes, it could have been the best moment to left Pink Floyd in 1975. But at that time, I don't think Mr Wright needed to consider to leave the band. They all had the feeling that the band was done after the recording of "Wish you were here" and the following tours. During the recordings, mr Gilmour was against Waters idea of the theme ("absence"), and that Mr Gilmour prefered to stay with the original idea of an album with three tracks; "You got to be crazy", "Raving and drooling" and "Shine on you crazy diamond". In this case, Mr Waters got both Mrrs Wright and Mason on his side.

After the touring in 1975, Mr Wright could have suspect that "this is it" and there would not be any future projects for the band. I guess he didn't bothered to ask himself to quit the band becuase there would sure be a split-up anyway. You should also note that everyone in the band felt "too old" being in the rock n' roll-business (and this complaint have been repreated ever since by Mr Gilmour...), and there was not any idea of "The wall" at that time.

Perhaps Mr Wright was surprised when the four of them gathered together to make the "Animals"-album. But nothing was the same anymore. I don't know the state of his mind at that time, but I guess he enjoyed the comfort of being a well-paid r n' r - star (sailing, some modest partying and playing several instruments at his homes), and that the new "Animals"-album in his eyes was just him sitting in for a session as a musician (and not as a creative song-writer).

As for the aspects of drug abuse, I fear Mr Gilmour, nor Mr Waters, wasn't avoiding the use of cocaine at that time (with Mr Gilmour consuming some lines of powder of his own also in the '80-ies). Many artists use drugs to make them more creative. In the case of Mr Wright, I think he did drugs mostly just for his amusement, and partly to calm his fears of Mr Waters growing despotism in the band. I don't know if he was stoned in the studio. Drunk perhaps, to a certain limit, but not stoned.

When it comes to the recording of "The Wall", we all know that Mr Wright was mostly absent, both as a member of the band and as a musician. He did less talking to the others than before. The piano on "Nobyd home" was played by the producer Bob Ezrin. I don't think Michel Kamen made any playing at all on "The Wall", and he was just involved with the arrangments of the orchestra.

Sorry for such a slow response to you question, but I hope my answer do contribute to this topic. Sorry for my bad English.

Best regards,
Peter
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by Stephen »

I understood he decided to leave after Roger made him design their stage clothes, saying 'the costumier is always Wright'.
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

Thank you all for your responses. Although we can't change the past, the gradual breakdown of Rick's confidence and ability is surely subject matter for a book?
Thanks to Peter and Lostplay and everyone else but...
Stephen wrote:I understood he decided to leave after Roger made him design their stage clothes, saying 'the costumier is always Wright'.
Stephen... The Pink Floyd Joke Book is yours for the writing! :lol:
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by moom »

Rick did a lot on Animals indeed, does that mean he was still interested? Really possible. Really likely. He could have guessed the way of it, too, as the band did embryonic versions of Dogs and Sheep in 1974 already. It was The Wall during which Rick was very lazy.
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by Annoying Twit »

Thread is over a year old, but this forum isn't too active so I don't personally think it's unreasonable to continue the conversation.

I'm a great fan of Wet Dream. It's my favourite PF solo album. It was recorded after Animals, and given the topical nature of some of the material, I'd assume that some or more likely all of it was written then. (Corrections gratefully received). IMHO, it shows that Rick was still firing on all musical and production cylinders in 1978. So I believe him being forced out of the PF writing duties by Animals wasn't to do with lack of ability, but due to the politics of the band at the time.
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by Flying pig437 »

lostplay wrote:
Jimi Dean Barrett wrote:.
YET nick admits himself that all the wall drumming was backed up by other drummers since nick never learned his parts.

.
backed up? Most of the drumming was done by Nick wasn't it? In Inside out he says he laied the drums down first. I thought it was The Final Cut where other drummers were used a lot.
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by Hudini »

Both "The Wall" and "The Final Cut" used other drummers, but in this case "a lot" is an exaggeration.

As far as I know, Jeff Porcaro plays the drums on "Mother" and his father Joe plays the snare on "Bring The Boys Back Home". As for "The Final Cut", the drums for "Two Suns In The Sunset" were recorded by Andy Newmark.

Both "Mother" and "Two Suns In The Sunset" feature frequent time signature changes between 5/4 and 4/4, which Mason was admittedly incapable of performing properly in studio.
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Re: Would Rick Wright have been right to have left PF in 197

Post by Peter Harold »

Annoying Twit wrote:Thread is over a year old, but this forum isn't too active so I don't personally think it's unreasonable to continue the conversation.

I'm a great fan of Wet Dream. It's my favourite PF solo album. It was recorded after Animals, and given the topical nature of some of the material, I'd assume that some or more likely all of it was written then. (Corrections gratefully received). IMHO, it shows that Rick was still firing on all musical and production cylinders in 1978. So I believe him being forced out of the PF writing duties by Animals wasn't to do with lack of ability, but due to the politics of the band at the time.
Me too, I am a fan of "Wet dream"-album. I agree that Mr Wright felt he had something to give, but later on he described the "Wet Dream" being an experiment that he wasn't very fond of. Perhaps he compared this album with his last one in '96?

But I doubt he could have made anything from (written for) "Wet Dream" to "The Wall", as I think Mr Waters would have made his veto againts any song from Wright. And I don't think there could be many songs that fit into "The Wall". I am happy Mr Wrights efforts was released as "Wet Dream". It is a warm album.

Shine on,
Peter