The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

General discussion about Pink Floyd.
Kerry King
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 537
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:54 am

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by Kerry King »

mabewa wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:48 am y mabewa » Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:48 pm
The thing is, when it comes to sources, the production team, especially the engineers, are generally the best resource
David Gilmour knows when it's David Gilmour on bass.
mabewa wrote: Thu Jan 16, 2020 4:48 am For recordings I've engineered, I've often gotten the question from the musicians, years later, 'Did I play that???
Good musicians recognize their own playing.
User avatar
DarkSideFreak
Knife
Knife
Posts: 314
Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2015 4:22 pm
Gender: Male

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by DarkSideFreak »

Kerry King wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2020 7:52 am Good musicians recognize their own playing.
So, Guy Pratt is not a good musician? (Because he himself recounts a story of hearing some "completely over the top" bass playing on a Madonna album he played on, and asking her who played that, only to be told it was him!)
Kerry King
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 537
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:54 am

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by Kerry King »

DarkSideFreak wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 10:29 am
Kerry King wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2020 7:52 am Good musicians recognize their own playing.
So, Guy Pratt is not a good musician? (Because he himself recounts a story of hearing some "completely over the top" bass playing on a Madonna album he played on, and asking her who played that, only to be told it was him!)
Guy Pratt cannot recognize his own playing on a Madonna album. It's because his playing was indistinct. Generic enough to fool the one who performed it. I suppose we can cut him some slack since he was just going through the motions as a paid studio hack.
Vegetable Layne
Axe
Axe
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:12 am

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by Vegetable Layne »

Ok, a different question: WHEN did Rick become part of Floyd again? We know he wasn't one for Momentary, but was he back before, during or after The Division Bell?
User avatar
AthousandMilesOfMoonlight
Blade
Blade
Posts: 167
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2003 7:58 pm
Location: Australia

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by AthousandMilesOfMoonlight »

I remember reading an interview where Rick Wright was discussing his dismissal from the band and how he felt it was quite incongruous when Roger Waters, during the 80/81 Wall tour, would often compliment his live playing; considering the fact that the, apparent, poor quality of his playing was one of Waters' reasons for orchestrating his removal from the band).
User avatar
space triangle
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:25 pm

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by space triangle »

Vegetable Layne wrote: Tue Feb 11, 2020 9:45 am Ok, a different question: WHEN did Rick become part of Floyd again? We know he wasn't one for Momentary, but was he back before, during or after The Division Bell?
Well, between AMLOR and the Division Bell there is a 'La Carrera Panamericana' soundtrack (1992). Rick became a full member of the band again then, and participated in composing at least two songs: "Carrera Slow Blues" and "Pan Am Shuffle".
Wolfpack
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 913
Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2010 4:15 pm

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by Wolfpack »

Doesn't 'Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81' give an indication of what Wright contributed (or could have contributed) to the 'The Wall' studio album?
Despite being a hired tour musician instead of an official member, it IS Wright joining the project after all.

Image
ZiggyZipgun
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1236
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 3:04 pm

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

Wolfpack wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:15 pm Doesn't 'Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81' give an indication of what Wright contributed (or could have contributed) to the 'The Wall' studio album?
Well there was an extra keyboardist on the Wall tour, and they both played the songs as they were arranged for the studio album, more or less - there are some additional organ solos here and there to stretch the first half out to match the visuals, but certainly not as many as there were on the Animals tour. But for all of the who-played-what in terms of keyboards on The Wall, he was certainly involved up until they started the last phase of recording, where they very well may have re-recorded every single part, but he had played those parts during every phase of the process up until that point.
User avatar
DarkSideFreak
Knife
Knife
Posts: 314
Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2015 4:22 pm
Gender: Male

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by DarkSideFreak »

He added some things to the live versions that weren't on the studio album, such as the piano madness in RLH or the little flourishes at the end of ABITW 1. (And apparently a piano solo was cut out from "Goodbye Blue Sky" because it sounded too much like "Carpet Crawlers" or something.)

Given that his departure from the band was not made public, it kind of made sense to give him some space; otherwise people would've gone to a Pink Floyd concert and wondered why the keyboard player got just one solo. :-;
ChillOnTheSun
Embryo
Embryo
Posts: 21
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2019 12:47 pm

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by ChillOnTheSun »

That piano sparkling in Run Like Hell is played by Peter Wood. Rick is sitting on hammond organ chair in that time.
User avatar
mosespa
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11555
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 5:54 pm
Location: In the editing bay...working on the final cut...

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by mosespa »

AthousandMilesOfMoonlight wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:52 am I remember reading an interview where Rick Wright was discussing his dismissal from the band and how he felt it was quite incongruous when Roger Waters, during the 80/81 Wall tour, would often compliment his live playing; considering the fact that the, apparent, poor quality of his playing was one of Waters' reasons for orchestrating his removal from the band).
Not sure where you're getting your information. Wright wasn't fired for poor playing. He was asked to leave for refusing to help bring The Wall in on an early deadline.

To be clear: Pink Floyd were recording in France. Wright was staying in a villa there, also going through a divorce and not having seen much of his children. A point was reached where Pink Floyd decided to relocate to LA because the label had offered a higher royalty on the sales if the band could turn the album in in time for a Christmas release. Wright was approached with instructions to cut short the holiday he was on (his part having been done for the time being) and go to LA with Ezrin to finish up the keyboard parts.

Wright refused. This is when he was presented with the option to either leave the band or else Waters would scrap the project and release it as a solo album.

Pink Floyd were nearly broke at the time (thanks to Norton Walburg having lost tons of the money the band had invested through them) and couldn't afford to have spent all this time on an album only to scrap it.

This is all well-documented.
ZiggyZipgun
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1236
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 3:04 pm

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

AthousandMilesOfMoonlight wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:52 am I remember reading an interview where Rick Wright was discussing his dismissal from the band and how he felt it was quite incongruous when Roger Waters, during the 80/81 Wall tour, would often compliment his live playing; considering the fact that the, apparent, poor quality of his playing was one of Waters' reasons for orchestrating his removal from the band).
mosespa wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 1:17 pm Not sure where you're getting your information. Wright wasn't fired for poor playing. He was asked to leave for refusing to help bring The Wall in on an early deadline.
I think the interview he's referring to is the one they all did for Mojo magazine in 1999:

"The interesting thing about all that is why, if Roger thought I couldn't perform, why he then said, 'OK, that's fine, you can finish recording and do the live shows.' It's very weird and bizarre, and it was a time in my personal life - I would say I was confused."

"Why did I agree to play? Maybe I couldn't actually handle the idea of just standing up in the room and saying, 'Right, that's it, bye-bye.' I thought, if I'm going to leave at least I know I've got another month or so to carry on working - even possibly with the hope in the back of my mind that things might change. On the live performances Roger was being reasonably friendly. It was difficult but I tried to forget all my grudges, and I enjoyed playing The Wall. I put everything I could into the performances, and I think Roger approved of that. We would talk civilly to each other. It wasn't too bad at all."

There's also the Guitar Heroes interview that Gilmour gave in 1983:

GH: Why did Rick Wright leave?

DG: Um… What’s the best cliche I can think of…?

GH: Well, Roger Waters said: ” Our paths were not parallel enough.”

DG: That’s good enough (laughs). You’d have to ask him really. Ask Rick one day.

GH: Yours and Roger’s paths are still parallel enough then?

DG: Well, no they’re not really. We diverge quite a lot but we do still just about manage to work together and we still have got things that we can contribute to each other. I think the thing with Rick was that he didn’t have anything that any of us felt was contributing to what Pink Floyd do.

GH: What, compositionally or…?

DG: In any way.
User avatar
mosespa
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11555
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 5:54 pm
Location: In the editing bay...working on the final cut...

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by mosespa »

Then it's Rick who's misinformed and once again we learn that even a member of the band isn't the most reliable source of information. *shrug*
ZiggyZipgun
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1236
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 3:04 pm

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

Well, it was those other things that put him in a position to be fired. Had Dave told Roger to "fuck off" - which he probably did all the time - his job still wouldn't be in jeopardy.
User avatar
DarkSideFreak
Knife
Knife
Posts: 314
Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2015 4:22 pm
Gender: Male

Re: The truth about Rick Wright's contribution on The Wall

Post by DarkSideFreak »

ChillOnTheSun wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 6:59 am That piano sparkling in Run Like Hell is played by Peter Wood. Rick is sitting on hammond organ chair in that time.
OK thanks, I tried to look at a video but that didn't really show anything. But he did play the synth solo as on the record, right?

David's comments from 1983 are harsh. Bet he would like to erase that interview from history.