Richard Wright - Fired During Recording The Wall Album

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..he also said that Roger was writing stuff that Pink Floyd would probably never use, and that he could see Roger going on to work in theater.

That means he was maturing

[ZiggyZipgun]

Wait, Rick's voice on Waiting for the worms? Only Rick's hammond is there.

In the band demos on the Immersion set.

[ZiggyZipgun]

I encourage everyone to listen to these albums and IGNORE the Guitar, just listen to what the keys are doing. Having played both parts, I have a perspective on how they are woven together, and I appreciate just how crucial Rick Wright's contribution was. There is also a TON of keyboard work on The Wall, much of it in Wright's obvious Hammond and/or Piano style.

Rick's Hammond on live versions of "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" - especially at the Oakland Coliseum - is amazing. Dick Parry played the Solina parts, Snowy was on bass, and during the final solo they get fairly jazzy and stretch it out until it sounds like CSN's "Wooden Ships". Other than on Saucerful of Secrets' title track, Rick didn't use a Hammond or take one on the road until 1970, and then he used it on everything - "Gigolo Aunt" is particularly funky. The Farfisa's voices only offered octaves and one harmonic, with each being either on or off, while the Hammond provided more complex harmonics with much more control, and as Dom Beken recently mentioned, Rick could keep track off all that in his head and factor that into his chord voicings. The way his playing progressed from 1967 through 1977 is very impressive, and a lot of that development likely occurred during the funky sections of "Atom Heart Mother" and "Echoes" for the few years that they played them live. It's curious that he focused on his new Oberheim synth for most of Wet Dream, but it does not appear on any of The Wall demos or album, instead switching immediately to his brand new Prophet 5, which (whoever it was played by) was a better fit for replacing the Solina that Roger had used throughout his rough home recordings with his typical hamfisted approach to sound design. The sound on Broken China's "Black Cloud" is very similar to the Prophet on "One of My Turns", even if he was using a Kurzweil to do it.

Much has been said about Rick Wright's contribution on the Wall. Everyone knows that Rick had a hard time, that he was uninspired and finally he was fired from the band. However, lot of false things have been said about Rick's contribution to The Wall, including on this forum.

Some have said that most keyboards has been made by Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour and team of unknown musicians. It's false! The truth is that Rick played on 21 of the 26 songs and for 8 of this song, Rick is the sole Keyboard player.

There is six songs for which Rick has not played: Mother, In the Flesh, Stop and The Trial. And for Bring the boys back home and The show must go, there's no keyboard.

This information is provided by the book Comfortably Numb: A History of The Wall 1978-1981 by Vernon Fitch and Richard Mahon. This is the most serious reference about The Wall.

Here is the list of all keyboard player for each song who played on The Wall:

In the Flesh?

• Rick: Prophet 5
  Roger: VCS3
  Fred Mandel: organ

The Thin Ice

• Rick: piano and organ
  David: Prophet 5

Another Brick in the Wall pt. 1

• Rick: Prophet 5, Minimoog and Rhodes

The Happiest Days of Our Lives

Rick: clavinet and organ

Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2

• Rick: organ and Prophet

Mother*

• Bob Ezrin: Prophet, organ and piano

Goodbye Blue Sky

• Rick: Prophet 5
  David: Prophet 5
  Roger: VCS3

Empty Spaces

• Rick: piano
  David: ARP Solina, Prophet, Clavinet
  James Guthrie: ARP Solina
  Roger: VCS3

Young Lust

• Rick: organ and Wurlitzer electric piano (with Wah-Wah)

One Of My Turns

• Rick: piano
  Bob Ezrin: Prophet 5 and organ

Don't Leave Me Now

• Rick: organ, organ pedals, piano, Prophet
  Roger: VCS3

Another Brick in the Wall pt. 3

• Rick: Prophet 5
  David: Prophet (low part)

Goodbye Cruel World

• Rick: Prophet 5

Hey You

• Rick: Rhodes electric piano, organ and Prophet

Is There Anybody Out There?

• Rick: Prophet 5
  Bob Ezrin: synth and string synth

Nobody Home

• Rick: Prophet 5
  Bob Ezrin: piano
  Roger: VCS3

Vera

• Rick: Prophe 5t

Bring the Boys back home*

• no keyboard

Comfortably Numb

• Rick: organ
  David: Prophet 5 (low notes on outro solo)

The Show Must Go On

• Rick: Prophet 5
  Bob Ezrin: Prophet 5 and piano

In the Flesh*

• Fred Mandel: organ
  David and James Guthrie: ARP Quadra (sequencer)
  Bob Ezrin: Prophet 5
  Roger: VCS3

Run Like Hell

• Rick: Prophet 5

Waiting For the Worms

• Rick: organ
  Bob Ezrin: piano
  David: Prophet 5
  Roger: VCS3

Stop*

• Bob Ezrin: piano

The Trial*

• Bob Ezrin: piano

Outside the wall*

• no keyboard

Reference :Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8
compilation: http://www.canadianpinkfloyd.com/blog/2 ... ds-on.html

[Kerry King]

The sound on Broken China's "Black Cloud" is very similar to the Prophet on "One of My Turns", even if he was using a Kurzweil to do it.

There's no way Wright came up with that synth sound on One Of My Turns. It was a fresh sound for pf in 1979 and I don't believe it was dialed in by Wright. The list above says it's Ezrin which I always figured it was.

(Final jam on Pigs from Oakland '77) sounds like CSN's "Wooden Ships"

Uh...no.

[ZiggyZipgun]

(Final jam on Pigs from Oakland '77) sounds like CSN's "Wooden Ships"

Uh...no.

Quite a bit.
Starting at 3:27


Starting at 12:26


Same year.

[ZiggyZipgun]

"I did point out to Rick that he hadn't contributed anything of any value whatsoever to the album and that I was not over-happy with him myself - he did very very little; an awful lot of the keyboard parts are done by me, Roger, Bob Ezrin, Michael Kamen, Freddie Mandell - but his position in the band to me was sacrosanct. My view, then and now is, if people didn't like the way it was going it was their option to leave. I didn't consider that it was their option to throw people out." - David, 2000

That means he was maturing

Speaking of maturing, Rick didn't want to cut his vacation short and return to the studio because he was trying to save his marriage. He and Juliette had been married since 1964, when she was one of the vocalists in their pre-Syd line-up. Nick would be in a similar situation during the recording of A Momentary Lapse of Reason, when he split with Lindy, his wife of nearly 20 years who had played the tin whistle and flute on More and Ummagumma (the flute on "Julia Dream" was Rick playing a Mellotron). And at least according to Ginger Gilmour, Dave wanted to quit the band following the Animals tour and move to Hawaii, until the Norton Warburg Group pissed away their money. Roger's first marriage had already shit the bed when he became rich and Judy discovered he wasn't the charitable socialist she thought he was - so it was uncharacteristically generous of him to hire Rick as a session musician.

"The interesting thing about all that is why, if Roger thought I couldn't perform, why he then said, 'Okay, 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." - Rick, 2000

I don't know how much Rick was paid during The Wall tour, but we have some idea how much he made during the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour:

"As for poor Rick Wright, he's on a weekly salary of £11,000. I know, because I've seen his contract with my own eyes." - Roger, 1988

So, let's estimate Rick was paid £50,000 for the whole Wall tour...that would be £196,000 or $273k USD in today's money. Not too shabby considering the others shared a loss of £400,000 back then, or £1,568,000/$2,183,000 now. And a few years later, Roger managed to lose that same amount all by himself with his first solo tour! Rick then went on to earn £473,000 on the Momentary Lapse tour, or £1,361,000/$1,894,000.

"I'm in competition with myself and I'm losing." - Roger, 1987

[Kerry King]

Uh...no.

Quite a bit.
Starting at 3:27


Starting at 12:26


Same year.

Are you kidding me? I think you're discounting attitude. Or lack thereof.

[mosespa]

Each has a groove.

It's not that uncommon of a thing.

Especially not amongst weed-smoking musicians in the 1970s.

It's how everyone "went Disco."

[ZiggyZipgun]

Are you kidding me? I think you're discounting attitude. Or lack thereof.

I'm not saying they're not goofy individuals, or that that's not a particularly goofy performance - I just picked that clip because it had the best footage. But they were definitely a big influence on Dave and Rick, and Roger - it's one of the few songs about nuclear holocaust that he didn't write! It's also funny that the Floyd remained anonymous and never considered touring as GILMOUR MASON WATERS & WRIGHT.

Pink Floyd was better than anyone at capturing the psychological setting of a song, while there are countless "psychedelic rock" bands from the States that were really only playing blues and/or bluegrass, but I guess if they're tripping, and their audience is tripping, then that counts.

It's how everyone "went Disco."

GILMOUR -- It wasn't my idea to do disco music, it was Bob's. He said to me, "Go to a couple of clubs and listen to what's happening with disco music," so I forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, "Gawd awful!" Then we went back and tried to turn one of the "Another Brick In The Wall" parts into one of those so it would be catchy. We did the same exercise on "Run Like Hell."

MASON -- I don't remember anyone complaining. There is a standard speed for a disco track and we followed that to the letter. It was recorded in a very disco way -- drums and bass put down on their own and everything added gradually on top.

EZRIN -- The most important thing I did for the song was insist it be more than just one verse and one chorus long, which it was when Roger wrote it. When we played with the disco beat I said, "Man, this is a hit! But it's one minute 20, it's not going to play. We need two verses and two choruses." And they said, "Well you're not bloody getting them. We don't do singles, so fuck you."

[space triangle]

.. and Roger - it's one of the few songs about nuclear holocaust that he didn't write!

Not to be too petty, but Jethro Tull wrote the whole album about nuclear holocaust - ''A''. Not just the one song...

[ZiggyZipgun]

Not to be too petty, but Jethro Tull wrote the whole album about nuclear holocaust - ''A''. Not just the one song...

This is petty, but that came out after The Wall and somehow did worse than Radio KAOS. "Wooden Ships" is probably the only song performed twice at Woodstock*; it was very well known, even to people like Roger that don't listen to music.

[*One of three, actually - the others being "Motherless Child" and "I Shall Be Released".]

[Kerry King]

Jethro Tull "A" had a lot of work put into it but it's crap. It makes me appreciate Barrie Barlow and John Evans.

As for Pink Floyd, Rick Wright forced their hand.

As for CSN, Jefferson Airplane does a much better Wooden Ships. (Also of interest: Hippie Dream by Neil Young, 1986)

As for disco, it's right up there with "psychedelic rock".

[ZiggyZipgun]

Are you kidding me? I think you're discounting attitude. Or lack thereof.

"We always play heavier when we don’t know songs so well.
When we first performed Dark Side it was heavier and harsher than it is now. As we get to know a song better, we tend to play it quieter." - Rick, 1974

[mosespa]

It's how everyone "went Disco."

GILMOUR -- It wasn't my idea to do disco music, it was Bob's. He said to me, "Go to a couple of clubs and listen to what's happening with disco music," so I forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, "Gawd awful!" Then we went back and tried to turn one of the "Another Brick In The Wall" parts into one of those so it would be catchy. We did the same exercise on "Run Like Hell."

MASON -- I don't remember anyone complaining. There is a standard speed for a disco track and we followed that to the letter. It was recorded in a very disco way -- drums and bass put down on their own and everything added gradually on top.

EZRIN -- The most important thing I did for the song was insist it be more than just one verse and one chorus long, which it was when Roger wrote it. When we played with the disco beat I said, "Man, this is a hit! But it's one minute 20, it's not going to play. We need two verses and two choruses." And they said, "Well you're not bloody getting them. We don't do singles, so fuck you."

...like I said. *shrug*

[ZiggyZipgun]

Jethro Tull "A" had a lot of work put into it but it's crap. It makes me appreciate Barrie Barlow and John Evans.

It was also their first album without Dee Palmer, who went on to make The Music of Pink Floyd: Orchestral Maneuvers in 1991, with Steve Hackett on guitar! I going to post that version of "Shine On", because rather than just covering the song with an actual trumpet instead of a Moog, she took it in much further and made it sound like George Gershwin - but it's not on YouTube, so here's maybe the only cover of "Tigers" combined with "Eclipse"!