David Gilmour Yes I Have Ghosts

[Keith Jordan]

What do you think of David GIlmour Yes I Have Ghosts new song?

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

Very subtle compared to Rattle That Lock. But I've never heard him sound so happy
ITV don't make Children's shows any more. But it wouldn't be out of place in a lunchtime show as a guest of Neil Innes.
No sarcasm, I loved Puddle Lane!

[Annoying Twit]

It's nice, but I don't think it is (or is really meant to be) something to match the best DG has done. I like the instrumentation. And Romany Gilmour's backing vocals are good.

I am a bit concerned by Dave's voice. While there are hints of what he used to sound like and a full-on studio production may make it sound better, it does sound as if it's heading in the direction of many other artists of his generation.

At this point, I think we're lucky to get what we get.

[Keith Jordan]

I like that it sounds quite sparse in its production but, listening to it, my head has added heavy drums, driving bass, big layered guitar and lots of keyboards. I think it would sound fantastic live with a more aggressive edge to it. Saying that, perhaps I am just an aggressive person!

I think Polly did a top job on the lyrics. I wonder if one of the living ghosts of the past is Roger Waters!


"Yes, I Have Ghosts"

The heat of the sun stayed on through the night
Made specters of strangers playing games with my sight
I passed through the station, a face in the crowd
The whistle was blowing, the barrier came down

There was my baby, in another's embrace
I called out her name in shame and disgrace
Yes, I have ghosts, not all of them dead
Making dust of my dreams, spinning round and around
Around in my head

Train on the tracks, teeth of the zip
The slider moves down, we were joined at the hip
Stealing the groove, the widening gap
Unfastening rails from a past with no map

Yes, I have ghosts, a fleeting sight
It's always the living that are haunting my nights

Where is the sweet soul that you used to be
Gone like a thistle that's blown on the breeze
I guess when it's over, this haunting will end
The waiting, the baiting, my killer, my friend

Yes, I have ghosts, not all of them dead
And they dance by the moon, millstones white as the sheet
On my bed

[henno]

i think its twee twaddle.... and no i dont have a lisp.

theres a pentameter in the lyrics that id expect from a 14 yo love struck schoolgirl.

[space triangle]

On an island with a ghosts.

But, live it could be very nice addition to the Dave's songs repertoire.

[snifferdog]

It sounds exactly like what I thought it'd sound like. Pleasant, inoffensive and forgettable. It's a nice touch to add his daughter to the track though - her voice works well with his. It was never going to be anything else though, was it?

[drafsack]

Click bait so you will be directed to Polly's latest release

[space triangle]

I have a feeling that the older David gets, his music starts to go in the 'Fairport Convention' direction more and more. Nothing wrong with that, maybe he has ambitions to become the 'last troubadour'...

[scarecrow]

Yes, I remember chatting to a musical friend a few years ago and we were imagining a parallel universe where the vacancy in Pink Floyd hadn't appeared, which band could Gilmour have slotted into? I can picture him in Fairport Convention, there'd be a bit of crossover maybe with Dylan and emerging US West Coast stuff, but I don't think Gilmour was ever very interested in the folk revival/ trad folk?

The new song is obviously written as a Leonard Cohen pastiche, right?

Polly Samson seems to offer something of a response to Waters' recent attacks in the press release:
https://pitchfork.com/news/david-gilmou ... rs-listen/

It's a pointless argument, but I think those people who object so much to Polly's book/ audiobook - which is a collaboration with her husband - being featured on Pink Floyd pages are just being a bit mean. And that you perhaps have a more die-hard attachment to Pink Floyd than David Gilmour does?

Gilmour makes some comments on what the band 'represents' in this 1978 interview:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/ ... rview-1978

Ultimately neither Gilmour nor Waters have come close to the best collaborative stuff within Pink Floyd in any of their solo stuff, although there are bits n pieces I like from both of them.

[moodyblue]

i think its twee twaddle.... and no i dont have a lisp.

theres a pentameter in the lyrics that id expect from a 14 yo love struck schoolgirl.

I'd say if it was a 14 year old girl, she's probably got a good future as a songwriter.

There are some good lines in that.

[Kerry King]

The new song is obviously written as a Leonard Cohen pastiche, right?

Only if Leonard Cohen is your earliest known source for that type of material. I think it can be traced back at least a few centuries. Anyway, it sounds as much like Syd Barrett as it does Leonard Cohen.

[henno]

i think its twee twaddle.... and no i dont have a lisp.

theres a pentameter in the lyrics that id expect from a 14 yo love struck schoolgirl.

I'd say if it was a 14 year old girl, she's probably got a good future as a songwriter.

There are some good lines in that.

i was referring to the pentameter, not the lyrics themselves... the lyrics are clearly pollys

[scarecrow]

The new song is obviously written as a Leonard Cohen pastiche, right?

Only if Leonard Cohen is your earliest known source for that type of material. I think it can be traced back at least a few centuries. Anyway, it sounds as much like Syd Barrett as it does Leonard Cohen.

Sure, in the sense that Leonard Cohen didn't reinvent the wheel. It's clearly a specific nod towards Cohen with perhaps some other elements vaguely evocative of a Greek Island, and the press release pretty much says so:

https://www.altwire.net/2020/07/03/pres ... ve-ghosts/

A musicologist would probably pick out a dozen or so particular references to the most well-known Leonard Cohen songs - listen to it next to So Long Marianne, That's no Way to Say Goodbye, or Sisters of Mercy, it's pretty blatant.

Don't really understand any beef with the lyrics, sound fine to me, but each to their own

[Kerry King]

Only if Leonard Cohen is your earliest known source for that type of material. I think it can be traced back at least a few centuries. Anyway, it sounds as much like Syd Barrett as it does Leonard Cohen.

Sure, in the sense that Leonard Cohen didn't reinvent the wheel. It's clearly a specific nod towards Cohen with perhaps some other elements vaguely evocative of a Greek Island, and the press release pretty much says so:

https://www.altwire.net/2020/07/03/pres ... ve-ghosts/

A musicologist would probably pick out a dozen or so particular references to the most well-known Leonard Cohen songs - listen to it next to So Long Marianne, That's no Way to Say Goodbye, or Sisters of Mercy, it's pretty blatant.

A musicologist would have to like Leonard Cohen. No supposed musicologist has time for everything, and if they did they would completely lose perspective. It would nullify their musicology. I had no idea about the press release.