Best David Gilmour Guitar Solos?

[Ashes andDiamonds07]

In your opinion, what are some of David Gilmour's best guitar solos?

I would have to choose (in chronological order):
Childhoods End, Time, Money, Any Colour You Like, Shine On Your Crazy Diamond (all the solos in it), Have A Cigar, Dogs (again, all the solos), No Way Out Of Here, Raise My Rent, Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 1, ANother Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2, Mother, Young Lust, Hey You, Comfortably Numb of course (both solos), The Fletcher Memorial Home, The Final Cut, Not Now John, Learning To Fly, Cluster One, Marooned, Great Day For Freedom, Coming Back To Life, Keep Talking, High Hopes, Louder Than Words and Hey, Hey, Rise Up.
Okay, that's a lot.

What about you guys?

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

You seemed to have picked a lot of choices I would have picked.
However, as un-Floyd as "It Would Be So Nice" is. I do like the guitar solo on the fade out.

[Ashes andDiamonds07]

You seemed to have picked a lot of choices I would have picked.
However, as un-Floyd as "It Would Be So Nice" is. I do like the guitar solo on the fade out.

It is a great solo, and a great song

[everton1690]

2nd solo on, on an island

In any tongue

[Kerry King]

Pigs is Gilmour's best guitar solo in the studio. Followed by The Final Cut and Comfortably Numb.

[theaussiefloydian]

Obvious "Comfortably Numb" second solo.
The acoustic fade-to electric on "In the End".
"High Hopes".
Most of On an Island, but specifically "On an Island" (first solo) and "The Blue".
"In Any Tongue".
So many more, but these are the absolute top stand outs for me.

[Master_Chief]

There’s so many solos I can think of, but narrowing them down to just four…

- No Way
- The Final Cut
- Marooned
- Coming Back to Life

[Djgilmour]

The 5 best? Easy!

5. Your Possible Pasts
4. The Fletcher Memorial
3. On an Island (2nd solo)
2. Dogs (2nd solo)
1. The Final Cut

[Eliardo1]

My favorites solos are: Mother, Time and Shine on you crazy diamond.

Also, I have a semi off topic question. Do you guys know sth about the song writing process of Pink Floyd, specially during the phase in which Gilmour/Waters were the undisputed predominant song writers? What I mean is: how much Gilmour contributed to Waters’s songs (even though his contribution was uncredited)? I’ve seen a video of the making off of Brain Damage and it seemed to me that Gilmour had an important role on the making of the musical part of the song. By the same token, the solo in Mother is such an integral part of the song that Waters’s performances seem to change very little of the solo (even though he hires very good guitarists that were surely capable to make their own solos).

[Ashes andDiamonds07]

My favorites solos are: Mother, Time and Shine on you crazy diamond.

Also, I have a semi off topic question. Do you guys know sth about the song writing process of Pink Floyd, specially during the phase in which Gilmour/Waters were the undisputed predominant song writers? What I mean is: how much Gilmour contributed to Waters’s songs (even though his contribution was uncredited)? I’ve seen a video of the making off of Brain Damage and it seemed to me that Gilmour had an important role on the making of the musical part of the song. By the same token, the solo in Mother is such an integral part of the song that Waters’s performances seem to change very little of the solo (even though he hires very good guitarists that were surely capable to make their own solos).

Pretty much any Pink Floyd song with a guitar solo, no matter what the song writing credits say, the guitar solo is 100% Gilmour, as he improvises the solo. Songs like Hey You, Money and all of those songs, even though they credit only Waters, the guitar solo has nothing to do with him. I'm assuming the reason Waters generally keeps the same solo for the song for a few reasons; one may be because Snowy White or Dave Kilminster or whatever guitarist Roger has just can't do a solo that's anywhere near as good as that one. Another could be that because it's such a short solo, they decide to do it almost note for note.

[azza200]

On The Turning Away - 87-89 era listen to any of the guitar solos from the 87 leg of the tour he improvised the solo so much adding licks here and there which he has not done since. The extended DSOT solo is epic Venice is good as well

Missouri 1987


Dalla's 87 some great improvisation & unique solo


19th August 1988 (DSOT Recording)


23rd August (DSOT Recording)


Sorrow Live 94 he played some amazing solos during that tour Lyon 94 is good Modena any of the EC dates plus the reverb and tone he had for the European leg for the intro/outro solos was epic

Lyon 1994


Hannover 94


While I'm at it here is the longest performance of One Of These Days from 1994

[Eliardo1]

Thanks for your answer Ashes and Diamonds. I agree with you. Plus, DG’s solos are so in touch with the lyrics it must né really hard for the other guitar players you mentioned (I’m really sorry I did not memorize their names and I’ll try and get to know their Work) to make big changes in them without losing some of The songs’ essence.
But I’m also very Curious about the DG’s contribution to the music of some of RW’s songs even when there are no solos. I insistir on Brain Damage for instance. Also, DG’s sometime’s played the Bass guitar. I’m guessing those base lines weren’t just dictated by Roger otherwise he Would have played it himself.
Anyway, the creative process is probably very rarely a strictly individual accomplishment and somtimes the credit might go to the guy who wrote the main structure of The song. Anyway I am getting way off topic here. I guess I should just start a new topic on that specific subject. Thanks again for the reply.

[Ashes andDiamonds07]

Thanks for your answer Ashes and Diamonds. I agree with you. Plus, DG’s solos are so in touch with the lyrics it must né really hard for the other guitar players you mentioned (I’m really sorry I did not memorize their names and I’ll try and get to know their Work) to make big changes in them without losing some of The songs’ essence.
But I’m also very Curious about the DG’s contribution to the music of some of RW’s songs even when there are no solos. I insistir on Brain Damage for instance. Also, DG’s sometime’s played the Bass guitar. I’m guessing those base lines weren’t just dictated by Roger otherwise he Would have played it himself.
Anyway, the creative process is probably very rarely a strictly individual accomplishment and somtimes the credit might go to the guy who wrote the main structure of The song. Anyway I am getting way off topic here. I guess I should just start a new topic on that specific subject. Thanks again for the reply.

A lot of songs that have David on bass (like the chromatic run in Echoes) were done by him because Rog couldn't play it himself, possibly. I think this is the case as in Live In Pompeii, David did that run on guitar, instead of Roger doing it on bass. But I could be wrong, I don't know exactly, but that's my theory. With Brain Damage, I think Rog wrote the chord progression and possibly the arpeggio, but it seemed to me that Roger wrote the song but David kind of changed things around, and probably suggested adding/changing certain chords to get the final product. From what I know, TFC was 100% written by Roger (except for the guitar solos) but again, David could've contributed some suggestions.
Although, I will say, it is possible Roger wrote one or two of the less emotional Floyd solos. If you watch him doing his song Picture That live in 2018, he actually improvises a pretty decent solo himself. He is a decent guitarist, but nowhere near the level of David. I think his skills are mainly in lyrics.
With the concerts such as The Wall in Berlin, In The Flesh and the earlier solo concerts by Roger, Snowy White improvises a lot of the solos, like Another Brick pt. 2 and the likes of that. With the 1984 Pro's and Con's tour, Eric Clapton improvises a lot of David's solos, but that's probably because he's Eric Clapton, he can improvise those solo's and they'll still sound great (But, in my opinion, nowhere near the level of DG, who, in my opinion, is the greatest guitarist yet).

[Eliardo1]

TFC is musicaly one of my least favorite álbuns (as are the ones before Meddle, sorry Syd’s fans I get he was a genious and a great guy, but I’m a fan of The DG/RW phase).
In the case of TFC I even think Roger’s lyrics are inferior to the rest of his Work. The poverty of The musical part of TFC (relatively to the previous PF albuns) I think had and impact on the quality of The lyrics.
Roger just didn’t have it in him, I mean, the musical genius, that unexplainable ease with which some humans are gifted and make art, science, words, speeches just pop in their heads like mushrooms. Most of The time not even the talented person can explain to themselves how that happens.
Now, Roger has that exact unexplainable something, but with words, sentences and concepts. The guy is an absolute genius when it comes to writing lyrics.
However, my teenage heroe was David and I loved his music, especially his solos. If I were Roger Waters I Would probably be able to explain with words how great David’s solos are. Since I am not Roger, I can’t explain even in my native language why DG solos are so artistically beautiful and fit the songs so perfectly. I Will say this though: their apparent simplicity and unpretentiousness (I’m probably making this word up) must have something to do with their beauty. I know for a fact it’s harder to say something meaninful in a few words than it is in twenty pages. I guess the same Goes for the guitar solos (they are, after all, language and they are also saying something meaninful, the good ones in any case). And yes, DG is the best guitar player ever, in my opinion. Clapton, though great, is not even the second one for me. In my book, that place belongs to Ritchie Blackmore.

[K2+]

I've always thought "The Blue" was one of his best.