Sorrow (Pink Floyd song)

For other uses, see Sorrow.

"Sorrow"
Song

"Sorrow" is the closing track from Pink Floyd's 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

Lyrics and music

The piece was written and composed by guitarist David Gilmour. Gilmour has stated that although lyrics are not his strong point, the song is one of his strongest lyrical efforts, even though the opening lines were appropriated from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

Sorrow was a poem I'd written as a lyric before I wrote music to it, which is rare for me.

— David Gilmour

Drummer Nick Mason has since stated that the song was almost entirely written by David Gilmour alone over the space of one weekend on his houseboat Astoria. When he returned from the weekend, only "some spit and polish", according to Mason, was needed. David Gilmour has also mentioned that the solo at the end of "Sorrow" was done on the boat, his guitar going through a small Gallien-Krueger amp. As on many tracks from the album, Gilmour played a Steinberger GL "headless" guitar on this song. The guitar intro was recorded inside Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and piped through Pink Floyd's large sound system, yielding an extremely deep, cavernous sound. The drum machine on the song was programmed by David Gilmour — no real drums were used.

Live

Live versions of the song are featured on 1988's Delicate Sound of Thunder album and 1995's Pulse album, with running times of 9:27 and 10:49 respectively, mostly taken up by extended guitar solos by Gilmour and an additional outro. A slightly shortened version of the song appears on Pink Floyd's greatest hits collection, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, which is edited so that the song "Sheep" (also edited) segues into "Sorrow". David Gilmour played the song at the "Strat-pack" guitar concert, an event which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster. Gilmour played the song on the second set of his Rattle That Lock Tour 2015/16.

Personnel on studio version

• David Gilmour — guitar, vocals, keyboards, programming, synthesiser and drum machine

with:

• Richard Wright — Kurzweil synthesiser
• Tony Levin — bass guitar
• Bob Ezrin — additional keyboards
• Darlene Koldenhaven, Carmen Twillie, Phyllis St. James, Donnie Gerard — backing vocals

Personnel on Delicate Sound of Thunder and Pulse versions

• David Gilmour — guitar, lead vocals
• Nick Mason

• Richard Wright — keyboards, backing vocals

with:

• Guy Pratt — bass guitar
• Jon Carin — keyboards, backing vocals and programming
• Tim Renwick — rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Gary Wallis — percussion, drums
• Rachel Fury – backing vocals (Delicate Sound of Thunder)
• Durga McBroom – backing vocals (Delicate Sound of Thunder and Pulse)
• Margaret Taylor – backing vocals (Delicate Sound of Thunder)
• Sam Brown – backing vocals (Pulse)
• Claudia Fontaine – backing vocals (Pulse)