Ranking 3 Of The Best Songs By Pink Floyd
“TIME”, “COMFORTABLY NUMB” & “ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART 2)”
It’s been nearly 7 decades since Pink Floyd entered the rock scene. Over the years they have produced over 160 songs, with the latest song under the Pink Floyd banner being “Hey, Hey, Rise Up!”.
To get ready for the Rock 95 Top 500 Countdown, I was asked to rank 3 iconic Pink Floyd songs – “Time”, “Comfortably Numb” and “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2).”
Here’s where I would rank them …
3. “Time”
Time ranks number 3 for me. I mean I do like the clock part but I’m sorry … it’s not making it to the top of the list just yet.
The song was part of the Dark Side Of The Moon album, which was a collection of songs exploring life’s pressures. “Time” is about time slipping by and how we don’t realize it until it’s too late.
The layered clock sounds that begin the song were put together by Alan Parsons, who was the band’s engineer for the album. They recorded the clocks one at a time at an antique store then blended them together.
2. “Comfortably Numb”
For the number 2 spot, I have to go with “Comfortably Numb” because it’s one of my favourites.
When you first hear “Comfortably Numb,” it’s easy to assume the song is about drugs. But Waters has explained that isn’t the case. The song is actually about how he felt as a child sick with a fever and having similar delirious states as an adult.
The lines “When I was a child I had a fever/My hands felt just like two balloons,” were autobiographical. Water shared in an interview with Mojo magazine, “I remember having the flu or something, an infection with a temperature of 105 and being delirious. It wasn’t like the hands looked like balloons, but they looked way too big, frightening. A lot of people think those lines are about masturbation. God knows why.”
Other lyrics, like “That’ll keep you going through the show,” refer to being medicated prior to a show. He didn’t know it at the time but he had hepatitis.
1. “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)”
“Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)” takes first place for me because of all the meat at the end.
This song was about Waters’ time at Cambridgeshire School for Boys.
“You couldn’t find anybody in the world more pro-education than me,” Waters shares in a Mojo interview. “But the education I went through in boys’ grammar school in the ’50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion. The teachers were weak and therefore easy targets. The song is meant to be a rebellion against errant government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that.”
Though they rarely released singles that were also on an album, their producer convinced the band the song could stand on its own. It ended up being the band’s only No. 1 hit.
How would you rank these iconic Pink Floyd songs?
