Saturday, September 20, 2008

Saturday Song



This Saturday's song is provided in tribute to Pink Floyd keyboardist and occasional lyricist Richard Wright, who passed away earlier this week. The song, "Summer '68" was an album track on the 1970 album Atom Heart Mother and though the track is located relatively early on in the group's discography, it is considered by many to be his best songwriting effort. Wright's material was never thought strong enough to merit a single, though his compositions did from time to time in the early days serve as B-sides. Of the later period Floyd, the Wright-penned song "Us and Them", which showed up on the monster hit The Dark Side of the Moon, probably is the most well-known.

As for "Summer '68", the song reflects Wright's severe sense of reservation regarding the free love, rock and roll lifestyle, and permissive sexuality of the period---referencing in particular the hordes of groupies who followed behind every touring rock group, eager to exchange sex for the ability to get close to a pop star.

1 comment:

Life As I Know It Now said...

I was sad to hear about Wright's passing. I still think of him as the skinny guy with long hair rocking in an empty stadium for their Live at Pompeii release.