When Clare Torry had finished this unique impromptu recording, she stated the band members didnt give her much feedback, leading her to think it would not be used. the band later went on to say that the recording was overwhelming and left them speechless.
I always enjoy seeing someone hear the great gig for the 1st time. As a teenager 35 years ago, I didn't appreciate this track the way I do as an adult of 50 now
Claire Tory singing, it took her only 2 takes to get this laid down for the band. Afterwards she went in the studio and the band didn’t say a word she thought they hated it so she walked out the studio not know they loved it until some time later. Claire Tory back in the 70s was a petite 5’2 white lady which surprises a lot of people due to the soul in her voice
I love this song. Without any lyrics, Clare Torry (who did the vocals), brought us the 4 stages of death. First was shock, then anger, acceptance, and finally death. It's amazing how she captures what we all will experience. Genius.
It's a song about death. Follow the tone of her voice from fear and anguish to peace and acceptance. This is from an album that's all about the human condition, Dark Side of the Moon. I highly recommend listening to it all at once for the full impact.
The song before this one is called Time.About growing old getting closer to death. This is supposed to be passing over to the other side. Dark Side of the Moon is a concept album.
I can only speak for myself but I think this is the most perfect and beautiful piece of music ever recorded. even after all the time that has passed since I first heard it and it still has a profound effect on me.
Your impression is correct. The song that immediately precedes this track on the album is "Time", the final lines of lyrics are: "Far away across the field / The tolling of the iron bell / Calls the faithful to their knees / To hear the softly spoken magic spell". These lyrics imply an image of a funeral Mass in context with "Great Gig in the Sky".
The speaking part comes from the band handing out cards with different questions to the crew and recording their answers. When the young lady finished her part everyone stood there in silence she thought she had messed up, but really everyone was just awestruck.
It's kind of funny that David Gilmour said that it took more like eight or nine takes to get this right from Clare Torry. It took only two takes, according to MS Torrey. David didn't like her at first and she didn't like Pink Floyd. She said that if it would have been The Kinks, she would have jumped right on it without hesitation. But in the end she finally realized what David Gilmour was looking for and he realized how good she was for the "part" and it all worked out in the end as we all know
There were lyrics in the beginning. You can barely hear them. But the man says, i am not frightened of dying.Why should i be, everyone has to go sometime.Clare Torrey had an excellent voice.
Tasha, your reaction and summation of "Great Gig In The Sky" was SPOT ON. If you understood all the beginning lyrics--members of Pink Floyd asked a doorman what he thought about dying, and his responses are what you hear in the beginning of the song--then the sudden (and VERY strong) singing/wailing by the incredible Clare Torry gives the definite impression of someone's regret and refusing to accept that they're dying. Then as Clare's voice gets melancholy in the middle of the song, that's the impression of someone mourning death, and finally, in the end, the soft, almost-muted tone of Clare's voice is that person accepting death. VERY, VERY emotional song, to be sure, and having this song and "Time" back-to-back (on the same album) has had an emotional effect to most who listen to them. I love Pink Floyd, though while not my all-time favorite band, I always say about PF: "Sometimes their music is so good, it's scary."
Clare Tory, she tells a great story about the song. Came in did it in two takes, and off she went. She will always be remembered as the voice in one of the greatest Pink Floyd songs.
Roger and David basically told her to just do her thing! Initially she thought she had performed it badly, however, they loved it, and this is the take!
Would love love love to see you both of you reactors listen and watch The Delicate Sound of Thunder version...The 3 ladies on that version blow it out the box...Rachel Fury..Durga McBroom and Machen Taylor 💯🔥👌..Honestly
Clare Torry's vocals As the band began casting around for a singer, album engineer Alan Parsons suggested Clare Torry, a 25-year-old songwriter and session vocalist. Parsons had previously worked with Torry, and had liked her voice on a Top of The Pops covers album. An accountant from Abbey Road Studios contacted Torry and tried to arrange a session for the same evening, but she had other commitments, including tickets to see Chuck Berry that evening, so a session was scheduled for Sunday evening between 7 and 10pm. The band played the instrumental track for Torry and asked her to improvise a vocal. At first, Torry struggled to divine what the band wanted, but then she was inspired to pretend that she herself was an instrument. She performed two complete takes, the second one more emotional than the first. David Gilmour asked for a third take, but halfway through Torry stopped, feeling she was getting repetitive and had already done the best she could. The final album track was assembled from all three takes. The members of the band were deeply impressed by Torry's performance, but were so reserved in their outward response that she left under the impression that her vocals would never make the final cut. She only became aware they were used when she saw the album at a local record store, spotted her name in the credits and purchased it. In 2004, she sued Pink Floyd and EMI for songwriting royalties on the basis that her contribution to "The Great Gig in the Sky" constituted co-authorship with keyboardist Richard Wright. Originally, she was paid the standard flat fee of £30 for Sunday studio work. In 2005, an out-of-court settlement was reached in Torry's favour, although the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.[8] All releases after 2005 carry an additional credit for "Vocal
Clare Torry's vocals were improvisation, she was paid about $500 - $600 in today's money. In later years she sued, it as settled out of court and she now has a song writing credit for "The Great Gig in the Sky"
As you may or may not know, Pink Floyd albums are usually chronological in their content. Each song is a chapter of a bigger story. Dark Side of the Moon is about Life and the processes and subjects we all deal with. The song "Time" precedes this song where it talks about how time is fleeting from when we are young and unknowing to suddenly being old and short of time left until we basically die. Great Gig In The Sky continues what happens when one then dies and Clare Torrey's vocals follows the grieving period from Anger/Disbeleif to Acceptance to Mournful cries. Such a brilliant piece of music.
interesting choice so early in your pink floyd voyage of discovery. as Rick said in an earlier comment, Clare's performance takes you through all the emotions associated with death and grief and it obviously hit a chord with you. the album this is from needs to be listened to 'in order' to truly make sense. i suggest you listen to Breathe as your next floyd reaction.
As someone else mentioned the song (vocals) express the denial, anger and fear of dying and towards the calm part in the latter part of the song it goes into regrets, sadness and finally fades out into acceptance (and the unknown beyond where we'll all end up sooner or later); the specifics are up for personal interpretation but the band's idea was that the song represented the stages/process of dying. Clare's got so much emotion and expression in her voice without a single word. This song is the track that comes after "Time" which makes perfect sense.
Haven’t listen to this album in years. What I remember about this album and The Wall was that listening to one song by itself takes away the feeling. These two albums are like listening to continuous stories. When I listen to , say, the third song by itself, I don’t get in to it as much. If I sit in a comfortable chair with my headphones on , crank up the volume, and just experience the whole album, then ever song is so much better. One thing I can say is, if any of you gets a chance to go to a planetarium and see/listen to the Dark Side of the Moon laser show, check it out. Was glad that I did.
Yeah they put out an add or feelers, and brought this British girl in, played her the music a couple of times and said go off....she did...and it's history now...and she's an unknown ...pretty cray cray
Waters and Gilmour sat Claire Torrey down and played the track for her. They said think about life and death but use no words, just your voice. They did this in one take.
Tasha, Thank you so much for doing my request. Below (Rick Baltimore) wrote that this is a journey of a man who is dying and goes through the 5 stages of grief. I had requested that "Time" the song before this one on the album be played as well because it goes through a person's life from being a child and fluffing off his day to day life until he realizes how much he has taken for granted. He then tried to hurry up and enjoy what time he has left and is chasing it until he realizes he wasted much of his life and is living with the regret. Then as he dies, in comes the "Great Gig in the Sky"...... If you haven't already done "Time", do that as well. Both are masterpieces. I always tell people about The Great Gig and say, This song doesn't have lyrics, but it WILL speak to you..
So tough since Rick is gone. Such a beautiful song that I will play at my funeral. ❤️❤️Seek out the unofficial 40th Anniversary mix. They put in some extra vocals at the beginning from Claire's warm ups. #chills
Great gig in the sky is one way to describe the place after death. Listen to the only lyrics in this song, which were stated, not sung, in the beginning of the song. Also, this song is best heard immediately after the song Time on the album
I read Nick Mason's autobiography a few years back - he claims that, with the exception of Syd Barrett, none of the band members did drugs. Not sure I believe it though.
Listening out of context you still get the anger and rage against death and eventually the acceptance. But it fits much better when heard as part of the album Dark Side of the Moon. With "Breathe" & "Time" as the wake-up call to enjoy life right now coz it's happening now, and "Money" highlighting the immense injustice of extreme wealth against extreme poverty. Tricky trying to pick random tracks from this album as each track transitions into the next. If you want a couple of stand alone tracks, then live stuff might be better??? Echoes live at Pompeii - where the guys play in an empty Roman Amphitheatre with no audience. Towards the end this gets Funky as..... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LxksRFZacJI.html Or if you want a lesson in how to end a concert..... Run Like Hell live Pulse Concert ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0dB6MQlFLu8.html
You should check out the darkside of the rainbow if you can find it. It's dark side of the moon synced with the wizard of oz. It's pretty crazy and cool.
U need to listen to the complete album at once or a couple of reactions , it was made to listen to it in its entirety , they made concept albums, you want regret it
this ENTIRE album is not of this world.but its about the human condition & experience of this world.how could 4 british 20 something year olds write,perform & record such perfection? not of this world!!!!
I met David Gilmour back stage at a concert in California 1984. I asked him about the meaning - reason for “Great Gig In The Sky”…. David’s answer was something like…. .I was asked if Pink Floyd would ever do a song about Religion like some others have… so I said, You are referring to the great gig in the sky they call “God“. What words could be used to describe all the pain and suffering, anguish and despair caused by religious beliefs. All the crying and wailing from mothers who lost their husbands or sons in a war fought over religious differences. The only vocals should be just the sound of a mothers crying with pain and suffering. That’s the true intentions of the song. We couldn't tell Clare so she wouldn't say anything to the media. We didn’t want to make that public so as to avoid any religious boycott like what happened to the Beatles after Lennon made his comment about Jesus. The speaking heard at the beginning was recorded at Apple records prior to the recording of the song. Roger Waters placed a recorder at the door asking anyone who walked by to answer some questions into the microphone. The janitor stopped and recorded his answer to the question….”Are You Afraid Of Dying”?. It was decided to add the recording to the start of “Great Gig In The Sky”. It leads people to believe the song is about dying, but that is actually not the case. The Great Gig In The Sky…is GOD … The incredible vocals from Clare Torry happened when she did not know what they wanted. David Gilmour told her to pretend her voice is a Saxophone like on other songs on the album, no words, just tones. Results are legendary.
"That's black funerals" . . . girl you need to quit ! Lol I like your reactions you seem willing and open minded .I strongly suggest Eric Clapton "Wonderful Tonight " Live feat. Katie Kissoon who also has history with Pink Floyd
That's a little tiny white British woman. Yeah she can do that. I seen her do it live in 1988.at Ohio state university. Its spontaneous .she did it on the spot. She didn't know exactly what Richard Wright wanted. This is what he got. Boom! Drop the microphone miss tory.job well done.it takes three outher women to do what she just did live.
Interview with the singer, Clare Torry. DUDE, SHE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT DO AND SHE PULLED THIS OFF! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nWZ4ymOvflM.html
The cool thing about this is that the woman singing is white. I always thought she was African American. Goes to show how conditioned even an anti-racist white man, which would describe me, can still be.
