Roger Waters has released a new version of “Comfortably Numb,” the iconic Pink Floyd track from their 1979 album The Wall.
The new “Comfortably Numb” is accompanied by a bleak video showing an apocalyptic cityscape. Toward the end of the video, a pig can be seen floating in the sky, a nod to the 1977 Pink Floyd album cover for Animals.
Waters said in a statement about the new recording, “Before lockdown I had been working on a demo of a new version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ as an opener to our new show ‘This Is Not A Drill.’ I pitched it a whole step down, in A Minor, to make it darker and arranged it with no solos, except over the outro, where there is a heartrendingly beautiful vocal solo from one of our new sisters Shanay Johnson.”
He added, “It’s intended as a wakeup call, and a bridge towards a kinder future with more talking to strangers, either in ‘The Bar’ or just ‘Passing in the Street’ and less slaughter ‘In Some Foreign Field.’ Here it is. Love R. The video is by Sean Evans. The mix is by Gus Seyffert.”
Waters’ new version of “Comfortably Numb” is available for streaming and download here.
Pink Floyd: Looking Back on Their Live 8 Reunion Performance
Pink Floyd and their reunion at Live 8 in 2005 was the band’s first performance with Roger Waters, who celebrates his birthday today (September 6), in 24 years.
While held to the tight 20-minute set time that every performer had during the benefit concert, Pink Floyd, without question, owned the event with their setlist of “Breath,” “Money,” “Wish You Were Here” and “Comfortably Numb.”
While Waters and David Gilmour did butt heads regarding the setlist and took some convincing to agree to the reunion set, they put aside their disagreements for the sake of Live 8’s cause to spreading awareness to issues related to the AIDS, poverty and debt in third world countries.
Images and video from the legendary reunion can be viewed below.
