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Pink Floyd - Sorrow
The sweet smell of a great sorrow lies over the land
Plumes of smoke rise and merge into the leaden sky:
A man lies and dreams of green fields and rivers,
But awakes to a morning with no reason for waking
He's haunted by the memory of a lost paradise
In his youth or a dream, he can't be precise
He's chained forever to a world that's departed
It's not enough, it's not enough
His blood has frozen & curdled with fright
His knees have trembled & given way in the night
His hand has weakened at the moment of truth
His step has faltered
One world, one soul
Time pass, the river rolls
And he talks to the river of lost love and dedication
And silent replies that swirl invitation
Flow dark and troubled to an oily sea
A grim intimation of what is to be
There's an unceasing wind that blows through this night
And there's dust in my eyes, that blinds my sight
And silence that speaks so much louder that words,
Of promises broken
"Sorrow" is the final track from Pink Floyd's 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason although it was the seventh song from the album performed in the Momentary Lapse set of the 1987/88/89/90 tours. It was written and composed by guitarist David Gilmour. Gilmour has stated about the song that though lyrics aren't his strong point that "Sorrow" is one of his strongest lyrical efforts, even though the opening lines were appropriated from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Drummer Nick Mason has since stated that Sorrow was almost entirely crafted by David Gilmour alone over the space of one weekend on his houseboat, The Astoria. When he returned from the weekend, only "some spit and polish," according to Mason, was needed. As with many tracks from the album, Gilmour played a Steinberger GL "headless" guitar on this song , contributing to the overall cold, "sad" feel of the music. The guitar intro was recorded inside a sports arena in L.A, piped through Pink Floyd's massive sound system, thus giving the tone an extremely deep, cavernous sound. The drum machine on the song was programmed by David Gilmour - for the studio recording, no real drums were used. Other versions Live versions of the song are featured on 1988's Delicate Sound of Thunder album and 1995's P*U*L*S*E album, with running times of 9:27 and 10:49 respectively, mostly taken up by extended 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" 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.
