Happy 80th Birthday David Gilmour!

Celebrating the legendary guitarist, singer-songwriter, and member of Pink Floyd… Thank You David!

David Jon Gilmour was born on March 6, 1946 in Cambridge, England

“Happy Birthday” Image by Gift Habeshaw from Unsplash (filter by Anthony Woodard)

July 2006: David Gilmour in concert in Munich, Germany.

Photo Credit: deep_schismic @ flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/7520964@N06/3279080264/, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

My late mother became a fan of Pink Floyd later in life. “Wish You Were Here” was one of her favorite Floyd songs, along with “Time” and “On The Turning Away.” “Wish You Were Here” was among the first songs that I learned to play on the guitar and naturally reminds me of my mom and our shared love of Pink Floyd.

Courtesy of Anthony Woodard

As a guitarist, I am especially drawn to “Comfortably Numb” from The Wall (1979) and its two epic solos (and vocals) by David. This masterwork is truly immersive and transcendent; it can take us out of ourselves, offering us a glimpse of what both lies beyond and deep within.

In its July 2022 article titled “The 50 greatest guitar solos of all time”, Total Guitar writes, “A good solo can have great tone, rhythms, melody, or expression, but only a work of rare brilliance features them all to this degree.” David’s guitar work reminds me to occasionally slow down; play each note with precise emotive purpose and incorporate the quiet spaces in between the notes. Sometimes less is more…