An album which won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards “owes a lot” to Pink Floyd, according to Paul McCartney.
The veteran songwriter who spent a decade in The Beatles and another in Wings has suggested that the Roger Waters and David Gilmour-featuring group were essential in the success of one of the recent Grammy-winning albums. The post-Beatles career of McCartney had an initially frosty reception from members of the public and critics. His self-titled debut and follow-up, Ram, were disregarded at the time but have since been re-evaluated as two of McCartney’s best efforts. Breaking down each of the songs he wrote during his time in The Beatles, Wings, and as a solo artist, McCartney noted one album from a peer owed plenty to The Dark Side of the Moon.
In his book, The Lyrics, McCartney coined the term “Floydian slip”, when a musician is subconsciously inspired by the Animals and Atom Heart Mother hitmakers. While discussing his song The Note You Never Wrote, McCartney said the song was unconsciously inspired by Pink Floyd. He wrote that the work from Jimmy McCulloch was “reminiscent of Dave Gilmour”.
He added: “The arrangement as a whole is kind of dreamy and Floydian. It’s what we call a “Floydian slip”. Pink Floyd made some great records in the 1970s. The Dark Side of the Moon had released in 1973, and it would have been natural for Wings to do something in their style. A lot of people did. A few years back, Beck’s record Morning Phase was very like a Floyd record.
“It won Album of the Year at the Grammys. I listened to it and I thought ‘That owes a lot to Pink Floyd.’ Pink Floyd’s world was almost an extraterrestrial world, so it was a nice place to go.”
McCartney went on to suggest the Mayor of Baltimore character featured in The Note You Never Wrote was inspired by Pink Floyd. He wrote: “I had to make up the Mayor of Baltimore character. Why? Because it sounded good.
“I wasn’t too worried about the meaning. Maybe the song would develop a meaning at some point. Or maybe someone would find a meaning.” It is not the first time McCartney has praised Pink Floyd, with the veteran songwriter having worked with Gilmour several times throughout his career.
A song from Give My Regards to Broad Street features Gilmour, and for McCartney, it was the standout track. He wrote: “David Gilmour plays the solo on the record. I’ve known him since the early days of Pink Floyd. Dave is a genius of sorts, so I was pulling out all the stops.
“I admired his playing so much, and I’d seen him around; I think he’d just done his solo About Face album. So I rang him up and said, ‘Would you play on this?’ It sounded like his kind of thing. I wrote this song specifically for a film that I also wrote: Give My Regards to Broad Street.”
