Richard Wright

Unsung hero

I’m going to start off by saying that Roger Waters is a jerk. I’d use stronger language, but I was asked to keep vulgarity out of my writing. So, use your imagination.

I could never understand my brother’s love for the guy. He’s done nothing since Pink Floyd that was anything as good as that band’s work. That demonstrates that it was the band, not him alone, that was the driving force behind their massive success. Yes, Roger was a major part of the band, but not all of it.

Which brings me to one of the members who he treated the worst.

Richard wrote probably two of my favorite Pink Floyd songs, both from Dark Side of the Moon (DSOTM). Forget Time and Money, both great tracks, they are the big singles off the album and gained a ton of radio play. But the slower tempo of the next two songs set a mood that is singular on the album.

The Great Gig In The Sky is hailed as one of the best vocalizations in rock history. Clare Torry simply slayed it. The above link has three separate women singing her part in a live concert which reinforces how incredible Clare’s performance was. But the melody is melancholy and bittersweet. Such a beautiful song. As a side not, Clare was initially paid a paltry sum of 30 pounds, standard session fees. She felt her contribution wouldn’t even make the final cut of the album, and was surprised to see her name in the credits later. Considering the albums massive success - to date it has sold over an estimated 45 million copies worldwide and has been on Billboards top 200 albums sporadically for over 1,000 weeks since Billboard started tracking sales. In 2005 Clare sued Pink Floyd and received both co-songwriting credit (along with Richard) and an undisclosed settlement.

The second song is probably my favorite track, Us and Them. The tune was originally written on the piano by Wright for the film Zabriskie Point in 1969 and was titled "The Violent Sequence" but was never used until DSOTM. Waters wrote the lyrics. At nearly eight minutes it is the longest track on the album. Billboard ranks this song #3 on a list of the top 50 best Pink Floyd songs.

Again, the song is haunting, melancholy, and beautiful. The lyrics of this song and Time are the ones that especially speak to me on a human level.

Dark Side of the Moon is an album I still listen to in it’s entirety. I don’t know an album in my collection I listen to as much. That album and Wish You Were Here are my favorite Pink Floyd albums - except for the Pulse live album, which features DSOTM on Disc 2. Coincidentally, Wish You Were Here is the last Pink Floyd album that Richard Wright mentions as the last time the band worked well together.

During the production of Roger Waters magnum opus “The Wall” things got to a breaking point. As “The Wall” producer Bob Ezrin told Rolling Stone magazine in 1987, Wright was a victim of Roger’s cruelty. “(He was) a victim of Roger’s almost Teutonic cruelty. No matter what Rick did, it didn’t seem to be good enough for Roger. It was clear to me that Roger wasn’t interested in his succeeding”. Finally, Roger demanded that Wright be fired (or forced to quit) the band, or Roger was going to take “The Wall” and do it as a solo artist. Roger felt that HE was Pink Floyd, and that the band would fail if he left, which he did after the “The Final Cut” album is 1983. He expected the band to fall apart without him, but instead they went on, hiring Richard back as a session player (contractual issues prevented him rejoining the band as a member) until the album “The Division Bell” in 1994. In fact, Roger Waters tried to stop the band from using the name Pink Floyd, but lost that battle, thankfully.

Richard remained with the band until his passing in 2008 from Lung Cancer at the age of 65. He left behind an amazing catalog of music and was an instrumental member of the band. He wasn’t a flashy pianist. He wasn’t Jon Lord, or Keith Emerson. His compositions were refined, beautiful and elegant. The album DSOTM wouldn’t have been such a critical success without him, there is no doubt.

As for poor old Roger, just to show what a - ahem - he is, following the death of Ozzy Osbourne in July 2025, he caused controversy by calling Osbourne’s career “idiocy and nonsense” and stating he never cared for Black Sabbath.

What a wanker.

Sorry, does that count?