Pink Floyd’s 1994 performance of the song “Comfortably Numb” from the album The Wall (1979) performed at Earl’s Court illustrated key aspects of the psychedelic rock subgenre, especially the manipulation of lasers and lights to complement the experience brought on by hallucinogenic drugs. These visual technologies accompanied the structure of the song, particularly separating verses, pre-choruses, and choruses visually to accompany the auditory structure of the song. This created a sense of nostalgic ambiance on stage while simulating the desperation of relying on drugs for emotional detachment as communicated in the song. This webpage uses scholarly sources on Pink Floyd and psychedelic rock, concert images, and videos to support how Pink Floyd’s performance enhanced the audience’s musical experience. Moreover, this page will highlight Pink Floyd’s extension of the Psychedelic Rock genre well past the counterculture movement of the ‘60s and the general advancement of their lighting technology that made the sound and environment of the 1994 performance of “Comfortably Numb” a hallmark example of Pink Floyd’s live performance style.
Biography
Psychedelic rock as a music genre resulted from the counterculture Baby Boomer generation. This large population favored free-thinking, peace, community, and interacting with the world in a sensational fashion over the strict establishment at the time. They did this by following Timothy Leary’s famous phrase “tune in, turn on, drop out,” which indicated the use of drugs and music as a way to escape societal pressures and become engaged with conscious thoughts and feelings while interacting the world as a holistic experience. Psychedelic rock reflected this generation’s experimentation with drugs, sex, visual art, expression of stylish colors and patterns, and new experiences (Duncan 144-173). Many bands at the time experimented with their music compositions and sounds to accompany the experiential use of drugs or to directly simulate the drug experience. In the 1960s United Kingdom this became known as Beat Music, which was derived and modified from American Rock and Roll. The original Pink Floyd members grew up in this counterculture society, stemming from the fear of the British youth after World War II and the evident rebellion against government and conformity. Pink Floyd existed in the “underground” music scene of London- a center for experimental drugs, styles, and music that worked off of the Beat genre (Carosso, 122-143). The band would emerge from this scene as one of the most successful bands at playing with sounds and imitating the experiences that the counterculture youth desired in their lives. Moreover, with the use of sounds in their music and lights at their live performances, Pink Floyd captured the world’s fascination with space and frontier exploration.
Pink Floyd was one of the most prominent bands of the psychedelic rock era in the 1960s and 70s, and they had continued success throughout the subsequent decades. Having formed in London in 1965, they recorded and toured primarily in Europe soon expanding to the entire world as their fan base grew. After creating successful early albums, their peak success came at the debut of their concept album, Dark Side of the Moon (1973) (Erlewine). This album gained popularity through its expression of psychedelia and highlighted the band’s signature musical features. These included a distinct sound produced by vocal harmonies and the use of bass and electric guitars that echoed, moved, and twisted through space as the “trip” associated with psychedelic drug use. More specifically, while utilizing simple instruments such as drums, guitar, bass, and keyboard, they implemented electronics to distort and change vocals in particular giving rise to the hollow psychedelic sound (Ott and Joseph 30). Furthermore, Pink Floyd maintained these sonic aspects throughout their performing and recording years, garnering a fandom that enjoyed experiencing the sensation of drug trips and later feeling nostalgic for their younger selves. Although the genre of psychedelic rock had changed in the 1980s and ‘90s, Pink Floyd maintained their original style from the ’60s and ’70s in their later performances (Echard 228-263).
Additionally, Pink Floyd was the first highly successful band at utilizing lasers during live performances, inspiring many other bands and live concert visual technologies later on. The band manipulated light in a way that accompanied its chorus harmonies and loud electric guitar riffs. Moreover, Pink Floyd’s live performances illustrated a novel way of experiencing music; they engaged the audience’s senses into the music (Gilmore and Fricke). Overall, Pink Floyd’s use of lights contributed to the perpetuation of psychedelic rock aesthetics; their live performance aesthetics built off of the psychedelic experience explored by Ken Kesey and the Prankster’s Bus of the 1960s. In a way, they brought these smaller psychedelic group experiences to a larger audience.
The Technology
The presence of unique lighting during Pink Floyd’s performances became indispensable. Peter Wynne Wilson, a man experienced in the field of lighting from his involvement in theater, met the band earlier on in their career and began experimenting with polarizers and stretched membranes (sometimes even with the use of condoms), producing stress patterns with different light colors (Mason 78). At this point, the lighting the band projected and experimented with was still relatively dim and the equipment they used was highly unsafe.
Nevertheless, Peter Wynne Wilson’s involvement marked the point that lights became an essential part of Pink Floyd’s performances. As time went on, the band found ways to use lights more efficiently and effectively. Light shows heavily drew attention to slide projectors with the addition of spotlights and whirling Daleks. Standard stage lights were dropped closer to the band with the use of cherry pickers (Mason 122). After losing touch with Peter Wynne Wilson after the 1960s, the band recruited him again by the time they embarked on The Division Bell tour. By the 1994 performance, the lighting team employed stronger lasers than ever before, evident in the defined green streaks of light seen throughout the performance. Peter Wynne Wilson also worked with liquid slides and recreated larger Daleks more effectively than ever, especially with new safety features people didn’t consider during the 1960s. It became difficult for Peter Wynne Wilson to recreate light patterns he created in the 1960s, especially because the colors had to be diachronic instead of pigmented (attributed to the heat level of 6KW of light as well as the requirement of the installation of an entire Aircon system) (Mason 323-325). Nevertheless, the band’s light team adapted to the changing technology by using these systems.
Being that the 1994 “Comfortably Numb” performance took place during The Division Bell tour, which marked the band’s last tour, Pink Floyd sought the best developments to create the most mystifying experience. Their decision to reconnect with Peter Wynne Wilson and experiment with the modern technology of the 1990s allowed them to do so. This decision was clearly important to them as well, as Nick Mason commented, “the lighting man literally has to be one of the group” in an interview with Melody Maker (Mason 80). Overall, the lighting technology allowed the band to experiment with visual improvisation as a way of helping to generate an artistically creative multimedia experience. Despite the evident progression of Pink Floyd’s lighting techniques, the ambiance of Pink Floyd’s multimedia concerts had always attracted loyal fans and contributed to the band’s identity as one that created an electrifying experience.
The Performance
After an analysis of the underlying meaning of “Comfortably Numb” in the context of The Wall album, there is a clear correlation between the events presented in the lyrics of the piece and the coordination of the lights throughout the performance. The Wall (1979) follows a storyline that directly reflects the scar-ridden and desperate postwar Britain through the characterization of the protagonist, referred to as “Pink” (Romero and Cabo 49). The plot of “Comfortably Numb” takes place when the doctor of the story of The Wall is outside Pink’s door, trying to revive a drugged out Pink so he can get ready for an upcoming show (Rose 135). Since The Wall was released more than a decade before this final tour, Pink Floyd’s fans were familiar with the storyline the album followed, especially with the release of the visuals in the movie The Wall in 1982. Furthermore, the 1994 performance of “Comfortably Numb” enhanced the way fans interpreted the storyline of The Wall because they understood the context.
In the 1994 “Comfortably Numb” performance at Earl’s Court, the lights turn shades of pink, purple, and blue when the doctor is directly addressing the protagonist. However, when the song shifts to the pre-chorus and chorus and the protagonist describes his drugged and confused state, the lights are primarily white. Perhaps this white light symbolizes the emptiness the protagonist feels now that he has turned to drugs as a coping mechanism to avoid the emotional disdain he feels. The white light couples with chimes before the guitar solos, as well as a shift from a clear articulation of each syllable to a smoother communication of consonants, to communicate the comfortable but altered state of consciousness Pink has at this point (Rose 136). Ultimately, Pink Floyd’s lighting procedures throughout their 1994 performance of “Comfortably Numb” help to connect the audience to the experience of the protagonist by systematically changing the stage’s ambiance based on the message of the lyrics.
During the performance, Pink Floyd strategically paired lighting technology with their instrumentation as well as the vocalized notes. In the beginning, green and orange lasers shoot out in clear, defined lines while the stage is black. Once the music starts to play, the lights on stage start to change colors and the laser lights disappear. Throughout the first verse, the lights on stage emit shades of pink, purple, and blue, and once the pre-chorus begins, they change to white. The green lasers return once the guitar solo begins at the end of the chorus. This pattern is repeated with the second verse and the second rendition of the chorus until the final, lengthy electric guitar solo when the lights change colors in blinding flashes on stage as well as eventually reflecting off of a disco ball in the center of the auditorium. In this way, the electric guitar solos are routinely paired with more active coordinations of light, drawing the audience’s attention to the multimedia elements when stress is no longer placed on the lyrics of the song, and instead placed on the guitar solo and improvisation. In addition, specific vocalized notes are paired with light. For instance, at the beginning of the second verse when the group sang a high note, the light changed to a blinding white when the note was held out. This demonstrates Pink Floyd’s construction of the song “as the psychedelic trip” instead of accompanying one, because the combination of unique visual and audio elements creates a stronger sensory experience. Overall, Pink Floyd used effective techniques to create a pattern of light that matched up with the pattern of “Comfortably Numb” and contributed to its identification as a psychedelic rock song.
Conclusion
Although the 1994 performance of “Comfortably Numb” at Earl’s Court marked the last tour the band took, their light shows currently live on as “The Pink Floyd Experience”, which still captures the essence of Pink Floyd’s multimedia performances without the actual band. Furthermore, even without the actual band, the impact of Pink Floyd’s music and lighting experience lives on, demonstrating the cruciality of the light technology within the band’s performative identity and the way Pink Floyd immortalized their performance. The fact that Pink Floyd “Experience Shows” are marketed today also demonstrate the lasting credibility of Psychedelic Rock decades and generations past its peak popularity. The band has become synonymous with the genre and society recognizes them as one of the pioneers of live performance. A possible topic for future research may be Pink Floyd’s specific impact on society and succeeding music groups.
Works Cited
Carosso, Andrea. “The Paradox of Re-Colonization: The British Invasion of American Music and the Birth of Modern Rock.” The Transatlantic Sixties: Europe and the United States in the Counterculture Decade, edited by Grzegorz Kosc et al., Transcript Verlag, 2013, pp. 122–43.
Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. “Pink Floyd Biography, Songs, & Albums.” AllMusic, AllMusic, 2022.
Gilmore, Mikal, and David Fricke. “The Madness and Majesty of Pink Floyd.” Rolling Stone, no. 1023, Apr 05, 2007, pp. 54-56,60,64,79. ProQuest.
Mason, Nick, and Philip Dodd. Inside Out : a Personal History of Pink Floyd / Nick Mason ; Edited by Philip Dodd. Chronicle Books, 2017.
Ott, Brian D., and Lionel S. Joseph. “Mysticism, Technology, and the Music of the Summer of Love.” Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging, vol. 41, no. 2, American Society on Aging, 2017, pp. 27–33.
“Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb – YouTube.” Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb – Pulse Concert Performance 1994, 14 Feb. 2014, www.youtube.com/watchv=vi7cuAjArRs.
Romero, Jorge Sacido, and Luis Miguel Varela Cabo. “Roger Waters’ Poetry of the Absent Father: British Identity in Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall.’” Atlantis, vol. 28, no. 2, AEDEAN: Asociación española de estudios anglo-americanos, 2006, pp. 45–58, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41055246.
Rose, Phil. Roger Waters and Pink Floyd : the Concept Albums / Phil Rose. Madison; Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2015. Print.