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Friday, May 23, 2008

David Gilmour - Fat Old Sun

Can 62 year-old fogies still rock? You bet they can!!!

While out shopping yesterday, I stopped by Best Buy and picked up the Remember That Night DVD, David Gilmour's concert from the Royal Albert Hall at some point in 2006. So I was watching it last night in the living room in 5.1 goodness when Mikey came home early, so he was "forced" to watch it as well. Now usually when I'm watching anything Pink Floyd, it takes all of his willpower to keep from mentioning hippies or the fact that he can't believe I don't smoke weed.

However, because Mikey has a background with playing guitar, he obviously knows a good thing when he sees/hears it. In my biased opinion, David Gilmour HAS to be one of the top 10 greatest guitarists in rock history. After the Fat Old Sun was over, Mikey mentioned how the guitar solo was one of the best that he's ever seen, which is insanely high praise for someone who really isn't into the Floyd that much. So please enjoy this clip of a song that was written and first performed live in 1970 (four years before I was born) and has completely stood the test of time! The guitar solo that Mikey liked so much begins around the 3:24 mark, but I encourage you to check out the entire clip if you have the time.



If you liked this, there's PLENTY more on the DVD! It's available on regular dvd and also blu-ray.

Amazon Link

5 comments:

Hurricane Mikey said...

Simply awesome.

The *best* ever? Well, maybe not, but definitely in my top five!

Anonymous said...

Okay...I have listened to this about 5 times now. IT KICKS ASS! Please tell me the background on it Mr. Pink Floyd guru! What album is it on? Does is rock as much as this version? Does Gilmour sing on the original? You can tell that the first half is all Gilmours' writing, but the second(ass kicking) part had to be contributed by someone else. It just doesn't fit the Pink Floyd sound, but I love it! Thanks for the post!

Rob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rob said...

Matt,

Don't underestimate Gilmour. I'm sure he conceived of the entire version, especially since it somewhat mimics the original album version.

Fat Old Sun, which seems forgotten but has always been one of my Floyd favorites, appeared as the 3rd song on side two of the Atom Heart Mother album. The album version sounds very similar to the first part of the video clip. The 2nd part of the video (the ass-kicking part) follows the album version only in the sense that there is a more "rock and roll" feel to the second part of the song with some solo work. However, the album version is MUCH more mellow and WAY LESS "kick-ass".

Fat Old Sun was completely the baby of Gilmour. One cool thing about Atom Heart Mother is that once you get past the first title track, the next four songs are songs written by the individual members. Summer 68 was completely Wright, IF was completely Waters, Fat Old Sun was Gilmour and Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast was pretty much Mason, with help from his friends.

Up until now, my favorite version of Fat Old Sun was a live 15 minute version from one of my bootlegs. When they performed the song live in the early '70s, it became an extended acid trippy jam session with a lot of organ solo work by Wright, but it never "rocked" like his version seen on the video clip.

This newer version just blew me away! Awesome!

Anonymous said...

Aa.. I think, Atom Heart Mother is the greatest Pink Floyd release, and The Fat old sun solo is one of the greatest guitar solos ever created) I decided to learn this solo, so, if you want to learn it,too, visit
http://www.fretplay.com/tabs/p/pink_floyd/fat_old_sun-tab.shtml