FCS Daily Music Video – ‘Clare Torry and The Great Gig in the Sky’ Pink Floyd

Clare H. Torry (born 29 November 1947) is a British singer, well known for writing and performing the wordless vocals on the song “The Great Gig in the Sky” by the group Pink Floyd on their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon.

Comments:

David Gilmour…we basically told Clare Tory (studio vocalist) that we did NOT want worded lyrics as backing vocals and left it at that. She says that she came up with the idea of imagining herself not as a person but rather as a living musical instrument of some sort.

So I heard the story about Claire making this recording in one take on the Making of Dark Side of the Moon… (amazing!!) but I didn’t know she wasn’t credited or paid royalties for the song and had to sue so many years later to get what she was owed. Damn it Pink Floyd, why’d you do Claire like that?! Disappointed big time to hear this because your one of my favorite bands.

I wish you gave more time to Read Each Slide.. Terrible editing.



The song began life as a Richard Wright chord progression, known variously as “The Mortality Sequence” or “The Religion Song”. During the first half of 1972 it was performed live as a simple organ instrumental, accompanied by spoken-word samples from the Bible and snippets of speeches by Malcolm Muggeridge, a British writer known for his conservative religious views. By September 1972, the lead instrument had been switched to a piano, with an arrangement very similar to the final form but without vocals and a slightly different chord sequence in the middle. Various sound effects were tried over the track, including recordings of NASA astronauts communicating on space missions, but none was satisfactory. Finally, a couple of weeks before the album was due to be finished, the band thought of having a female singer “wail” over the music.

Pink Floyd keyboard player Rick Wright wrote this song, which is about life, gradually descending into death. Hence the angrier and more intense first half with a dying person refusing to “go gently into that good night.” The second half is gentler, as the dying person gives into the inevitable and fades away.

Earlier post – Pink Floyd and Great Gig in the Sky