Little did a young, impressionable Phil Manzanera know when he first crossed paths with David Gilmour in the ‘60s that the pair would strike up an enduring friendship, lasting over half a century and then some, that saw him work with the Pink Floyd legend on a score of albums.
The Roxy Music guitarist recently recounted some of those experiences with Guitar Playerdetailing how those collaborations allowed him to understand the secrets of Gilmour’s heart-stirring guitar tone, and how it’s not all about the gear he used.
Manzanera was 16 when they first crossed paths, and would go on to form Roxy Music, the band with which he’d make his name – with the help of his red Gibson Firebird – several years later. All the while, he kept a close eye on Gilmour’s career as Pink Floyd became heavyweights in the progressive rock world.
While Roxy Music were working on their second album at London’s Air Studios, Manzanera encountered Chris Thomas, who was mixing The Dark Side of the Moon at the same time, prompting the pair to reconnect.
“I went in to the control room of Studio Two, and none of the Floyd were there,” he tells Guitar Player. “It was just Chris, and he played me the song Money. And when I heard the guitar solo, I thought, ‘Jesus, this is amazing!’
“So I sent David a telegram saying, ‘Remember me? I’m in a band now called Roxy Music.’”
It proved to be more than a fleeting meet-up, and Manzanera, now part of Gilmour’s inner circle, saw his talents blossom close hand.
“(Original Floyd guitarist) Syd Barrett was more off the wall, but David brought a sort of blues sensibility to Pink Floyd, and then had to do the experimental stuff as well, too,” he feels. “He evolved in his own way of creating weird and wonderful sounds.”
Gilmour turned to Manzanera to help produce his 2006 solo album, On an Islandand did likewise for Rattle That Lock nine years later. He even had a hand in Floyd’s final LP, The Endless Riverand joined Gilmour’s solo band for a short spell. Working with him so closely lifted the lid on where his sound comes from.
“One of the things about David’s playing – and in some way it’s a bit like me – is that while it seems to be about distortion and echo, it is actually about the way he plays the notes and bends them, along with the strength of his hands,” he says.
“And he’s got a fantastic sense of tuning. He’s very, very hot on tuning. So often when I was recording him, I would have a tuner right there with me to check on the tuning. But he would come in to listen to a take or something, and if a note wasn’t bent or pulled or pushed to the right tuning, he’d want to redo it.”
He admits that such an intricate ear for pitch had its problematic moments, but it shows the sheer degree of accuracy that lives behind the emotiveness of his lead playing.
At one point while working together, Manzanera looked to relearn the main riff of the 1978 Roxy Music track K-Scope – which had recently been sampled and given a new vibe by Kanye West and Jay-Z – only for both guitarists to be left stumped by it.
After releasing his latest solo album, Luck and Strange last year, Gilmour has hinted that more music is in the works as he looks to continue momentum built from what he believes is his best album since Dark Side of the Moon.
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