Less than a week out from a very, VERY historic auction. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour is auctioning off over 120 guitars through Christie’s with the proceeds going to charity. It’s your chance (if you have some deep pockets) to own some of the very instruments Pink Floyd’s most iconic songs were written and recorded on. Instruments such as the acoustic guitars used on “Wish You Were Here.” Also the Gibson Les Paul he recorded the solo on in “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)” in ONE take after plugging it directly into the mixing console. Perhaps biggest of all, is the famous “Black Strat.” It’s the guitar he wrote the first few notes of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” on. It was also used to record one of the most famous solos in the history of rock music on in the song “Comfortably Numb.”
I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan. I never saw the actual Floyd in concert, but I have seen all of them individually (the final piece of that puzzle earlier this year when I saw Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets in Chicago). I have seen David Gilmour in concert twice. In April of 2006 (on a tour that included the Floyd’s late keyboardist Richard Wright), and again 10 years later in April of 2016. When I first read about this auction, I have to admit I was a bit devastated. I speculated it meant he was finished recording and touring. He has publicly said that is not the case, and he is hanging on to an assortment of other guitars to play and record with.
Still, I feel a sadness at the thought of him parting with these iconic instruments. He, on the other hand, is not sad. He wants to do some good and help people, and he views these guitars as simply his “tools of the trade” like an artist views a paintbrush. At the end of the day, these are just guitars. They don’t do a thing until they are picked up and actually played. He is hoping that is what happens with these instruments. That they don’t just end up displayed in a glass case. He wants them to continue making music for someone else. Might that be you? If you get your hands on one… you HAVE to at least let me strum a chord or two on it.
-Bickham
