43-years after the release of The Wall, Pink Floyd‘s Roger Waters has released what he calls a “darker“ and “kinder“ version of Comfortably Numb, one of the band’s most beloved songs. According to Roger, “It’s intended as a wakeup call, and a bridge towards a kinder future with more talking to strangers, either in the bar or just passing in the street, and less slaughter in some foreign field”.
While this version lacks the powerful guitar solo of the original (no surprise there), it closes with an emotional, heart-wrenching vocal solo by singer Shanay Johnson.
I remember being away at college, 1500 miles from home, and just a few months after my mother had died, lying in bed and listening to the original. No song before or since more perfectly captured my mental state of being in one specific moment. Version old or version new; Comfortably Numb will always hold a special place in my heart.
