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So you might’ve heard by now that Richard Wright of Pink Floyd passed away this past Monday. He died at 65 to an undisclosed cancer. I think he was one of the most under-appreciated and misunderstood members of Pink Floyd. Wright, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, primarily played the piano/keyboard/synths, but also did a bit of vocals and contributed to the composition of lots of Pink Floyd goodies. It’s said that Wright was the crucial element that gave Pink Floyd their psychedelic sound, which can totally be attested to through the successes of the albums he contributed to greatly. Incidentally, most of my favourite tracks by Pink Floyd were co-written by Wright.

Wright had an immense role in a lot of the albums that had a lot of synthesizer/keyboard focus, such as The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and Wish You Were Here (1975). He was the genius behind “The Great Gig in the Sky,” “Us and Them,” and “See Saw,” just to name a few, and was a huge contributor to the epic 9-part “Shine On” splendor on Wish You Were Here. Both of these albums were critical successes (two of the five that topped charts, I believe).

A lot of tension in the band occurred after the huge success of The Dark Side of the Moon, leaving Wright subsequently getting kicked out of the band by Roger Waters during the recording of The Wall (1979). This was not made publicly known until it was noticed he was not credited in The Final Cut, because Wright still played live with the rest of the band as a paid hire. Wright officially rejoined the band after Waters left, just in time to contribute to the release of the last Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell, in 1994.

Wright also released two solo albums in 1978 (Wet Dream) and 1996 (Broken China), but they were practically unnoticed by the mainstream. Both were progressive rock albums that had a similar feel to the Pink Floyd sound.

Hopefully this post will do some justice to Richard Wright and the greatness he was to the band and the music industry in general. He was always known as a very modest, unassuming individual whose sensitivity conveyed his brilliant musicianship.

I thought it would be nice to put up the one song Rick will probably be best remembered by, so enjoy.

Pink Floyd – The Great Gig in the Sky

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