I believe he essential to Floyd, without him we wouldn't have had "Great Gig in the Sky" or the wonderful piano in "Us and Them". I am a big fan of his organ playing in "Echoes" "Time" and you cannot forget his synth intro on "Sheep"  Listening to those tracks (and there are many many more) I think its pretty bad to say that Rick Wright is deadweight.

My post from the Unsung Heroes thread....

I nominate Rick Wright

All the kudos in Floyd goes to Gilmour and Waters and while they were probably the fulcrum around which the most creative aspects of Floyd swung, Rick's contribution was always phenomenal.

Check out his synth work on 'Animals' - it totally informs the cold, stark and often vicious ambience of the whole album and IMO is as crucial to the feel of that great album as Gilmour's outstanding guitar playing.

His playing on Echoes is awesome - understated yes, but always atmospheric, fluid and beautful.

His hammond, piano, clavinet and synth washes on Shine On are simply superb and always 'on message' - there's not a stray chord or note on there, everything he does is tasteful and clever. Perfect prog 'minimalism'.

And to have contributed Great Gig in the Sky and Us and Them to one of prog's key recordings makes him a true unsung hero.

Not the most technically gifted player, Wright makes up for a lack of showy (for that often read pointless) chops with taste, a considered style and a brilliant sense of when less is more. Great ear for melody too.

Rick Wright unsung hero

Rick was/is indeed highly talented, and a key part of PF around the time of DSOTM. Unfortunately, he did rather let the band down later, appearing to become completely disinterested in contributing anything towards "The wall".

Now I know that was very much Roger's baby, but given the icy relationship betwen Waters and Gilmour at the time, it is significant that they agreed that Wright was out of order.

His solo albums show him to be immensly creative, but he does seem to have been his own worst enemy at times.

Mr. Wright is certainly a driving force behind PF and not being a virtuoso doesnt mean his lack of creativity. He knows music and he knows how to compose. Overrated ? well, if you discuss with die hard fans, they'll do anything to convince you that Wright is better than Wakeman for example. Wright is not as essential to PF as for example Emmerson was to ELP or Wakenam was to Yes. He could have been replaced by Billy Preston and nobody would have noticed. Now for his solo albums; Not so, lets say, popular. Broken China is quite a downer, I dont like it, but it has a lot of quality in it (have to admit).

________

Lunar 

Hi Everybody,

I think the matter here is the Style of each keybordist.

The style of Mr. Wright is complettely differnet of Wakeman's or Emerson's. The great quality of Wright is "build climax"(I don't know how to express this in English), but his keyboard is not a vituoso faster solo style, but makes the pillar of the sound of Pink Floyd.

To be original is very important to me, and he is ! He doesn't copy any other keybordist. He just plays Rick Wright's Pink Floyd sound, and he is brilliant !

Best Greetings

It appears the people seem to underestimate the value of Rick Wright to Pink Floyd. Just look at the differences between The Division Bell and Wright-less albums like The Final Cut and A Momentary Lapse of Reason. TDB has so much more atmosphere then its recent predecessors, like on Marooned or Cluster One. Wright was probably the leading contributor to the Pink Floyd sound. I doubt Pink Floyd could have recovered from the loss of Syd Barrett without Rick.

He was an important contributor from the start.  However, by the time of Dark Side and Wish You Were Here, his contributions were absolutely critical.  And, as many have inferred, there  simply would not have been an "Animals" (my favorite PF album) without him.

It is also interesting that no one has mentioned The Wall: for all the drubbing it gets, Wright's contributions are my favorite part, especially his amazing organ work.  Indeed, his work on "Babe, Don't Leave Me Now" is among the spookiest, most amazing keyboard work on any PF track.

Peace.

maani wrote: He was an important contributor from the start.  However, by the time of Dark Side and Wish You Were Here, his contributions were absolutely critical.  And, as many have inferred, there  simply would not have been an "Animals" (my favorite PF album) without him. It is also interesting that no one has mentioned The Wall: for all the drubbing it gets, Wright's contributions are my favorite part, especially his amazing organ work.  Indeed, his work on "Babe, Don't Leave Me Now" is among the spookiest, most amazing keyboard work on any PF track. Peace.

I think you are giving credit where it is not due there Maani. Wright by his own admission barely contributed a note to "The wall". Dave Gilmour says that "an awful lot of the keyboard parts were done by me, Roger, Bob Ezrin, Michael Kamen (and) Freddie Mandell". Waters wrote keyboard parts for Wright to play, but Wright declined the offer to come in and record them, hence he was fired by Waters.

The section on "The wall" in the recent Q magazine special on Pink Floyd has the full story of the album in the words of the four band members. While their opinions differ, their recollections of what happened and who did what, are surprisingly consistent.

It was I who called him a muppet - I am reconsidering that insult - I suggest that as a prog keyboard player - he is way down the list along with Mr Kaye...But he has an atmospheric use of VCS3 which would be a useful - filler in a band behind a virtuoso such as Wakenman, Banks, Orford or Badens..Or maybe Robert John Godfrey - Master of the symphonic synth sound !

In regard to what happened with Rick on the Wall.. I think he would of been more contributing if he felt like he was being appreciated and had some input.  Some people just aren't the type to allow one member to completely take over a band.. and hand them some parts to play without allowing any personal input.  Whats the use in calling it a band.. its really one guy and some contracted players....  In Ricks own words:

http://pinkfloydhyperbase.dk/scraps/mojo1299.htm - http://pinkfloydhyperbase.dk/scraps/mojo1299.htm

lucas wrote: I like very much Rick's solo albums, his solo albums are the best of all Pink Floyd solo careers. His second album is even better than the last PF album.

That's right! Both "Wet Dream" and "Broken China" have a pleasant eerie quality about them, but I feel lthe later more varied, therefore, more interesting as a musical work.

Regards.

Closer to being irreplacable ... certainly a key component to the Floyd sound ... not all prog keyboardists need to be flashy (although I do think Tony Kaye did hold back just a little too much at times during the first three Yes albums)

With Wright though, I feel the real loss is his composing talent ... when I think of his pieces like Remember A Day, Paintbox, Summer 68 etc ... it seems a pity that it seemed to dry up (I believe I read an interview where he called it laziness) ... I haven't heard any of his solo stuff so I could be way off ...

Gilmour and Wright were Floyd IMHO.

Never rated the Barret fronted band to be honest, and I think Roger, despite his good ideas, is an average musician, certainly a dispensable bass player. He only had such a high profile in the band because he was such an arsehole, and liked to throw his weight around.

If you take a step back and actually listen to what makes PF's music good, you have to admit that its Ricks Keyboard ambience and Gilmours melodic, and 'lyrical' guitar playing.

I would like to hear what Pink Floyd would have been like if Rick had pushed his way further into the foreground, since I like what he does but a lot of the time their music in general is too guitar orientated for me.

Which parts does he sing? I never really thought about it before.

Always liked Wright's work with Pink Floyd. He definitely lacks that showmanship which abounds in Wakeman, Emerson or Kerry Minnear, but he's a great keyboardis and also has a good voice (only Minnear can match him in this deparment, as Wakeman is an horrible singer and Emerson does not sings frequnetly). His recorded compositions with Floyd are usually as good as GIlmour's. So what's wrong with the guy? Never understood why people tended to dismiss Wright.

I know this thread is not pointed to him, but I want to say something about Tony Kaye. He's also a great keyboardist. Listen to his work at "One Live Badger" and see for yourselves. the major problem with Kaye was that he was replaced by Wakeman - sounds like replacing George Harrison (as a lead guitar player) at the Beatles with, say it, Jimmy Page or Jeff Beck. I think I'll start another thread to discuss Kaye...

Rick Wright was the brain behind my Floyds favorite album: Atom Heart Mother...so he is not replaceble at all!!!

And one thing I do not like about the Wall is their sound, and that is because they didnt allowed Wright to do much...

starofsirius wrote: I believe he essential to Floyd, without him we wouldn't have had "Great Gig in the Sky" or the wonderful piano in "Us and Them". I am a big fan of his organ playing in "Echoes" "Time" and you cannot forget his synth intro on "Sheep"  Listening to those tracks (and there are many many more) I think its pretty bad to say that Rick Wright is deadweight.

 or Us And Them full stop, he wrote the music

I like his early tracks like Remember A Day, he was a good composer. his first solo albums is pretty good

Rick Wright is in the PANTHEON of rock (as a whole) musicians.

For me, together with Emerson and Banks, they form the Trinity of Keyboards.

 maybe wright isn´t a virtuoso but pink floyd without wright is not pinkfloyd, just hear san tropez and echoes in meddle; wright is a great keyboardist he sounds as it´s mean to be.

Pink Floyd are, and always were greater than the sum of their individual parts.

Richard Wright is as essential to the Pink Floyd "whole" as any of the other three.

None of Pink Floyd were virtuoso musicians but the four of them combined to achieve a whole much greater than the sum of their constituent parts. They played within their limitations and each contributed in their own way to some truly great albums.

To call Rick Wright a deadweight is ludicrous. Listen to Echoes and Atom Heart Mother which wouldn't have been anything without him. And on the first two albums he's the only one doing anything worthwhile at all.