Nobody Home
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| "Nobody Home" | |||||
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| Song by Pink Floyd
from the album The Wall |
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| Released | 30 November 1979 (UK), 8 December 1979 (US) | ||||
| Recorded | April-November, 1979 | ||||
| Genre | Art rock/Progressive rock | ||||
| Length | 3:26 | ||||
| Label | Harvest Records (UK) Columbia Records (US)/Capitol Records (US) |
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| Writer | Waters | ||||
| Producer | Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour and Roger Waters | ||||
| The Wall track listing | |||||
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"Nobody Home" is a song on Pink Floyd's album The Wall. In this song, Pink describes his lonely life behind his mental wall. He has no one to talk to, and all he has are his possessions. It describes what Roger Waters went through during the 1977 tour, the band's first major stadium tour. Also, the song had some references to founding Floyd member, Syd Barrett. The song was written as the result of an argument between Gilmour, co-producer Bob Ezrin and Waters over material for The Wall. Gilmour and Ezrin challenged Waters to go away and write a song. Waters returned to the studio two days later with Nobody Home written. This was the last song written for The Wall album. On the 30th Anniversary of The Wall episode of the US radio show In the Studio with Redbeard, David Gilmour revealed that "Nobody Home" was one of his favorite songs on the album.
The song also has some references to Pink's broken relationship with his adulterous wife. It is played in a manner that is reminiscent of a piano player in a bar.
The line, "Surprise! Surprise, Surprise!" from Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. is used.
A lot of the song describes Syd Barrett's general state during 1967, and in the documentary "Behind The Wall", David Gilmour states that it describes the state of mind of many rockstars on tour. However, these lyrics:
I got nicotine stains on my fingers.
I got a silver spoon on a chain.
Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains.
are said to be written specifically about Richard Wright, who was allegedly going through cocaine addiction at the time.[1]
The song ends almost abruptly with the lines
I got a pair of Gohill's boots
But I got fading roots
with a television playing in the background.
[edit] Personnel
- Roger Waters - vocals[2], VCS3[3]
- David Gilmour - bass guitar[3]
- Richard Wright - Prophet-5 synthesizer[3]
- Bob Ezrin - piano[3]
- New York Orchestra - strings & brass section[3]
[edit] Cover versions
- On Metric's 2009 album Fantasies, one of the pre-order bonus tracks was James Shaw performing a piano-only version of the song.
[edit] References
- Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8
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