A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Untitled

A Momentary Lapse of Reason is a studio album by Pink Floyd released by EMI Records on 8 September 1987, in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States through Columbia Records. It was the band's first release after the departure of Roger Waters from the band in 1985. The album reached #3 on both the U.S. and UK charts. It was released in the UK and the rest of Europe on EMI and on Columbia Records for the rest of the world.

Background

After Roger Waters had declared Pink Floyd "a spent force" and ended his association with the band in 1985, David Gilmour attempted to continue the band together with Nick Mason. A bitter dispute with Waters ensued, but Gilmour and Mason eventually settled out of court for the legal right to continue using the name Pink Floyd. In exchange, Waters dissolved his former management partnership with Steve O'Rourke and gained exclusive rights to some traditional Pink Floyd imagery, including the original flying pig design, almost all of The Wall concept and everything to do with The Final Cut. Richard Wright re-joined the band during the recording sessions for this album, but only as a salaried session musician.

The recording sessions started in October 1986 as a new David Gilmour project. Gilmour revealed on the Shine On and A Momentary Lapse of Reason episodes of In the Studio with Redbeard that it was almost his third solo album as the material initially sounded too weak to be a Pink Floyd album. He then went on to say that by Christmas of 1986 that he had enough confidence to turn the album into a Pink Floyd project.

The music press responded with mostly negative reviews of the album (though Rolling Stone claimed it portended "a Floyd with a future"), despite its heavy airplay rotation on video and radio music stations. Many fans regard this album a David Gilmour effort, rather than an actual Pink Floyd album. The allmusic review refers to it as a "Gilmour solo album in all but name". Waters himself described it as "a pretty fair forgery or a good copy" of a Pink Floyd record; his most generous appraisal was that the album contained "a few bright moments when I heard something and thought, 'Well, maybe I'd have done something with that'." But Waters also commented that to him, Pink Floyd no longer existed.

Recording

The album was performed largely by David Gilmour and several session musicians. The most famous of these was Tony Levin (of Peter Gabriel and King Crimson fame), who played bass on most of the tracks. Nick Mason felt he was out of practice on drums, and thus many of the percussion parts were either programmed or delegated to others. For example, Carmine Appice played drums on "The Dogs of War" while Jim Keltner played on "On the Turning Away" and "One Slip". The drum machine, used on "Sorrow", was programmed by Gilmour.

Session keyboardist Jon Carin, whom Gilmour met and played with in Bryan Ferry's band at Live Aid, went on to collaborate with both Pink Floyd and Roger Waters on subsequent albums and tours. Pink Floyd's original keyboardist Richard Wright arrived during the sessions, but did not officially rejoin the band due to concerns about his severance contract with Waters (the initial album lists Pink Floyd as consisting of only Gilmour and Mason; however, later re-releases add his name). Wright can be heard playing on a few tracks, notably "Sorrow", which features his background vocals. Most other keyboard parts on the album were played by Carin, Gilmour or Ezrin.

The recording heard in the middle of "Learning to Fly" is of Mason talking to an air traffic control tower in his private aircraft (both he and Gilmour became enthusiastic pilots after conquering their mutual fear of flying).

A Momentary Lapse of Reason is Pink Floyd's first fully digital recording; however, the acoustic drums and bass guitar tracks were recorded on analogue equipment.

Cover artwork

The cover shows 700 hospital beds placed on Saunton Sands, Devon. This effect was not achieved with trick photography; a team actually hauled the wrought iron beds over three hours from London to Devon and arranged them as seen on the finished design. When the team realised that the shoot would take more than one day, a single bed was left on the beach to see if the sea would have any effect on it over night. When they returned the following morning, the bed was nowhere to be found. Long-time Pink Floyd collaborator Storm Thorgerson produced the artwork.

The official Storm Thorgerson website actually covers a version of this story:

700, yes 700, wrought iron hospital beds separately made up and positioned on the beach. Madness to do it at all, but we had in fact to do it twice cos it rained suddenly the first time, dank grey dizzle, and we couldn't see the distant half of the beds.

This was the first Pink Floyd studio album since Animals to feature his work (not counting a design for the compilation album A Collection of Great Dance Songs in 1981).

Inside the gatefold sleeve was a portrait of David Gilmour and Nick Mason, the first time that the members of Pink Floyd had been pictured on an album cover since 1971's Meddle (not counting a poster of the band members on stage that came with vinyl copies of The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973)

The vinyl copies had two picture labels. Side one depicted a black and white photo of a man rowing his boat. Side two depicted the beds from the front cover on a beach with the dogs of war running whilst a man is sitting on a bed and a female maid is standing up.

If you look closely, there is a person flying a Hang Glider, probably a reference to Learning to Fly.

Reissues and remastering

A re-mastered CD was released in the early 1990s for Europe, and in 1997 for the rest of the world. Another remastered version was released in the U.S. and Canada in October 2005 due to Columbia Records losing the production masters. James Guthrie and Joel Plante supplied the label with new masters, and thus the mastering credit was changed from Doug Sax to Guthrie and Plante. Also, a number of minor changes have been noted in the credits and legal text for this latest release, mostly reflecting changes in the band's business situation since 1997 (including the death of their manager Steve O'Rourke).

It is also the only one of the post-Waters Pink Floyd albums to have a remastered EMI version. The Columbia version is now out of print.

In May 2009, it was announced by Capitol Records, that since Sony BMG discontinued the remastered Columbia version in 2008, Capitol itself will be releasing a remastered version on June 02, 2009.

Tour

Set lists

The tour set list was very rigid compared to other Pink Floyd tours with little change in set lists.

1st Half

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" or "Echoes" ("Echoes" was dropped after the first eleven shows, "Shine On" was performed as the second encore at a few of the Canadian shows, before replacing "Echoes" as the show opener.)
2. "Signs of Life"
3. "Learning To Fly"
4. "Yet Another Movie"
5. "Round and Around"
6. "A New Machine (Part 1)"
7. "Terminal Frost"
8. "A New Machine (Part 2)" ("A New Machine" (both parts) & "Terminal Frost" were sometimes excluded from shows.)
9. "Sorrow"
10. "The Dogs of War"
11. "On the Turning Away"

2nd Half

1. "One of These Days"
2. "Time" (omitting "Breathe (Reprise)")
3. "On the Run" or "The Great Gig in the Sky"
4. "Wish You Were Here"
5. "Welcome to the Machine"
6. "Us and Them"
7. "Money"
8. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"
9. "Comfortably Numb"

Encore

1. "One Slip"
2. "Run Like Hell"

The tour was documented in the live album & video, Delicate Sound of Thunder.

Venice

Pink Floyd performed on a large barge on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy on 15th June 1989. This show was broadcast, live, on television stations around the world. The band played a shorter set due to the time constraints of live TV. The set was:

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (Part 1 only)
2. "Learning to Fly"
3. "Yet Another Movie"
4. "Round and Around"
5. "Sorrow"
6. "The Dogs of War"
7. "On the Turning Away"
8. "Time"
9. "The Great Gig in the Sky"
10. "Wish You Were Here"
11. "Money"
12. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"
13. "Comfortably Numb"
14. "Run Like Hell"

Knebworth 1990

Pink Floyd were also the headline act at The Knebworth Event, 1990 in aid of the Nordoff-Robins Music Therapy charity. The bands performing at the event were winners of the Silver-Cleff award and included Genesis, Robert Plant & Eric Clapton. The set list was:

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
2. "The Great Gig in the Sky"
3. "Wish You Were Here"
4. "Sorrow"
5. "Money"
6. "Comfortably Numb"
7. "Run Like Hell"

The show was notable for including Clare Torry re-creating her vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky".

The Momentary Lapse Tour, according to Tim Renwick, was only supposed to last 11 weeks. Originally the band would play a show at Wembley Stadium, tour the United States Of America, and finish back again at Wembley, much like what Roger Waters was doing on his Radio K.A.O.S. tour. The tour began on 9 September 1987 at Lansdowne Park Ottawa, Canada, and finished at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada, on 10 December 1987. The World Tour began with the band's first and only New Zealand performance at Western Springs in Auckland, New Zealand on 23 January 1988 and finished at the Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, on 23 August 1988. In the spring and summer of 1989, the band did another European leg of the tour, dubbing it Another Lapse. During the tour, the band played two consecutive nights in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the Dean Smith Center, where one of the men who the band was named for, Floyd Council was born.

Quotes

On the Momentary Lapse of Reason album, Nick's belief in himself was pretty well gone, and Rick's belief in himself was totally gone. And they weren't up to making a record, to be quite honest about it... Roger's very good at belittling people, and I think over the years he managed to convince Rick completely that he was useless and more or less convinced Nick of the same thing.

— David Gilmour, Rock Compact Disc magazine, September 1992

I must say, that under the circumstances, it's a superb title for a 'so-called' Pink Floyd record.

— Roger Waters, Penthouse magazine, September 1988

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Signs of Life" (instrumental, spoken word by Nick Mason)	David Gilmour, Bob Ezrin	4:24
2.	"Learning to Fly"	Gilmour, Anthony Moore, Ezrin, Jon Carin	4:53
3.	"The Dogs of War"	Gilmour, Moore	6:05
4.	"One Slip"	Gilmour, Phil Manzanera	5:10
5.	"On the Turning Away"	Gilmour, Moore	5:42
6.	"Yet Another Movie / Round and Around"	Gilmour, Patrick Leonard / Gilmour	7:28
7.	"A New Machine (Part 1)"	Gilmour	1:46
8.	"Terminal Frost"	Gilmour	6:17
9.	"A New Machine (Part 2)"	Gilmour	0:38
10.	"Sorrow"	Gilmour	8:46

Personnel

Pink Floyd

• David Gilmour – vocals, guitars, keyboards, sequencers
• Nick Mason – drums, percussion, drum machine, sound effects

Additional musicians

• Carmine Appice – drums
• Sarah Nean Bruce – spherical sound
• Ken Caillat – spherical sound
• Jon Carin – keyboards
• Bob Ezrin – keyboards, percussion, sequencers
• Donnie Gerrard – backing vocals
• John Helliwell – saxophone (mistakenly credited as "John Halliwell")
• Tom Jones – spherical sound
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Darlene Koldenhaven – backing vocals
• Michael Landau – backing guitar
• Patrick Leonard – synthesizers
• Tony Levin – bass guitar, Chapman Stick
• Scott Page – tenor saxophone
• Bill Payne – Hammond organ
• Richard Wright – keyboards, backing vocals
• Tom Scott – alto and soprano saxophones
• Phyllis St. James – backing vocals
• Carmen Twillie – backing vocals

Production

• Guy Charbonneau – recording
• Andrew Jackson – sound effects
• Mastering Lab – mastering
• Precision Lacquer – mastering
• Phil Taylor – technical and musical instrument supervision

Single releases

• "Learning to Fly (edit)"/"Terminal Frost" – Columbia 38-07363; released 15 September 1987
• "On the Turning Away"/"Run Like Hell (Live)" – Columbia 38-07660; released 24 November 1987
• "The Dogs of War"; April, 1988 (US radio only)
• "One Slip"/"Terminal Frost"; June 1988

Sales chart positions

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1987	UK album chart	3
1987	The Billboard 200	3
1987	Billboard CD Charts	1
1987	Norwegian Record Charts	2

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1987	"Learning to Fly"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
1987	"Learning to Fly"	The Billboard Hot 100	70
1987	"Learning to Fly"	UK Singles Charts	55
1987	"On the Turning Away"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	1
1988	"The Dogs of War"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	10
1988	"One Slip"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	5
1988	"Sorrow"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	36

Sales certifications

In the United States, the R.I.A.A. have certified the album:

• Gold and Platinum (November 1987)
• Double Platinum (January 1988)
• Triple Platinum (February 1992)
• Quadruple Platinum (August 2001)