Pink Floyd’s 1994 ” Great Day for Freedom ” Performance Is Ahead Of Its Time

Pink Floyd became renowned for being one of music’s most solid pioneers and innovators of sound. However, despite the chemistry and the legacy they gave, Pink Floyd simply didn’t get along – especially with bassist Roger Waters and guitarist David Gilmour, which ultimately led to the end of the era.

By 1987, however, Gilmour decided to reboot the group, without Waters and recruiting fellow Pink Floyd members, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright. The trio, who tried to keep the legacy of Pink Floyd alive, released two albums in this lineup: A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994). A video of one of the Division Bell hits, “A Great Day for Freedom,” can be viewed below.

The song, which was renamed from “In Shades of Grey” after its initial release, is about the high expectations that accompanied the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent crushing lows that ensued. Gilmour opened up to its lyrics in one of his interviews: “There was a wonderful moment of optimism when the Wall came down – the release of Eastern Europe from the non-democratic side of the socialist system. But what they have now doesn’t seem to be much better. Again, I’m fairly pessimistic about it all. However, the song was also said to be about Gilmour’s estranged relationship with Roger Waters.

The video below shows Pink Floyd in their prime during one of their concerts anchored on the Division Bell tour. Gilmour was the driving force behind the song, singing the lead vocals as well as playing a solid guitar arrangement. It’s safe to say that despite the musicianship of Waters, the rest of Pink Floyd was still worth seeing.