The Great Gig In The Sky

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Whoa whoa whoooooa whoooa whoooa. Top lyrics.

The Great Gig In The Sky is a load of cunt.

No, I am not referring to any sort of reference to a possible afterlife (yeah right).
I am, of course, writing about the Pink Floyd ‘tune’ that resides on Side 2 of ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’.

Now, me and the Mrs like a bit of Pink Floyd. But I personally have never been able to stand this particular so-called ‘masterpiece’. Initially, it’s a nice song. Rick Wright (RIP) plays his piano beautifully and Dave Gilmour swoops in and out with subtle guitar.

Then Nick Mason’s drums kick in and it all turns to shit. Some session singer (Clare Torry, I think) just screams a load of ear splitting lyricless yelling, sounding like someone has put chili sauce, fireworks and itching powder down her knickers.

It really is the most awful noise, and if Yoko Fucking Ono had done it on a Beatles record, it would rightfully be called out for the tuneless racket that it is. But because it’s on ‘Dark Side’ and it’s ‘Ver Floyd’ it rarely gets any criticism. But the truth is it’s fucking awful.

The most laughable bit being Torry later astonishingly got a co-songwriting credit with Wright for the song. A songwriting credit and royalties for a done on the spot fucking flailing noise?!! Music by R. Wright and incoherent screeching by Torry? Fucking priceless. I bet Roger Waters was happy about that one, eh?

It is an awful record, but the lesson being? Women and top rock bands should not be mixed, simple as that. Zep and The Who never did it, so there is no Plastic Ono Band or Great Gig In The Sky to taint their legacies and no Clare Torry or Yoko to bite them on the arse and interfere later down the line.

The original version of Great Gig is far superior. With Wright’s music being allowed to breathe as the (then current) coverage of Apollo XVII replaces Torry’s squawking.

The song

Nominated by – Norman

86 thoughts on “The Great Gig In The Sky”

  1. What about the great gig in hell.
    Billy sexcrime and the baby sitters. Starring
    Glitter on vocals, Ian Watkins on lead guitar.
    Peter Townsend on semi acoustic.
    Bill wyman hitting A minor, Rolf on wobble board. Michael Jackson, R kelly on backing vocals. Under 16s only £2.00 on the door.
    DJ saville till 5.00am ………

  2. My claim to fame is that the Blues Merchants once played Eel Pie Island as the main act and the support were a little known new band called Pink Floyd.

    It’s a long story I won’t bore you with but in short they were a fucking hard act to follow!

  3. Don’t know if anyone pointed it out but Led Zeppelin did do it Norm with Sandy Denny in Battle of Evermore song on Zep album IV

    I think Denny would of been a great addition to Zeppelin actually but she was alcoholic and snuffed it at 31 before finding worldwide fame even in her own band Fairport Convention

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