The Division Bell
Studio album by Pink Floyd
Released	30 March 1994
Recorded	1993
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	66:32
Language	English
Label	EMI
Producer	Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Blender link Robert Christgau link Rolling Stone link Sputnikmusic link
Pink Floyd chronology
A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) The Division Bell (1994)
Singles from The Division Bell
"Take It Back" Released: May 31, 1994 "High Hopes" Released: October 10, 1994
EMI CD Release Cover

The Division Bell is the final studio album by Pink Floyd, released in 1994 (30 March on EMI in the United Kingdom and 5 April on Columbia in the United States), and their second album without Roger Waters. It was recorded at a number of studios, including guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour's houseboat studio called The Astoria. It went to No.1 in the UK and debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200 album charts in April 1994, spending four weeks as the top album in the country. By contrast, Pink Floyd's previous album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, had peaked at No.3. The Division Bell was certified Gold, Platinum, and Double Platinum in the US in June 1994 and Triple Platinum in January 1999. Its release was accompanied by a successful tour documented in the P•U•L•S•E album released the following year.

[edit] Background

Before the Roger Waters-led period, David Gilmour stated that the music and lyrics were in balance, and the importance of the music was understood. The Division Bell's atmosphere is spacier, sounding more like Obscured by Clouds or Wish You Were Here than the grittier and harsher tones of Animals or The Wall. David Gilmour and keyboardist Richard Wright stated on "In the Studio with Redbeard", which spotlighted The Division Bell (including interviews which were recorded for the world premiere special of The Division Bell aired one week before its US release) that the album was the band's best since their 1975 release Wish You Were Here.

This release marks the first time Richard Wright had sung lead vocals on a Pink Floyd album since 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon, although he did provide backing vocals for Wish You Were Here, Animals and A Momentary Lapse of Reason. It also marks his first song-writing credit on a Pink Floyd album since Wish You Were Here.

The track "Marooned" was awarded a Grammy in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the Grammy Awards of 1995.

During the Division Bell world tour, someone connected to the band, its crew, or EMI began posting riddles to the Pink Floyd Usenet newsgroup, claiming that a prize was to be had by anyone clever enough to understand them. The mystery has come to be known as the Publius Enigma, and as of 2009 it remains unsolved.^[1]

[edit] Structure

	"Marooned" The Grammy-award winning instrumental. "Take It Back" Though most often interpreted as a love song, it has also been said to have environmentalist themes. "High Hopes" The final song on the album and was included on the compilation album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.
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Douglas Adams chose the name of the album, being a friend of David Gilmour. This came about because the three band members could not agree on an album title (with both "Pow Wow" and "Down to Earth" being suggested). When Gilmour told Adams about the problem, Adams quickly responded that he had a title, but that he would only tell Gilmour if he would donate £25,000 to the Save the Rhino foundation. Gilmour agreed and the name, taken from a line in the final track, "High Hopes", was suggested.^[2] The phrase itself derives from the division bell, which is rung in the British House of Commons, and some other legislatures, to signal the commencement of a division (vote) to Members of Parliament.

At the end of the album, Gilmour's stepson, Charlie, can be heard hanging up the telephone on Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke, who had pleaded to be allowed to appear on a Pink Floyd album.

[edit] Concept

Much of the album deals with the concept of communication and the lack of it.^[3] Tracks such as "What Do You Want from Me", "A Great Day for Freedom" and "Take It Back" seem chiefly concerned with communication problems within relationships,^[4] while "Keep Talking" is more generally about the importance of maintaining a dialogue and the dangers of allowing oneself to become insular.^[5] Samples of Professor Stephen Hawking from a telephone company advertisement provide the spoken word portions of "Keep Talking".^{[citation needed]}

While some songs can be interpreted as references to the then ongoing relationship problems between Pink Floyd members, especially the long-standing estrangement between David Gilmour and Roger Waters, Gilmour denies that the album is an allegory for the split and acknowledges only "a couple of hinted mentions that could or could not have something to do with him [Waters]".^[6]

[edit] Artwork

Montage of album artwork by Storm Thorgerson.

The design was based on the front cover of the first edition of The Human Use of Human Beings by Norbert Wiener and formed the basis of an Internet Usenet teaser campaign published by Publius Enigma. The cover photograph is different on each format, and between the United States Columbia and British EMI releases, meaning that the album was released with a total of six different covers. The cover artwork for the LP and CD releases, created by long-time Pink Floyd collaborator Storm Thorgerson, shows two metal head sculptures sculpted by John Robertson, each over three metres tall and weighing 1500 kilograms. They were placed in a field in Cambridgeshire (52°23′25″N 0°16′33″E / 52.39028°N 0.27583°E / 52.39028; 0.27583) and photographed under all weather and lighting conditions over a two-week period, sometimes with visual effects such as lights between them. Ely Cathedral is visible in the background. The sculptures are now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Two additional 7.5 metres tall stone head sculptures were made by Aden Hynes for the audiocassette releases,and photographed in the same manner; although they do not appear in the CD artwork, they appeared on the cassette cover, and can be seen in the tour brochure and elsewhere. The artwork inside the CD lyric booklet revolves around a similar theme, with the image of the two heads formed by various other objects, such as newspapers ("A Great Day for Freedom"), coloured glass ("Poles Apart"), and boxing gloves ("Lost for Words"). Pages two and three portray a picture from La Silla observatory.

[edit] Recording

-David Gilmour, Questions and Answers with David Gilmour.^[7]

[edit] Reception

Despite strong sales, critical reception to the album was mixed, with many critics suggesting that the album was not a true Pink Floyd album. ^[8] Jerry McCully of Amazon.com said of the album in his editorial review that "The Division Bell is not a great Pink Floyd album, but an all-too-fallible simulation".^[9] Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly echoed McCully's sentiment, giving the album a grade of "D" and saying that "avarice is the only conceivable explanation for this glib, vacuous cipher of an album, which is notable primarily for its stomach-turning merger of progressive-rock pomposity and New Age noodling".^[10] Tom Graves of Rolling Stone criticized lead guitarist David Gilmour's performance on the album, stating that his guitar solos "were once the band's centerpieces, as articulate, melodic and well-defined as any in rock, [but] he now has settled into rambling, indistinct asides that are as forgettable as they used to be indelible", adding that "only on 'What Do You Want from Me' does Gilmour sound like he cares".^[11] Roger Waters described the album as "rubbish," and mocked Gilmour's decision to have his wife write many of its lyrics.^[12]

[edit] Live performances

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Pink Floyd took their album on tour in 1994 where most of the songs were played, but never all on the same night. "Keep Talking", "Take It Back" and "High Hopes" were a staple of the performances and were present every night, and "Coming Back to Life" nearly so; others like "Poles Apart", "What Do You Want From Me" and "A Great Day For Freedom" flip-flopped every night. "Lost For Words" was played less often. "Marooned" was only played twice on the tour (on 29 and 30 August 1994 at the Valle Hovin Stadiun, Oslo, Norway) and was then dropped, while "Cluster One" apparently was played only once (on 16 October 1994 at Earls Court, London, UK) and "Wearing The Inside Out" was never played.

"Marooned" was resurrected by Gilmour in 2004 for his headline performance at the Fender Stratocaster 50th Anniversary charity concert along with "Coming Back To Life" which has been a favourite at Gilmour shows ever since 1994, as has "High Hopes".

"Wearing The Inside Out" was given its first live performance in 2006 when Richard Wright accompanied Gilmour on his On an Island tour, which can be seen on his Remember That Night DVD/BD and seen/heard on his live album Live in Gdańsk.

[edit] Track listing

All lead vocals performed by David Gilmour unless stated otherwise.

The vinyl version was generally released on a single disc with edited versions of "Poles Apart", "Marooned", "Coming Back to Life", "'A Great Day for Freedom", "Wearing the Inside Out" and "High Hopes".^[13] Russian and South Korean versions are on two discs and do not contain any edits.^[14][15] Some issues contain the sound of a heartbeat in the locked groove at the end of each side.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Singles

• "Take It Back" (album version) // "Astronomy Domine" (live) / "Take It Back" (edit) – Columbia 38-77493 – released 31 May 1994
• "High Hopes" (radio edit) / "Keep Talking" (radio edit) // "One of These Days" (live) – released 10 October 1994

[edit] Personnel

Pink Floyd

• David Gilmour – vocals, guitars, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, production, mixing, programming
• Nick Mason – drums, percussion, programming
• Richard Wright – keyboards, piano, vocals

Additional personnel

• Sam Brown – backing vocals
• Jon Carin – keyboards
• Bob Ezrin – drums, production and composing on "Take It Back"
• Stephen Hawking – digital voice on "Keep Talking"
• Andrew Jackson – engineering
• Michael Kamen – orchestral arrangements
• Carol Kenyon – backing vocals, vocals on "Keep Talking"
• Anthony Moore – lyrics in "Wearing The Inside Out"
• Dick Parry – saxophone
• Guy Pratt – bass guitar
• Tim Renwick – guitars
• Chris Thomas – mixing
• Gary Wallis – percussion

[edit] Sales chart positions

Album

Singles

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Pink Floyd site