Video hit Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd - Learning to fly (live, 1994, Earls Court, London)

Learning to Fly is the second song on Pink Floyd's album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason”.

The first single released from the album, it reached number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart.

The song was primarily written by David Gilmour. It describes Gilmour's thoughts on flying, for which he has a passion (being a licensed pilot with multiple ratings), though it has also been interpreted as a metaphor for beginning something new, experiencing a radical change in life, or, more specifically, Gilmour's feelings about striking out as the new leader of Pink Floyd after the departure of Roger Waters. Gilmour confirmed the latter interpretation on the Pink Floyd 25th Anniversary Special in May 1992. Also an avid pilot, drummer Nick Mason's voice can be heard at around the middle of the song. "Learning to Fly" was included on Pink Floyd's greatest hits collection Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.

The track was regularly performed live on the band's two post-Roger Waters tours, with touring guitarist Tim Renwick playing the song's guitar solos (although David Gilmour played the solos on the studio version of the track). A live version is included on Pulse.

The music video was directed by Storm Thorgerson and filmed in Banff National Park, located some 50 to 75 km west of the city of Calgary, Alberta during rehearsals for the band's 1987/88/89 tour. The video combined performances of the band with a Native American working in a field who then runs and jumps off a cliff to turn into an eagle. The original video also depicts a factory worker who turns into an aeroplane pilot as well as a child who breaks free from his mother and dives off a cliff into a deep river, swimming away. The video went to #9 on MTV's Video Countdown in November 1987 and was the #60 video of MTV's Top 100 Videos of 1987. The video won the band its only MTV Video Music Award for "Best Concept Video" in 1988. The red/orange airplane is a Beech Model 17 Staggerwing.

In this video Pink Floyd are:

David Gilmor. Guitar,Vocals.

Nick Mason. Drums.

Richard Wright. Keyboards,vocals.

Sam Brown. Backing vocals.

Claudia Fontaine. Backing vocals.

Durga McBroom. Backing vocals.

Jon Carin, Keyboards.

Dick Parry, Saxophone.

Guy Pratt, Bass Guitar.

Tim Renwick. Guitar

Garry Wallis Persussion

The lyrics:

Into the distance, a ribbon of black

Stretched to the point of no turning back

Flight of fancy on a windswept field

Standing alone, my senses reel

Fatal attraction that's holding me fast

Now, can't escape this irresistible grasp

Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky

Tongue-tied and twisted; just an earth-bound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings

Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything

No navigator to find my way home

Unladen, empty, and turned to stone

A soul in tension that's learning to fly

Condition: grounded - determined to try

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies

Tongue-tied and twisted; just an earth-bound misfit, I

[BRIDGE]

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,

My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,

Across the clouds I see my shadow fly

Out of the corner of my watering eye

A dream unthreatened by the morning light

Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There's no sensation to compare with this

Suspended animation - a state of bliss

Can't keep my mind from the circling sky

Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I