Video hit Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd - High Hopes

"High Hopes" is the eleventh and final track from the 1994 Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell, to be composed by David Gilmour with lyrics by Gilmour and Polly Samson.

It's also the final track that concludes the entire Pink Floyd discography as no other albums have been recorded ever since. Its lyrics speak of the things one may have gained and lost in life, written from Gilmour's autobiographic perspective. Gilmour has said that the song is more about his early days, and leaving his hometown behind, than about the seeds of division supposedly planted in Pink Floyd's early days.

Douglas Adams, a friend of Gilmour, chose the album title from one verse in this song.

Live versions are featured on Pulse, Remember That Night and Live in Gdańsk.

The 7 inch vinyl version of the single was released on a transparent record.

The song is mostly in the key of C minor, and features the sound of a single church bell chiming a 'C' throughout, except for a short section in the middle where the song briefly modulates into E minor for a guitar solo.

In this video record: The Division Bell Tour 1994, Live at Earls Court / PPV.

It is a combination of two sources of the same show (live at earl's court): to the left, the PPV version that was broadcast live on October 1994. To the right, the official PULSE realease.

Cover versions

The song was covered by Shark 'n the Smoke on 2003 tribute album A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd.

The song was covered by Nightwish who released two different live versions; one on the compilation album Highest Hopes: The Best of Nightwish and another one on the DVD End of an Era.

The song was covered by Gregorian for their album Masters of Chant Chapter IV.

The song was covered by the German band Sylvan in 2000 for the album Signs of Life – A Tribute to Pink Floyd.

The song was covered by the French power metal band Karelia in 2005 for the album Raise.

The song was covered by the German Metalcore band Caliban in 2012 for the deluxe version of I Am Nemesis.

The song was covered by the Bosnian band Aesthetic Empathy in 2011.

The lyrics:

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young

In a world of magnets and miracles

Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary

The ringing of the division bell had begun

Along the Long Road and on down the Causeway

Do they still meet there by the Cut

There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps

Running before time took our dreams away

Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground

To a life consumed by slow decay

The grass was greener

The light was brighter

With friends surrounded

The nights of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us

To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side

Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again

Dragged by the force of some inner tide

At a higher altitude with flag unfurled

We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition

There's a hunger still unsatisfied

Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon

Though down this road we've been so many times

The grass was greener

The light was brighter

The taste was sweeter

The nights of wonder

With friends surrounded

The dawn mist glowing

The water flowing

The endless river

Forever and ever

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