David Gilmour (album)

Untitled

David Gilmour is the eponymous first solo album from Pink Floyd guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour, released in May 1978 (see 1978 in music) in the UK and on June 17, 1978 in the US. The album reached #17 in the UK and #29 on the Billboard US album charts and was certified Gold in the US by the RIAA. The album was produced by Gilmour himself, and consists mostly of bluesy, guitar-oriented rock songs except for the ballad So Far Away.

The album was recorded at Super Bear Studios in France between December of 1977 and early January of 1978 with engineer John Etchells. Then the album was mixed at the same studio in March of 1978 by Nick Griffiths. The cover was done by Hipgnosis and Gilmour.

The album's only single was "There's No Way Out of Here" which flopped in Europe but did well on American rock stations. The song was originally recorded by the band Unicorn (which Gilmour produced) in 1976 as "No Way Out of Here" for their album Too Many Crooks

The album is a Joker's Wild reunion of sorts, with Rick Wills and Willie Wilson joining Gilmour for the recording of the album.

One of the tunes he wrote at the time, but did not use, evolved into the Pink Floyd classic "Comfortably Numb" from The Wall. However, one song included on this album, "So Far Away", used a chorus progression not unlike the chorus to "Comfortably Numb", albeit in a different key.

The instrumental song "Raise My Rent" includes bits that would later be resurrected in the Pink Floyd songs "What Do You Want from Me" and "Keep Talking".

A slightly different version of the song "Short and Sweet" can also be found on collaborator Roy Harper's 1980 album, The Unknown Soldier. Musically, "Short and Sweet" can be seen as a precursor to "Run Like Hell" (also from The Wall), with its shifting chords over a D pedal point, and a flanged guitar in Drop D tuning.

David Gilmour was re-released by EMI Records in Europe as a digital remaster on August 14, 2006. Legacy Recordings/Columbia Records released the remastered CD in the US and Canada on September 12, 2006.

Track listing

1. "Mihalis" – 5:46 (original album); (the 2006 remaster has a longer fadeout at 6:00)
2. "There's No Way Out of Here" (Ken Baker) – 5:08 (original album); (the 2006 remaster has a longer fadeout at 5:24)
3. "Cry from the Street" (David Gilmour/Eric Stuart) – 5:13 (original album); (the 2006 remaster has a longer fadeout at 5:18)
4. "So Far Away" – 6:04 (original album); (the 2006 remaster has a longer fadeout at 6:12)
5. "Short and Sweet" (David Gilmour/Roy Harper) – 5:30 (original album); (the 2006 remaster has a longer fadeout at 5:33)
6. "Raise My Rent" – 5:33 (original album); (the 2006 remaster has a longer fadeout at 5:49)
7. "No Way" – 5:32 (original album); (the 2006 remaster has a longer fadeout at 6:14)
8. "Deafinitely" – 4:27 (original album); (the 2006 remaster has a longer fadeout at 4:29)
9. "I Can't Breathe Anymore" – 3:04 (original album); (the 2006 remaster has a longer fadeout at 3:40)

All songs by David Gilmour except as noted.

Non-album track

1. "There's No Way Out of Here" (Ken Baker) (Single Edit) – 3:32

Miscellanea

"Mihalis" was Greek for Michael and the song was named after Gilmour's yacht he owned at the time.

A five song promo film was made to promote the album. The band comprised Gilmour himself on guitars and vocals plus the two musicians on the album (bass player Rick Wills and drummer Willie Wilson) plus David Gilmour's brother Mark on rhythm guitar and Ian McLagen on keyboards and performed "Mihalis", "There's No Way Out of Here", "So Far Away", "No Way" and "I Can't Breathe Anymore". There were additional female backing singers on "There's No Way Out of Here" and "So Far Away". The performances of the tracks differed to the album versions. "Mihalis" had an extended ending guitar solo. "There's No Way Out of Here" was slightly shorter as one of the verses was deleted but the ending guitar solo was different to that on the album and had a clean ending instead of fading out like on album version. The track "So Far Away" had an extended ending guitar solo on this performance and ended in a faster tempo than the album version. The performance of the song "No Way" had Gilmour playing regular lead guitar solos at the end of the track on his Fender Esquire (with distortion) instead of the lap steel guitar solos (with distortion) that appeared on the album version and had a clean ending instead of fading out like on the album. The middle part of the album version, for where the first of two lap steel solos were on the album version, was deleted. "I Can't Breathe Anymore" had Gilmour playing a regular guitar solo at the end of this song's performance whilst on the album version, a distorted lap steel guitar countered the ending guitar solo. The ending of the promo performance of "I Can't Breathe Anymore" was longer than on the album.

Also, Gilmour promoted the album with his first ever interviews with North American media and rock radio. The promotion paid off as the album made a respectable showing on the Billboard album charts peaking at #29 (which until 2006's On an Island was Gilmour's highest charting solo album) and eventually going Gold.

Credits

• David Gilmour - Guitars, Vocals, Keyboards, Lap Steel Guitar on "No Way" and "I Can't Breathe Anymore", Producer, cover design
• Rick Wills - Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
• Willie Wilson - Drums and Percussion
• Mick Weaver - Additional piano on So Far Away
• Carlena Williams - Backing vocals on "There's No Way Out of Here" and "So Far Away"
• Debbie Doss - Backing vocals on "There's No Way Out of Here" and "So Far Away"
• Hipgnosis - Cover Design, Photography
• Sanghbook Nam - Remastering
• Doug Sax - Remastering

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1978	Pop Albums	29

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1978	"There's No Way Out of Here"	Did not chart