Mere days after the shocking news of Chris Witchhunter's sudden demise, we're once again forced to withstand yet another devastating loss for the world of music.
Richard Wright (July 28th, 1943 - September 15th, 2008) was one of the founding members of legendary experimental rock pioneers Pink Floyd. Much like his fellow musicians, his contribution to music as we know it (both in terms of composition and playing, as well as pushing technical and technological boundaries in the studio as well as onstage) has been beyond outstanding and way ahead of its time.
Ever the quiet, subdued character, Wright's keyboard playing was the ever shape-shifting additional element which defined the Pink Floyd sounds in its many diachronic incarnations, his many voices being an essential distinctive atmospheric factor which left a permanent trace on numerous timeless classics, titles like Welcome to the Machine, Echoes, The Great Gig in the Sky, Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Us and Them being but a handful of the most obvious.
He was also one of the band's three vocalists, and while notoriously shy about his abilities in this respect, he still managed to leave his vocal mark on fundamental episodes such as Time, Burning Bridges, Matilda Mother, as well as partaking to masterlike vocal duets such as in the aforementioned Echoes and the band's Barrett-era evergeen heritage, Astronomy Domine.
The void this great artist is leaving behind defies our comprehension, more so in the wake of the shock and horror that these news have inflicted upon us.
Our condolences to all of Wright's closed ones, and to fellow Pink Floyd fans worldwide.
We conclude this utterly bleak update with the words of Pink Floyd guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour about Wright's passing:
"No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend.
In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten.
He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.
I have never played with anyone quite like him. The blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in 1971 on 'Echoes'. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow. After all, without 'Us and Them' and 'The Great Gig In The Sky', both of which he wrote, what would 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' have been? Without his quiet touch the Album 'Wish You Were Here' would would not quite have worked.
In our middle years, for many reasons he lost his way for a while, but in the early Nineties, with 'The Division Bell', his vitality, spark and humour returned to him and then the audience reaction to his appearances on my tour in 2006 was hugely uplifting and it's a mark of his modesty that those standing ovations came as a huge surprise to him, (though not to the rest of us).
Like Rick, I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously."