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Pink Floyd — Comfortably Numb
Album: The Wall
Avg rating:
9

Your rating:
Total ratings: 6189









Released: 1979
Length: 6:17
Plays (last 30 days): 0
Hello,
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone home?

Come on
Now
I hear you're feeling down
I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again

Relax
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move
But I can't hear what you're saying

When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like
Two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain
You would not understand
This is not how I am

I... Have become comfortably numb

O.K.
Just a little pin prick
There'll be no more aaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick

Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working
Good
That'll keep you going through the show
Come on
It's time to go

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move
But I can't hear what you're saying

When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye

I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I... Have become comfortably numb

(Solo)
Comments (827)add comment
Für die Ewigkeit, Amen!
Still an amazing song.
Unfortunately about heroin use.
 msbolton wrote:

I have no idea why I rated this 9 first time. It's now a 10. One of the Best Records in the Universe Ever.



Why limit it - 

One of the Best Records in ANY Universe, anywhere, Ever.
Absolut unerreichter Kult-Song! Wird immer und ewig sein!
I have no idea why I rated this 9 first time. It's now a 10. One of the Best Records in the Universe Ever.
 siqbal wrote:

One of the greatest guitar solos of all time. Still thrills me to the bone 40+ years on. Looks like my fellow RPers agree. 



Not one, but two of the arguably best rock solos in the same damn song!!!
One of the greatest guitar solos of all time. Still thrills me to the bone 40+ years on. Looks like my fellow RPers agree. 
I've got a ticket to see The Australian Pink Floyd Show next Saturday (Bournemouth BIC 09-12-2023), this will be my 9th time seeing them (i think), the first being at Bournemouth Pavilion in 2002.
No it's not "the real thing" but it really is the best you can get. 
If you've never seen them and they come anywhere near you, i urge you most strongly to get past your "i'm not paying that to see a tribute act" fears and give 'em a chance. If you're disappointed after doing that, then i can only apologise, but i never have been.
I'm so glad, and grateful, that they still come to our little town every year and i hope they carry on doing that for as long as possible.
I remember a night out running sound for a bar band at the turn of the nineties. We did this, like all the bar bands at the time. When the part about a "little pin prick" came around, the bass player, who did the "iiiiiiiii" part, let loose a ear piercing scream, like he was shot.  At the end, the guitar player turned to him and stated,  "Never do that again." Priceless, and he never did.  
theme song for so many numb people in this lovely country America. 

If you think fires like what happened in Lahaina were natural, get in line with the rest of sheep. Call it what you will and feel what you may but the world is under attack from a greedy group that would like to see so many of us out of their way.
Pink Floyd has seen this coming for years.


BTW, amazing song.
 kingart wrote:

Time to break out the air guitar



And damn it this track is always 20 minutes too short.  Why? 

Time to break out the air guitar


Topissime, un must.
That solo gives me shivers. Every time. Just magnificent. 
 jmsmy wrote:

The only thing wrong with this is the solo fades - wish it went on for another 2 minutes - like some of the live versions


Absolutely.  Say what you will about the man, but he can play with the best in history.

Of course this is a 10.
I can still remember the first time I heard this track, when the album had just been released. But perhaps the time that it absolutely assaulted my senses was watching the film and after that walking out of the Odeon Leicester Square in a trance-like state of euphoria.
what the heck? this track, that solo, is always 20 minutes too short
The guitar solo so good you hardly even notice it
I've heard a lot of guitar solos over the last 60 years, and this is still the best of them all.
After all these years  .................... truly a magnificent track      ❤️
 PeaceInIraq wrote:

Still sends a chill through my old bones.




Still one of the best guitar solos on earth. Pure 10.
UNIQUE.
I'm sure there ARE others, but there really can't be many tracks here that have a rating of 51% 10's - not everything Pink Floyd did was godlike (just my opinion, not a fact) but this 
That's strange that the above band pic was their only one all together
250 million albums. ...damn
i think they could handle being taken down a notch
 jorgeluis.lopezgarcia wrote:
Comfortably Numb may be the only track I´ve noticed to have a clear GODLIKE rating in the page. I may not be aware of other songs rated this good, but I´ve been a RP fan since 2002 and never seen something like this. And there´s a reason... this is one of the best tunes representing this station 


It's a 9 not a 10, but an amazing song. There are others on this site that rank even higher. 
Comfortably Numb may be the only track I´ve noticed to have a clear GODLIKE rating in the page. I may not be aware of other songs rated this good, but I´ve been a RP fan since 2002 and never seen something like this. And there´s a reason... this is one of the best tunes representing this station 
Spring of '86, I was still an undergrad at CU, living in a funky old house down on Marine Street with Steve and Lisa, before I found my spot along Boulder Creek, and Steve had been driving us crazy practicing the solo from this song over and over behind the closed door of his room on his nice new Strat. It went on for days, maybe even weeks... Lisa and I were almost going to tell him, Give it up, dude, but then, one afternoon, the whole neighborhood was treated to him absolutely nailing it, and with his amp turned to max, the walls of the whole house echoed the rich, saturated tones, impeccable fingerings, and bends to perfection, and we swore that we could hear him smiling in there, too... He never messed with it again, that I heard, anyway, but he certainly proved to himself and the rest of us that it could indeed be done, and that was truly a lifetime-highlight achievement! I just love how Music is such a Healing Force. Keep rocking us on through this life, please, and thank you, Pink Floyd and RP!
 cavemanleong wrote:

THAT guitar solo still gives me goosebumps. What a masterpiece.



it's one of the best, if not THE best guitar solo.. ever.  Dave is good at guitar.  i wish i had been born earlier so i could have seen the classic Pink Floyd line up.  i missed out.

I was 19 in '79 and on the road a lot, so cassettes were my format of choice.  I rode the Ferries in Seattle a couple times a week and The Wall was a good one for the hour-long cruise to Kitsap. I could just stay in the car, put my head back and enjoy.

times heard=2,000
times enjoyed immensely=2,000
 junebaby65 wrote:

Gilmour, like Carlos Santana, proves that you do not need speed to reach the goal line.  Tone, feel, touch are just as important.


And an impeccable sense of melody and uncanny ability to bend power chords with grace and precision. 
The goosebumps rise uncontrollably. Such a seminal piece of music. The younger version of me calls to be remembered.
Wait.  There are listeners at the other end of the rating scale that rendered this a Sucko Barfo ? LMAO WTF OK in case you missed the mastery I'm sorry for your loss. 
THAT guitar solo still gives me goosebumps. What a masterpiece.
85 persons need immediate doctors assistance. or get locked up for good.
 PeaceInIraq wrote:

Still sends a chill through my old bones.



Same here. chills.
Do yourself a favor and watch Gilmour’s live performance of this at Pompeii.   Insane.
Es gibts songs die sind für die Ewigkeit, und das ist einer davon. Never forget: Wr.Neustadt Flughafen August 1994, Pink Floyd live......
C'mon, dammit, why is this track always 20 minutes too short?!
When the album first came out, I remember being stoned, listening. After the album played I sat. Stunned. Still, even at 60 something, especially when Comfortably NUmb comes on, have by the end of the song, tears in my eyes. 
Every time this is played, anywhere, it's always 20 minutes too short. 
Pretty amazing for a song to have TWO of the best guitar solos in it.  
That guitar solo alone deserves it's own godlike ranking.
100 % agree with Bill - I never get tired of this song - just wish the GTR solo was longer at the end.
Michael Kamen should have been given a songwriting credit for this sublime string arrangement....but that would never happen in the Roger Waters world (he is brilliant but his ego is out of control).
Looks to me as one of THE highest rating consensuses ever! (rightly so)
 jlind wrote:

Did AAPL really jack that ping in the middle of the track as their txt msg alert?



I just heard that and checked my phone....
Does not get old. Headphones on lights turned off and away you go..........
I've work to do!  Now I have to stop, wind up the volume and close my eyes remembering the concerts with friends, now passed. we went to when PF played this - Thanks Bill
The must !
This never gets old even though I do. Can you imagine the times when Gilmore and Waters have turned to dust and their creations still live on? Although the lyrics do not chronicle any given time frame, this song and album was an at times still is, the soundtrack of my life.

Pass me that Sour Diesel, I want to be the title...
Possibly one of the greatest songs ever made.
 FrankRizzo wrote:

You sound like a pretentious asshole. Feel free to hate all you like, but a sold 9 in Radio Paradise land is a pretty solid rating IMHO.


Don't pay attention it's not worth it. Like discussing religion with religious people.
The only thing wrong with this is the solo fades - wish it went on for another 2 minutes - like some of the live versions
I've always loved this version
THE BEST!!!
Thank's RP!
Goosebumps every time I hear that solo.... 
<Skip>
Sublime and soothing while we hunker down for a another lockdown night of zzzzzzzz😴
 kingart wrote:
It will forever be 20 minutes too short. 
 
Check out Pink Floyd Echoes against the end of 2001 A Space Odyssey

Did AAPL really jack that ping in the middle of the track as their txt msg alert?
I was out getting my kids vaccinated for the flu, and it was in my ears the whole time:
"Just a little pin prick
There'll be no more aaaaaaaah! "
there are songs that are meant to last forever, and this is definitely one of them!
It will forever be 20 minutes too short. 
 junebaby65 wrote:

Gilmour, like Carlos Santana, proves that you do not need speed to reach the goal line.  Tone, feel, touch are just as important.
 
And a perfect ear for melody. 
 junebaby65 wrote:

Gilmour, like Carlos Santana, proves that you do not need speed to reach the goal line.  Tone, feel, touch are just as important.
 
I'd throw Knopfler in there as well. 
 junebaby65 wrote:

Gilmour, like Carlos Santana, proves that you do not need speed to reach the goal line.  Tone, feel, touch are just as important.
 

100%.  Knopfler too. And include a perfection of melody. 
 Droidac wrote:
That guitar solo gets me every. single. time.  10->11
 

same here. I spent ages as a teenager trying to master the first solo in this. Never got to the 2nd.
Will always be 20 minutes too short. 
That guitar solo gets me every. single. time.  10->11
 Proclivities wrote:
westslope wrote: Sex is the modern opiate. As Steven Wilson sings: Just another way to pass the day.

"Modern"?  What sort of inverted history did you study?  Human beings have been addicted to sex long before opiates were even cultivated.
 
LOL!   I could be misinformed but

1.  from my reading of some anthropological and ethnographic literature, humans have long enjoyed sex but not like some people do today.    I have never encountered anything to suggest early historic sex addiction.   If there was any pressure to 'perform' way back in early history, please share.  And,

2.  in recent time measured in decades and hundreds of years, sex has gone from tightly ritualized  and regulated to far less constrained.   That simply makes it easier for some to develop unhealthy obsessions (pardon the value judgement). 
This song, penned by Roger Waters, whose heart I love but with whose politics I often disagree reminds me of Argentinian fiction writer Jorge Cortazer, one of my favourite fiction writer.

Cortazer was a Marxist.  

It try to not let position politics get in the way of my enjoyment of art, music and literature.
My rating                                                                                                                             9 - OUTSTANDING 
Awesome, amazing,incredible!
Roger and David singing in the same song. And what a song.
Not at all my favorite PF song, but I love it when RP plays big hits.  Funny, but it gives them a higher stature as far as I'm concerned.
OUT-FREAKING-STANDING SONG!!!! {#Notworthy}
 ruthyc wrote:
10, always

 
{#Notworthy} {#Yes} 
10, always
Increasing from 8 to 9 - O U T S T A N D I N G
Aahhhhhhh just in time, simply adore this.  Thanks as always.  RP must stand for ROCKSpeople... is that corny?  Well I guess there are way worse things to be than corny ;)
I think Bob Lind has a suit against PF for the stolen line.......'I had a fleeting glimpse'
A great song arriving during the decline of the Floyd.  I'd grown tired of this song until I heard the live version with Van Morrison; incredibly passionate vocal from Van the Man.

I remember when this song first truly resonated with me, it was around 4am one Saturday morning (really, Friday night to us) in 1995, the summer between HS and College, waiting in my car for a 'hook-up' to go down and this tape (dubbed from another tape) was in my stereo.  Sitting there, silently, in the pre-dawn coolness, un-sober to be sure, the melodic charm of this tune made it to my bloodstream and throughout my body.  I could almost feel it in my brain; the numbness, the state of calmness with undertones of unease, and then that marvelous guitar solo at the end.  Yeah....I was HOOKED on PF then, and soon thereafter I was introduced to DSOTM, which prompted my first loud car stereo setup. 

And all these years later you better be DAMN sure I rate this bad boy an 11!  PEACE and Long Live RP!!


 On_The_Beach wrote:

Roy Moore lost; that's a baby step but we'll take it.

 

Well, at least we know President Trump is a brave and courageous man.  He had unprotected sex with a porn star.  (Shortly after his 3rd wife gave birth to his child.)
This is to me 8 - Most Excellent
 westslope wrote:
December 2017.  Nothing has changed.
Should we feel comforted?
 
Roy Moore lost; that's a baby step but we'll take it.
 kingart wrote:


My God! Where did you find this photo of infant Der Trumper? I see nothing has changed. 
And it's his theme song! Comfortably Numbnuts! 

 

 
December 2017.  Nothing has changed.

Should we feel comforted?
 junebaby65 wrote:

Gilmour, like Carlos Santana, proves that you do not need speed to reach the goal line.  Tone, feel, touch are just as important.

 
More so actually. Case in point, Paul Kossoff of Free.  
November 13. Maybe this sequence has been played here before, but the theme is really well thought through tonight. A series of really well crafted songs about alienation and pain. Fantastic.
never ceases to amaze me, just doesn't get much better .... . . . !
 Wardleader wrote:
Floyd haters, really, too much.    A 10.  They are so good and the care to the sonic quality of the recordings equals the creative music.  It is the bright shiny object of sounds that was in the 1970s amid the Darkness With Scattered Light.   I hate so much of the music of today, but fortunately I don't spend my time spreading negative emotions.   I turn to something else.  A book.  Peace and Quiet.  Roku.   But why would I want to take the time out to express my hostility to some song, or artist or group?

De gustibus non est disputandem.

 
De gustibus non est disputandum.

Latin is all about cases (how the words end).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_gustibus_non_est_disputandum


Inredably legendarily great music.
This is so beautifully written and played.  Pink Floyd are one of the main reasons I went out and bought a really good stereo with fantastic speakers.

Gilmour, like Carlos Santana, proves that you do not need speed to reach the goal line.  Tone, feel, touch are just as important.
38 years on, and still. . . . wow!  Defines "Godlike" for me. 
Just incredible!!! PURE 10!!
Floyd haters, really, too much.    A 10.  They are so good and the care to the sonic quality of the recordings equals the creative music.  It is the bright shiny object of sounds that was in the 1970s amid the Darkness With Scattered Light.   I hate so much of the music of today, but fortunately I don't spend my time spreading negative emotions.   I turn to something else.  A book.  Peace and Quiet.  Roku.   But why would I want to take the time out to express my hostility to some song, or artist or group?

De gustibus non est disputandem.
This is at least an "11" on the RP scale.
 LowPhreak wrote:

Once again Gilmour was right.

Sometimes, Waters should have learned to just his pie hole.

 
I would think it depends on what the alternative music was.
 Ghiaap wrote:

And I gave it 1, so you're not alone! Floyd Haters Unite! {#Hug}

 
Floyd Hater?
You are very pathetic!
 Clyde_Bedow wrote:
IMO one of the top, greatest yet simple guitar parts ever. Still moves me every time.
{#Notworthy}{#Good-vibes} fully agree.

There are some live versions that do not fade out though...
I wonder how many people really understand what it is to become comfortably numb?  Without the aid of drugs or alcohol...
And what drove them to it?
 LowPhreak wrote:

Once again Gilmour was right.

Sometimes, Waters should have learned to just his pie hole.

 
Humans and egos lol imagine that! {#Stupid}
 Clyde_Bedow wrote:


As I understand it, Gilmour and Waters disbanded over disagreement over this guitar solo. Waters wanted something different. Gilmore said no.

 
Once again Gilmour was right.

Sometimes, Waters should have learned to just his pie hole.
 robertomiller wrote:

Same. Only question I have is why does this great guitar solo fade out when it is hitting it's stride… ? 
I've wondered this for years. Anybody know? Some argument in the studio perhaps?  

 
You might say that.

As I understand it, Gilmour and Waters disbanded over disagreement over this guitar solo. Waters wanted something different. Gilmore said no.

IMO one of the top, greatest yet simple guitar parts ever. Still moves me every time.

So I continue to side with Gilmour's opinion.
 Skydog wrote:

really!!!
even I gave it a 2

 
And I gave it 1, so you're not alone! Floyd Haters Unite! {#Hug}
Ha.  Cowboy Junkies just came on after this masterpiece and I think the server crashed.  Not surprised. It's not even mentioned in the track listing.  Sentient machinery?
 djblitz wrote:

Does this clownshoe think rating every single Pink Floyd song that comes on RP a "1" will actually bring the overall score down?  

 
really!!!
even I gave it a 2
 linzie wrote:

I could listen to that riff all day.....



 
Same. Only question I have is why does this great guitar solo fade out when it is hitting it's stride… ? 
I've wondered this for years. Anybody know? Some argument in the studio perhaps?  
 djblitz wrote:

Does this clownshoe think rating every single Pink Floyd song that comes on RP a "1" will actually bring the overall score down?  

 
I doubt he is concerned with song ratings; it seems he just wants to express his displeasure with certain songs.

I could listen to that riff all day.....


This was always our Wintertime in Northern California surfing theme song!
 On_The_Beach wrote:

https://www.parentnormal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/cryingbabyincrib.jpg
Poor baby! Still hating and trolling and no one cares.

 

My God! Where did you find this photo of infant Der Trumper? I see nothing has changed. 
And it's his theme song! Comfortably Numbnuts! 

 
Still sends a chill through my old bones.
 djblitz wrote:
Does this clownshoe think rating every single Pink Floyd song that comes on RP a "1" will actually bring the overall score down? 
 
Some clownshoes have no sole.
 thewiseking wrote:
.....the ponderous, bombastic, plodding .....

 
To go down tempo and plodding, yet remain melodic and emotionally charged (at least for some listeners) while attaining incredible popularity is quite a feat if you ask me.  
Cue one of the most soulful, moving, lovely guitar solos ever.
 thewiseking wrote:
Comfortably Dumb. One thing ya gotta give the ponderous, bombastic, plodding dullards over at Corporation Floyd, they sure knew their audience. 

 
Does this clownshoe think rating every single Pink Floyd song that comes on RP a "1" will actually bring the overall score down?