The great David Gilmour turns 74 today. There are few rock guitarists with such an immediately recognizable sound—or, for that matter, who possess such a lyrical sensibility—and few artists who contributed so much to my understanding of what popular music could achieve.
To celebrate, may I suggest a handful of representative albums? Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and The Wall (1979) are the obvious choices, I suppose—particularly the latter, if only for Gilmour’s solo on “Comfortably Numb”—though Meddle (1971), Wish You Were Here (1975), and Animals (1977), are my personal favorites; his first two solo projects, David Gilmour (1978) and About Face (1984), demonstrate more of a pop/rock side to his writing and playing; and his collaboration with The Orb, Metallic Spheres (2010), is a revelation.
Feel free to play them in whatever order seems right and good.
