Sorrow (Pink Floyd Song) - Lyrics and Music

Lyrics and Music

The piece was written and composed by guitarist David Gilmour. Gilmour has stated that although lyrics are not his strong point, the song is one of his strongest lyrical efforts, even though the opening lines were appropriated from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

Sorrow was a poem I'd written as a lyric before I wrote music to it, which is rare for me. —David Gilmour

Drummer Nick Mason has since stated that the song was almost entirely written by David Gilmour alone over the space of one weekend on his houseboat Astoria. When he returned from the weekend, only "some spit and polish", according to Mason, was needed. David Gilmour has also mentioned that the solo at the end of "Sorrow" was done on the boat, his guitar going through a small Gallien-Krueger amp. As on many tracks from the album, Gilmour played a Steinberger GL "headless" guitar on this song. The guitar intro was recorded inside Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena and piped through Pink Floyd's large sound system, yielding an extremely deep, cavernous sound. The drum machine on the song was programmed by David Gilmour — no real drums were used.