Home · Songs · Pink Floyd · Is There Anybody Out There?
From album
The Wall
Pink Floyd · 1979
Details
TonalidadAm
Compás4/4
Tempo117 BPM
Duración2:41
CompositorRoger Waters
ÁlbumThe Wall
Año1979
ISRCGBDJQ7900018
Credits
Music Roger Waters
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The story behind
When you dive into *Is There Anybody Out There?*, you encounter a theme that deviates from the usual path. It's a piece that, for the most part, communicates without words, exploring loneliness through sound textures and a guitar solo. The first section evokes a sense of desperate calling, an echo of the anguish of the character Pink, who feels isolated. Here, a low synthesizer hum intertwines with sound effects, and the repeated question "Is there anybody out there?" floats in the air, suggesting the absence of a response. Curiously, the high-pitched sound that resembles a siren, and which actually imitates the cry of a seagull, was ingeniously created by David Gilmour by connecting a guitar with a wah-wah pedal played in reverse. This same sound effect can be heard in another Pink Floyd piece, *Echoes*, where it was also used to simulate the sound of a whale.
The second half of the song transforms into a classical guitar solo. David Gilmour himself has commented that he tried to perform it, but was not satisfied with the final result playing with his fingers. Therefore, session musician Joe DiBlasi was called in. He recalls that upon arriving at the studio, nothing was written down, and that, together with Bob Ezrin and David Gilmour, they built the piece on the fly, trying out ideas until they arrived at the desired version. After recording his part, Michael Kamen was responsible for composing the orchestration that was added later. In the context of the album *The Wall*, this song is situated at a point when Pink, an alienated rocker, tries to break the isolation he has built for himself. The repetition of the question underscores his hopelessness. Furthermore, the recording incorporates fragments of dialogue from two television programs of the era: *Gunsmoke* and *Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.*. The music for this piece was recorded between April and November 1979, and was officially released on November 30, 1979, in the UK and December 8, 1979, in the US, as part of the album *The Wall*, under the Harvest label in the UK and Columbia in the US.
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