High Hopes (Pink Floyd song)

"High Hopes"
Single by Pink Floyd
from the album The Division Bell
A-side "High Hopes"
"Keep Talking"
B-side 2-track
"Marooned"
3-track
"One of These Days (Live)"
Released 17 October 1994
Format 7", 12", CD, CD (Maxi)
Recorded January–December 1993 at Astoria (London, England)
17 August 1994, Niedersachsenstadion, Hanover, Germany
Genre Art rock
Length 5:16 (single edit)
8:32 (album version)
6:59 (Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd version)
Label EMI (UK)
Columbia (US)
Writer(s) David Gilmour (music and lyrics), Polly Samson (lyrics)
Producer(s) Bob Ezrin and David Gilmour
Pink Floyd singles chronology
"Take It Back"
(1994)
"High Hopes"
/ "Keep Talking"
(1994)
"Wish You Were Here (Live)"
(1995)

"High Hopes" is the eleventh and final track from the 1994 Pink Floyd album The Division Bell, composed by David Gilmour with lyrics by Gilmour and Polly Samson. Its lyrics speak of the things one may have gained and lost in life, written from Gilmour's autobiographic perspective. Gilmour has said that the song is more about his early days, and leaving his hometown behind, than about the seeds of division supposedly planted in Pink Floyd's early days.[1] Douglas Adams, a friend of Gilmour, chose the album title from one verse in this song. Live versions are featured on Pulse, Remember That Night and Live in Gdańsk. On Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, a somewhat shortened version of the song segues into Syd Barrett's "Bike". The segue is accomplished by cutting from the church bell at the end of "High Hopes" to a new bicycle bell sound effect before "Bike" begins. A 7-inch vinyl version of the single was released on a transparent record.

The final couplet from the song ("The endless river/Forever and ever") recalls a line from the band's second single, "See Emily Play", from 1967, ("Float on a river/Forever and ever")[2] and inspired the name of their final studio album, The Endless River, released in 2014.[3]

Composition

The song is mostly in the key of C minor, and features the sound of a church bell chiming a 'C' throughout, except for a short section in the middle where the song briefly modulates into E minor for a guitar solo. Shortly after the song ends and the chimes fade out, a phone call between Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke and Gilmour's son is briefly sampled, concluding the album, The Division Bell.

Track listings

CD single
  1. "High Hopes" – 7:57
  2. "Marooned" – 5:31
CD maxi
  1. "High Hopes" (radio edit) – 5:16
  2. "Keep Talking" (radio edit) – 4:55
  3. "One of These Days" (live) – 6:57

Personnel

The Division Bell

with:

PULSE

with:

Cover versions

Charts

Chart (1994) Peak
position
French SNEP Singles Chart[4] 4
UK Singles Chart[5] 26
U.S. Billboard Album Rock Tracks[6] 7
Canada Singles Chart 44[7]

End of year chart (1994) Position
French Singles Chart[8] 36

References

  1. Fuller, Graham (July 1994). "The Color of Floyd". Interview Magazine, p. 20-21. Retrieved 2011-07-22.
  2. http://1037theloon.com/pink-floyd-set-to-release-new-album-this-fall/
  3. Everitt, Matt (9 October 2014). "Shaun Keaveny, with a Pink Floyd Exclusive, Pink Floyd Talk to 6 Music's Matt Everitt". BBC.
  4. "High Hopes", French Singles Chart Lescharts.com (Retrieved January 22, 2008)
  5. "High Hopes", UK Singles Chart Chartstats.com (Retrieved January 30, 2009)
  6. Billboard Allmusic.com (Retrieved January 30, 2009)
  7. Library and Archives Canada: Top Singles – Volume 60, No. 13, October 17, 1994, October 17, 1994, retrieved July 12, 2014
  8. 1994 French Singles Chart Disqueenfrance.com (Retrieved January 30, 2009)
Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Division Bell
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