High Hopes

A) David Gilmour is God. In my opinion, the best guitarist of all times. I don't want to get into an argument about Hendrix and Clapton, because from a technical standpoint they are clearly better. When I say best guitarist, I mean the ability to play the right note at the right time. When I listened to many Floyd songs and heard Gilmour playing (mind you this is the first time I was hearing the songs) I imagined what the next note would be and it is what he played. I think that there is always a correct note to play at a correct time, and granted playing an incorrect note won't ruin the song, but playing the correct note creates something bigger than a song. Santana said that music exists in the universe regardless of us. It is simply funneled through us and I have to agree with him. That being said, Gilmour is very receptive to music. It flows through him beautifully. Correctly. Don't get me wrong Roger Waters was the creative mastermind, but he cannot touch Gilmour on a guitar. Not even close. Never.

B) The guitar solo at the end of this song is the greatest solo I have ever heard in my lifetime (and I listen to a lot of music). This opinion is based on what I believe the meaning of the song to be, but nonetheless, it is perfection. It stimulates, motivates and is so powerful, that it brings me to tears. Maybe I am too passionate about music, but I don't see it that way. Gilmour is my god. His music my Bible.

C) To those of you who said this song is about Roger Waters and the early days of Pink Floyd, you can have your opinions, but the way I see it, that can only be a portion of the meaning of this song. A subset, if you will, belonging to the greater whole. There is a difference between true and truth. Truth exists regardless of us. Pink Floyd's past and Gilmour's relationship with Roger Waters may play a part in this song, but those are facts. Those are true. The truth, however, in this song is about life. This song is about the course that life takes and how Gilmour doesn’t like it. It has to be like it is, but he wishes it could be different. And in his youth, he had pictured it different. He had “High Hopes”. Just like we all did. The song starts in childhood. The words say:

"Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young, In a world of magnets and miracles, Our troughts strayed constantly and without boundary, The ringing of the division bell had begun"

It starts with a child. So free and pure. He is looking back to when magnets were miracles. When we had yet to discover the world. When the genius of the child is unbounded. Perception has yet to take a negative spin from growing old and learning of the evil in the world. The ringing of the division bell is the beginning of the impurities. People divide. They form opinions. The purity is gone. The innocence is lost.

"Running before time took our dreams away, Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground, To a life consumed by slow decay"

As a child we dream freely, but as we age, our dreams fade. You cannot honestly say that you dream like you did as a child. No one can. It is a part of life. Looking back, if possible, we should have fought growing up. What is so great about being an adult? As a child, the wonder is still there. There is nothing not fantastic. Here I think, the myriad small creatures are other human beings. In the greater picture, we are but small creatures. And the child is tied down by others. If alone, maybe the child could resist becoming an adult. But his peers, both his age and older, try to tie him down. Not intentionally, but that is all they know. The tying down is inevitable. It is part of the process. They put him in school (no thoughts controlled) and the process begins. The tying down of the once free spirit has taken hold. Now the life of slow decay starts.

"The grass was greener, The light was brighter, With friends surrounding, The nights of wonder"

Our youth was brighter, the grass was greener, our friends were around, and the nights were free. Like our minds. To wonder. To explore. To discover.

"Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us, To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side, Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again, Dragged by the force of some inner tide"

Aging, however, is inevitable. When we reminisce we see that the world was beautiful in our youth. Free and infinite. Yet, something inside of us has been grown. We can take steps towards the freedom of our youth, but we take them back unconsciously. The aging process does not allow for the purity of youth. It is not possible. You can get close, but never wholly free again.

“At a higher altitude, with flag unfurled, We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world”

I feel that these lines are only talking about youth. Reaching the freedom and purity of the young mind, but as an adult. This might be controversial, but the use of high and dizzy here remind me personally of LSD. The dreamed of world. The return to freedom and to wonder. I do not advocate the use of said drug, but it returns to us the unrestricted mind. The freedom is infinite.

"Encumbered forever by desire and ambition, There's a hunger still unsatisfied, Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon, Though down this road we've been so many time"

Desire and ambition are human nature. It is only what we desire that is influenced by others (the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground). Despite what we are doing and what we are aiming for, we still stare into the horizon. Trying to free our minds. Tying to attain the purity of youth. The song might even be saying that we are trying to get back to our youth, but we have tried before, and failed. A hunger is still unsatisfied.

“The water flowing, The endless river”

The process of life is but a river. It has both a beginning and an end, but more importantly, a flow. It only flows one way. The start of the river may be glorious and serene, but despite our efforts, the river flows, taking us further from the beginning. This process, this course that life takes, was and will always be. It is endless.

In closing, I think the point of David Gilmour writing this song was to express that he does not like the course of life. He does not like how it works. Unfortunately, it has to be this way. As Voltaire writes, through Pangloss (a philosopher in the book Candide): “This is the best of all possible worlds”. We can think up different worlds, but they wouldn’t be plausible. They could not exist. Everything is in balance, so life is what it is. And it will always be this way.

In light of what I think this song means, the solo is so big and beautiful.. The song is somber and slow, but the solo is fast and energized. It fills me with a feeling of empowerment. It, forgive me for being cheesy, returns me to my youth. The solo is free and boundless. Just as I long to be.