The Great Gig in the Sky Lyrics
I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying?
There's no reason for it you've gotta go sometime."
"If you can hear this whispering you are dying."
"I never said I was frightened of dying."

So in the Dark Side DVD I have that has interviews with each of the Floyd members and people who worked with them, I was surprised at how they came up with this song. As you can tell after listening to the album, the albums main focuses are Death, Money, and Time... So for "Great Gig in the Sky" they wanted it so you could FEEL the mourning... they wanted someone with power. So they called up Clare Torry and had her listen to the musical part of it ONCE and said "All right, we want you to think of despair, dreadfulness, no hope... death.. and we want you to explain it with your voice"... so she went in the sound studio and belted it out... she comes out all embarassed "Sorry, guys, that was horrible." the members of Pink Floyd are stunned and even after trying different ways, they choose the very first recording Clare did with only listening to it once. This song is about Death... for the person dying.. and the person who's dying's family...

This song, Is as far as I can tell, a Lyrical Interpretation of Death, sorrow, happines, Joy, pain, all at the same time.

to me its putting a different mood on death besides FEAR like most people. because you CANNOT ESCAPE IT! but thats why he feels that way. because... you cannot escape it. and how different people react to certian circumstances, and there are just so many emotions in the singing. it really does make you feel like you are flying when u listen to it. like you are in the sky... dying. i love it. its so pretty.!
Great to know. Wow..this black chic sounds like she is singing an orgasim. Dan makes me hot hearing her. OMG!
Great to know. Wow..this black chic sounds like she is singing an orgasim. Dan makes me hot hearing her. OMG!

My answer: READ THE LYRICS ABOVE!!! That's it... don't try to listen to Clare Torry's singing and counter it into your opinion...
Don't be scared to die because you will die and there is no choice in the matter.
The singing is all improv done in the studio... she came in, they played the song, she sang over it with some improv (she made it all up on the spot). She was actually upset when she found out the song she had just recorded was called The Great Gig in the Sky and its about death.
But listen to the music and you can include that in your opinion on the song.
She should have researched the song then. Sounds like she is getting off in the song. Literally! Love it!
She should have researched the song then. Sounds like she is getting off in the song. Literally! Love it!
@berman619 Tatsächlich legtr sie so viel Schmerz und Verzweiflung in ihre Stimme, dass es schwer fällt, zu erkennen, welche Gedanken und Gefühle sie bei der Aufnahme leiteten.In Interviews und.diversen Dokus wird auch gesagt, dass sie spontan angeheuert wurde und kaum oder keine Vorgaben bekam WIE ihr Part klingen soll. Vereinfacht gesagt wurde sie gefragt, machte den Job, bekam die Gage für solch einen Einsatz übliche Gage und ging. Damit hätte die Geschichte geendet, wenn Darkside nicht so eingeschlagen hätte, wie es dann der Fall war. Ich glaube, erst der gewaltige (und insbesondere finanzielle) Erfolg hat sie dazu...
@berman619 Tatsächlich legtr sie so viel Schmerz und Verzweiflung in ihre Stimme, dass es schwer fällt, zu erkennen, welche Gedanken und Gefühle sie bei der Aufnahme leiteten.In Interviews und.diversen Dokus wird auch gesagt, dass sie spontan angeheuert wurde und kaum oder keine Vorgaben bekam WIE ihr Part klingen soll. Vereinfacht gesagt wurde sie gefragt, machte den Job, bekam die Gage für solch einen Einsatz übliche Gage und ging. Damit hätte die Geschichte geendet, wenn Darkside nicht so eingeschlagen hätte, wie es dann der Fall war. Ich glaube, erst der gewaltige (und insbesondere finanzielle) Erfolg hat sie dazu bewogen, ihren Beitrag als ein besonderes Stück zu sehen, viel größer und wichtiger als er ursprünglich war. Tatsächlich ist es meiner Meinung nach Alan Parsons zu verdanken, dass aus einer handvoll brillianter Songs, tollen Texten und guten Ideen ein Kunstwerk entstanden ist, das weit mehr ist, als die Summe seiner Teile. So wurde auch der Betrag von Clare Torry mächtig aufgewertet. Ein so großer Kuchen weckt Begehrlichkeiten und so verwundert es nicht, dass Torry nachträglich Forderungen gestellt hat. Diese musste sie begründen und schon wird die Story rund um die Entstehung größer, facettenreich, kontrovers, bunt und laut. Immerhin hatte sie Erfolg, bekam einen "Nachschlag" auf den sie meiner Meinung nach höchstens aus Fairness einen zusätzlichen Anspruch hatte. Es sei ihr gegönnt, aber sie hatte ein Angebot, akzeptiert und dann kam die Gier. Was bekamen eigentlich die Angestellten, deren Antworten man hier und da hört? Die sind für mich auch wirklich sehr wichtig und haben so viel Kraft und Ausdruck beigesteuert, daß sie auch nicht wegzudenken sind. Zhe great Gig in the Sky ziehz mich auch nach 50 Jahren in seinen Bann, genau wie die ganze Scheibe.

This song is just perfect. There are no words to describe how overwhelming is the feeling that we are all going to die some day... so that's why this song is without words. Just a series of screams, deep, full of anguish. This song is just saying... "death is so frightening and fantastic at the same time. It's beyond words." The title refers to going to "Heaven", which is "the great gig in the sky".
Also, please stop with the Wizard of Oz already. I've done the thing, and the coincidences are not that amazing. It takes focus away from the song, which is way cooler.

I'm not frightened of dying either. Not at all.
Great gig makes it sound like going to heaven anyway

Extraordinary mixture of fear, culminating sexual energy, depression and agitation - all combined in Claire Torry's dazzling vocalizing performance. Almost like having sex.

The spoken words on DSOTM were mostly from interviews done with guys in and around the studio when the album was being recorded. I think Alan Parsons (the producer) actually did the interviews but I could be mistaken. He'd start the interview innocuously with questions like "what's your favorite color?" and then move on to "when was the last time you were violent?", "were you in the right?" and "are you afraid to die?" The doorman at the studio contributed the "I'm not frightened of dying, any time'll do I don't mind" part, and also "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark" which appears at the very end. And yes, kdiddy33 is correct. TGGITS was originally recorded as just a piano track, but Parsons thought it lacked something. He hunted up Clare Torrey, with whom he had been working on another project, and who happened to be in the building at the time, and told her to think about despair, hopelessness and death and sing whatever came into her head. She nailed it in one take, then apologized for not being able to come up with anything decent. Parsons and the band were utterly, jaw-droppingly speechless. I still laugh when I hear that story. (and yes, she recently sued Pink Floyd for royalties and writing credits. They settled out of court and her name now appears on the re-release of DSOTM as co-writer with Richard Wright.)
Paul and Linda McCartney were actually interviewed but wouldn't let themselves be put on the album.
Paul and Linda McCartney were actually interviewed but wouldn't let themselves be put on the album.

I think the main theme of this song is death, because of the references to dying in the spoken section and the title "The great gig in the sky", which is possibly a reference to a heaven or afterlife.

This song is about after you die, and what you think about before you die. The great gig in the sky means heaven, and how even when you die, you still have music to play (hence the great GIG in the sky). And all that happens when you die is another show, the longest one.