"Nobody Home" is a song from the

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

album ''

The Wall ''The Wall'' is the eleventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979 by Harvest/EMI and Columbia/CBS Records. It is a rock opera that explores Pink, a jaded rock star whose eventual self-imp ...

''. This song was one of several to be considered for the band's "best of" album, '' Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd''.

Background

"Nobody Home" was written late into the development of ''The Wall'' after an argument between the band and

Roger Waters George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. In 1965, he co-founded the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. Waters initially served as the bassist, but following the departure of singer-so ...

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett. P ...

said that the song "came along when we were well into the thing 'The Wall''and he’d atersgone off in a sulk the night before and came in the next day with something fantastic."

Lyrics

In the song, the character Pink describes his lonely life of isolation behind his self-created mental wall. He has no one to talk to, and all he has are his possessions. The song describes what

says he experienced during the band's 1977 tour, the band's first major stadium tour. Additionally, the song contains some references to founding Pink Floyd member,

Syd Barrett Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was their original frontman and primary songwriter, becoming known for his ...

. The song was written after an argument between Gilmour, Waters, and co-producer Bob Ezrin during production of ''The Wall'' in which Gilmour and Ezrin challenged Waters to come up with one more song for the album. Waters then wrote "Nobody Home" and returned to the studio two days later to present it to the band. It was the last song written for ''The Wall''. On the 30th anniversary of ''The Wall'' episode of the US radio show ''

In the Studio with Redbeard ''In the Studio with Redbeard'' is a North American radio program, produced and hosted by Dallas, Texas, based rock and roll disc jockey Doug "Redbeard" Hill. The show is a weekly hour-long "rockumentary" interview with music program which looks ...

'', Gilmour revealed that "Nobody Home" was one of his favorite songs from the album. A television playing in the background is frequently heard, including the line, "Surprise! Surprise, Surprise!" from ''

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. ''Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.''The show (and CBS) renders the title as ''Gomer Pyle – USMC''. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spin-off of ''The Andy Griffith Sho ...

'' The lyrics "I got nicotine stains on my fingers, I got a silver spoon on a chain. Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains" are said to have been written specifically about Floyd's pianist Richard Wright, who was allegedly struggling with

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

addiction at the time.

Personnel

– bass guitar *

– vocals,

EMS VCS 3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analog synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (London) Limited (EMS) in 1969. EMS released ...

* Richard Wright –

Prophet-5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential (company), Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith (engineer), Dave Smith and John S. Bowen (sound designer), John Bowen in 1977, who used Microprocessor, m ...

synthesiser with: *

Bob Ezrin Robert Alan Ezrin (born March 25, 1949) is a Canadian music producer and keyboardist, best known for his work with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Kiss, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Andrea Bocelli and Phish. As of 2010, Ezrin' ...

– piano *

New York Symphony Orchestra The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was supported by Andrew Carnegie, ...

Personnel per Fitch and Mahon.Fitch and Mahon, p. 94.

Cover versions

* An orchestrated version, arranged by

Jaz Coleman Jeremy "Jaz" Coleman (born 26 February 1960) is an English singer and musician. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as the lead vocalist and keyboardist of post-punk group Killing Joke. Coleman is known for his unique raspy baritone voic ...

and performed by the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

conducted by Peter Scholes, appears on the 1995 instrumental album '' Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd''. * On

Metric Metric or metrical may refer to: * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics In mathema ...

's 2011 tour, for their 2009 album, ''

Fantasies Fantasy is a genre of fiction. Fantasy, Fantasie, or Fantasies may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Fantasia (music), a free-form musical composition * ''Fantasie'' (Widmann), a 1993 composition for solo clarinet by Jörg Widmann * ...

''. * On the tribute album ''

Back Against the Wall ''Back Against the Wall'' is an album released in 2005 by Billy Sherwood in collaboration with a number of (mostly) progressive rock artists as a tribute to Pink Floyd's album ''The Wall''. A year later, Sherwood followed it with the release of ...

'', the track is performed by

Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...

.Pink Floyd's The Wall tribute

The Rock Radio
2005.

Bibliography

* Fitch, Vernon; Richard Mahon (2006). ''Comfortably Numb: A History of The Wall 1978–1981''. * Fitch, Vernon (2005). ''The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia'' (3rd edition). .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nobody Home 1979 songs Pink Floyd songs Songs written by Roger Waters Song recordings produced by Bob Ezrin Song recordings produced by David Gilmour Song recordings produced by Roger Waters Songs about loneliness