"Two Suns in the Sunset" is the closing track on

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 ...

's 1983 concept album '' The Final Cut'', 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 ...

' final chronological contribution to the band, before leaving in 1985. Since there was no promotional tour for '' The Final Cut'', and this album was entirely ignored by Gilmour, Wright and Mason during the tours for ''

A Momentary Lapse of Reason ''A Momentary Lapse of Reason'' is the thirteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in the UK on 7 September 1987 by EMI and the following day in the US on Columbia. It was recorded primarily on guitarist ...

'' and ''

The Division Bell ''The Division Bell'' is the fourteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 28 March 1994 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and on 4 April by Columbia Records in the United States. The second Pink Flo ...

'', "Two Suns in the Sunset" was never performed live by Pink Floyd. However, Roger Waters, as a solo artist, premiered the song almost 35 years after its release in a concert from the

Us + Them Tour The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, held on 17 October 2018 at

Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova The Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova, also known as Complexo Esportivo Cultural Professor Octávio Mangabeira, is a football-specific stadium located in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, and has a maximum capacity of 48,000 people. The stadium was built in place ...

in Salvador,

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Waters also played it in 2022 on his 2022–23 show

This Is Not a Drill This Is Not a Drill is the seventh concert tour by English songwriter Roger Waters. The tour, originally scheduled to take place between July and October 2020, was suspended after the COVID-19 pandemic advance, and rescheduled to take place in ...

Lyrics and music

Partway through the song, the lyric "the sun is in the east, even though the day is done" refers to the glowing fireball of a

nuclear explosion A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction. The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, t ...

. The song was partly inspired by Andrzej Wajda's movie ''

Ashes and Diamonds ''Ashes and Diamonds'' ( Polish original: ''Popiół i diament'', literally: ''Ash and Diamond'') is a 1948 novel by the Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski. The story takes place during the last few days of World War II in Europe, and describes th ...

'' (Polish: Popiół i Diament) Session drummer

Andy Newmark Andrew Newmark (born July 14, 1950)

plays drums on this song, as Pink Floyd drummer

Nick Mason Nicholas Berkeley Mason, (born 27 January 1944) is an English drummer and a founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He is the only member to feature on every Pink Floyd album, and the only constant member since its formation in ...

felt unable to perform its complex

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

changes. The song begins and ends in 9/8 time, while the majority of the song is in 4/4 (or "common time"), and it is punctuated with added measures of 7/8 and 3/8. Adding to the complexity, the main theme of the rhythm guitar has chords changing emphatically in dotted eighth notes, so three eighth-note beats are divided equally in two. This is not unlike what "

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...

", from the previous Pink Floyd 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 ...

'', does, and on that song, Mason relinquished the drumming duties, in that case to

Jeff Porcaro Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on ...

Reception

In a review for ''The Final Cut'', Justin Gerber of ''

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...

'' described "Two Suns in the Sunset" as "the album's crowning achievement." Toby Manning was less enthusiastic in his retrospective review, saying that this was the one song off ''The Final Cut'' where the musician Waters couldn't stay on the same level as the conceptualist Waters.

Personnel

– vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, scream, sound effects *

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 ...

– electric guitar with: *

Andy Newmark Andrew Newmark (born July 14, 1950)

– drums * Andy Bown –

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...

Raphael Ravenscroft Raphael Ravenscroft (4 June 1954 – 19 October 2014) was a British musician, composer and author. He is best known for playing the saxophone on Gerry Rafferty's song " Baker Street". Early life While his place of birth is disputed, the E ...

– saxophone *

Michael Kamen Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, and session musician. Biography Early life Michael Arnold Kamen was born in ...

– piano

References

External links

Roger Waters Setlist at Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador
Pink Floyd songs 1983 songs Songs about nuclear war and weapons Songs written by Roger Waters Song recordings produced by Roger Waters British folk rock songs {{1980s-rock-song-stub he:Two Suns in the Sunset

Lyrics and music

Reception

Personnel

See also

References

External links