"How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and colour are their last days."
― John Burroughs
Here are all the wood warblers I've found so far this fall migration:
Seiurus aurocapilla
Parkesia noveboracensis
Vermivora chrysoptera
Leiothlypis peregrina
Leiothlypis ruficapilla
Mniotilta varia
Geothlypis philadelphia
Geothlypis trichas
Setophaga ruticilla
Setophaga tigrina
Setophaga americana
Setophaga magnolia
Setophaga castanea
Setophaga fusca
Setophaga pensylvanica
Setophaga striata
Setophaga caerulescens
Setophaga pinus
Setophaga coronata
Setophaga virens
Cardellina canadensis
Cardellina pusilla
Looks like we're going to be getting quite a lot of needed rain today and I didn't take any photographs yesterday, so no new nature blog this week.
WARNING: Major Tangent Ahead!
But in other news, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd released a new solo album a few weeks back. I could hear hints of decline on 2015's Rattle that Lock, the 78-year-old's voice isn't quite what it once was. However, his guitar playing is as great as ever. The new album is called Luck and Strange. I've given it a few listens and A Single Spark is one of my favorite tracks:
Personally, I find Gilmour's solo work vastly superior to what Roger Waters has been releasing over the past couple of decades. Plus, Gilmour doesn’t resort to lip-syncing during live shows like Waters does. Not for every song, but I can tell when things get intense in build-ups and crescendos—it’s the studio version of his vocals being piped in. Here's an example from his song Every Strange's Eyes at 2:30 minutes in. That's most definitely the studio version. I first realized he lip-syncs during live performances going back to his mid-80's Pros & Cons solo tour. And more recently, what Waters did to The Dark Side of the Moon on Redux was just absolute garbage and unforgivable.
In my opinion!
To be sure, they're truly two very different musicians. While Roger's lyrics from Dark Side of the Moon through The Wall are some of rock's most impressive, it was Gilmour and Richard Wright's musicianship that crafted Pink Floyd's trademark psychedelic-rock sound. If you're a Pink Floyd fan and you've not followed any of their solo efforts, I would encourage you to give Gilmour's On an Island album a listen, one of the best tracks being The Blue.
The rivalry between Roger Waters and David Gilmour is well-known in rock history. Tensions began to emerge as early as the recording of The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), but they escalated significantly in the years that followed. Waters officially left Pink Floyd in 1985, declaring the band a "spent force," a statement Gilmour disputed. In 1987, Gilmour, along with drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright, released A Momentary Lapse of Reason, which received generally positive reviews and showcased a solid musical direction. The band toured extensively in support of the album, achieving significant commercial success, which reportedly left Waters feeling somewhat envious of their accomplishments.
The most recent kerfuffle occurred early 2023 with Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson, tweeting:
To which Gilmour affirmed:
Waters has been fairly quiet about Pink Floyd ever since, but this may have served as a catalyst for him to record Redux. Again, a steaming pile of crap, in my opinion. Waters complains he isn't allowed to publish and promote his material on the official Pink Floyd website. Well, he did quit the band. Perhaps Redux was also in response to that, re-asserting himself as Pink Floyd's dominant creator. Yeah, not so much, dude.
Pink Floyd's 1994 album The Division Bell went onto similar success following the Momentary Lapse tour. And all of Gilmour's solo material as sold and charted better than anything Waters has recorded since leaving Pink Floyd. Prior to Wright's death in 2008, the four Floyd artists did one final reunion performance for Live 8 in 2005, which was nice to see. In the end, it seems fans appreciated musicianship over lyrical narratives, but it was always the combined team that made the best Pink Floyd music.
Gilmour, Mason, and Waters are aged musicians, but the three remaining former bandmates will likely never collaborate again. Gilmour has stated this in several interviews. For some of them, they've aged like a fine wine, while Waters has aligned himself with buffoonery, musical cons, and has clearly gone off the deep end. Having said all of that, I think Gilmour's solo efforts best represent where the band might have gone sound-wise had they stayed together.