{"id":23545,"date":"2025-01-07T09:26:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T09:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/?p=23545"},"modified":"2025-01-12T14:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-12T14:12:14","slug":"i-had-a-long-vamp-out-and-i-played-an-extra-few-notes-david-smiled-and-said-tony-in-pink-floyd-you-dont-do-that-extra-couple-notes-until-far-later-tony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/2025\/01\/07\/i-had-a-long-vamp-out-and-i-played-an-extra-few-notes-david-smiled-and-said-tony-in-pink-floyd-you-dont-do-that-extra-couple-notes-until-far-later-tony\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI had a long vamp out and I played an extra few notes. David smiled and said, \u2018Tony, in Pink Floyd you don\u2019t do that extra couple notes until far later\u2019\u201d: Tony Levin on playing for Pink Floyd in the post-Roger Waters era"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Saying that Tony Levin has had just <\/em>an illustrious career would be an understatement. The esteemed bassist has played with everyone, from John Lennon to King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, and David Bowie.<\/p>\n

Levin also played a significant role in Pink Floyd’s legacy during a particularly precarious time for the band \u2013 the recording of 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason<\/em> and the post-Roger Waters era.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Gilmour asked me to play bass on the album after Roger Waters famously left the band, thinking it was the end of them,\u201d Levin tells Vulture<\/em>. \u201cI wasn\u2019t part of any of the band\u2019s intrigue and was thrilled to enter into the world of trying to play appropriately for a Pink Floyd context but also be somewhat myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought out the Chapman Stick, an instrument I can play as a bass. It\u2019s not the most common instrument, but I use it as one of my regular basses. I found David to be a fascinating guy and a real gentleman \u2013 a wonderful person to be with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levin explains that while the sessions weren\u2019t particularly hard, capturing the style Pink Floyd had honed over the years was challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can remember one instance when I had a long vamp out and I played an extra few notes. I\u2019m not talking about a fast bass riff here; I\u2019m just talking about a couple notes,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the take, when we got together to listen, David smiled and said, \u2018Tony, in Pink Floyd you don\u2019t do that extra couple notes until far later.\u2019 I had the right idea, but I did it too quickly. He was silently saying, \u2018You don\u2019t know that, but the rest of us do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Levin also reveals that after a week or so of recording, the band approached him to tour with them. However, due to scheduling conflicts with Peter Gabriel\u2019s tour, Levin was forced to decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those big career decisions, perhaps even my biggest, where I went to stay with Peter. I\u2019ve never regretted it, but I\u2019m sure my career path would\u2019ve been different had I spent that next year and a half doing Pink Floyd,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n

Tony Levin has recently wrapped up the 65-date BEAT tour alongside superstar guitar soloist Steve Vai, King Crimson guitarist and frontman Adrian Belew, and Tool drummer Danny Carey, celebrating the \u201980s era of King Crimson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Saying that Tony Levin has had just an illustrious career would be an understatement. The esteemed bassist has played with everyone, from John Lennon to King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, and David Bowie. Levin also played a significant role in Pink Floyd’s legacy during a particularly precarious time for the band \u2013 the recording of 1987’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23548,"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23545\/revisions\/23548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guitarmadrid.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}