10 More Huge Songs That Bands Refused To Play Live
3. Echoes - David Gilmour
The first side of the 1971 Pink Floyd album Meddle is 23 minutes and 17 seconds long and contains five songs. The second side of that same album is 23 minutes and 30 seconds long and contains just one song - Echoes.
A staggering musical achievement, Echoes is one of the most ambitious entries into a catalogue full of mad ideas and musical historians see it as the precursor to their psychedelic masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon, which came out three years later.
After Pink Floyd stopped performing together regularly, the song fell into the hands of guitarist David Gilmour, who continued to play it up until 2006. His band contained fellow former Floyd man Richard Wright, who passed away in 2008, which is what influenced Gilmour’s decision to retire Echoes.
“There's something that's specifically so individual about the way that Rick and I play in that,” he said of the song. “You can't get someone to learn it and do it just like that.”
Whilst other ex-band members have played the song live, Gilmour hasn’t touched it since ‘06.