Founding Member of Pink Flloyd Richard Wright Dies at 65

Sep 16th, 2008
LA Times
By: Randy Lewis

England - Richard Wright, the founding member of Pink Floyd whose piano and synthesizer work played a critical part in the pioneering British psychedelic rock band's ethereal sound, died Monday after a short battle with cancer, his spokesman said. He was 65.

Doug Wright, who is not a relative, said Wright died at his home in England and that his family did not wish to release any more information, the Associated Press reported.

Wright never achieved the high public profile of the group's three key figures -- founding singer-guitarist Syd Barrett and the often-feuding co-leaders, singer-bassist Roger Waters and singer-guitarist David Gilmour, who joined shortly before Barrett left in 1968.

But he wrote or co-wrote many of the band's songs, and frequently provided a crucial component of the Pink Floyd sound. On the group's landmark 'Dark Side of the Moon' album, Wright was responsible for the thick electric piano chording on the 1973 hit 'Money' as well as the swirling organ lines and classically inspired grand piano on 'Us and Them,' a song he wrote with Waters.

He also co-wrote “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” one of the group's signature songs from 'Wish You Were Here,' the second of five Floyd albums to reach No. 1. The nine-part epic song is a salute to Barrett, who, after leaving the group, retreated into mental illness, often attributed to his drug use. He died in 2006.


Wright had no explanation for the astonishing longevity of the 'Dark Side' album -- it spent more time, 741 weeks, on the Billboard album chart than any other in history -- or the extraordinary following the band inspired. The 1979 album 'The Wall' spent 15 weeks at No. 1 and has been certified for worldwide sales of 23 million copies by the Recording Industry Assn. of America, putting it third on the list of all-time best sellers, behind 'The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975' and Michael Jackson's 'Thriller.'

'I know we've made some great songs and great music,' Wright told Billboard last year, 'but I can't tell you why we're so popular.'

He quit the band in 1980 following their tour supporting the double album 'The Wall' because of increasing tensions within the group. He rejoined the band a few years later, and, without Waters, the group put out 'A Momentary Lapse of Reason' in 1987 and 'The Division Bell' seven years later.

In recent years Waters has been playing 'Dark Side of the Moon' in concert under his own name without any of the other original band members. Waters, Gilmour, Wright and drummer Nick Mason performed live together for the first time in 24 years at the 2005 Live 8 benefit concert in London.

Wright released two solo albums, 'Wet Dreams' in 1978 and 'Broken China' in 1996, but neither made Billboard's Top 200 albums chart.

In a 2006 interview with the Independent newspaper in London discussing the DVD release of Pink Floyd's 1994 concert tour, Wright talked about the group's celebrated concerts, which helped expand the boundaries of what rock was capable of in a live setting through elaborate lighting and staging effects.

'One of the things I always regret about being in Pink Floyd is that you can never go to see the show. I have no idea what it looks like. We know it's pretty powerful, but when you're on stage you have no clear idea of it.'

He met Waters and Mason while they were architecture students in England. They started playing together in a band they called Sigma 6.

When they hooked up with Barrett and formed Pink Floyd in 1964, the rock explosion was reverberating through England and across the Atlantic as the British Invasion took hold stateside. At that time, Wright said his goal was a simple one.

'When we were with Syd,' he told the Independent, 'our ambition was probably to get a No. 1, to get on 'Top of the Pops,' ' referring to the popular British pop music TV show. 'That was his ambition, definitely. My only ambition was: this is fun, I hope we can make a living out of this -- and of course, I hope we're gonna be a huge success and sell more records than Elvis Presley and the Beatles!'