Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb

About The Song

“Comfortably Numb” is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on their eleventh studio album, The Wall (1979). It was released as a single in 1980, with “Hey You” as the B-side.

“Comfortably Numb” describes a state of delirium; a feeling of being detached from reality. Many assumed it’s about drugs, but that’s not so, according to Pink Floyd bass player Roger Waters, who wrote the lyrics and came up with the concept of the album The Wall, where the song appears.

The lyrics describe how Waters felt as a child when he was sick with a fever. As an adult, he got that feeling again sometimes under different circumstances. He told Mojo magazine (December 2009) that the lines, “When I was a child I had a fever/My hands felt just like two balloons” were autobiographical. He explained: “I remember having the flu or something, an infection with a temperature of 105 and being delirious. It wasn’t like the hands looked like balloons, but they looked way too big, frightening. A lot of people think those lines are about masturbation. God knows why.”

When Pink Floyd played this on The Wall tour, a 35-foot wall was erected between the band and the audience as part of the show. As the wall went up, Gilmour was raised above it on a hydraulic lift to perform the guitar solo while Waters was spotlighted in front of the wall below. It was Gilmour’s favorite part of the show.

In 2021, it was ranked number 179 on Rolling Stone’s list of “the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. In 2005, it became the last song ever performed by Waters, Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright, and drummer Nick Mason together.