Keep Talking

Keep Talking
     (written by Gilmour, Wright, Samson)

Lyrics:
For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed
the power of our imagination — we learned to talk.

There's a silence surrounding me
I can't seem to think straight
I sit in the corner
* And no one can bother me
I think I should speak now   Why won't you talk to me?
I can't seem to speak now     You never talk to me
My words won't come out right     What are you thinking?
I feel like I'm drowning     What are you feeling?
I'm feeling weak now     Why won't you talk to me?
But I can't show my weakness     You never talk to me
I sometimes wonder     What are you thinking?
Where do we go from here?     What are you feeling?

It doesn't have to be like this. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.

Why won't you talk to me?     I feel like I'm drowning
You never talk to me     You know I can't breathe now
What are you thinking?     We're going nowhere
What are you feeling?     We're going nowhere
Why won't you talk to me?
You never talk to me
What are you thinking?
Where do we go from here?

It doesn't have to be like this.  All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.

Dave Gilmour: "I heard it today for the first time, my first thing I've heard from this record, on the radio this morning. And it's always quite extraordinary when you hear one of your things that you've been working on for ages, and you know what it means, you know everything about it... but the first time you hear it on the radio, you have got the added weight of knowing that there are millions of other people listening to it as well, so you get a completely different perspective on it. You know that other people are listening, it's their first listen, every bit of it gets invested with a different meaning, if you like. It was really nice to hear that this morning, on the radio, and wonder how people would take to hearing this strange voice talking about 'for millions of years' and stuff, on the beginning of it. There are some aspects to making records, and making music, that you just never, yourself, get some of the things that are in the stuff you have done; until you hear it yourself on the radio with the knowledge that millions of other ears are listening at the same time. It's fascinating." [Redbeard interview]

Dave Gilmour: "It's not a real voice, it's the voice of Stephen Hawking, who is the Professor who wrote this book called A Brief History of Time. It's a huge, huge, popular book. He's suffering from motor-neuron disease, and he's in a wheelchair; he can't speak, and this is a voice synthesizer computer thing that has been built for him. I think he can only move one finger a tiny, tiny little bit, and he works with all of that. I saw an advert on the television in England for a telephone company, and his voice was on this advertisement. And this advertisement nearly made me weep. I've never had that with a television advertisement before. This was the most powerful piece of television advertising that I've ever seen in my life. I thought it was fascinating, and I contacted the company that made it and asked if I could borrow the voice track from it, this voice-over track from it, which I did, which is this voice synthesizer thing, and I applied it to one of the pieces of music we already had. I fiddled around with it for months, changing it until it started making sense. I just found it so moving that I felt that I had to try and do something with it, with him, in some way." [Redbeard]

The advert that Dave referred to was by British Telecom. Some of the dialogue and scenes from it follow:
“One discovery changed the course of history... forever. We learned to talk. Speech has allowed the communication of ideals, enabling human beings to build the impossible. (Pictures of ancient Greek buildings) Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking. But its greatest failures by not talking. (Pictures of a desert after a war, tanks, etc) It doesn’t have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality. (Giant BT satellite shown) With the technology at our disposal the possibilities are impounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking... talking... talking.”

TRACK LISTING
Cluster One
What Do You Want from Me
Poles Apart
Marooned
Great Day for Freedom, A
Wearing the Inside Out
Take It Back
Coming Back to Life
Keep Talking
Lost for Words
High Hopes