"Nobody Home" is a song from the

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

album ''

The Wall ''The Wall'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979 by Harvest/ EMI and Columbia/ CBS Records. It is a rock opera which explores Pink, a jaded rock star, as he constructs a psychologic ...

''. This song was one of several to be considered for the band's "best of" album, '' Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd''.

Background

"Nobody Home" was written late into the development of ''The Wall'' after an argument between the band and

Roger Waters George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. In 1965, he co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd as the bassist. Following the departure of the group's main songwriter Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became ...

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...

said that the song "came along when we were well into the thing 'The Wall''and he’d atersgone off in a sulk the night before and came in the next day with something fantastic."

Lyrics

In the song, the character Pink describes his lonely life of isolation behind his self-created mental wall. He has no one to talk to, and all he has are his possessions. The song describes what

says he experienced during the band's 1977 tour, the band's first major stadium tour. Additionally, the song contains some references to founding Pink Floyd member,

Syd Barrett Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Until his departure in 1968, he was Pink Floyd's frontman and primary songwriter, ...

. The song was written after an argument between Gilmour, Waters, and co-producer Bob Ezrin during the production of ''The Wall'' in which Gilmour and Ezrin challenged Waters to come up with one more song for the album. Waters then wrote "Nobody Home" and returned to the studio two days later to present it to the band. It was the last song written for ''The Wall''. On the 30th anniversary of ''The Wall'' episode of the US radio show '' In the Studio with Redbeard'', Gilmour revealed that "Nobody Home" was one of his favorite songs from the album. A television playing in the background is frequently heard, including the line, "Surprise! Surprise, Surprise!" from '' Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.'' The lyrics "I got nicotine stains on my fingers, I got a silver spoon on a chain. Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains" are said to have been written specifically about Floyd's pianist Richard Wright, who was allegedly struggling with

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

addiction at the time.

Personnel

– bass guitar *

– vocals,

EMS VCS 3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analogue synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in 1969. EMS released the product ...

* Richard Wright – piano,

Prophet-5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential (company), Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith (engineer), Dave Smith and John S. Bowen (sound designer), John Bowen in 1977. It was the first Polyphony ...

synthesiser with: *

Bob Ezrin Robert Alan Ezrin (born March 25, 1949) is a Canadian music producer and keyboardist, best known for his work with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Kiss, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Andrea Bocelli and Phish. As of 2010, Ezri ...

– piano *

New York Symphony Orchestra The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was supported by Andrew Carnegie, w ...

Personnel per Fitch and Mahon.Fitch and Mahon, p. 94.

Cover versions

* An orchestrated version, arranged by

Jaz Coleman Jeremy "Jaz" Coleman (born 26 February 1960) is an English singer and musician. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as the lead vocalist and keyboardist of post-punk group Killing Joke. In addition, Coleman has composed orchestral and sound ...

and performed by the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

conducted by Peter Scholes, appears on the 1995 instrumental album '' Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd''. * On

Metric Metric or metrical may refer to: Measuring * Metric system, an internationally adopted decimal system of measurement * An adjective indicating relation to measurement in general, or a noun describing a specific type of measurement Mathematics ...

's 2011 tour, for their 2009 album, '' Fantasies''. * On the tribute album '' Back Against the Wall'', the track is performed by

Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist and composer best known as a member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his prolific solo career. AllMusic describes Wakema ...

. *

Mark Lanegan Mark William Lanegan (November 25, 1964 – February 22, 2022) was an American singer and songwriter. First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the Stone Age ...

performs the song on the 2018 tribute album ''The Wall Redux''.Review: The Wall Redux
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Bibliography

* Fitch, Vernon; Richard Mahon (2006). ''Comfortably Numb: A History of The Wall 1978–1981''. * Fitch, Vernon (2005). ''The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia'' (3rd edition). .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nobody Home 1979 songs Pink Floyd songs Songs written by Roger Waters Song recordings produced by Bob Ezrin Song recordings produced by David Gilmour Song recordings produced by Roger Waters Songs about drugs Songs about loneliness Songs about musicians