On The Turning Away - 2011 Remastered Version

This song deals with how we often turn a blind eye to suffering when we'd be better off pulling together to help the pale and downtrodden - "It's not enough just to stand and stare." Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour explained to Only Music (December 1987): "'Turning Away' is about the political situations in the world. We have these rather right-wing conservative governments that don't seem to care about many things other than looking after themselves."

Gilmour wrote this with Anthony Moore, a lyricist who was in a band called Slapp Happy. Gilmour wrote the music first, then Moore came up with the lyric the next day. Gilmour said the words were "just what I wanted to say."

A Momentary Lapse Of Reason was the first Pink Floyd album without founding member Roger Waters. The band split up in 1983 after releasing the album The Final Cut. In 1985, Waters told their record company he was done with the band, which he thought would retire Pink Floyd. It didn't. The following year, Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason reinstated keyboard player Rick Wright as a full member (Waters demoted him to session man) and announced they would be continuing as Pink Floyd. Waters tried to stop them, but his legal efforts failed. Convinced the album would fail, he sniped at his former bandmates in the press, wondering how they could make anything of value without him. But this new iteration of Pink Floyd proved worthy, and they certainly sounded like Pink Floyd. With Waters gone, Gilmour did most of the songwriting. Producer Bob Ezrin, who worked on The Wall, ensured quality control. A Momentary Lapse Of Reason went on to sell over 4 million copies just in America. Waters released his second solo album, Radio K.A.O.S., a few months earlier. It sold far fewer.