Poles Apart

"Poles Apart"
Song by Pink Floyd from the album The Division Bell
Published	Pink Floyd Music (1987) Ltd
Released	28 March 1994 (UK) 5 April 1994 (US)
Recorded	1993
Genre	Progressive rock, psychedelic rock
Length	7:04
Label	EMI (UK) Columbia (US)
Writer(s)	David Gilmour Polly Samson Nick Laird-Clowes
Producer(s)	Bob Ezrin and David Gilmour

"Poles Apart" is a song by Pink Floyd from the band's 1994 album, The Division Bell.

Lyrics

The lyrics speak to ex-bandmate Syd Barrett in the first verse, and Roger Waters in the second, according to co-writer Polly Samson.^[1] As such, the second verse begins with the words Hey you, the title of a Waters-penned song from Pink Floyd's earlier album, The Wall.

Tuning

The song was performed in DADGAD tuning.^[2]

“	[about the D,A,D,G,A,D tuning on "Poles Apart", a new tuning for David Gilmour] (...) the funny thing is that I didn't know it was such an established tuning -- I thought it was something new that I had invented. One day, I was on holiday in Greece and I had an acoustic guitar with me. I just decided to tune the bottom string down to D, and continued to experiment until I arrived at that tuning. Then I mucked around a bit and "Poles Apart" fell out of it a few minutes later.	”
	— David Gilmour, 1994[3]

Personnel

• David Gilmour – guitars, bass, lead vocals
• Nick Mason – drums and percussion
• Richard Wright – keyboards

with:

• Jon Carin – programming
• Michael Kamen - orchestrations

References

1. "Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go" (Interview). November 1994. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
2. Tolinski, Brad (September 1994). ""Welcome to the Machines" Phil Taylor interview". Guitar World. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
3. "Sounds of Silence" David Gilmour interview, Guitar World, September 1994, retrieved 28 July 2010