Why 'Comfortably Numb,' Roger Waters says, 'resides in the Spectrum'
Roger Waters formed Pink Floyd with Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and Syd Barrett, who was the band's principal songwriter before leaving due to mental-health issues in 1968. Waters recalls coming though Philadelphia countless times in the late '60s and '70s with Floyd, playing the old Electric Factory at 22d and Arch as well as the Spectrum.
Roger Waters formed Pink Floyd with Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and Syd Barrett, who was the band's principal songwriter before leaving due to mental-health issues in 1968. Waters recalls coming though Philadelphia countless times in the late '60s and '70s with Floyd, playing the old Electric Factory at 22d and Arch as well as the Spectrum.
One show at the arena, which is slated for destruction, sticks out in Waters' mind. As a result, he says, the song "Comfortably Numb" "resides in the Spectrum."
"I was getting ready to do a gig there, and I had some stomach bug. Terrible, terrible stomach cramps. We had a doctor come into the hotel and say, 'Well, we can take care of that.'
"And he gave me a shot, and to this day I don't know what it was. But it's not something I would ever recommend giving to a human being. It came out of a dart that felt like it was used to tranquilize an elephant. And we did the whole show, and I was barely able to stand. And that's where the term 'comfortably numb' came out of."
- Dan DeLuca