Roger Waters Release New Haunting Version Of “Comfortably Numb”

The classic Pink Floyd song “Comfortably Numb” has been revamped by Roger Waters and gave it a new name, “Comfortably Numb 2022.”

The new version of this song has taken a more ominous path than the original. Speaking about how he came up with this, Waters said:

“During lockdown, I made a demo of a new version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ as an opener for our new show This Is Not a Drill.

“I pitched it a whole step down, in A Minor, to make it darker and arranged it with no solos – except over the outro chord sequence, where there is a heartrendingly beautiful female vocal solo from Shanay Johnson, one of our new singers.”

In total, there were ten musicians who worked together in order to deliver the instruments to this new version. Aside from doing the vocals, Waters also co-produced this track. In 1979, Pink Floyd released The Wall album wherein the track was originally included. A year after, it was released as a single and eventually became one of their best-known songs.

Interestingly, Waters’ 1977 experience inspired the song’s lyrics. He was suffering from hepatitis at that time and was injected with tranquilizers before taking the stage to perform. He recalled:

“That was the longest two hours of my life. Trying to do a show when you can hardly lift your arm.”

This is the same song they used to close their reunion show at Live 8 in 2005 which marked the last performance for Pink Floyd’s classic quartet lineup. Now, it was still being used by Waters in his solo performances.

Stream the new version below.