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A slow and steady pinging sound resembling a sonar device is heard. Suddenly muted guitar and grand piano notes start playing, slowly building and melding together as the listener awaits the beginning of the vocal tracks, two voices singing in beautiful harmony of lovely oceanic and underwater themes.

This is the opening to the song "Echoes," one of Pink Floyd's longest and most ethereal works. It is one of the most well-produced and composed songs, mixing numerous styles of music and instruments together to create a soaring 20-minute plus suite. The real creativity of this song comes from keyboardist Richard Wright, who gracefully moves between grand piano, Hammond organ and the rare Farfisa organ as well as being one of the dual lead singers. He doesn't have his own vocal parts, rather he combines with guitarist David Gilmour to sing the song in its entirety.

Last week I wrote hoping to see a reunited Pink Floyd one day before I die, but in the few short days since it looks like that will never happen. Wright passed away earlier this week from an apparent short bout of cancer. I didn't know he was suffering from the disease, and it seems like I'm not alone.

Wright was always one of the quiet members of the band, along with drummer Nick Mason. But Mason recently released his autobiography, "Inside Out," therefore showing he does not entirely stray from the public eye. This is still a far cry from the very public personas of Gilmour and bassist Roger Waters, whose legendary feud has been going on for decades.

But while Wright was never a public rock star, he was huge in the sense he truly was the backbone of the band. While Waters penned most of the band's classic tunes and Gilmour sang most of them while providing gorgeous guitar solos, it was Wright who helped the band be at the forefront of the progressive rock movement.

His extensive jazz influences and training led him to be one of the most musically adept members in the band, though he would rarely venture into solos, rather opting to let his music comprise the background. When one thinks of Floyd, most likely the ghostly, atmospheric tones on many of their songs come to mind, and that's all because of Wright's work in the band.

But, that's not to say he was just a background player. No, Wright penned and even sang many songs over the years with the band, the most notable being "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and Them," from the incredibly successful "Dark Side of the Moon" album. Although he did not sing on either of those, in my opinion, the latter of the two is the finest song on one of the most perfect albums ever recorded.

But, over the years the band's tone changed dramatically. In the pre-Gilmour Syd Barrett era, they were a psychedelic act, one of the most famous on the growing London scene. But after Barrett's famous breakdown and subsequent abandonment by the band, Gilmour came on and the band shifted to longer compositions with more texture and layers. Their most experimental stuff came in the early years on albums like "Ummagumma," "Atom Heart Mother" and "Meddle," which contained "Echoes."

In the later years of the band, starting in 1977 with "Animals" and "The Wall" a few years later, the band shifted to more of a traditional rock sound, but not forgetting their roots. This sparked a creative spat between Wright and Rogers which actually led to Wright being fired from the band during "The Wall" sessions. He was hired back as a salaried musician to record with the band and tour with them on the subsequent "Wall" shows, which were known for being exorbitantly expensive.

Ironically, because he was not sharing royalties with the rest of the band and guaranteed money in his salary, he became the only one of the four to make any money off those shows. His hired gun status continued over the next few albums, including 1987's "Momentary Lapse of Reason," the first after Waters left the band.

Soon he became an official member of the band again, and found his writing touch for the first time in years when he helped create five of the songs on 1994's "Division Bell," even singing one, "Wearing the Inside Out," the first time he's had lead vocals since trading verses with Gilmour on the mega-hit "Time" from "Dark Side."

As the world tour from that album eventually wound down, Wright, like the rest of the band, moved on and stayed away from the limelight. The band's brief reunion (with Rogers for the first time in nearly 20 years) at the 2005 Live 8 concert gave rise to the rumors of a massive reunion tour.

But that never happened; with the four songs the band played together in London the last time we would ever see them all together again. Wright still wasn't done on the music scene, however, as he was approached by Gilmour to record and tour with him for the guitarist's solo album in 2006, "On an Island."

For close to a year these two traipsed the world as a sort-of half reunion of Pink Floyd (but with a stellar band in tow). The first set of these shows would be a complete run-through of the new Gilmour album, while the second set would be what most of the crowd was there for: a selection of Floyd classics. The highlight of each night for many would be the set closer, a full-blown rendition of "Echoes" where the two English rock megastars would sing their soaring masterpiece.

Next week a live album and DVD from the tour's show in Gdansk, Poland will come out and give the world perhaps their last chance to hear a new recording of Wright. There's word he was working on an instrumental album, but with the way Pink Floyd and its members have been slow to release material, who knows if that will ever see the light of day.

For now, I have my complete Pink Floyd catalogue to satiate me and remind me of the days when Wright helped the band to be at the forefront of creative music in the world.
- www.gwinnettherald.com

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