“Mother” by Pink Floyd

"Mother" sits on The Wall, Pink Floyd's eleventh album, from 1979, and it's built like a conversation: Roger Waters, who wrote it, sings the verses in a small, anxious voice, and David Gilmour answers in the chorus, warm and steady. It starts with nothing but a sharp breath, a voice and one acoustic guitar, then slowly lets the room fill until, by the end, Bob Ezrin's pump organ and piano, Gilmour's bass and electric guitar and a full drum kit are all in.

Those drums belong to American session man Jeff Porcaro. The song's constantly shifting time signatures gave Nick Mason trouble, and with the band on a tight schedule he handed the job over. Ezrin, Gilmour and Waters produced it, with James Guthrie co-producing and engineering.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.