the meaning behind Comfortably Numb lyrics

Hello
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone home?

Come on, now
I hear you're feeling down
Well I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again

Relax
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying

When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain you would not understand
This is not how I am

I have become comfortably numb
I have become comfortably numb

Okay
Just a little pinprick
There'll be no more (aargh!)
But you may feel a little sick

Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working - good!
That'll keep you going for the show
Come on it's time to go

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying

When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye

I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown the dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb

I think you’re overthinking it.
I think it’s about a junkie, on heroin, reminiscing about being a child and the possibilities, but has failed in life, and is now comfortably numb to life.

Seriously?

It's about Roger Waters being sick as a child, and becoming delirious from running a high fever. It's also about Roger Waters as an adult being treated for abdominal pain with tranquilizers before a show, and reliving that childhood experience. In the context of the album, it's Pink getting drugged up by doctors so he can face the audience.

If I recall, in the Comfortably Numb part of the movie, Pink’s manager and entourage find him in a depressive, drugged out state, give him different drugs so that he can perform, then he basically just trips balls, associating childhood events(fostering a diseased rat and thus getting feverish) with his current sickness. Eventually he transforms into a musical Nazi dictator, but the movie gives context to the album.

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It is the greatest Floyd song, IMHO, although not necessarily my favorite.

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It's either this or Time. I can't call it.

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I think you’re overthinking it.

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I disagree

Waters was and is very conscious of pretty in-depth world issues

he's a damn fine historian I think

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Waters was and is very conscious of pretty in-depth world issues

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Certainly, but he wasn't very subtle about it. See The Final Cut

I can't say you're wrong. If you read those references in there, Waters will probably say you're not wrong, but rather it was subconscious as I'd wager he never intended that song to go that deep. All of it was sparked by his experience with the horse tranquilizer in Philly, pushed by management/promoters to complete a show. It is a literal experience at its core.

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The problem with any track not named Money from DSOTM is that the songs are all integral parts of the whole. If we start picking there, why Time (which is great) over Breathe, Us and Them, Great Gig, etc.?

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It's the clocks. To me, Time has always stood out on Dark Side, with Breathe right close to it. I can listen to those two songs and not need to hear the rest of the album.

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Comfortably Numb is clearly the giant of The Wall, standing head and shoulders above the other main tracks (although, again, may not be my favorite track of the album, which is probably Mother). The last true collaboration between Waters and Gilmour and that combo is, again, IMHO as good a songwriting team as you can name.

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I don't know that it does stand out above the rest of The Wall. If it does, it's because of Gilmour's soloing. For me, I have to listen to The Wall in it's entirety, where I don't need to do that with Dark Side.

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So, it's easy to push it as Floyd's candidate for GOAT rock song.

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A hard thing to choose, really. Hell, I might throw Learning to Fly in there as an option. It's certainly one of my favorites.

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think you’re overthinking it. I think it’s about a junkie, on heroin, reminiscing about being a child and the possibilities, but has failed in life, and is now comfortably numb to life.

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I made this point a couple years ago and was downvotes to hell and back.

“Pin prick” definitely makes me think of heroin use.

Apparently they did an interview years ago saying it was not about that. It was the 70’s. My assumption was that everyone dabbled or at least knew an outright junkie.

Their original singer. Wasn’t he a polysubstance abuser? Bipolar too? Before there was a word for it.