The Australian Pink Floyd Show, declared "the living embodiment of a Floyd show" by the Liverpool Echo, has arrived on our shores for a series of concert dates this fall. They have been bringing the music of Pink Floyd to life for over twenty years now, so who's better to talk about the best Floyd songs than their longtime bassist, Colin Wilson? Check out five of his favorites, and be sure to catch his band when they come to your town in the coming months:

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    'The Fletcher Memorial Home'

    From 'The Final Cut' (1983)

    "Lyrically, this song is so descriptive, I think it shows some of his disdain of modern world leaders. there’s a fantastic little interplay between the bass guitar and the guitar solo. It’s just a magic thing to play. Since the rest of the song has been largely orchestral, when the drums kick in and the guitar solo takes off, if you listen to what the bass is doing underneath it, to me, it’s kind of what bass guitar is all about in a band."

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    'The Thin Ice'

    From 'The Wall' (1979)

    "This has got a fantastic kind of walking bass line that runs through it, and then on the lyric over the top, he’s talking about this madness. He’s saying, if you go skating on the thin ice of modern life, but he’s really talking about cracking through the ice into madness. I think it’s really powerful. That song to me, kind of sums up the insanity and madness of that album, of someone who’s really on the knife’s edge."

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    'Us and Them'

    From 'Dark Side of the Moon' (1973)

    "Bass-wise, this is one of the most simple bass lines ever. They just took the root note and the fifth, and they repeat that while the guitar changes all around it. Also, lyrically this is pretty special. A lot of Roger Waters lyrics talk about war and madness, those are recurring themes in his work. In ‘Us and Them,’ he says, "Forward he cried from the rear / And the front rank died,” and I think that’s just an incredible use of words, describing how the officers were sitting in the back and sending the front-line troops in to meet their fate."

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    'Have a Cigar'

    From 'Wish You Were Here' (1975)

    "‘Have a Cigar’ kind of leads on from ‘Money’ on their previous album, almost ends up being part two of that, this time they talk specifically about record company business. You know, there’s a line in there that says “We’re so happy we can hardly count,” which I think is fantastic. It sort of takes you through the scene of these record companies literally bending over backwards to to make a shedload of money. ‘Have a Cigar’ is also a really good song as a bass player, that’s a great one to play live."

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    'Money'

    From 'The Dark Side of the Moon' (1973)

    "One of the first songs to spring to mind is ‘Money’ because of that time signature. It’s got this very odd 7/8 signature, that is not a standard thing for a rock and roll song. That’s just very fun to a bass player. Lyrically, it’s very interesting as well, because it talks about all those things about big business and money. It captures the music industry in its first real rush of mega-business."

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