Nobody Home

For the 1919 film, see Nobody Home (film).

"Nobody Home" is a song from the Pink Floyd album The Wall.^[1][2] This song was one of several to be considered for the band's "best of" album, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.^[3]

"Nobody Home"
Song by Pink Floyd
from the album The Wall
Published	Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd
Released	30 November 1979 (UK) 8 December 1979 (US)
Recorded	April–November 1979
Genre	Progressive rock art rock
Length	3:26
Label	Harvest (UK) Columbia (US)
Songwriter(s)	Roger Waters
Producer(s)	Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, James Guthrie and Roger Waters

Background

"Nobody Home" was written late into the development of The Wall after an argument between the band and Roger Waters. David Gilmour said that the song "came along when we were well into the thing [The Wall] and he’d [Waters] gone off in a sulk the night before and came in the next day with something fantastic."^[4]

Lyrics

In the song, the character Pink describes his lonely life of isolation behind his self-created mental wall.^[5] He has no one to talk to, and all he has are his possessions. The song describes what Roger Waters says he experienced during the band's 1977 tour, the band's first major stadium tour. Additionally, the song contains some references to founding Pink Floyd member, Syd Barrett.^[5] The song was written after an argument between Gilmour, Waters, and co-producer Bob Ezrin during the production of The Wall in which Gilmour and Ezrin challenged Waters to come up with one more song for the album. Waters then wrote "Nobody Home" and returned to the studio two days later to present it to the band. It was the last song written for The Wall. On the 30th anniversary of The Wall episode of the US radio show In the Studio with Redbeard, Gilmour revealed that "Nobody Home" was one of his favorite songs from the album.

A television playing in the background is frequently heard, including the line, "Surprise! Surprise, Surprise!" from Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.^[5] The lyrics "I got nicotine stains on my fingers, I got a silver spoon on a chain. Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains" are said to have been written specifically about Floyd's pianist Richard Wright, who was allegedly struggling with cocaine addiction at the time.^[6]

Personnel

• David Gilmour – bass guitar
• Roger Waters – vocals, EMS VCS 3
• Richard Wright – piano, Prophet-5 synthesiser

with:

• Bob Ezrin – piano
• New York Symphony Orchestra

Personnel per Fitch and Mahon.^[7]

Cover versions

• An orchestrated version, arranged by Jaz Coleman and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Peter Scholes, appears on the 1995 instrumental album Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd.
• On Metric's 2011 tour, for their 2009 album, Fantasies.^[8]
• On the tribute album Back Against the Wall, the track is performed by Rick Wakeman.^[9]
• Mark Lanegan performs the song on the 2018 tribute album The Wall Redux.^[10]

Bibliography

• Fitch, Vernon; Richard Mahon (2006). Comfortably Numb: A History of The Wall 1978–1981.
• Fitch, Vernon (2005). The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition). ISBN 1-894959-24-8.