How David Gilmour Got That Crushing Distortion on 'The Nile Song' — and Why It Stayed Unplayed for Decades

The heaviest track on Pink Floyd’s 1969 More soundtrack, “The Nile Song,” sounds more like a proto-metal band than the spacey Floyd of the same year. David Gilmour achieved that vicious, saturated guitar tone by cranking a Fender Esquire into a Binson Echorec delay unit, then pushing a wah-wah pedal all the way forward and leaving it there as a fixed filter. That combo gave him an aggressive, mid-scooped distortion that was totally unlike the clean, swirling textures he’d use on Ummagumma just months later.

But despite its intensity, “The Nile Song” was never played live by Pink Floyd. The band considered it a soundtrack obligation and moved on