“The Narrow Way”: David Gilmour’s Home-Taped Multi-Track Odyssey from Ummagumma

To record “The Narrow Way,” David Gilmour turned his living room into a makeshift studio, using a Brenell tape recorder that let him bounce tracks manually. He layered multiple guitars—often using a cheap Selmer amp and a Dallas Arbiter fuzz—and added Mellotron parts by playing the keyboard’s iconic tape banks (flute, strings, choir) one note at a time, since his home setup couldn’t handle real-time overdubbing of those sounds.

The lyrics in part three (“The Narrow Way” proper) were inspired by a poem Gilmour wrote about a solitary traveler navigating a desolate, spiritual landscape. He said the words came from a “mood of isolation” during the Ummagumma sessions, when each band member was forced to work alone. The melody for that section was actually the last thing he added, hummed over the existing tape loops until a structure clicked.