'Us and Them': How Jazz Harmony and a Saxophone Solo Made Division Beautiful

The chord changes in “Us and Them” come straight out of a jazz ballad — the verses float between D major and D minor, the chorus hits a flat major seventh that sounds almost like a Miles Davis voicing. Richard Wright, who wrote the music, was listening to a lot of modal jazz at the time, and he built the whole piece around a descending bass line that never quite resolves. That harmonic instability mirrors the song’s subject: war, class, the petty lines we draw between people. The saxophone solo, played by session musician Dick Parry, slides into the bridge like a second voice — mournful, breathy, almost weeping. It doesn’t fight the division; it just states the ache of it.

David Gilmour has said this is one of his favorite vocal performances of his own, and the reason is subtle. He recorded the vocal in one take, late at night, after everyone else had gone home. He wasn’t trying to sell the emotion — he just sang it tired and honest. The melody sits low in his chest, almost spoken in places, and when he hits the word “forward” on the held note, there’s a slight crack that feels human, not theatrical. That vulnerability is what makes the song land harder than any political rant ever could.