When Pink Floyd were working on The Wall, they decided to call in American jazz master Lee Ritenour, whose hundreds of credits include Steely Dan and Sparks, to help beef up some of the guitar sections. In 2020 Ritenour told Prog about his involvement in Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2, and how the experience heightened his respect for the band.
“The 70s were an amazing time in Los Angeles. I was around some of the prog rock stuff – but when I got a call from Bob Ezrin, saying, ‘Would you like to record with Pink Floyd?’ he didn’t tell me it was The Wall.
I said, ‘Oh, that would be wonderful – but does David Gilmour really need me?’ Bob said they wanted some additional rhythm and colour, and maybe I could play with David a little bit. I ended up playing rhythm on One Of My Turns and acoustic guitar on Comfortably Numb.
I showed up with this huge crate full of guitars and set myself up, thinking, ‘I am going to impress David Gilmour.’ I walked in to the producer’s workshop and David had about 21 guitars lined up around the room – every great guitar you could imagine! It was fantastic.
They were very cool; and they were working on the guitar solo for Another Brick In The Wall. I remember Bob, David and the engineer said, ‘Check this out.’ It sounded really good, and almost what you hear on the record.
It was 100 per cent Gilmour… maybe there are a couple of licks for which I gave some inspiration
They said they weren’t sure how to get out of the solo – would I like to try a few licks at the end? It was just to see what I would do, even though they weren’t going to use it. They just wanted to freshen up their ears. They were like that in trying to get someone else’s viewpoint to give them inspiration.
I set up my sound and tried to get a little close to what David was doing, which was not too far away from my sound at that time. When the record came out, it was 100 per cent Gilmour with his ideas. But maybe there are a couple of licks in there for which I gave them some inspiration!
With all my jazz and pop stuff, Pink Floyd sticks out as an unusual thing for me to have done; but that record still really holds up. In that period, Pink Floyd, together with Genesis – especially Phil Collins, who’s so versatile – were my top guys.
I’m great buddies with Daryl Stuermer, who played guitar with Genesis, and recently went to rehearse with them in London. He had to have nine Covid tests, but it was the healthiest he’d ever been!”
