A 2012 book by Jake Brown, called “Behind the Boards” contains a quote from esteemed producer Bob Ezrin that implies that Roger Waters was not happy with ‘Comfortably Numb’ and it was nearly left off the record.
Roger Waters developed the concept for The Wall and introduced the foundational ideas that eventually became the album’s songs. There is considerable debate regarding various elements of these tracks, such as whether David Gilmour recorded the guitar solos for “Comfortably Numb” in one take or if they were assembled from multiple recordings.
Waters and producer Bob Ezrin do not see eye to eye on certain aspects of the studio process. However, Ezrin shared his perspective in the book ‘Behind The Boards’ (via Ultimate Guitar):
“‘Comfortably Numb’ is my favorite song from ‘The Wall’ for a variety of reasons. One of them being, Dave brought that music in with different lyrics. It’s funny; I was looking for a song in D to fill that spot where we were telling the story of the breakdown, and Dave had written and brought ‘Comfortably Numb’ in.”
At one point, the song was called “The Doctor,” who was going to be a recurring character in the film that was made for “The Wall” in early drafts. He was instrumental in bridging the rifts that had formed between the band members, specifically between Waters and the rest of the band. Ezrin said:
“When I got there, it had mostly been Roger songs, and I thought it was really important to have some input from the other guys because they were so important to the sound of the band in the past. Dave was the one who really stepped up with stuff. One of the things he presented was this great song – I can’t even remember what it was originally called – with this fantastic chorus with a high-strung guitar, and just soaring melody, but no verse, and no real storyline, and I said to Roger that I wanted him to take it and finish it, and he was really not happy.”
“His whole thing was that it was his album. He was going to write it all. He didn’t like the idea of including this other material. But to his credit, he came around, and I asked Roger if he’d write lyrics, and at first, he was really snappy and not happy about this at all. But he took the challenge, went home, and maybe the next day came in with that unbelievable verse, and what I think may be the most interesting, literate lyric in rock history – ‘There is no pain, you are receding, a distant ship smoke on the horizon.'”
