Polly Samson has written the words to a large part of the Pink Floyd and David Gilmour catalogue since 1994, and the scale of that contribution is routinely underestimated because lyrics are the credit nobody reads. On two of the four solo albums she is the lyricist of every song that has words. This piece does one thing: it sets out the credits, song by song, exactly as the releases give them.

The Division Bell, 1994

Released on 28 March 1994 in Britain and 5 April in the United States, produced by Bob Ezrin and David Gilmour, and recorded across Britannia Row, the Astoria, Abbey Road, Metropolis, Olympic and The Creek. It reached number one in both Britain and the United States and in more than ten other countries.

Samson is credited on the lyrics of seven of its eleven tracks: “What Do You Want from Me” (with Gilmour), “Poles Apart” (with Gilmour and Nick Laird-Clowes), “A Great Day for Freedom” (with Gilmour), “Take It Back” (with Gilmour and Laird-Clowes), “Keep Talking” (with Gilmour), “Lost for Words” (with Gilmour) and “High Hopes” (with Gilmour). The album is discussed as a record in the best Pink Floyd albums.

On an Island, 2006

Gilmour’s third solo album, released on 6 March 2006 in Britain and the following day in the United States, produced by Gilmour with Phil Manzanera and Chris Thomas. It reached number one in Britain and number six on the Billboard 200.

Of the ten tracks, three are instrumentals. Samson is credited on six of the remaining seven: the title track and “This Heaven” jointly with Gilmour, and “The Blue”, “Take a Breath”, “Smile” and “A Pocketful of Stones” on her own. Only “Where We Start” is credited to Gilmour alone.

The Endless River, 2014

Released on 10 November 2014 and produced by Gilmour with Phil Manzanera, Youth and Andy Jackson, the album is mainly instrumental and ambient. One track carries a lead vocal: “Louder than Words”, with lyrics by Samson. On an album where words appear once, she wrote them.

Rattle That Lock, 2015

Released on 18 September 2015, produced by Gilmour with Phil Manzanera, and a number one in Britain and number five in the United States. The credits state that all lyrics are by Polly Samson except where noted – and the exceptions are two: “Faces of Stone” and “Dancing Right in Front of Me”, both by Gilmour. Three tracks are instrumental. The title track pairs her lyric with music co-written with Michaël Boumendil, and “A Boat Lies Waiting”, “In Any Tongue”, “The Girl in the Yellow Dress” and “Today” are hers.

Luck and Strange, 2024

Released on 6 September 2024, produced by Gilmour with Charlie Andrew, number one in Britain and number ten in the United States. Samson has the lyrics on the title track, “The Piper’s Call”, “A Single Spark”, “Dark and Velvet Nights” and “Sings”, and a shared credit on “Scattered” alongside David and Charlie Gilmour. Two tracks are instrumental, and “Between Two Points” is a cover, its words by Roger Quigley.

What the credits add up to

Counted across the five releases: seven of eleven tracks on The Division Bell, six of the seven with words on On an Island, the single track with words on The Endless River, five of the six original songs with words on Rattle That Lock, and six of seven on Luck and Strange. On a plain count of the material, she is the principal lyricist of everything Gilmour has released under either name since 1994.

That is worth stating plainly because of how the band’s history is usually told. The standard account of Pink Floyd is a story about who wrote the words, and it stops in 1983. For the thirty years since, the answer to that question has mostly been a writer who is not in the band and who almost never appears in the discussion. The argument about the two halves of the catalogue is set out in the Waters era against the Gilmour era, and the credits above are the part of it that is not a matter of opinion.

A note on what is not here

This piece covers one thing: the lyric credits as printed on the releases. Samson is a novelist and a journalist with a body of work of her own, and none of it is discussed here, because this site is about records. Nor is there any speculation about how the words were written, who suggested what, or what any lyric is about – the credits are documented and the process is not. Where a track has a shared credit it is given as shared, in the order the release gives it.

Go deeper

The other writer covered in this section is Peter Sinfield, who did a comparable job for King Crimson and ELP a generation earlier. The sleeves of these records are covered in Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis, and the whole section is indexed in the artists behind prog’s album covers. For the band, start with the best Pink Floyd albums, and for the guitar sound there is the best David Gilmour solos. The British scene Pink Floyd belongs to is the subject of Beyond the Thames, the second book in my Beyond the Sound series.

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