I'll never get over how brilliant this song is. It's perfect. Beautiful beyond words. Perfectly composed, arranged and orquestrated. A true masterpiece.

FYI, the division bell literally is a bell that is rung in Parliament to let members know that it is time to vote on some matter before them. For this album, the idea of the division bell seems to be used metaphorically to refer to a time to make important life decisions.

The LIVE version of High Hopes from the PULSE CONCERT is outstanding.

One of my favorite Pink Floyd songs. Always get me.

This song is the proof that Pink Floyd did recover after Waters left. The whole album is quite good, one of their best.

This entire album is nothing short of amazing. A bit different than most of their other albums with Waters for sure, but it still has the magic by Rick Wright and David Gilmour.

For me, this song is about youthful idealism and enthusiasm, believing that anything is possible. Eventually, life beats most of us into "practical submission", and we shelve our dreams in favor of survival.

I am really surprised that you missed what they were doing with the acoustic guitar solo. The song does function as a metaphor for their career, and the first solo is a huge expression of that. "At a higher altitude, with flag unfurled, we reached the dizzying heights of that dreamed of world": Kick into a guitar solo that is variations of the main melodic theme from The Wall, including a key change to the same first three pitches heard when "In the Flesh?" fully kicks in. The dizzying heights are a metaphor for the huge success of The Wall.

Nightwish does a fantastic cover of this as well. Worth checking out.

Now you have to check out Nightwishes tribute version.. It's live and it's wonderful.

The lap steel guitar solo always makes my eyes water. Another song from the the Division Bell album is Wearing The Inside Out. It’s a Richard Wright composition. Always seems to be underrated to me.

In 1994 I graduated from college. This album was the sound track of that time. To cap it off, I saw them in concert the evening after graduation. The bittersweet nature of this song in particular still reduces me to tears…

The later Floyd will never match the classic but The Division Bell is much stronger than the previous album. This is one of top Floyd tracks, regardless of era. The lap steel solo is insane. There is a lovely, more stripped back version on the David Gilmour Live DVD, filmed when he curated Meltdown. The late Michael Kamen played piano on this gig, a rare sideman gig for a monster composer / arranger.

I was fortunate enough to have seen Pink Floyd in concert at Patriot's Stadium in MA in May of 1994. The Pulse tour. They played all of the songs on the Division Bell album and more. I correct myself, it wasn't a concert....It was an experience! Trust me. they pulled out all of the stops. Video, Laser, Quardophonic Stereo and more. To say the least, I was Comfortably Numb throughout the show.

David Gilmour solos are the most beautiful sounds man has ever created

I miss believing that our world is slowly getting better, it seems all the good that is fought for is easily knocked away by those who don't or can't care. Too easily.

You surprised me by spotting (you said bee) I think it's a fly... and if you go way back to 1969 and the album Umma Gumma and listen to the song Grantchester Meadows you'll hear that same fly at the end of that song meet his demise. But then he's back at the beginning of High Hopes. Good reaction!

Everyone needs to listen to ‘High Hopes’ from Gdańsk; there’s a beautiful acoustic guitar outro I believe was only played for that series of shows. HIGHLY recommended.

This is such a 'reflective' song - which includes reminiscence, regret, good times & bad. This album was around the time I was just getting into Pink Floyd (I was in early high school - and my music knowledge was rapidly expanding) - got into Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, etc., then this was released new - and I LOVED it! I introduced my mom to the beauty of Floyd - and she fell in love with Shine On and this track. She passed in 2018. I had both those songs on her visitation 'playlist'. The song hits harder since, and I find it's hard to keep a dry eye with it - especially when Gilmour hits the lap steel guitar solo! The emotion is visceral. RIP mom.

I saw them in concert on this Stadium Tour! I was at work, radio announced extra tickets, waited in line, finally my turn... I asked for 3 tickets, she said there's only 2 left. Of course I took them! The very last two tix for Tempe, AZ show. An incredible, just awesome show!

This is the song that will be played at my funeral. I love this song that much. To me, High Hopes is about coming home...but you never really can go home, can you? Only the memory of home.

Hello Doug. Take a look at Nightwish cover High Hopes. Marco is singing. Outstanding.

Pink floyd is the ultimate road trip band. I like HIGH HOPES it a wonderful tune, but I also like the version that NIGHTWISH does also

I absolutely adore this song. That concert tour changed me. We all walked out of the stadium in stunned silence and drove home from Tampa to Orlando dropping off one person at a time to their house and no one said a word. No one said goodbye. We just parted ways one by one and I laid in my bed completely flabbergasted.

Doug, your interpretation of the lyrics is very much on-point. I just wanted to add... for me, there's also the aspect of being unable to appreciate what you have while you have it, only realizing it after it's gone. As humans we often seem to be too focused on the future and what we can get out of it, so much so that we miss all the good things we already have. Only once you move on do you realize it, but then it's too late -- time has moved on and you can't go back (i.e. looking back through the embers of the burned bridge and seeing how good it was on the other side). There's a certain... cynicism and regret that comes from the realization that you can't seem to be satisfied with the present; no matter what you have, you always will want more (forever encumbered by desire and ambition, there's a hunger still unsatisfied. Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon, though down this road we've been so many times). The high hopes of the past certainly hit differently when viewed through the lens of memory and nostalgia. Human nature is absolutely messy and and full of contradictions; even if we have the self awareness to see it in ourselves, it doesn't change our desires. As a cancer patient with an uncertain future, this song hits especially hard for me. I very much appreciate your reaction to this piece. Thank you.

Nightwish made a version of this song. Great stuff

A brilliant piece of songwriting - lyrically, harmonically, wonderful drama and beautiful orchestrations...and then a guitar solo that literally takes your knees out from under you - that's Pink Floyd. Great reaction vid as always.

No way! I’ve been thinking about this song!

Nightwish did a GREAT cover of this song!

Nightwish did a fantastic cover of this, you should react to that

This album (and specifically this song) always has a place in my heart. I'd always been a prog nerd even when I was a kid, cutting my teeth on 70's Genesis, Rush, Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, etc, while I was in middle-high school. In '94 when this came out, was my 1st/2nd year of college, so my like-minded prog nerd friends and I got tickets to both the Giants Stadium and Yankee Stadium dates, the latter of which I believe was the first time they played the entirety of Dark Side of the Moon live in over 20 years. As an 18 year old kid, this was obviously mind-blowing. Even more mind-blowing than seeing the older couple in the row in front of us smoking, what is still to this day, one of the largest spliffs I've ever witnessed.

nightwish did also do high hopes as a tribute with Marco singing it i love that version as well.

This one is my favorite from Pink Floyd. In the summer of 94 right after this came out, a close friend had a family cabin on a lake. We partied there almost every weekend. At the end of the night, the host and myself put this song on as loud as we could. All the passed out party goers had no choice but to wake up and listen. We might see each other every couple of years now, everytime we do, that's the opener, "The Grass Was Greener". We just saw each other a month ago at a wedding. We smiled, hugged, and said "The Grass Was Greener".

This is one of the best Floyd songs ever!

Now you need to do the Nightwish Tribute, version. Marko sings it. 💕

You really need to see the 2005 version of this song by Nightwish - it's not a cover but a tribute, an homage to the original if you will. David Gilmour apparently loves it!

I have recently fallen in love with the David Gilmour - High Hopes (Live At Pompeii) version. I'm not saying it's better, no way, but it is brilliant in its own right...especially the slide guitar solo and the classical guitar at the end.

The song reminds me as well of "Near the End," the final song on Gilmour's second solo album.

The perfect final track, on their final studio album. Yes, there was a later album. consisting of instrumental material (written mostly by Richard Wright), with a single new song (the only one with lyrics). Fittingly titled "The Endless River", and a posthumous tribute to Richard, much like this one was for Syd.

I really prefer the 1994 live concert version of this song. David’s performance on the peddle steel guitar is absolutely incredible. The raw emotion and spectacle of this is unforgettable. I was initially mesmerized with Comfortably Numb and Sorrow from this concert. They are both incredible…..but this song stands alone in its emotional impact. You cannot hear it….and not harken back to your own days gone by. It is a masterpiece.

This one always brings tears to my eyes. Tks Doug!!

Pink Floyd high hopes as a roadtripsong.. never thought of it like that.. When my father died, my sis and brother had an argument over which music to be played at his funeral sermon. the parson did't want hard rock in the church, brother , sis and me told him Pink floyd isn't hard rock.. well the parson wasn't sure...".it is all guitars and such!! " he said. We told him, we pay rent for the service, and it was HIS last wish, this music, or we will find another church, but this one was dad's church.. Eventually the day came and he went on his final road trip out of church, with Pink Floyd, High hopes. It was amazing,, been a while since I heard the song

That orchestral slide guitar at the end is incredible. Floyd were masters of ambivalence. They made you question everything.

The live versions of High Hopes from David Gilmour's "Remember That Night" and "Live in Gdansk" DVD releases are even better than the studio version, because they include a beautiful acoustic guitar outro.

Nightwish did a really good live cover of this.

This is a aimless wondering in a vehicle Album ..and this is a contemplative capstone song that makes you reconsider all the things you had just breezed past. Such a wonderful song!

This is one of the most beautiful songs ever, in my opinion. The melody, the lyrics, the harmony are all amazing and then that guitar solo at the end is just absolutely perfect. I love it so much! As a fellow musician it's just inspiring to hear stuff like this.

This is something I would enjoy listening to on a quiet beautiful LONG trip. Pink Floyd's music is really good for helping the miles pass.

Fantastic Song, I'm glad you had chosen to experience it too!

The Division Bell tour was my very first concert at age 14. I'll never forget the sound, the lasers, the giant mirror ball, the pigs, and Nick Mason swinging his arms on "Time". Still my favorite concert I've attended.

A beautiful song and funny that it should surface in your playlist man, as I literally just bought this album from a charity shop the week before.. As a road trip song that's definitely one for heading into a cool evening headwind after a warm setting sun.

When you listen to all the Pink Floyd albums in order and you get to this song, the last song on the last all original material album, it's heart breaking. The later The Endless River works like exit music after the show, since it's outtakes from The Division Bell that Richard Wright wanted released. I actually enjoy the album being it's like early Pink Floyd and their many instrumentals, but I can see why many have a hard time with it.

Really loved your analysis of the lyrics, very much a message my ears needed to hear this evening.

A wonderful analysis. Thank you, Doug.

One of my favorites EVER!!! This whole album's brilliant!!!

It’s always the second listen that you really feel some songs

One of my all time favorite Pink Floyd songs

Man! I've been waiting for you to do this one!!! My favorite Floyd song, and maybe the most haunting song ever written.....

One of the best albums ever! 😊

Underrated Song from an underrated album. A masterpiece.

I see you have Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood there in the background. I would love for you to experience Clutching at Straws. A very under-appreciated Marillion album, but it is absolutely amazing!

And Polly takes a lot of shit for her association with Gilmour, especially from the Waters acolytes. As a lyricist myself, what she manages to convey here is just what the song needed and she deserves credit for that. Lyrically, she did a bloody good job. And this was the track that signed off the band's career. What a way to sign off an illustrious career. And to think that was all recorded on a houseboat. Mindblowing.

The album version has a tiny little audio Easter egg, if you listen on past the fade-out of the bells. Check it out.

Thank you again Doug for a great reaction to High Hopes you are so right it is very melancholic and make you think of the past, I was welling up listening this morning and I've heard this song dozens of times before!! It's probably been mentioned to you that the last line is 'The Endless River' which was the name of the last album album released of mainly material from the Division Bell sessions. It features quite a lot of Rick Wright posthumously. For a great Rick track listen to Wearing the Inside Out from Division, it's lovely....

This song was amazing live. I went to this tour🎸🏴‍☠️🤘

Doug, Gilmour's solo is a masterclass of using a slide to create the E major scale into C# minor pent highlighting F-F♯, C♯, G-G♯, D♯ as accents and desending via A, G# F# as a motif. The Pompeii live version is something else with an acoustic outro that's so beautiful you might think it's the Angel Gabriel playing it. David at his finest. It's all so nuanced and so beautifully phrased. One of The Master's Apex moments.

This song is about growing old, older, yet remembering the days of your youth..

The song and video are just brilliant. Thanks for checking it out.

Now that you have checked this, maybe you could check Nightwish's interpretation of this song.

A month after your first reaction to this one of my best friends died after a long battle and this was played at his funeral. It just hits so different now, thanks for this..❤

I was also in high school when this came out. I knew of the standard-issue stuff off Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall which were all over classic rock radio, but I didn't think much of them until the Pulse concert was broadcast on TV. I'm thinking it was on ABC In Concert on Friday night over a couple of weeks. Anyhow, I promptly went out and bought the Pulse CD set as my first Pink Floyd purchase. It seems like the older I get, the more meaning this music has to me....

This man has really inspired my piano playing. ❤

One of my favorite tunes by PF, thanks Doug! great!

Hi.. It was Douglas Adams who told them to Call the Album The Division Bell , used from this song. :) great song..

You really need to see the live performance. Amazing!!

Fun fact: The Division Bell is my all-time favorite album! So happy to see you checking it out! Also, the last Floyd album was The Endless River released in 2014.

One of my favourite songs, it reminds me of university life even though it was after my Uni time it just leaves me emotional for that optimism and learning and the sadness of missing that time and people in my life in the way it was back then.

This song is so emotional, it makes me cry everytime I listen this. What A song, no other words

David Gilmour's lap steel guitar solo is truly epic and I can't but help turn it up when it comes in..that high note that then falls is truly orgasmic... It is an absolute classic track and what final track of to the last Pink Floyd album. Watch the live Pulse footage of this track..even more epic

Doug, thank you indeed✨I experienced pure magic during the PULSE concert in Gothenburg. Floyd was absolutely out-of-this-world brilliant❤️

The Division Bell has been my ultimate driving album for a long time. My mom and I would listen to it from start to finish taking my dad three hours away to the airport when he’d fly out of town for work.

This is one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs. It always brings back memories of the time I spent in Cambridge at university: bittersweet memories that are a mix of happy times with friends and regrets for paths I could have taken but never did back when I had the chance.

Wow! Thanks Doug. The Division Bell is my absolute favourite Pink Floyd album.

The live Pulse version is amazing

Such a beautiful song. Makes me feel happy and sad at the same time. Love the English absurdity in the video. Great analysis!

Probably my fav post Waters track

One of my absolute favorite Pink Floyd. Nothing can touch PF when they're at their best.

This one always hits me. But if you're talking the perfect Floyd album to roadtrip to, you could hardly do better than Animals. It's a must for me anytime I drive or take the train for long trips.

The bell he is striking was made at the Whitechapel bell foundry in East London. Just a nice touch i think.

Hello Doug! This is Harry from NW Greece!!! Yes, you're mighty right, Pink Floyd always bring it to the listener.....

Timeless classic!, Love it since it came out!

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us. - Brilliant!

Nightwish do a nice live cover of this. Ultimate driving song is still Deep Purple’s Highway Star.

You should react to the Nightwish cover of this song. It’s incredibly beautiful and has a darker, more somber feel. Marco sings it, and he does an amazing job.

That bust is Syd Barrett. I think it's awesome that even 30 years later, they have these little nods to him in their music and videos.

Gilmore still produces music. “On an Island” is, of course, a masterpiece. “The Blue” is my favorite track.

You did a great job of deciphering the meaning behind the song lyrics. Well done. Pink Floyd was always causing listeners to be introspective and thoughtful. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles were truly my three favorite writers of songs. The Who is right up there and Jethro Tull too.

What a treat, thanks Doug.

High hopes I always believed was/is a excellent roads end masterpiece. We are so blessed to have Decades of pink Floyd in our lives. ❤ Slide guitar 🎸 Truly speaks to The mind bringing out our true everything.

Maestro Michael Kamen in orchestration, now I like more this song! This is one of the reasons why this song is a masterpiece.