LEARNING TO FLY (PROMO SINGLE)

This is a 12" promo single originally released in Sept. 1987. The cover art is from this vinyl release and as I understand it, the CD promo had different cover art. It features two versions of the song Learning to Fly, from Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason album. It included the full LP version of the song and an edited version that was released as a single. The original single contained Terminal Frost, from the same album, on the B side.

Learning to Fly was a very different song for Pink Floyd. It sounded nothing like the band had ever created before and was even very different from David Gilmour's solo output. It was clearly radio-friendly, upbeat, and a drastic departure from the depressing The Wall and The Final Cut, the band's previous two albums with Roger Waters. The lyrics for Learning to Fly were chiefly inspired by Gilmour's own flying lessons, but were also a metaphor for humankind's attempt to take flight spiritually. The lyrics were rather poetic and quite different from Waters' long-winded tirades about politics and other subjects. Learning to Fly even managed to make the Billboard top 100, peaking at #70 in the U.S., but failing to chart in the U.K.

I suspect this promo single is quite rare nowadays, but the music on it isn't worth your effort unless you are a completionist or a collector of rare singles of prog or prog related musicians.