Dick Parry, whose saxophone solos on Pink Floyd‘s classic albums The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here helped places such songs as “Money”, “Us and Them” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” in the classic rock firmament, died today, May 22. He was 83.
His death was announced by David Gilmour, the singer-guitarist of Pink Floyd’s iconic line-up and a lifelong friend. No cause of death was stated.
“My dear friend Dick Parry died this morning,” Gilmour wrote on Instagram (see the post below). “Since I was seventeen, I have played in bands with Dick on saxophone, including Pink Floyd. His feel and tone make his saxophone playing unmistakable, a signature of enormous beauty that is known to millions and is such a big part of songs such as Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here, Us and Them and Money. He played in the last band I had that included Rick Wright for the On An Island Tour and at Live 8 with Pink Floyd.”
In his post, Gilmour shared photos of the two friends through the years, including one at a performance in Cambridge 1963.
In addition to 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon and 1975’s Wish You Were Here, Parry contributed saxophone on such albums as Let’s Make Up and Be Friendly by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (1972), Mad Dog by The Who’s John Entwistle (1975), Love Is a Five Letter Word by Jimmy Witherspoon (1975), and Jinx by Rory Gallagher (1982), among others.
He appeared on other Pink Floyd albums The Division Bell (1994) and Pulse (1995), as well as several Gilmour solo albums in the early 2000s. A recording of a 1974 Floyd concert was released in 2023 as The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley 1974. He also played sax for The Who during the band’s tours in 1979 and 1980.
Born in Kentford, Suffolk on December 22, 1942, Parry launched his career as a professional musician in the early- to mid-1960s as part of the Cambridge-based band The Soul Committee. It was in Cambridge where he met Gilmour, who played for another local band. Gilmour would later invite Parry to Pink Floyd’s recording sessions, where Parry would create the sax solos that brought a mesmerizing, dreamy quality to “Us and Them” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and a down-and-dirty grit to “Money,” sounds that became an indelible part of the decade’s progressive FM landscape and remain so on today’s classic rock radio.
Information on survivors was not immediately available.
