Douglas Adams

Music

Pink Floyd

Adams's official biography shares its name with the song "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd. Adams was friendly with their guitarist David Gilmour and, as his 42nd birthday gift, was invited to make a guest appearance at one of their 1994 concerts in London, playing rhythm guitar on the songs "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse". Adams chose the name for Pink Floyd's 1994 album, The Division Bell by picking the words from the lyrics to one of its tracks. David also performed at Douglas's Memorial Service.

Related Topics:
Pink Floyd - David Gilmour - London - Rhythm guitar - The Division Bell

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Pink Floyd, and their reputation for lavish stage shows, were also the inspiration for the Adams-created fictional rock band "Disaster Area", renowned as the loudest band (and, in fact, the loudest noise) in the universe. One element of Disaster Area's stage show was to send a space ship hurtling into a sun, probably inspired by the airplane which would crash into the stage during some of Pink Floyd's live shows, usually at the end of "On The Run". Part of the ideas behind Disaster Area may also have been influenced by the 1968 Pink Floyd song "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun."

Related Topics:
Rock band - Disaster Area

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Procol Harum

Douglas Adams was good friends with Gary Brooker, the lead singer, pianist and song writer of the progressive rock band Procol Harum. Adams is known to have invited Brooker to one of the many parties that Adams held at his house. On one such occasion Gary Brooker performed the full (4 verse) version of his hit song A Whiter Shade of Pale. Brooker also performed at Adams's Memorial Service.

Related Topics:
Gary Brooker - Progressive rock - Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale

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Douglas Adams also appeared on stage with Brooker to perform In Held Twas in I at Redhill when the band's lyricist Keith Reid was not available. On several other occasions he had been known to introduce Procol Harum at their gigs.

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Douglas also let it be known that while writing he would listen to music, and this would occasionally influence his work. On one occasion the title track from the Procol Harum album Grand Hotel was playing when "suddenly in the middle of the song there was this huge orchestral climax that came out of nowhere and didn't seem to be about anything. I kept wondering what was this huge thing happening in the background? And I eventually thought ... it sounds as if there ought to be some sort of floorshow going on. Something huge and extraordinary, like, well, like the end of the universe. And so that was where the idea for The Restaurant at the End of the Universe came from." {{ref|ProcolHarum}}

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Other musical links

Adams made a number of links to music of the time in his books. For example, a mouse proposes that the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything is "How many roads must a man walk down?", a line from Bob Dylan's song Blowin' in the Wind.

Related Topics:
Mouse - Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind

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In So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish, Arthur Dent listens to a Dire Straits LP and Adams goes on to pay tribute to their lead guitarist, Mark Knopfler. Adams later revealed that the particular song to which he refers in the book—although never by name—is Tunnel of Love, from the Making Movies album.

Related Topics:
Dire Straits - Mark Knopfler

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Elvis is later discovered playing in a diner attended by Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent, where he is simply known as "The King".

Related Topics:
Elvis - Ford Prefect

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Besides modern rock music, Douglas Adams was a great admirer of the work of JS Bach, which provides a minor plot element in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

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Adams was also a major fan of the Beatles. He makes a reference to Paul McCartney in Life, The Universe, and Everything and quotes lyrics and titles from songs by the Beatles in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

Related Topics:
The Beatles - Paul McCartney

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Adams also does this at least once in The Salmon of Doubt. In Chapter 3 there is a conversation between Kate and Dirk which includes the following exchange:

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:"So?"

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:"I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair."

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Taken together, these two lines form a quotation from "Norwegian Wood" on the Rubber Soul album.

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