On the Turning Away

"On the Turning Away" is a song from Pink Floyd's 1987 album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The song was a staple of live shows from the 1987-89 world tours in support of A Momentary Lapse of Reason and was one of the songs in rotation during the 1994 tour in support of The Division Bell. The song was resurrected by Gilmour on his 2006 On an Island Tour for one night only. Live recordings exist on Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988) and Live in Gdansk (2008).

Release

Released as the second single from the album, it reached number one on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart in early 1988. In the United Kingdom, the song charted at number 55 on the UK Singles Chart.

Lyrics

The song, a power ballad, references issues of poverty and oppression, lamenting on the tendency of people to turn away from those afflicted with such conditions. It ends on a determined note, with the last stanza beginning, "no more turning away" and continuing "it's not enough just to stand and stare." It is a song that recovers the mysticism of songs like "Wish You Were Here" or "Us and Them", but this time treating topics like the suffering of people; the phrase "weak and the weary" portrays the suffering of people as a big problem in today's world.

Apostrophe (figure of speech)

Apostrophe (Greek ἀποστροφή, apostrophé, "turning away"; the final e being sounded) is an exclamatory figure of speech. It occurs when a speaker breaks off from addressing the audience (e.g. in a play) and directs speech to a third party such as an opposing litigant or some other individual, sometimes absent from the scene. Often the addressee is a personified abstract quality or inanimate object. In dramatic works and poetry written in or translated into English, such a figure of speech is often introduced by the vocative exclamation "O". Poets may apostrophize a beloved, the Muse, God, love, time, or any other entity that can’t respond in reality.

Examples