There is no pain, you are receding;
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying.
When I was a child I had a fever,
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I've got that feeling once again;
I can't explain, you would not understand;
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.

I fell in love with "Comfortably Numb" when one of my friend's bands went through a phase where they regularly covered it at every gig they played. Of course it's a token song on the album, but the way Shea used to sing the chorus, man; I would get chills up and down my spine. It was incredible that on any given day, his love of and/or his identification with the song would make you want to belt it out with him or be entirely silent - an emotion so effortlessly projected.

Flash forward eight years to October 6th, 2010 at Madison Square Garden, fifteen rows back, watching Roger Waters sing it live.

I believe Jen Bilec said it best when she saw the show in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago:

"Comfortably Numb" made my arm hairs' mouths drop.

Photo: Roger Waters performing "Comfortably Numb" - image courtesy of http://www.brandonremler.com/