"Close my eyes to see what I'm feeling ..."

The mid 1980s was an unsettled time in the history of Pink Floyd. Tension within the band had been building for years — group members have conceded Floyd hadn't operated well as a band since the making of 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon" album — and by the end of the '70s, things were coming undone.

During the making of 1979's "The Wall," keyboardist Rick Wright had been forced out of the band by Roger Waters, who allegedly threatened to withhold release of his magnum opus unless Wright left the fold.

Uninvolved with the making of "The Final Cut" (1983) — Floyd's last album to include Waters — Wright began working on a new project with Dave "Dee" Harris, an Arista Records recording artist and guitarist with the Birmingham, England, band Fashion. With a common appreciation for the Fairlight synthesizer, the duo dubbed themselves Zee and released "Identity" in spring 1984, within a couple months of when former band mates David Gilmour and Waters put out "About Face" and "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking," respectively.

"Identity," released only in the United Kingdom on the Harvest label, was recorded at Rectory Studio in Cambridge, and overdubbed and mixed at Utopia in London. Wright and Harris wrote all eight tracks, with Harris handling lyrics and lead vocals on each.

The result was the least Floyd-like of any of the aforementioned solo albums to come out of 1984. Wright's and Harris' effort would also be the least remembered, although since it's been out of print for some time, "Identity" has become a collector's item with diehard fans.

"Identity" was Zee's only album; "Confusion," backed with "Eyes of a Gypsy" was released as the duo's only single.

Wright would rejoin Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason in Pink Floyd v.3.0 during the making of 1987's "A Momentary Lapse of Reason." Aside from the Zee project, Wright's only substantial musical effort between his ousting from Floyd during "The Wall" and rejoining Gilmour and Mason for "Momentary Lapse" was an incomplete score to a documentary about Brazilian soccer star Pelé.

Wright has since referred to "Identity" as "an experiment that didn't work out."

Written by Craig Bailey

©1995-2007 Random Precision Media. All rights reserved.
Updated: Dec. 30, 2001

"Identity"

April 9, 1984 (U.K.)

• "Cuts Like a Diamond," the only track that approaches anything that might be called a Pink Floyd sound