The lyrics speak to ex-bandmate Syd Barrett in the first verse, and Roger Waters in the second, according to co-writer Polly Samson.[1] As such, the second verse begins with the words "Hey you", the title of a Waters-penned song from Pink Floyd's earlier album, The Wall.
[about the D,A,D,G,A,D tuning on "Poles Apart", a new tuning for David Gilmour] (...) the funny thing is that I didn't know it was such an established tuning -- I thought it was something new that I had invented. One day, I was on holiday in Greece and I had an acoustic guitar with me. I just decided to tune the bottom string down to D, and continued to experiment until I arrived at that tuning. Then I mucked around a bit and "Poles Apart" fell out of it a few minutes later.
