Pink Floyd’s innovative experiments with composition, sound, and elaborate stage productions established them as pioneers of progressive music, pushing the boundaries of what 20th-century popular music could achieve. At the heart of their most iconic albums was the creative partnership between David Gilmour and Roger Waters. However, this relationship eventually became mired in tension and miscommunication, culminating in Waters’ departure from the band in 1985.
Gilmour and Waters would not play together until 2005, a complex day in which they reunited for the Live 8 benefit to raise awareness of global poverty and spent much of the intervening years sniping at one another, whether in the press or lyrics on their respective solo ventures. In Mark Blake’s Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd, Waters admitted, “I don’t think any of us came out of the years from 1985 with any credit … It was a bad, negative time, and I regret my part in that negativity.”
One example of that negativity raised its ugly head upon the release of Pink Floyd’s 13th studio album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, a title that should go down in history as perhaps one of the most prophetic in the history of rock music.
In 1986, Gilmour recruited a band, including Pink Floyd keys player Richard Wright, with the intention of writing material for a third solo album. However, by the end of that year, and with Gilmour stating that Wright’s presence would “make us stronger, legally and musically”, the decision to release that material as a Pink Floyd album was made. It would be the first release under the Pink Floyd name without Waters’s involvement.
Predictably, this move proved controversial, not least with Waters, who had a few choice words to say about the album upon its release. While talking to Rolling Stone, Waters said, “I think it’s a very facile but quite clever forgery. If you don’t listen to it too closely, it does sound like Pink Floyd. It’s got Dave Gilmour playing guitar. And with the considered intention of setting out to make something that sounds like everyone’s conception of a Pink Floyd record, it’s inevitable that you will achieve that limited goal.”
Pressed further, Waters added: “I think the songs are poor in general. The lyrics I can’t believe … There was no point in Gilmour, Mason or Wright trying to write lyrics. Because they’ll never be as good as mine. Gilmour’s lyrics are very third-rate. They always will be. And in comparison with what I do, I’m sure he’d agree. He’s just not as good. I didn’t play the guitar solos; he didn’t write any lyrics.”
To add insult to injury, Wright, as stated in Blake’s book, said that the criticisms were “fair”, claiming in a later interview that the album “had a couple of really nice tunes”, a comment that seems to perfectly capture the epithet damning with faint praise.
Waters comments certainly came from a place of anguish, but he’s not all wrong. A lot of fans have pointed to the record as being one of the more commercially driven albums of their career. After being called a “spent force creatively” by the departing Waters, the band went a long way to prove it with songs like ‘Dogs of War’, ‘Learning to Fly’ and ‘Sorrow’ not offering their usual spark of creativity.
Be the first to comment