The Pink Floyd songs with the “best guitar solos in the history of rock and roll,” according to Roger Waters
Known for his extreme pitch bends and spacey psychedelic exploration, the guitar solos that David Gilmour contributed to Pink Floyd are arguably one of the key factors in what made them such a well-regarded rock group. While the efforts of the other band members were, of course, just as crucial, the rest of the band could always count on Gilmour’s lead breaks to elevate a track to a higher plane and create moments of magic.
While the glory years of the group are well and truly over, with members either having passed away or not on speaking terms with one another due to the acrimonious circumstances that led to individuals parting company with their bandmates, Pink Floyd left an incredible legacy behind, with plenty of exceptional moments that fans can return to and clamour over for decades to come.
One member of Pink Floyd who may not look back on his years with the band as positively as the others is the principal songwriter and bassist Roger Waters, who left the band in 1985, citing irreconcilable differences between Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason. Waters has gone on record to say a number of disparaging things about his former bandmates, not least that he called the band a “spent force creatively” after his departure.
However, one thing that Waters attests that he never said was that Gilmour had offered the group “horrible guitar solos”, and that his reasoning for recreating his own version of Dark Side of the Moon in celebration of the album’s 50th anniversary was not down to him wanting to remove said guitar parts from existence. An article by esteemed music journalist and broadcaster Stuart Maconie in The New Statesman claimed that Waters had said this, directly quoting another article from Spanish newspaper El Pais that attributed the quote to Waters.
Waters, quite rightfully, lost his temper at this insinuation and quickly rose to the defence of his former bandmate. “It’s the usual, shit-stirring, ill-informed nonsense,” Waters posted in a statement on Twitter. “I don’t know who he thinks he’s quoting when he says Gilmour’s ‘horrible guitar solos’, but it sure as shit ain’t me.”
Continuing to show support for Gilmour’s work, he claimed: “I love Dave’s guitar solos on Dark Side of the Moon, both of them, and on Wish You Were Here and on Animals and on The Wall and on The Final Cut. In my, albeit biased view, Dave’s solos on those albums constitute a collection of some of the very best guitar solos in the history of rock and roll.”
While he doesn’t offer much specificity on which guitar solos he likes aside from reeling off as many albums as he can to apologetically cover for his alleged slandering of Gilmour’s work, he did specifically point to the two featured on Dark Side of the Moon, which are heard in ‘Money’ and ‘Time’, and nods to there being some on other albums which could be inclusive of songs such as ‘Have a Cigar’, ‘Pigs’ or ‘Comfortably Numb’.
Waters was adamant that his reasons for re-recording Dark Side of the Moon were not specifically to erase Gilmour’s parts, but his efforts to “bring out the heart and soul of the album” did involve him actively opting not to have rock and roll guitar solos so it could be more authentically his own version of the album. Saying that Gilmour’s guitar solos were “horrible” is not something that ever came out of Waters’ mouth, and he gladly reminded Maconie of that in his delightfully snarky final words to the broadcaster. “So, Stuart Maconie, you little prick, next time, please check your copy with the subjects of your grubby little piece, before you go to print. Love R.”
