David Gilmour’s favourite Roger Waters lyrics for Pink Floyd: “I don’t think it’s officially recorded”
When we think of Roger Waters today, we think of, simply put, one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Pink Floyd are one of the most exciting and versatile bands of all time, as they have albums which are incredibly in-depth and exciting to listen to. They don’t just contain songs; they include stories and character arcs, and they explore emotions from the point of view of various people.
Albums such as Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, which Waters had a big hand in creating, are considered some of the greatest LPs ever recorded. They’re not just albums, but they’re cinematic in their appeal, branding themselves as the kind of albums that people put on and listen to uninterrupted, giving the albums the attention that they deserve.
Of course, Waters wasn’t born a natural songwriting genius. There was a big learning curve required for him to understand how to write psychedelic rock songs properly. Some of the earlier material that Waters put forward was below par and doesn’t truly reflect what he would go on to make.
Jimi Hendrix was only ever exposed to the early iteration of Pink Floyd and famously hated them. “Here’s one thing I hate, man,” he said when discussing the band and psychedelic rock music as a whole. “When these cats say, ‘Look at the band. They’re playing psychedelic music!’ All they’re doing is flashing lights on them and playing ‘Johnny B Goode’ with the wrong chords. It’s terrible.” Moving on to Pink Floyd, the guitarist said, “I’ve heard they have beautiful lights, but they don’t sound like nothing.”
While these words seem harsh, Waters would be inclined to agree. When he was asked about some of his least favourite Pink Floyd albums, he named a few records that came out after he had left the band. Given the friction between himself and David Gilmour, it’s hardly a surprise that he wasn’t a fan of these albums. However, the one album he was involved in that he also said he despised was one of the band’s early offerings, Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
While a lot of people like this early Pink Floyd album, it reminds Waters of a time when he had no direction and little grasp of the kind of music that he wanted to make. “I don’t want to go back to those times at all,” he said. “There wasn’t anything ‘grand’ about it. We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn’t play at all, so we had to do something stupid and ‘experimental’.”
The friction between David Gilmour and Roger Waters became apparent when Gilmour was asked which Roger Waters lyrics were his favourite. Rather than choosing from the various offerings on his more critically acclaimed albums, Gilmour chose one of Waters’ early songs, written during this period of confusion when Waters had very little idea of the direction he wanted to take creatively.
“Gosh, let me have a think about that,” he revealed when asked about Waters’ best lyric. “How about a song called ‘Walk With Me Sydney’? […] I don’t think it’s officially recorded.”
