The David Gilmour vocal that Roger Waters called “terrific”
Pink Floyd embodies the danger of creative differences better than any other band. Though David Gilmour and Roger Waters both started out with the same intentions, wanting to make something exciting, innovative, and incredibly successful, the moment that success was achieved, the stage was set for the band to begin to tear each other apart over the direction that they wanted to take.
This all began to manifest following the release of Dark Side of the Moon. The band cemented themselves as one of the biggest names in rock, selling out arenas and captivating audiences with their long-form approach to music rather than persistently searching for a three-minute hit. After that, Waters stopped worrying too much about success and started focusing more on ways he could expand creatively. This all sounds well and good, but the problems arose when Gilmour didn’t like the direction he was taking the band.
This manifested not only the tension that began to grow within Pink Floyd but is also present in some of the music that the band released. For instance, with their 1979 track ‘Young Lust’, although Waters thought Gilmour’s vocal performance was good, it didn’t fit the song’s theme, so he wasn’t particularly happy with it.
“When I wrote this song ‘Young Lust’, the words were all quite different,” said Waters, “It was about leaving school and wandering around town and hanging around outside porno movies and dirty bookshops and being very interested in sex, but never actually being able to get involved because of being too frightened, really.”
The song was done in a way that reflected the thoughts of young rock n roll bands out on the road. They are interested in the lifestyle that surrounds them, but they’re also intimidated by it, which means that they continually hang around it but are frightened about fully immersing themselves. As such a big fan of the concept, Waters most likely wanted the vocals to reflect that frightened feeling, but instead, Gilmour gave a great vocal performance which didn’t accurately reflect the words he was saying.
“’Young Lust’ is a pastiche number,” explained Waters, “It reminds me very much of a song we recorded years and years ago called ‘The Nile Song’, it’s very similar, Dave sings it in a very similar way. I think he sings ‘Young Lust’ terrific, I love the vocal on it. But it’s meant to be a pastiche of any young rock and roll band out on the road.”
Though this only seems like a small point of contention, a number of slight creative differences began to create friction in the band. After the release of The Final Cut, it was clear that these differences had resulted in a band lineup that couldn’t work together. This ushered in the formal end of Pink Floyd’s lineup, but the feud between Gilmour and Rogers continued for years to come.
