The Flea and Roger Waters collaboration fans never got to hear
Musical collaborations are infamously hit-or-miss in most cases. While the colliding of two iconic artists can produce something truly special, like ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This’ by Dusty Springfield and Pet Shop Boys, they have also been guilty of some of the worst crimes in musical history, like Mick Jagger and David Bowie’s nightmarish take on ‘Dancing In The Street’. Either way, collaboration gives fans an opportunity to see some of their favourite musicians working together, but the resulting products don’t always see the light of day.
Love him or loathe him, nobody can deny the wide-reaching impact that Pink Floyd songwriter Roger Waters had on the rock music of the 20th century. Under his leadership, the progressive rock outfit moved away from the psychedelia of the Syd Barrett era to record some of the most successful and profound concept albums of the era, including the likes of The Dark Side of the Moon and Animals. Although Waters left the group in 1985 as a result of musical differences, he has survived largely on the reputation he garnered as a member of Floyd.
As a result of that reputation, musicians around the world were essentially queueing up for the chance to work alongside the legendary songwriter. During the 1990s, when working on his solo album Amused To Death, Waters recruited more than a few eager helping hands. One such person brought on board the project was Flea, the wild bassist at the heart of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Luckily, Waters was working on the album at the same time that the Peppers were at their commercial peak, giving Flea a chance to work with one of his heroes.
The extent of Flea’s involvement in Amused to Death was playing a bassline for the album’s penultimate track, ‘It’s A Miracle’. During a 1992 interview, Waters reflected on the production of his third solo album and the contributions of the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist. “We based it on the rhythm from the middle of ‘Late Home Tonight’,” he recalled before adding, “We did a very up-tempo version, and Flea played a great bassline, but it wasn’t right.”
Despite the apparently “great” performance delivered by Flea, he was cut from the final tracklisting of Amused To Death. In fact, it was Waters himself who ended up playing bass on the final version of ‘It’s A Miracle’, alongside the legendary stylings of Jeff Beck on guitar. Continuing to describe the production process, Waters remembered, “Pat Leonard started playing it on piano in half-time, and I started singing it in the tempo it now exists in. I put the cassette in the car and got that ‘buzz’; I was blown away.”
“I played it six times on the way back to the house,” he continued, “And then sat outside and played it three times more just because I adored it. And two days later I got Jeff Porcaro in, and he played those drums, which were amazing. And that was that.” Clearly, the bassline supplied by Flea did not have the same effect on Waters, with the songwriter preferring his own take on the bass for ‘It’s A Miracle’.
The demo version of ‘It’s A Miracle’, which featured Flea, has never seen the light of day since it was first recorded in 1992. Presumably, the track still exists on a tape somewhere, but it is not yet known whether fans of Waters and Flea will ever be able to hear the Red Hot Chili Peppers musician’s contributions to the song.
