How many Pink Floyd songs are without Nick Mason on drums?
Nick Mason tends to get forgotten far too often when it comes to the legacy of Pink Floyd. While the group’s time in the spotlight tends to revolve around David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and even Syd Barrett, it’s important to remember that Mason was there from the beginning, laying down the rock-solid rhythm for every one of their tunes. However, he did know when he didn’t have the right feel for a song, and bringing in a session musician to play his part wasn’t all that much of a struggle for him.
Then again, I imagine it’s not the most encouraging thing in the world to hear that someone else is playing a part for you. The whole reason why Ringo Starr left The Beatles for a spell was because Paul McCartney was insisting on a certain way of playing, so it’s safe to say it does nothing to someone’s ego to watch someone random person play their part better than they could.
But even though Mason couldn’t play a few songs doesn’t mean he was a poor drummer by any stretch. Look at the band’s performance of ‘One Of These Days’ from their documentary film Live At Pompeii, and you’ll see him in action, especially in the middle of the tune, where he loses one of his sticks and still manages to keep the beat going while grabbing another one without flinching.
Prior to that famous performance, though, there were already tracks that weren’t working with Mason’s signature feel. ‘Remember A Day’ had producer Norman Smith playing the drums himself, and when Gilmour worked on his side of Ummagumma, he was responsible for putting together all of the arrangements for the song ‘The Narrow Way,’ which is far from the most celebrated Floyd tune in their catalogue.
When working on The Wall, Mason also had to be on at all times, and that normally meant staying the hell out of Waters’s way when he brought in Jeff Pocaro to play on ‘Mother’. Despite ‘Mother’ already being in a strange time signature, it’s virtually impossible to hate on a Pocaro groove, especially when it complements the rest of the band so well once Gilmour’s guitar solo kicks in. That only continued with ‘Two Suns in the Sunset’ from The Final Cut, by which time everyone not named Waters was practically viewed as a backing musician.
If there’s one moment in their discography where Mason’s absence was the most transparent, it would have to be A Momentary Lapse of Reason. After going through lawsuits with Waters over the Pink Floyd name, Mason seemed more focused on cars and admitted he was in no shape to perform on the record. It’s not like they didn’t find some great percussionists to fill his shoes, drafting in industry legends like Jim Keltner and Carmine Appice.
Then again, A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the one case where Pink Floyd stopped sounding like themselves a bit too much. While Waters’s albums always had a certain size and scope to them, there’s a sterile sound on the record that comes from Mason not being there, only getting remedied later when working out the tunes on the live album Delicate Sound of Thunder.
Despite every track here having a great tune at the centre of it, there are a few asterisks that make them feel more like experiments rather than bonafide Pink Floyd songs. Each of them has a certain magic, but when you remove the drummer, you’re practically removing the heartbeat of the band.
Every Pink Floyd song without Nick Mason on drums:
- ‘Remember A Day’ – A Saucerful of Secrets
- ‘The Narrow Way’ – Ummagumma
- ‘Mother’ – The Wall
- ‘Two Suns in the Sunset’ – The Final Cut
- ‘Dogs of War’ – A Momentary Lapse of Reason
- ‘One Slip’ – A Momentary Lapse of Reason
- ‘On the Turning Away’ – A Momentary Lapse of Reason
