The classic Pink Floyd song Roger Waters wanted to delete from history: “That fucking has to be on the album”
When starting a band, many power dynamics are at play. Who writes the songs or who sings the songs can relate a lot of how a group intends to plot their hostile takeover of the airwaves. Pink Floyd‘s power centre usually revolved around David Gilmour and Roger Waters. The duo have been the focal point of the group for decades, and even after Waters left the group, the relationship of the pair remains a hot topic.
While Syd Barrett may have been the frontman throughout the group’s early years, his mental downfall led to the rest of the band taking the reins in his place. Waters created kaleidoscopic images and preached about the state of the world underneath the band’s musical masterpieces. Although Waters may have had creative control, Gilmour admitted that one song almost got the better of him.
Throughout the first post-Barrett years, though, it was unclear whether the band could create anything else. Across albums like Atom Heart Mother and the soundtrack albums like Obscured By Clouds, the band were still trying to find out what they were trying to be, only having a sense of direction when they created the epic ‘Echoes’ on the album Meddle.
Having a clear idea of how he wanted to approach lyrics, Waters set about writing the next album about life and what makes people go mad. Envisioned as a singular piece, The Dark Side of the Moon would become one of the most celebrated albums in rock history, showcasing Gilmour and Waters complimenting each other perfectly both behind the mic and behind their instruments.
After the group got a taste of fame and fortune, though, Waters used the rest of his time in the band to comment on the dangers he saw in the world. While Wish You Were Here would be a heartfelt tribute to Barrett, songs like ‘Welcome to the Machine’ laid the groundwork for the group’s true epic.
Modelled after Barrett and his own life, Waters would create The Wall as a firm look at what the music industry does to someone. Although the titular ‘Pink’ may go through various mood changes throughout the rock opera, one of the cornerstone songs on the album almost didn’t make it on the record.
As Pink is closing himself off from reality, his managers burst into his hotel room to get him onstage, culminating in the epic ‘Comfortably Numb’. While the track would feature some of the most tuneful sections of the record, Gilmour remembered how the song was almost cut from the record entirely.
Recalling years later, Gilmour’s wife Ginger would talk about the guitarist being on the verge of violence over the tune, telling Louder, “The day apparently had been really tough because Roger didn’t want ‘Comfortably Numb’ on the album.” It’s incredibly difficult to imagine the record without Pink Floyd’s enigmatic signature tune. The track is considered among their very best and certainly among Gilmour’s finest guitar solos. It might be why he was so enraged by the idea that Water would simply delete the song from history and leave it on the editing room floor.
Ginger continued: “David doesn’t show anger very often, but on that night, in the Japanese restaurant, if he knew karate, he would have broken the table with how hard he hit it. He said, ‘That fucking has to be on the album.’” A powerful position and one that most Floyd fans can consider to be vindicated.
After Waters eventually acquiesced, the song would become an instant classic among Floyd fans. It featured some of Gilmour’s most inspired lead guitar playing and moved the narrative along before Pink laid siege to his fans, culminating in him finally tearing down the wall. While The Wall could rightfully be considered a Roger Waters solo album with the members of Pink Floyd as backup musicians, Gilmour’s artistic voice was key to giving fans a piece of rock history.
