An Unlikely Connection: the hit R.E.M. song Roger Waters called “phenomenal”
Roger Waters is a hard man to please. Not only does he openly and frequently share opinions on others, good and bad, but he also has a specific vision of how music should sound and why it should be made. Although there’s no denying Pink Floyd’s monumental impact, even contemporaries like Keith Richards regard his self-critical ways as going a little bit too far.
Under Waters’ guidance, Pink Floyd delivered five varying albums, each enjoying and suffering different amounts of success and acclaim. Of course, the pinnacle of such a transitional period was The Dark Side of the Moon, which many, including Waters, regarded as the best rock album of all time. In fact, after its release, Waters claimed the band had nothing left to give, as they had “reached the point we’d all been aiming for” and “there was really nothing more to do in terms of rock ‘n’ roll”.
This would have been a considerably pretentious opinion had the album not been as indisputably phenomenal as it was, but Waters’ opinions aren’t always so well-aligned with the mainstream. In fact, he has overtly dismissed other rock and music figures on multiple occasions, including labelling Andrew Lloyd Webber as “shallow, derivative rubbish” and scathingly deeming Sex Pistols “the worst aspects of the ‘look at me’ syndrome.”
On occasion, however, Waters does have something nice to say. For instance, he once called The Who “spectacular” for their performance at Live Aid, labelling them a standout despite being surrounded by Queen and David Bowie hype. He also named John Prine, Leonard Cohen, John Lennon, and Neil Young when discussing the musicians that are “really necessary to have around me”.
Despite finding popular music and much of modern rock exhausting, he has discovered a couple of pieces over the years that have left a lasting impact on him, like R.E.M.’s ‘Everybody Hurts’. “That song is phenomenal,” he told Word Magazine in 2005. “And ‘Every Breath You Take’ by Sting,” he continued. “I loved that song ‘One Headlight’ by the Wallflowers.”
Although some may regard ‘Everybody Hurts’ as having run its course as far as mainstream popularity and extensive cover versions go, Waters clearly has an appreciation for the more straightforward rock ballads and the ones that actually have something to say about the world that we live in. ‘Every Breath You Take’, similarly, has become a staple of rock music despite its overt simplicity.
Perhaps one of the most interesting takeaways from Waters’ appreciation for ‘Everybody Hurts’ is that it technically wasn’t written for people like him, and yet it resonated anyway. As guitarist Peter Buck explained, “The reason the lyrics are so atypically straightforward is because it was aimed at teenagers.” In fact, the song was subtly linked to concepts like those explored in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, where coming-of-age groups of teenagers live close to hell, whether literally or figuratively.
