Roger Waters discusses the best period of Pink Floyd: “It was a band”
It’s probably hard for someone like Roger Waters to look back at Pink Floyd with rose-coloured glasses. Sure, they made some incredible music together that continues to hold up to this day, but there are also lawsuits, bad blood, and the loss of Syd Barrett to have to deal with in the rearview. There is a sweet spot for when Waters was in the group, but he thought the most fun happened before Dark Side of the Moon was even created.
Before many people got to know Waters for his grand visions of the world’s horrors, there was a certain innocence that came with the Barrett version of the group. Everything was lighthearted, and a lot of the cosmic imagery he put into every song seemed to fit more in line with the idyllic sounds of the 1960s ‘Summer of Love’ movement on tracks like ‘Astronomy Domine’.
Then again, this is also the same period where Barrett started to crack under the pressure of being a frontman. He had already suffered from mental health problems, and his constant intake of acid probably didn’t help matters, leading to him having a full psychological breakdown halfway through making A Saucerful of Secrets.
After Barrett became a liability to the rest of the group, Waters would take the reins, but that didn’t mean they were out of the woods. Any act with Waters writing the songs and David Gilmour playing the guitar should be a musical fireworks show, but Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother seemed to be musical trainwrecks from the word go. There would be the occasional great song on each of the respective albums, but for every track like ‘Careful with That Axe Eugene’, there’s ‘Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast’ that just seems to waste time.
Since they also agreed not to play any of Barrett’s material following his departure, a lot of these records sound like the group is trying to figure out what the hell they are. They were pretty directionless throughout this period, but the album Meddle at least put them on steady ground, culminating in them creating ‘Echoes’ and setting them on course for their classic period.
Despite the questionable quality of the songs, Waters still saw this as the moment where the band’s camaraderie still worked, saying, “In those days, it was a band. I’m sure that at that point, we all agreed about the same things. We’ll only play the new material. We won’t play any of the old material anymore. We’ll only do this album and the one before, and that’s it. There was a certain integrity, and what was important was the work. And that is still exactly how I feel now.”
While Waters may have believed things became more difficult after Dark Side of the Moon, that might have been his design. The only reason the rest of the group wasn’t able to work with him was that there was so little opportunity, with Waters usually telling everyone what the vision for the album was supposed to be and having them layer in what they thought was right after the fact.
By the time they made fantastic albums like The Wall, it didn’t even seem like Pink Floyd anymore. All the classic members were still there and could play their asses off, but the band that fans had gotten to know for their experimental side had turned into Waters, using every other member like his own musical puppet.
