“Rubbish”: Roger Waters’ scathing review of five classic albums
You don’t get to have the kind of career Roger Waters has had without creative certainty. When Waters begins making music, he knows exactly his intentions and how he wants the finished product to come out. This leads to complicated records such as The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon, but it also leads to overly critical opinions on other albums that Waters wasn’t involved in.
There are few records out there that the Pink Floyd member wouldn’t be able to improve somewhat. His understanding of tone, pacing and structure means that he is one of the greatest musicians in the world when it comes to putting together an exciting piece of music. When you have this kind of standing in the musical world, can it really come as a surprise that you’re critical about other people’s work?
Perhaps one of the most controversial things about the albums Waters hates is how many Pink Floyd albums make an appearance. Some of these are, unsurprisingly, the records that he wasn’t involved in creating; however, he also has some choice words to say about their album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn because it lacks direction (in his mind). Additionally, he despises the work of other artists who would be considered titans in the musical world.
Here are five classic albums that Roger Waters hated and his scathing reviews of them. It seems that for the Pink Floyd member, no artist is immune to criticism.
Classic albums that Roger Waters can’t stand:
Pink Floyd – ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’
One thing that remains constant throughout Roger Waters’ career is a drive towards creative perfection. To do this, albums can’t just sound good; they need to sound like they have intent. The complicated concept albums he was responsible for when in Pink Floyd weren’t just him throwing ideas at a wall and seeing what stuck; they were him carefully pondering over different ideas and working out which would be best for the album he was working on.
As such, one of the Pink Floyd albums he despises the most is the one which doesn’t sound as though it has any direction. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn record was made during a period when the band were working out what would be best for them, and this meant making music that, in Waters’ eyes, lacked direction.
“I don’t want to go back to those times at all,” he said when discussing the record. “There wasn’t anything ‘grand’ about it’. We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn’t play at all, so we had to do something stupid and ‘experimental’.”
Sex Pistols – ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’
When John Lydon first auditioned for the Sex Pistols, he was wearing his famous Pink Floyd T-shirt, famous because he had crossed out the image on it and written “I hate” in big, bold letters across the top. He became synonymous with the T-shirt, and as such, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Waters hated the Sex Pistols’ music.
It wasn’t just a personal vendetta that Waters had against the band, but he also despised the chaos of their sound. Again, this all comes back to his desire for music to have some form of direction, which is arguably the antithesis of punk as a genre. “The Sex Pistols were just trying to make noise,” he said, “It was so clearly contrived. You know, they were managed by a bloke who ran a shop selling silly clothes.”
Pink Floyd – ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason’
Throughout Pink Floyd’s career, they made a number of outstanding records. Arguably, some of their best came when Waters was in the band, but there are constant debates between Pink Floyd fans about which is their best album, which won’t be resolved any time soon. Waters wasn’t a fan of a lot of the music Pink Floyd made after he left the band, as he felt as though, rather than being creative, it sounded like it was clawing for the good ol’ days.
“I think it’s a very facile but quite clever forgery. If you don’t listen to it too closely, it does sound like Pink Floyd. It’s got Dave Gilmour playing guitar,” he said, “And with the considered intention of setting out to make something that sounds like everyone’s conception of a Pink Floyd record, it’s inevitable that you will achieve that limited goal.”
Bob Dylan – ‘Triplicate’
Roger Waters has previously praised Bob Dylan for his musical output; however, given how many different creative directions Dylan has gone in over the years, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that there are a number of other records he has made that Waters can’t stand. Three of these albums are Shadows in the Night, Fallen Angels and Triplicate, each of which contains Frank Sinatra (or Frank Sinatra adjacent) covers on them.
“I haven’t got time to do an album of Frank Sinatra covers,” said Waters when discussing the trifecta of rat pack revisions, “You go, ‘Fuck me, Bob, what is wrong with you? Why would you do that?’”
Pink Floyd – ‘The Division Bell’
Waters didn’t like Pink Floyd’s offering on Momentary Lapse of Reason, but his critique of that record was nothing compared to what he thought of the band’s other offering, The Division Bell. He despised that album so much that he felt sorry for the bands who had bought it, as he felt as though their loyalty to the band was being exploited.
“With all due respect to the people who went out and bought those records, they are just rubbish,” he said, “Particularly The Division Bell; it’s just nonsense from beginning to end.”
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