The 1987 Pink Floyd album Roger Waters felt betrayed by: “An absolute disaster”
Not many bands have one album that stands so far above the rest as their definitive peak. Dark Side Of The Moon is the literal sound of Pink Floyd achieving greatness, laying down not only an album that serves as their very best, but one that music as a whole would happily argue is one of the greatest of all time.
It didn’t come easy. Pink Floyd endured years of experimental suffering in the lead up to their 1973 opus, pushing the boundaries of what was possible to an almost ugly degree, while enduring the painful experience of watching original band member Syd Barrett descend into chaos as a result of the pursuit.
Dark Side took everything out of Pink Floyd, and so when they summited the musical mountain that year, it felt as though there was nowhere left but down thereafter. Wish You Were Here sonically salvaged the steady decline, but internally the band was slowly ripping apart, forever fractured by the brutal path to success they endured in ‘73.
A fracture seen no clearer than in the divide driven between the band’s two songwriting leaders, David Gilmour and Roger Waters. What was at first a creative yin and yang had now become utter contempt, and together they would spend the latter part of the decade and the early part of the ‘80s squabbling over creative, professional and legal differences.
While it was a combination of everything that caused the eventual break-up of the Pink Floyd line-up, the pair would argue that it was the latter that served as the true cause. Eventually, in ‘85, Waters left the group on his own terms, labelling the band as a creatively dead entity.
Unbeknownst to him at the time, the remaining members pushed on to make A Momentary Lapse of Reason without him, a decision that would leave Waters scorned for life. He was left confused, recalling conversations he had with producer Bob Ezrin that made him feel as though his own disillusionment with the band’s direction was shared by him, too.
“After four to five months of constant work with Gilmour and company,” said Waters, “Bob spoke to Michael Kamen, who did orchestral arrangements on The Wall and also co-produced my first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. Bob told him the tracks were ‘an absolute disaster, with no words, no heart, no continuity.'”
It seemed as though Waters felt supported by Ezrin’s reservations over the track, and it ultimately confirmed his narrative that Pink Floyd were dead in the water, and whatever fallout was set to ensue, he would come out on top.
But the band continued on to make the album, without Waters, and the U-turn seemed to sting. He viewed it as something of a personal betrayal and thus launched a legal battle to block Gilmour and Nick Mason from using the name Pink Floyd. Things got so bad that Gilmour, Mason and Ezrin all fled to Los Angeles to avoid ongoing harassment from Waters’ legal team in England.
A bitter end for a band that at one point achieved unmatched greatness.
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