The 1967 album that completed Roger Waters’ life: “It changed everything”
Coming of age during the 1960s was thrilling for Roger Waters, who couldn’t have asked for a better era to have his cultural awakening.
Only a few years before The Beatles first arrived in the mainstream in 1963, the world was black and white. World War II was a recent memory for much of the population, with millions of adults still traumatised by the experience, even if they didn’t let it be known.
Then, four mop-topped boys from Liverpool ushered in a new era bursting with colour, and made their generation have a voice to believe in.
They carried the mantle from acts like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry, who established rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s, but belonged to people like Waters. Crucially, The Beatles were a homegrown band, making people from all over the country want to start their own group and reshaping the entire musical landscape in their image.
Waters is a handful of years younger than The Beatles, which was the perfect age to admire their journey. He followed their rise as they became the most dominant force in global music, and even once Pink Floyd began gaining traction, Waters still paid close attention to The Beatles, who he viewed as the benchmark.
During the 1970s, Pink Floyd filled the void that The Beatles left behind, even if their sound was unrecognisable. Just like the Fab Four, Pink Floyd made brave, ambitious records that redefined the definition of what an album could be.
If it weren’t for The Beatles, Waters would have been a different person, let alone as an artist. His musical horizons were expanded enormously at their hands, who soundtracked his formative years as a student. None was more important to him than Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which completed his life.
The record arrived at Waters during a key time when Pink Floyd were recording their debut album. The LP inspired the group considerably, particularly Waters, who felt compelled to push himself and defy conventions with their debut effort.
While he previously watched The Beatles’ every step from afar, he was one of the first to hear Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band before it was released into the world. Pink Floyd were also working out of Abbey Road Studios and, somehow, despite being unknowns, they received a close-up look at The Beatles developing a seminal masterpiece.
Although it was only a sneak peek, the Pink Floyd member couldn’t wait to get his hands on the finished record, which continues to mean everything to him today.
“When I was at college, I would listen to The Beatles. When they made Sgt. Pepper’s in ’67, we were in the same studio making our first record,” he told Howard Stern in 2012. “I remember when it came out, pulling the Zephyr Ford into a layby and listening to the whole thing, just sitting there with my mouth hanging open, going, ‘Wow, this is so complete and accomplished and whatever.'”
It wasn’t just the musical mastery that The Beatles showed on Sgt Pepper’s that ignited something within Waters; he was also blown away by their storytelling, adding, “But it also was more than that. It had a ton of ideas and a ton of narrative in it. I feel more than any other record, it was the record that gave me and my generation permission to branch out and do whatever we want to.”
Waters then noted the vast influence it had on him, “If they can do it, we can do it. We don’t need ‘Tin Pan Alley’ anymore, and we can write our own stuff. It changed everything. They instigated their own revolution because obviously when they started over, it was all ‘Please, Please Me’ and whatever.”
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was more than an album for Waters; it taught him a vital life lesson that has guided him throughout every step of his career about the importance of reinvention and risk-taking.
He no longer viewed an album as an assortment of songs, but believed in the need for it to have a narrative thread, which would later fuel Pink Floyd masterpieces such as The Wall and The Dark Side of the Moon.
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