Snubbed and serenaded: The bizarre experience Roger Waters had at an R.E.M. show
Former Pink Floyd executive Roger Waters has become a caricature in contemporary times. Mired in an ongoing feud with his former songwriting partner David Gilmour and drenched in other political controversies, long-term fans of the Cambridge native and his oeuvre might state that he has lost sight of himself when others would argue that his well-meaning protests in the name of freedom and democracy have been grievously misunderstood.
Without getting too bogged down in the political aspects of Waters’ recent battles, there can be no doubt that when he and Pink Floyd were at their peak, they were one of the most compelling and, indeed, distinctive guitar bands out there. They strove for unfettered originality and forged an arc based on constant evolution when so many of their contemporaries were falling into the doldrums of self-importance.
Of course, Waters was critical to much of Floyd’s success, with him assuming the role of creative director and vocalist after original frontman Syd Barret departed under a cloud of severe mental health issues and drug-taking in 1968. This component of the group’s story is also significant. It would not only be the symbolic beginning of their stepping out of the explicitly psychedelic sound of their formative era, but it proved consequential for the band members as humans.
By the time the band were recording their hotly anticipated second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, the writing was on the wall for Barrett, with his mental health starkly declining and school friend Gilmour recruited as a member to alleviate some of the burden. However, the tide could not be stemmed, and Barrett eventually left before the record was finished. What ensued was a strange period for everyone involved. After the frontman departed, he set about recording his only two solo albums, 1970’s The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, with the first assisted by both Gilmour and Waters.
Not only a reflection of his unique genius but of his mental state at the time, the albums serve as intense reminders of the inherently all-encompassing nature of psychological struggles. While many songs stand out, for many, ‘Dark Globe’ takes the crown as the most affecting. It only takes the mention of lyrics such as the following, “I tattooed my brain all the way / Won’t you miss me? Wouldn’t you miss me at all?” to fully understand the songwriter’s state at the time of conception.
This was something Waters discussed during an extensive 2001 interview at Abbey Road Studios. After touching on the melancholy nature of some of Barrett’s solo work, Waters provided a counterpoint to the caricature he presently is by candidly recounting some of the lyrics of ‘Dark Globe’ and said he gets “chills” when he hears it, calling it “the gem” from that intense period. The former Pink Floyd leader also said it has the same effect on others.
Waters then provided a fascinating anecdote to outline this. He recalled watching American indie heroes R.E.M. early on in their career at the Hammersmith Odeon. It was a memorable evening for him and reaffirmed the power of ‘Dark Globe’.
While the members of the Athens, Georgia group treated him with reverence when he went backstage to say hello, according to Waters, frontman Michael Stipe did not. Instead, he sat in the corner, “refusing to speak and ignoring me and whatever”. This “was fine”, Waters maintained, as it was Stipe and his band’s show.
The show was “great” according to Waters, and Stipe’s one-man encore really struck him. He said: “Then at the end, they went off, and then he came back on, and he sang ‘Dark Globe’ acapella on his own. I thought that was great. I don’t know if he was having a go at me or not, but I thought it was fantastic – he got some of the words wrong – but by and large, it was great; I thought, ‘How cool’.”
While Waters was told this was a strange move, given Stipe had ignored him prior, he postulated why the R.E.M. man made such a move, and it all came back to the track and songwriter. Either way, though, it moved him immensely.
He concluded: “Well, he may be one of the ‘Pink Floyd were nothing after Syd’ kind of camp, of which there are a number, or it may be that he just wanted to show me that he knew that bit of the work as well. But it was great, he sang it really well, of course, because he’s got great voice, and it was very moving.”
