“I didn’t like it”: Richard Wright on the Pink Floyd album the band disowned
Pink Floyd usually had a certain agenda whenever they stepped up to make a record. They had built their foundation off of making experimental journeys, and writing a bunch of songs that were merely good enough wasn’t going to suffice for them. Every song had to help tell the album’s story, but Richard Wright admitted that Roger Waters had started to bite off a little more than he could chew on The Final Cut.
Then again, Waters had already been the band leader ever since Syd Barrett parted ways with them. David Gilmour may have been the one who contributed fantastic leads and brilliant songs, but Waters was the one overseeing every single thing they made, leading to them making their greatest achievement on The Wall.
Waters couldn’t quite let go of that concept, though, and he thought the next best thing was for him to do another iteration of his first idea. And if you thought that theatrics were the worst part of The Wall, boy, are you in for a treat! Compared to the songs on the rock opera that didn’t go anywhere, half of the album feels like scenes from a play that doesn’t exist, with even David Gilmour having doubts about why the record was suddenly full of songs that should have been deleted from their last project.
Whereas Gilmour may have had a certain bone to pick with the songs, Wright had a more specific problem with Waters. Since he had been demoted to a glorified session player during The Final Cut after being fired from the group, he was usually being asked to play other people’s parts, if he even managed to play anything at all, “I didn’t like it, but I knew that I could be quite prejudiced about it, considering my situation. But I think that if you ask Dave or Nick (Mason) about it they don’t think it’s a very good album either.”
When speaking to Mark Blake about the album, he was convinced that Waters had let his ego go to his head, saying, “The thing is, during The Final Cut, the three of them had huge fights which culminated in Roger leaving the band. He had the misguided belief that he was the band. Which is why his ego was shattered when Dave eventually decided to carry on without him”.
For all the faults people throw at The Final Cut, it didn’t end Pink Floyd — The Wall did. It may be heralded as a classic for a good reason, but the only reason that it exists in the state it’s in today is because of how much Waters took control, leading to the imbalance of power that the band never fully recovered from.
Although many of the Gilmour-led Floyd albums have had good to even great moments sprinkled throughout, it would never be the same without Waters’ lyrics underscoring them. Wright may have gotten a chance to spread out a little more on albums like The Division Bell, but even his harmonies with Gilmour feel like something’s missing.
Even years after Wright’s death, Gilmour and Waters still don’t seem to have a consensus on what the name Pink Floyd should be anymore, either falling out over politics, the use of their songs in media, or whatever the hell pops into Waters’ brain on that specific day. The band always worked best when all of them were working towards the same goal, but looking at where Waters and Gilmour ended up makes them look like a divorced court who are still bitter after years apart.
