The Roger Waters concept Pink Floyd rejected for being too “autobiographical”
Almost every Pink Floyd album seems to need some sort of concept or circumstance behind it. Although Syd Barrett may have conceived the group’s debut as a series of vignettes about the most psychedelic images he could think of, the band’s classic period revolves around different stories that could be told over long, extended jams. While Roger Waters may have wanted to reach even further after Animals, Nick Mason remembered the entire band rejecting the concept for The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking.
At this point, Waters had already become the de facto leader of the group. David Gilmour may have certainly been the co-captain, but all of the themes for their records came about because of Waters being at the helm, especially on The Dark Side of the Moon, which dissected what it means for people to go mad.
Outside of being the most palatable progressive music ever made, Waters was also getting in tune with his own feelings across these records. For as cold and lifeless as some naysayers might call their music, it’s hard to get through a piece like ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ without feeling a lump in the back of your throat.
By the time Animals wound down, Waters was almost ready to retire from the band for good, but that didn’t mean he stopped coming up with ideas. When presenting concepts to the group, the idea of telling the story of a man living the life of a travelling rock star and the rules of the road didn’t seem all that enticing.
Despite having the kind of story any rock audience could get down with, Mason considered the concept of someone trapped behind a wall to be much more interesting, telling Ultimate Classic Rock, “[Roger] more or less said, ‘One’s going to be my solo album. You choose which you think would make the best band album.’ We all went for The Wall. We felt the other one was far more autobiographical. I think that was the right decision”.
Now that both albums are out in the world, the band seemed to make the right call. As much as the idea of a travelling rock star seems fun to listen to, The Wall has a far grander scope to work with. Sure, it still has the tropes of a jaded rock star on the road, but the themes of isolation and closing one’s self off from their friends is something more universal than a couple of tracks that amount to a musician complaining about what it means to be a musician.
In fact, Waters may have had the pieces for a great album with The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, but he probably wasn’t the best person to bring it to people’s speakers. This kind of scenario feels like it should be spit out by a rock and roll veteran like Bruce Springsteen or Bob Seger, but when those words are coming out of Waters’s mouth, it falls more than a little bit flat, especially with the tacky early 1980s production.
The Wall may have been a grander project, but it did a lot more damage to the band in hindsight, leading to every band member resenting Waters to the point where he left after The Final Cut. Waters certainly had greater visions for where the music could go, but it wasn’t ready, something that equated to the best band camaraderie.
