“You’ve left me”: The album Roger Waters felt was far beyond him
Moving with the times can be hard. Especially in the world of music, things change fast. New technology is constantly popping up, bringing new capabilities and possibilities, new sounds and styles. Society changes, too, as different eras float into view, reacting to whatever is happening in the world. The hardest task for a music maker is to keep up, but even as music fans too, it can be tricky, Roger Waters knows that well.
Being able to keep up is a sign of true greatness. The best acts in music history seem to have managed to stay forever relevant. The Rolling Stones still have fans desperate to see them live, Paul McCartney still remains one of the world’s finest songwriters, David Bowie managed to evolve time and time again throughout his career to keep his art fresh, exciting and bringing in new intrigue. It’s a skill that runs alongside their talent.
Often, the ability to keep up comes along with a desire to know what’s new. People like Keith Richards or McCartney aren’t shy about talking about new artists. On his last record, McCartney even teamed up with new talent like Phoebe Bridgers, Blood Orange and more, making it clear that he’s still interested in new music and staying in the know. It’s also a sign that he’s not threatened by newness and doesn’t let the times changing scare him. Instead, he rolls with it, celebrating that progress.
But inevitably for older musicians, there comes a time when they look around and think that the world looks, and sounds, very different now. Perhaps it was during the pop boom of the 1980s, or the dominance of club classics in the 2000s. For Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, it came in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s when one band suddenly made him feel passed it.
“My son Harry gave me OK Computer. I really liked it,” Waters told Rolling Stone in 2002, admitting to liking Radiohead’s beloved 1997 record. But when it came to a later record, he suddenly felt out of touch.
“Amnesiac. That was beyond me, I have to say,” he admitted. “I listened to it once in the car and went, ‘Well, OK, guys. Good, but you’ve left me,’” he said, feeling like although he knew Radiohead were good, he suddenly felt lost in the modern age, grappling with the band’s new sounds as Amnesiac brought in more experimental, electronic sounds.
It left Waters yearning for the old days of good old-fashioned rock and roll, where the sounds were simple and organic. “You know, where’s my Neil Young? Where’s my John Lennon album?” he said. But really, his own band could be seen as the Radiohead of their day. While their peers were still enamoured with the classic rock band set-up, Pink Floyd were wandering into expansive territory. Their own concept albums like The Wall or The Dark Side Of The Moon aren’t miles away from Radiohead’s.
So, while Amnesiac might have made him feel like Thom Yorke and Co were in a different league, they were definitely still playing the same game.
