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Re: What Are You Listening To?
Been listening to the Wall after the latest Roger Waters debacle.
Ricky Wright is barely felt on this album and Gilmour's only claim to fame is the solo on Comfortably Numb. For all intents and purposes this is a Roger Waters solo album. But it still feels like a Pink Floyd album. Whereas Gilmour and Wright's Division Bell doesn't feel like Floyd at all despite having the superficial sound.
I think Waters should have had more lead vocals on Dark Side. His voice is simply better despite being technically inferior to Gilmour. He really is the band and always was. This I think Mason accepts which is why he gets on well with Roger, while the other two were always in denial. Waters is still out there at 80 captivating a young audience. Not just musically either, but politically keeping the Floyd spirit alive in the full sense of it, while Dave sits at home, hogging the Pink Floyd brand, donating to global warming and calling Waters a racist on Twitter.
To me it's become obvious who is the fraud.
Re: What Are You Listening To?
The Wall doesn't really hold up anymore...as a whole anyways. It's not just us...a lot of people feel this way now.
The concept is either too ambitious for its own good or too pretentious. It has some epic tracks that get bogged down in the concepts nonsense.
In my youth , I probably would've ranked it higher than Dark Side. Not anymore...it's not even close to the brilliance of Dark Side.
Here's the version of The Wall I listen to now.....
In the Flesh
Another Brick In The Wall 1
Another Brick In The Wall 2
Mother
Goodbye Blue Sky
Empty Spaces
Young Lust
Another Brick In The Wall 3
Hey You
Is There Anybody Out There?
Nobody Home
Comfortably Numb
The Show Must Go On
Run Like Hell
I tossed the rest...and you could make a case for a couple of the songs above not being necessary.
While The Final Cut is considered by most to be Waters first solo album, some consider it to be The Wall...and you can make a case for it too.
The issues with Wright go back to Animals. He's barely on either album....and he was actually fired before The Wall tour and brought back immediately on a salary.
Yeah....Gilmour was completely out of gas at that point. Waters is lucky he even got Comfortably Numb out of him.
Wright was too busy using drugs and Gilmour too busy doing whatever he was doing.... vacationing with his wife I think.
Waters would even ask them "What do you got?"....and they don't have anything. That was part of the straw that broke the camel's back when it was time to do The Final Cut....Gilmour loathed the project yet had nothing to offer Waters as an alternative.
I agree with Gilmour about that album....and he had a really good point.....
If this material wasn't good enough for The Wall, why is it good enough now?
Mason was the Duff of Pink Floyd...he straddles the fence as a neutral observer trying to keep the peace....and he does it to this day.
Since I consider Dark Side of the Moon to be the greatest album ever made, I disagree that it needs more Waters. I love his voice too even though Gilmour is technically the better singer.
Waters dominating the vocals is a mixed bag....
Animals is incredible....Gilmour's only lead is on Dogs.
The Final Cut sucks....and Gilmour's only lead is Not Now John.
You can also make the case that both those songs are the best on those albums. 
While Dogs is incredible...I think Pigs(Three Different Ones) is my favorite Animals song.
Have you heard the Dogs demo with Waters on lead?
You've gotta be hyped for his upcoming Dark Side remake...all vocals by Waters.
I kinda feel for Waters in the sense he clearly still wants to do so much but he's simply getting too old for it to really have much impact.
That wacky remake of Comfortably Numb along with his comments made it seem like he might be considering remaking that to fit our current world but I don't think it can or will connect with a large audience.
Either way...I'll always love the guy. His death will be a huge loss. One of the most talented people in history....and that's not hyperbole.
He just made some fucked up decisions that wound up impacting the rest of his career. Imagine how much more he could've done.
Re: What Are You Listening To?
The Wall has always been separate for me. In my Pink Floyd playlist I only have Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals. The three classic Floyd albums with that spacey sound. The Wall is different precisely because Wright and Gilmour are not really involved. Waters dominates the sound. I don't think it's better than the other three, especially not Dark Side of the Moon. It's still very, very good though and worthy of being called a Floyd album.
I'm not going to disagree Dark Side is the best album of all time, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been even better. "Time" in particular is the song I'm concerned about. I no longer find David Gilmour credible when he sings those lyrics. Money yes, Dogs for sure, but not on this existential song about the inevitability of death. Waters lack of technical ability is more than made up for with emotion, and this song demands it. I'm looking forward to the rerecording but I would prefer to hear him sing it in his young voice.
That Comfortably Numb is an amazing achievement. You would have to be crazy to try and remake such a classic song, and I'm sure he's doing it to spite Gilmour and Wright too. He makes some very good choices. Obviously the guitar solo has to go. You can't make a better guitar solo so why try. Instead he gives us this amazing, Gig in the Sky type vocal line. The more I think about it the more I think it is brilliant. It shouldn't be possible to make a worthy remake of that song, you would expect it to be halfway embarassing to be honest, and yet he pulls it off at 80 years old and motivated by a type of spite you only see in kids. It's like he's telling them, I don't need you, I don't even need to replace you. I can do something completely different on my own and it will be just as good.
Waters did a Q&A with Nick Mason some years back, it's on youtube, and in response to his musical powers he claimed to still be peaking. When I heard that I laughed and to some extent I still do, but now I can see why he might think that. In some respects he has evolved as a musician and is doing it better than ever. His latest album had a couple of very strong songs and this Comfortably Numb remake makes me very excited for the new Dark Side remake as well. The guy is 80 years old! Mick and Keith yeah they are still going, but they don't really give a fuck. This guy does. He's still a kid, eager to learn and to prove himself. That is rare.
Re: What Are You Listening To?
That's why it's kinda sad. He still wants to be relevant....but he can't. He hasn't been relevant since The Wall....none of his solo albums connected with the masses.
While I initially laughed at the idea of a Dark Side remake, you bring up a good point. A different approach to it....an 80 year old bitter man singing Time, I also wonder how Great Gig In The Sky will be.
If he's trying to hit one final grand slam by remaking a classic album in the dystopia of today, he's remaking the wrong album.
He should tackle Animals.
You don't listen to pre-Dark Side Floyd? I ignored it for eons as well but there's some killer stuff there. No perfect albums of course...each one has some duds...but songs that hint at the coming greatness.
They're not too fond of some of it...both think Atom Heart Mother is shit...I really like If though.
I was listening to some solo Waters last night...listened to all of Radio KAOS.
Man....that opening track.....
It sounds like a song you'd hear in the intro of some cheesy 80s comedy. He might have been aiming for that...I don't know...it's a wacky album.
While I do like the DJ stuff throughout the album...it's like you're really listening to it on the radio...the concept falls flat.
I will say this ...it would've made a better Pink Floyd album than Momentary Lapse...which was really a Gilmour solo album the label wanted disguised as a Floyd album.
Edit
Have you listened to Wright's solo material? Wet Dream is pretty damn good....it just begs for the Waters treatment.
Love this song....it's probably about his relationship with Waters.
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Love this too....Waters could've turned this into a real song....
Re: What Are You Listening To?
I don't think it's sad. I'm impressed. He obviously thought he no longer need Pink Floyd to maintain popularity and he failed spectacularly. His first solo album was nothing more than a fart, the second too. When you say it sounds like cheesy 80s that is probably deliberate so he can appeal to the current thing. But that wasn't enough because the album was no good. Then he spent six years on his magnum opus, Amused to Death, and in between that he had a public wind with his the Wall performance when the Berlin Wall fell. But that too was a massive bomb. All the while Gilmour is out there selling millions of copies of his crap albums and enjoying worldwide success with his gaudy tours. Waters must have been fuming, maybe close to a nervous breakdown. Reality hit him in the face with brutal force in those days.
But he didn't lay down. He remembered his only success in those years, his Berlin Wall performance. So he focused on that and built himself up as a live artist. Aided by the fact Gilmour wasn't doing anything with Floyd anymore. Musically he's no longer relevant, but he has managed to make himself relevant as an artist and a performer, and using that public capital, become a very relevant political actor. Say what you will about his speech in the UN, he's clearly relevant in that arena with a lot of young folks looking to him with inspiration.
And for me personally his latest album, the first in 25 years, is clearly his best solo work. Put Gilmour, Mason and Wright (theoretically) in the mix and you have a great modern Pink Floyd album. So he has not only evolved as a performer in his old age, he's also improved significantly with his solo efforts. The Comfortably Numb remake was also incredible, and the little I've heard from the Dark Side remake also intrigues me. For so many years I never cared for any of his solo work because his first 3 albums were so disappointing, but here he is in his late 70s wheeling me in. For me he is about to create a second legacy which is almost as illustrious as his Pink Floyd heyday.
I listen to early Floyd. Not so much the Barrett period and the few albums after that when they were learning to create music on their own, but Atom Heart Mother and particularly Meddle have a lot of great songs. They sound like summer pop albums with cheerful melodies. Then you have Echoes, one of their best songs and clearly the bridge to later material.
All of Floyd's early solo material is a microcosm of what they each brought to the band. Wright with his soundscapes, Gilmour with his guitar, Mason with his rhythm and Waters with his energy and visionary concepts. He shouldn't have left the band.
Re: What Are You Listening To?
I'm impressed too...just the fact he's actually putting in the work is impressive. I meant it's sad because no matter what he does or how good...it's not going to have much of an impact.
I wish he was 20 years younger.
This is where he needed to be in 2000 instead of having to rebuild his "brand" in the absence of Floyd.
He can do arenas and stadiums now on the back of his legacy but that's about it.
Look at people like Axl...or bands like The Who...they can fill all these venues but have no desire to really do anything....or people like Stevie Nicks and KISS who just flat out admit they're not going to do a goddamn thing no matter what.
Hell... Fleetwood Mac wanted a swan song album but Stevie refused even though she's only need to either bring a couple songs to the table or just sing Buckingham"s.
Some could say Waters is doing nostalgia....and he is....but he's taking a very unique approach to it.
He shouldn't have left the band.
Yeah....I don't care what he says...he regrets it. He has to....
Even though I've read about it, I still don't understand why. Obviously it was ego....but holy shit...the visionary doesn't leave the band!! Everyone else is supposed to either stay or leave one after the other.
What makes the situation even more bizarre is how everyone in the band had gave in....they gladly let him take on the songwriting and coming up with these concepts. He let them choose between The Wall and Pros and Cons....
He was too controlling near the end...The Final Cut should've been placed on the back burner and start on Pros and Cons...or something new. Phasing out Wright was a mistake too... although Gilmour went along with this.
Gilmour got really lucky gaining control of the name.
Then you have Echoes, one of their best songs and clearly the bridge to later material.
Indeed.
Embryo is probably the planting of the seed though.
I'm with you on Syd Floyd. It's not my cup of tea at all.
Lucifer Sam
Interstellar Overdrive
Astronomy Domine
It's all the Syd Floyd anyone needs. For starters...his lyrics are terrible.
I'll listen to his recent album tonight.
