It is the responsibility of every artist to attempt to convey their emotions on the finished recording. The strongest bonds are formed between a band and its audience when they produce music that, despite the difficulty of putting into words what one feels in one’s heart, makes the listener feel something. Even though Roger Waters had a long list of hits with Pink Floyd, he believed that one of the pillars of their career was never properly acknowledged.
However, Waters was always a little lax about where to take the band from the minute he took the mike. After replacing the mentally ill Syd Barrett, Waters would replace the space rock influences of the band with progressive rock sounds, crafting songs that broadened the scope of what rock & roll could achieve.
Waters would spend the late 1960s and early 1970s attempting to figure out what kind of sound the band should have, with guitar player David Gilmour’s assistance. Even while records like Atom Heart Mother are recognized as seminal works of rock & roll today, the band didn’t feel like they had found their sound until the song “Echoes” from the album Meddle.
Beginning in 1973 with Dark Side of the Moon, the group would go on to develop their sound as Waters showcased his compositional prowess. With albums like Wish You Were Here, Waters became disillusioned with the music industry and chose to examine his mental state rather than pen the typical rock and roll love ballad or uptempo piece.
In an attempt to find the ideal way to express his suffering, Waters would go on to write the script for The Wall, which is about a teenage rock star who finally fortifies himself with both physical and emotional barriers to keep the outside world at bay. Waters had complete creative control over the album, even though the band would play on it. He was so unhappy with the content that he fired keyboardist Richard Wright.
Waters left the band to pursue a solo career while Gilmour took over, although the group would go on to record The Final Cut a few years later. Waters would subsequently claim that none of the band members had the vision for what the songs represented, although they would still play a variety of The Wall songs live.
Talking about how the other members of the band didn’t do the songs credit when they performed songs like “Comfortably Numb” at Knebworth, Waters said, “They haven’t got the faintest idea of what it’s about. But then they never did. Still, most of the audience for this show will probably think it’s Pink Floyd anyway. The attachment to the brand name is limpet-like. It’s just something I live with.”
If fans wanted to hear Waters’s rendition of the rock opera, though, they didn’t have to wait much longer. Following the success of The Wall, Waters went on to tour the world as a solo artist, bringing the most lavish effects the world had ever seen to the album’s totality. Even though Floyd’s Wall is regarded as one of his best works to date, Waters believes that because not everyone was on board, there remained unrealized potential.