By Brian Ives
Of the many things that former Pink Floyd bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour have historically disagreed upon was the band’s last album with Waters, 1982’s The Final Cut. And now it seems that Waters may be admitting that Gilmour was at least partially right in his assessment of that album.
The sequel to 1979’s colossally successful The Wall, The Final Cut featured a number of songs that didn’t make the prior double album. Gilmour, who had been splitting the lead vocals with Waters over the band’s last few albums, only sang on one song (the album’s highlight, “Not Now John”), and did not contribute to the writing at all.
In the book, Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd, Gilmour was quoted as saying that he argued that some of the songs weren’t worthy of being released. “I said to Roger, ‘If these songs weren’t good enough for The Wall, why are they good enough now?'” Pink Floyd didn’t tour for the album, and soon after, Waters left the band. The Gilmour led-Pink Floyd never performed any of the songs from that album, although Waters has put some in the set lists on his solo treks.
Related: Not Fade Away: Looking Back at Pink Floyd’s ‘The Final Cut’
But in a new interview with Esquire, Waters admits that, perhaps, the album doesn’t hold up. “Well, there were certain songs on The Final Cut, and there’s some stuff about the production of that album, that I think are a bit clunky and heavy-handed. I don’t love the drum sound and, if I could do it again, I would be much more naturalistic in terms of the way things are constructed. I would not try to make this thing that has these huge dynamics in it.”
Related: Radio.com Minimation: Roger Waters: ‘This is a Small Planet’
In the same interview, Waters also spoke a little bit about his upcoming solo album, his first since 1992’s Amused to Death. “It’s based on a piece that I wrote a year ago. I’ve written lots of songs that all fit into it. Some of the songs are from 1999, and I did some more recordings in 2001, too. Since then I wrote some new songs, and I started writing this narrative; a radio play. The radio play may never happen, but it’s about this old Irishman, who came from me writing a song called ‘Hell No’. It’s a song about asking and answering questions about conflict in general, but specifically going to fight, in Afghanistan or Iraq if you’re an American.”
Roger Waters: The Wall concert film is due out on December 1.
