On Pink Floyd and The Wall anyway.
The artistic leadership of Waters didn't begin after Dark Side. It began right after Barrett was kicked out, or certainly by the time of Atom Heart Mother. Waters was a far more brilliant rock visionary than Barrett. Then, after Waters left the band in 1980, Pink Floyd was no longer the leading "Conceptual Rock" group. It became a very fine post-conceptual-era rock band not quite of the same ultimate tier (rather, more of the same tier as Supertramp) with their signature album Momentary Lapse of Reason being merely very good, but still having the Pink Floyd name to ride on. Meanwhile, Waters produced one of the ultimate Conceptual albums in 1986, Amused to Death, which could have been the last and best of the Pink Floyd greats, building on The Wall but even better, actually perfecting it. (The series of albums Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall have never been equalled by any other band (only The Beatles could have, if they had stayed together for 5 concept albums after Sgt Pepper--instead of just The Beatles and Abbey Road).
Rogers was the hard left edge of Pink Floyd, equivalent to John Lennon in the Beatles. Imagine Paul, George, and Ringo, all among the finest rock musicians ever by any reckoning, carrying on The Beatles without John Lennon. Couldn't be done. It couldn't be The Beatles without John Lennon! Surely anyone can see that. No wonder Roger Waters felt that way about the name Pink Floyd, but rarely acknowledged in these hit pieces (which I've seen endlessly since 1980) is that he ultimately relented, and let the other musicians keep the name.
But, primarily because of left politics, Waters has been smeared ever since Animals, and especially for The Wall. I can tell when people just can't take leftism for their negativity toward Waters in these albums, calling them self-absorbed, as if that weren't true of all Rock albums.
Sadly, The Wall two disc set could have made a pretty good single disc, but as two discs it was way too much filler, except as rock opera performance. It clearly suffered from lack of musical collaboration within the band, which was indeed emotionally flying apart, as bands often do, and with substantial contribution from egos Roger's and other's. Side One of The Wall is by itself one of the all time greats of Rock, and accounts for much of the success of the entire package. Amused to Death is a much grander, and yes, even much less self-absorbed, coming close to reaching the magic of Dark Side of the Moon. If it had the band name Pink Floyd it would have been their second or third best.
The artistic leadership of Waters didn't begin after Dark Side. It began right after Barrett was kicked out, or certainly by the time of Atom Heart Mother. Waters was a far more brilliant rock visionary than Barrett. Then, after Waters left the band in 1980, Pink Floyd was no longer the leading "Conceptual Rock" group. It became a very fine post-conceptual-era rock band not quite of the same ultimate tier (rather, more of the same tier as Supertramp) with their signature album Momentary Lapse of Reason being merely very good, but still having the Pink Floyd name to ride on. Meanwhile, Waters produced one of the ultimate Conceptual albums in 1986, Amused to Death, which could have been the last and best of the Pink Floyd greats, building on The Wall but even better, actually perfecting it. (The series of albums Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall have never been equalled by any other band (only The Beatles could have, if they had stayed together for 5 concept albums after Sgt Pepper--instead of just The Beatles and Abbey Road).
Rogers was the hard left edge of Pink Floyd, equivalent to John Lennon in the Beatles. Imagine Paul, George, and Ringo, all among the finest rock musicians ever by any reckoning, carrying on The Beatles without John Lennon. Couldn't be done. It couldn't be The Beatles without John Lennon! Surely anyone can see that. No wonder Roger Waters felt that way about the name Pink Floyd, but rarely acknowledged in these hit pieces (which I've seen endlessly since 1980) is that he ultimately relented, and let the other musicians keep the name.
But, primarily because of left politics, Waters has been smeared ever since Animals, and especially for The Wall. I can tell when people just can't take leftism for their negativity toward Waters in these albums, calling them self-absorbed, as if that weren't true of all Rock albums.
Sadly, The Wall two disc set could have made a pretty good single disc, but as two discs it was way too much filler, except as rock opera performance. It clearly suffered from lack of musical collaboration within the band, which was indeed emotionally flying apart, as bands often do, and with substantial contribution from egos Roger's and other's. Side One of The Wall is by itself one of the all time greats of Rock, and accounts for much of the success of the entire package. Amused to Death is a much grander, and yes, even much less self-absorbed, coming close to reaching the magic of Dark Side of the Moon. If it had the band name Pink Floyd it would have been their second or third best.
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