Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

All discussion related specifically to Roger Waters.
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Annoying Twit
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

Post by Annoying Twit »

space triangle wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:08 am The band hired also a session drummer Andy Newmark to play drums on 'Two Suns in the Sunset'. Nick was unable to perform the song, due to its complex time signature changes.
That's what Roger Waters said. However, Nick Mason's take on it is different. There's a difference between being able to nail something straight away (as a top session player such as Andy Newmark or Jeff Porcaro do day in day out) and taking weeks to work something out as might have been required for Nick to do it. See, e.g., http://floydlyrics.blogspot.com/2010/03 ... unset.html There is a difference between being utterly incapable of doing something, and it taking a long time to achieve that something.

Remember that all Floyd members have had others play their parts. Bob Ezrin played plenty of keyboards on The Wall. Dave Gilmour played lots of bass instead of Roger. (And Roy Harper sang a Rog song). Joe DiBlasi played guitar on 'Is There Anybody Out There' instead of Dave. There are other guitarists and keyboardists on TDB, etc. But, people only seem to talk about when Nick was replaced on a song.
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

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Poor Nick. Let's not forget Norman Smith and 'Remember a Day'. During the sessions for the song, drummer Nick Mason became agitated that he could not come up with the right drum part. Producer Norman Smith, however, knew what he wanted with the drums, so he played on the song himself. :D
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

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space triangle wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:06 am Poor Nick. Let's not forget Norman Smith and 'Remember a Day'. During the sessions for the song, drummer Nick Mason became agitated that he could not come up with the right drum part. Producer Norman Smith, however, knew what he wanted with the drums, so he played on the song himself. :D
I think that's what it's about. Nick isn't a drummer who quickly comes up with parts. World-class session players do it much quicker - no surprise there. That doesn't mean that Nick was utterly unable to come up with suitable parts, but that sometimes in order to 'get on with it' they subbed him. That would particularly apply early on when things would have been done more to a budget and presumably a tight schedule. Nick himself said that it would take 'weeks' for him to come up with a good drum part for 'Two Suns...'. The way TFC was recorded with Dave and Nick being bought in like session players simply wouldn't allow that.

Money has parts in 7/4 and 4/4. Nick plays on that just fine, but that's the album where they had heaps of time to work out their parts. Here's a video on how to play it. The basic groove is simple, but there are more complex bits at the end of sections.

https://youtu.be/cGSavSmVo1E
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

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space triangle wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2020 7:06 amLet's not forget Norman Smith and 'Remember a Day'.
I always do, dang it! I love that song, but I always forget about who played drums, and focus on the guitar parts - Syd had recorded the slide parts before Dave joined, but I know I've read that Dave recorded "some embellishments" for the rhythm guitar parts, though I can't find that quote now anywhere.
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

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Annoying Twit wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2020 8:32 am
Money has parts in 7/4 and 4/4. Nick plays on that just fine, but that's the album where they had heaps of time to work out their parts. Here's a video on how to play it. The basic groove is simple, but there are more complex bits at the end of sections.
Steve DiStanislao disappoints me on "Money". He quickly falls behind the loop on the 2016 Pompeii version, barely puts in a fill, then speeds up (as it should be) for the 4/4 only to slow down again dramatically when it goes back to 7/4. And I remember similar issues in Wiesbaden. You only notice Nick when he's missing. (Although I'm not so happy about him putting in all those straight fills, especially on the '88 and '94 live versions, when the whole thing is meant to be in a 3 'feel'...)
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

Post by DarkSideFreak »

pinkyblue123 wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2020 12:12 pm Is that Kevin Bloody Wilson's brother????
Steven Wilson is a well respected musician, known from his bands such as Porcupine Tree, no-man (with Tom Bowness) and Blackfield (with Aviv Geffen), who's been carving out a name as the most important progressive rock artist of the new century. He's a singer, composer & multi-instrumentalist, but also a producer (Opeth, Marillion, Fish) and an engineer renowned for his remixing work in stereo and 5.1 surround (King Crimson, Yes, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant and the Tears for Fears one which will arrive tomorrow =P~ ).

Praising ITTLWRW is entirely in character for him (he didn't rate TER - in fact, he specifically stated one of the reasons for starting Porcupine Tree was being unsatisfied with the safe direction of post-Roger Floyd.

I have to admit I find it hard to connect to his stuff, as it feels like it's all brain and little heart... but there are many who dig him, and I do like some of his songs. This is from his 2017 album...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPcoUCFAVcQ
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

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DarkSideFreak wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:35 pm Praising ITTLWRW is entirely in character for him (he didn't rate TER - in fact, he specifically stated one of the reasons for starting Porcupine Tree was being unsatisfied with the safe direction of post-Roger Floyd.
So a Roger fan then, eh ? 8) Any link to an interview, perchance ?
Thanks for the recommendation btw, I'd never heard of this guy & his stuff sounds worth exploring.
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

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thefinalmutt wrote: Thu Oct 29, 2020 1:55 am
DarkSideFreak wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:35 pm Praising ITTLWRW is entirely in character for him (he didn't rate TER - in fact, he specifically stated one of the reasons for starting Porcupine Tree was being unsatisfied with the safe direction of post-Roger Floyd.
So a Roger fan then, eh ? 8) Any link to an interview, perchance ?
Thanks for the recommendation btw, I'd never heard of this guy & his stuff sounds worth exploring.
SW is rather talkative. I like the interviews that Anil Prasad did with him about his solo albums (and the second one also has contributions from Nick Beggs, Adam Holzman, Theo Travis and - natch - Alan Parsons!)

www.innerviews.org/inner/wilson.html
www.innerviews.org/inner/wilson2.html

Paul Sinclair did a couple of good ones too, this one is super fresh:

https://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news ... -one-unit/

Looking for interviews I also came across this funny little story:

https://www.iheart.com/content/2020-06- ... lson-show/ 8)

Not surprising this:

https://www.loudersound.com/news/and-st ... -artist-is
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

Post by battra »

Alvader wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 3:57 pm
space triangle wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2020 10:10 am Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd, Yet He's Behind Most of Their Groundbreaking Music

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/ge ... music.html

"Great musicians are people who are brilliant musical thinkers." 8)
I would not say "...Yet he is behind most of their groundbreaking music" but rather "groundbreaking Albums". Waters is behind the concepts of those albums. The music is made by the group. The result is a Pink Floyd album.
You say this, but Pink Floyd without Waters didn't create one Pink Floyd record whereas Roger Waters without Pink Floyd made four Pink Floyd records.
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

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battra wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:47 pmYou say this, but Pink Floyd without Waters didn't create one Pink Floyd record whereas Roger Waters without Pink Floyd made four Pink Floyd records.
Latter-day Floyd may not have made albums that compare with their best work, but neither has Roger - hell, Roger somehow made an album (The Final Cut) that couldn't even sell well under the Pink Floyd brand, so his argument against Gilmour and Mason continuing to use the name doesn't hold water, especially in light of their massive success (and that Grammy they won). Broken China is much more cohesive concept album in the Pink Floyd tradition than anything Roger has put out on his own.
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Re: Steven Wilson: Roger Waters Is Arguably the Worst Musician in Pink Floyd

Post by battra »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 12:58 am
battra wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:47 pmYou say this, but Pink Floyd without Waters didn't create one Pink Floyd record whereas Roger Waters without Pink Floyd made four Pink Floyd records.
Latter-day Floyd may not have made albums that compare with their best work, but neither has Roger - hell, Roger somehow made an album (The Final Cut) that couldn't even sell well under the Pink Floyd brand, so his argument against Gilmour and Mason continuing to use the name doesn't hold water, especially in light of their massive success (and that Grammy they won). Broken China is much more cohesive concept album in the Pink Floyd tradition than anything Roger has put out on his own.
I disagree.

Both Amused to Death and Is This The Life compare well to Pink Floyd's best work, not that they surpass Dark Side or The Wall, but those albums are better than I'd say 75% of the Pink Floyd catalog.

In my opinion of course, your mileage may vary.

In my heart of hearts, I'd prefer that Roger stayed with Pink Floyd and they just did what they always did...let him write and they get half the credit. ;)