Who Was Pink Floyd's Chief Songwriter?

[Real Pink in the Inside]

As I've said many times before, it depends on your definition of "chief songwriter". I've posted my definition (which Roger does not meet) several times, and I won't waste bits by doing it again.

We'll just have to disagree. I think "most prolific" is a tad more pretentious than "chief," but oh well.

Besides, if you exclude AMLoR and TDB, Rog's contribution rises to 51%, which is a marginal majority, not "well over 50%".

Marginal majority? Relative to Gilmour and Wright, it's an OVERWHELMING, SIGNIFICANT majority. Anything over 50%, whether it's an election or the contributions of a band or whatever, is incredibly high when you are dealing with more than just two people. It's not like Wright is 1%, Gilmour is 48% and Waters is 51%. Waters would be 51%, assuming your figures are correct, and the next person is about half of 51%, so yes it's significant and overwhelming.

But if you're not including the albums that Rog didn't contribute to, then it seems a bit unfair to include The Final Cut where Roger did not allow any other members to have any songwriting input to.

If About Face is any indication of Gilmour's frame of mind at the time, no wonder Waters did not allow him to contribute

The most interesting numbers are for the complete output of PF. And these are the numbers I give below.

Yes, and I stress once again: Waters wrote approximately two times more than Gilmour and three times more than Wright.

I would think that I was the biggest contributor. But if I'd contributed 43% of the total, I don't think I'd insist on being called "chief contributor".

Biggest contributor = Chief contributor = Top Contributor

Should I rephrase the title of this thread, "Who Was Pink Floyd's Biggest Songwriter?" or "Who Was Pink Floyd's Top Songwriter?" I believe "Chief Songwriter" has a better ring to it, but they're all synonymous.

If your contributions are two times larger than the second biggest contributor and three times larger than the third biggest contributor, I highly doubt you would not call yourself the chief/top contributor.

As before, that depends on your definition of "chief songwriter". It seems silly to keep on debating the meanings of the terms, as it's clear that everyone is interpreting them differently. And unless we're prepared to actually enter into a proper discussion of the terms, which I don't think anyone wants to, then we might as well stick with the numbers. I'll repeat them.

chief (chēf) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. One who is highest in rank or authority; a leader.
2.
1. A chief petty officer.
2. Nautical The chief engineer of a ship.
3. Slang A boss.
4. Heraldry The upper section of a shield.
5. The most important or valuable part.

adj.

1. Highest in rank, authority, or office.
2. Most important or influential. See Usage Note at absolute.

Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chief

Given the definition of the word chief, how can the person who wrote two and three times more than the other prominent songwriters NOT be considered the chief songwriter?

Do you have any dispute with this?

I do not have time to verify the accuracy of the data. Other than that, the conclusion from the data does not differ significantly from the conclusion reached via the data posted at the beginning of this thread (i.e., Roger Waters wrote far more than Gilmour and far more than Wright; therefore, Waters was the biggest songwriter, the top songwriter, the chief songwriter, the most prolific songwriter, whatever the hell you want to call it

[mosespa]

1. I think the distinction between arranging and writing is a complex one.

2. But I believe that Torry's contributions to GGITS are significant enough that she does deserve a credit.

3. But we really need a different thread for this.

1. I don't...I think it's very simple and very cut and dried.

A songwriter writes songs.

An arranger arranges the already written songs. The arranger is subservient to the writer, therefore less important in my mind.

2. I don't, obviously. Granted, only she could have done what she did, but it's not as if she suggested a change in the chord progression or suggested that Nick lay out of a certain part.

She was paid to do what she did. She was even paid double the standard fee (as it was a Sundy.)

She did what she said she would do...and was paid what she was told she would be paid.

She entered into an agreement and each side fulfilled their end.

Then...some decades later, when that didn't catapult her to fame and fortune, she decided to come back and double dip for a bigger slice of the pie.

Typical woman: Perfectly happy with the arrangment until she realizes that it's NOT all about her...then bitches and bitches and bitches and schemes and manipulates until she gets what SHE wants...which was not part of the original agreement.

*shrug*

3. Yeah...I'm already there.

[Real Pink in the Inside]

Then it would have helped if you'd titled your thread "Who was Pink Floyd's Chief Songwriter for the period 1968-1980".

I suppose I allowed my subjective opinion of Pink Floyd to get in the way. I consider Pink Floyd to be Waters/Gilmour/Wright/Mason, the men who created DSoTM (which made them popular worldwide in the same way as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones before them). If all of them had stopped making music with Obscured by Clouds or Meddle, I strongly suspect that only an extremely tiny fraction of us would have ever heard of "Pink Floyd" let alone be fans of the band today (heck, maybe none of us). With all of these considerations, I believe that SoS is the first Pink Floyd album due it to being the first album of Waters/Gilmour/Wright/Mason and The Wall is the final Pink Floyd album due to it being the final album of Waters/Gilmour/Wright/Mason. Everything before and after is merely a shade of Pink Floyd, if you will. It's not the real deal.

Maybe it's just me, though...

[Real Pink in the Inside]

But I believe that Torry's contributions to GGITS are significant enough that she does deserve a credit.

However, it was not her idea to add female gospel vocals to the song. She just happened to be the lucky candidate chosen for the job and/or did the best job out of whomever else they may have tried out for the part. Whoever came up with the idea of adding female gospel vocals may have somewhat of an argument for getting co-credit, but her vocals alone do not make her co-writer with Wright. IMHO, of course.

But we really need a different thread for this.

Agreed.

[Real Pink in the Inside]

I've noticed the original poster rates Roger Waters far far above all other Pink Floyd members and wants to hammer home the point that Rog is Pink and not the others. Maybe Rog is Pink...who knows? Who cares?

I do not recall ever saying or believing that Roger Waters is Pink Floyd. Waters/Gilmour/Wright/Mason is Pink Floyd. But that does not mean all members are equal. While the sum of the parts adds up to the whole, clearly Pink Floyd is not 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4. Clearly the contributions of some members were greater than others in various areas. When it comes to songwriting, the subject of this thread, clearly Roger Waters wrote far more than anybody else and is therefore the top songwriter (or "chief songwriter," if you will).

[snifferdog]

I did not say you claimed Roger was Pink Floyd. I said Pink. Not Pink Floyd. There is a difference. It's clear from your posts that you are more biased towards Roger than the others. Which is fair enough. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion.

[Real Pink in the Inside]

I did not say you claimed Roger was Pink Floyd. I said Pink. Not Pink Floyd. There is a difference. It's clear from your posts that you are more biased towards Roger than the others.

Biased? Well, Waters was the guy who wrote the most material, wrote all of their lyrics from DSoTM through The Wall, had the most vocals, came up with a lot of their concert props, and on and on it goes

But I still love Gilmour (Favorite guitarist of all-time and amazing vocalist), Wright (Excellent playing, soothing voice and co-writer of my favorite Pink Floyd song ["Us and Them"]) and Mason (An overall good guy) even though I vehemently disagree with their decision to release MLoR and TDB under the Pink Floyd banner.

[mosespa]

Hmmm...guess I need to say this again...but this time make it bold and huge so that it cannot possibly be overlooked by anyone:








*ahem*








ROGER WATERS IS PINK








GILMOUR, WRIGHT, AND MASON ARE FLOYD

[Damn!t]

ROGER WATERS IS PINK

GILMOUR, WRIGHT, AND MASON ARE FLOYD

...errr nope.

[Damn!t]

Rog maybee Pink...
but the others cant all be Floyd in the same quantaty....

...so all this needs a bit different scale of percentage....

[snifferdog]

Maybe they take it in turns, the pinkness.

[mosespa]

Nope...Roger's Pink.

The other guys are Floyd...because no one ever says that their going to "a Pink show" (unless their talking about that hermaphorditic looking talentless c*** who's only popular because she gives other hermaphroditic looking talentless cunts hope that they can make something bearable of their lives)...they say that they're going to "a Floyd show."

And it's equally applicable whether Roger was there or not.

Ergo...Roger's Pink and the other guys are Floyd.

[Annoying Twit]

Looking at the previous set of replies on this thread, I don't see any worth in contributing more. Clearly there are disagreements on the meaning of "chief songwriter", which I interpret as a compound noun and the meaning is not exactly derivable from the individual meanings of "chief" and "songwriter". I also consider "majority" to mean "more than half", not "more than anyone else". I've posted the percentages of contributions several times, and haven't seen any disagreement with these, and the rest is a load of linguistic wankery which benefits no-one. If someone wanted to discuss alternate or better methods of calculating the contributions, then that would be interesting. But otherwise it looks to me that we have the answer that was asked, and people are just disagreeing about what words to use to describe it. When the more productive response is to forget the controversial verbal descriptions, and use the numbers.

As for unprovable and ill-defined claims such as Roger being Pink and the others being Floyd, I can't see any worth to come out of that discussion. Yes, I realise that people are just joking there, but I'm in a more analytical mood.

So I have nothing more to contribute.

[mosespa]

So...since no one in Pink Floyd wrote more than half of the material, there was no Chief Songwriter in the band?

Since there was no Chief Songwriter, then everyone was subservient...but since there was no Chief Songwriter, then there was no one to be subservient to.

How does THAT work?

[Real Pink in the Inside]

So...since no one in Pink Floyd wrote more than half of the material, there was no Chief Songwriter in the band?

Since there was no Chief Songwriter, then everyone was subservient...but since there was no Chief Songwriter, then there was no one to be subservient to.

How does THAT work?

Answer: Roger Waters was the chief songwriter