Mr. Waters

[chumpmonkey]

Well, I figured somebody should post about Roger. It doesn't seem right to leave this forum empty.

[Keith Jordan]

Well, I figured somebody should post about Roger. It doesn't seem right to leave this forum empty.

I hope this forum is the busiest of them all!!!

[angrytim]

SO, now that we've all had a few years to get used to the new Roger. What do you all think of his general mood towards life the universe and everything..I'd say he's mellowing with age judging bay thelast few shows I saw in 99 and 2000.......... What in Gods name is the new record going to be like... is it going to be the very awsome well produced masterpeice that it should be ...what with all the changes in technology and music since "Amused" or is it going to be striped down.....
Anyway .... just some thoughts to start a thread....

Does anyone know whats up with the legendary opera..Ca'ira or whatever?????

[Keith Jordan]

SO, now that we've all had a few years to get used to the new Roger. What do you all think of his general mood towards life the universe and everything..I'd say he's mellowing with age judging bay thelast few shows I saw in 99 and 2000.......... What in Gods name is the new record going to be like... is it going to be the very awsome well produced masterpeice that it should be ...what with all the changes in technology and music since "Amused" or is it going to be striped down.....
Anyway .... just some thoughts to start a thread....

Does anyone know whats up with the legendary opera..Ca'ira or whatever?????

Last I heard, Ca'ira is to be released in 2003/4 or something. I think he must have gor bored with the bloody thing as he's been working on it for ages!!

I am really looking forward to the new RW album! I think it will have a rawness like Flickering Flame shows but will have a good back beat to it! The tide is turning and so is Roger. He still thinks the world revolves around him though! Perhaps it does??

[a-k-a]

I don't know what about you, but I think Roger lost it after leaving PF.
I mean, the best I heard of him after leaving was Amused To Death and that sounded just like The Final Cut.
He IS Pink Floyd, and yet, Pink Floyd is not about him.

Part of the magic of that group was their co-relations in the music...

Btw, I think Flickering Flame is a bunch of crabs )

[Keith Jordan]

Btw, I think Flickering Flame is a bunch of crabs )

It's quite soothing!!

I think Roger's work has become a lot more about politics... and just politics these days. I do usually prefer a song with music that invokes the emotions corresponding to the lyrics. Unfortunalely Roger deals with some colourful issues but with (sometimes) rather black and white music.

The pros and cons album is a great one for it's themes but musically I find it very uninteresting. Perhaps that was the intention??

[a-k-a]

Yes that was my meaning... no offence of course Keith, Roger
My intention was, as you put it quite right, that Roger's sun is out of tune

[angrytim]

I Toatally disagree with you about Rog not being all that great since Floyd... I think he's developed into his own... Floyd helped create what Roger is today...but he is toatally his own creative force... my only issue is that he has only released 3 records since leaving floyd..... I think about the themes he touched on in KOAS and Amused to Death and I look around at the world in 2002 and I can't beleive he hasn't made a recorded statement in 10 years........ Yes he has been taking an ungodly amount of time on his opera .. I hope it's worth it.

What about the rest of the lot....... I often wonder how artists can just walk away from being creative......get fat ...grow old and Die ...... It warms my heart to see Rog not doing that ....but it looks to me that Dave is.... what are your thoughts?

[Keith Jordan]

I think Roger is great. I must not have wrote my post very well. I just don't like the actual "music" as in instruments, timbre and arrangements, and especially on pros and cons. I think it is a bit too thin. I prefer variation in texture, dynamics etc. I suppose he does use those afterall. Listening to his tour... it just sounds great and full textured. ATD is a great album!

I had thought that it was a deliberate attempt to cut his audience down so that the only people that go to his concerts are people who really want to like the music!

Long live Roger!

David seems to be slowing down now. He is being a family man with the beautiful Polly Sampson. His Royal Festival Hall gigs probably fulfil his need to perform! I certainly don't expect another Pink Floyd tour. Perhaps a one off performance one day for a charity but now a tour!

Saying that, he is working on some stuff on Astoria (his boat/recording studio) and played some new stuff at the RFH gigs. Who knows what is coming next

[Newboy]

Finally, a place to spout off and be among those who feel as I do. There is no greater admirer of Roger Waters' work than me, and I'll choose Roger over David any day of the wee and twice on Sunday. Even so, there's no question that when Roger's words and David's music were combined, it amounted to something far more than the some of its parts. Separate, Davids lyrics amount to a lot of fluff accompanied by brilliant music. Roger has continued to amaze me with his masterful writing and use of themes, but the music he puts to it, I hate to say it, is all starting to sound the same. If you listen to portions of "Pros & Cons" and "Amused to Death" you can distincly hear music from "Another Brick in the Wall." Sound effects like breaking glass, and heavy use of femal vocalists are also pretty common. But if you listen to the words, the music takes a back seat anyway.

I'm glad the opera is still something we can look forward to, as I'm sure that will be a significant departure from the familiar sound of Roger's work. As for a new album, I guess we'll have to see.

Keith, thanks very much for setting this forum up. My hat's off to you.

[djproject]

I find it amusing that we consider Roger Waters to be a great lyricist (and I'm NOT saying he isn't). Considering that you look at the beginning with "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" (a play on John 5:8). His early lyrics are marked with a kind of fantasy-evoking mood ("In a churchyard/by a river/bathing in the haze of midday" for an example). But then "Free Four" was the beginning (in terms of material released) of his bitterness. <i>Dark Side of the Moon</i> is a classic based on sound but the true fan will remember it for both music and words.

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" has some of the best lines to be spoken at anyone's eulogy and that's the great thing about the Floyd at that time: the words could reach and touch anybody. <i>Animals</i> is just an effective record to play while being pissed off as Nine Inch Nails' <i>Broken</i>.

Although <I>The Final Cut</i> and <I>Amused to Death</i> are still lyrically well-crafted (in fact I can use some of the songs on both in political scenes today like "Late Home Tonight" could be used with Koskvo and a couple of others I think can be used against Bill Clinton... when it mattered), musically it's lacking. I sold my copy of <i>Radio KAOS</i> because musically (and even to some degree lyrically and conceptually) I couldn't stand it.

But that's my take on it.





P.S. He and I share the same birthdate (6 September)

[Keith Jordan]

Yeah, I agree. But is Roger's bad music by fault or design? When I say music you understand that I am not talking about his writing ability but more the actual arrangement of his music. Does the thinness of radio KAOS emphasise the meanings in the album? Commercialism, consumerism, control of people by the powers that be etc.???

[a-k-a]

Roger and PF had become what they had always tried to become.
From the early start they tried to write 'em songs short (that is under 5 minutes) and more pop, and lost their psychadelic charm somewhere around Meddle... though On The Run or Any Colour You Like and not too much of The Wall (not much at all) is also psycha-fashionable.

It was the sound, or actually the war between pop and revealing your soul through the sound (the lyrics come to enhance the sound - the feeling) that really swept me away.
There IS nothing more alive for me then to hear that scream on Careful With That Axe, Eugene or to sing along with One of these days, to dream of A Saucerful Of Secrets and to Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun.

This is what PF is to me, and Roger had that twist. He made it work. He made me believe the sound. But as I see now - it wasn't just him.
That's what missing in his songs.... the soul.

Btw, The Final Cut had that soul... "Maggie what did we do?"

[qjamesfloyd]

I think we have to give Roger a lot of credit for carrying on as an artist,i mean,he has been through a lot in his life,the death of his father,Syd,Pink Floyd,David Gilmour,that is a lot for any man to take,so the fact that he has only released 3 albums of new material since leaving the Floyd i think is understandable,and i don't think anyone could really ask anymore of a man who created 4 albums in a 6 year period from 1973-1979 like he did.
I think he needed a long time away from it all,but in the years while he has been quiet it has been good for him,because he has dealt with all his anger towards David Gilmour in particular,and he seems to be more mellow,and a better person for it,meeting up and being nice to Nick Mason a few months back would conferm that.
And it says so much about a man of Roger's standng that he can go out on tour and a sell out tour of the world that is,when he has no new rocord for a decade to promote.
Shine on Roger

[jizhomer]

As refreshing as it is too see everybody elses opinions I just have to add mine. Roger Waters was always an integral part of Floyd for me, so I approached his solo material with extreme caution. I knew I would start making comparisons immediately. So I listened to "The pros and cons" (my first Waters solo), I listened again, then I couldn't stop listening!! It holds extra savvy with me because I've always loved Clapton ('s blues work) and it is truly an exceptional album. A big thumbs up!! So of course I couldn't wait to get Radio Kaos home and in my stereo!! Once again an excellent album!! However, I have always struggled to give "Amused" a fair listen. I seem drawn to the best tracks and skip the rest. I fear this will be the same with "Flickering Flame" when I get round to it. While I'm on the subject, I have never heard any of Gilmours solo stuff. Recommendations would be gladly received!