To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon album, Roger Waters has decided to reclaim the monumental work he helped create as a member of Pink Floyd. So he returned to the studio to breathe new life into the songs written in 1973 that appear on The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, released Friday. Is that relevant? The question is legitimate.
Published at 1:39 am. Updated at 7:00 a.m.
From the beginning, Roger Waters stated in an interview that “The Dark Side of the Moon” was his creation. “Leave me alone with this nonsense,” the bassist told the Telegraph last winter when he revealed he had re-recorded the songs. “Of course we were a group, there were four of us and we all contributed – but it was my project and I wrote it. »
Important contribution
Roger Waters actually wrote the lyrics for all the pieces, but Nick Mason, Richard Wright and David Gilmour were involved in the composition of some pieces. This is without taking into account Pink Floyd’s very particular sound signature, impossible without the contribution of the four members – we can add to the cocktail the clairvoyant work of Alan Parsons, the album’s sound engineer.
PHOTO FROM THE PINK FLOYD ARCHIVES
David Gilmour and Nick Mason in 2014
The first version has the definitive status of the work, and for The Dark Side of the Moon it is the result of 50 years of appreciation and criticism, and this is how all the magic came about. I find it cheeky to strip the songs of their original meaning.
Danick Trottier, Professor of Musicology at UQAM
Roger Waters simplified the musical arrangements by inserting narrative passages into the instrumentals, some more trivial, others certainly more emotional. “In Dark Side of the Moon, Roger Waters reveals himself as a creator,” Mr. Trottier recalls. Through this re-reading, he feels the desire to remove things that are less part of him, such as David Gilmour’s guitar solos. »
Gone are the guitarist’s solos and bottleneck accents that defined Pink Floyd’s sound in the early 1970s.
PHOTO FRANCOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Roger Waters visits Montreal in March 2016
Gérald Côté, ethnomusicologist from the University of Laval, doesn’t mince his words when it comes to qualifying Roger Waters’ exercise.
“It’s sad… In his version of Money you have the impression of listening to music without soul, it’s painfully limp,” he says. Waters is an absolutely brilliant songwriter, but this isn’t quite up to par. We cannot separate Pink Floyd’s musical depth from its chief architect; To separate the two is to impoverish Pink Floyd. That’s why I find it difficult to believe that this is not an expression of the conflict that has been going on for 30 years. »
Internal dispute
In fact, it’s hard not to draw a connection to the dispute that led to Roger Waters’ departure in 1984 and continues to this day. As evidence, David Gilmour announced on Thursday the release of the documentary “The Dark Side of Roger Waters”, a production by BBC journalist John Ware that tends to demonstrate the anti-Semitic behavior of Roger Waters.
Last February, it was Gilmour’s wife, writer Polly Samson, who accused the bassist of being anti-Semitic and an “apologist for…” [Vladimir] “Putin is a liar, a thief, a hypocrite, a misogynistic megalomaniac, a tax evader and a pathologically jealous man.” It took only a few days for Waters to announce to a Berlin daily that he would be reviewing The Dark Side of the Moon, an interview in which he fueled controversy over his ambiguous position toward the Russian leader.
PHOTO FROM THE PINK FLOYD ARCHIVES
Richard Wright, David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Nick Mason
Waters did not want to show any remorse, but immediately attacked his former colleagues:
“Gilmour and Rick [Wright] “They are incapable of writing songs, they have nothing to say, they are not artists,” Waters told the Telegraph unfiltered. You have no ideas […] They’ve never had one before and it’s driving them crazy. » It should be noted at this point that Richard Wright died in 2008…
But “The Dark Side of the Moon” was the band’s work, much more so than Pink Floyd’s subsequent albums. “The original record is a collective work and anything Waters rereads will be deleted,” claims Danick Trottier. He still shows how big his ego is. But he also has a very classical view of music, according to which a work can be improved over time; This is something we have always seen in classical music. Often there can be multiple versions of the same work. »
“In this sense, Waters makes Redux a very personal, almost testamentary work,” the researcher continues. The latest projects from music greats always have a very personal touch; If we read it again from this perspective, we can better appreciate the project. »
However, Danick Trottier admits that offering a new version of an old album can seem like a compromise that seems easy. Some could certainly view this as an opportunistic approach. “The album is 50 years old, it’s all part of the celebration,” says Gérald Côté. This is certainly a great opportunity to shape and benefit from the event. »
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The Dark Side of the Moon Redux
Roger Waters
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