The Wall

[Borillar]

I think you got some of that wrong.

According to "A Saucer Full of Secrets" by Nicholas Schaffer, the band was on agreement on firing Richard Wright during the Wall production, because at that point, the guy was so fucking high on drugs he couldn't work.

The line in "Nobody Home" - "I've got nicotine stains on my fingers, I have a silver spoon on a chain, I have a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains" was a direct reference to Wright's drug issues. And this wasn't a small thing to Waters and Gilmour, Syd Barrett had pretty much self destructed due to his drug issues. (Barrett would die in 2006 and Wright in 2008).

Mason and Gilmour didn't kick Waters out of the band, they all split up to pursue solo products. But then Gilmour realized he couldn't sell anything without the Pink Floyd label on it. So they sued Waters over the use of the name.

And frankly, anything they did without Waters was kind of crap.

Waters quit the band after The Final Cut and thought that was it. Gilmour had spent the past 15 or so years building up Pink Floyd and wasn't going to just let it go. Pink Floyd without Waters was a lot weaker lyrically, but still sounded great musically. Waters without Pink Floyd wasn't all that great either IMHO. He did have some kick ass songs with Jeff Beck on guitar though. A pity they couldn't get along. They really needed each other.

 

[JoeB131]

Waters quit the band after The Final Cut and thought that was it. Gilmour had spent the past 15 or so years building up Pink Floyd and wasn't going to just let it go. Pink Floyd without Waters was a lot weaker lyrically, but still sounded great musically. Waters without Pink Floyd wasn't all that great either IMHO. He did have some kick ass songs with Jeff Beck on guitar though. A pity they couldn't get along. They really needed each other.

Gotta disagree. Of course, being a writer, I care more about the lyrics than the music. This is what makes The Wall, Wish You were Here, and Dark Side of the Moon such great albums, the power of the lyrics.

So let's look at Pink Floyd's post Waters output.

You have Momentary Lapse of Reason... which is where he just hired some lyric writers and told them, "Write some stuff like Roger would write!" And it's kind of a vapid album. Because when Roger wrote, he wrote from the heart.

Then you had The Division Bell - where Gilmour let his wife Patty Samson write the lyrics... and it might be their strongest album. But that's kind of a leper with the most fingers kind of thing.

Then you had The Endless River. They essentially took some session tapes from Rick Wright trying out various kinds of keyboard instruments and remixed them with no lyrics. The stuff that wasn't good enough to get on the Division Bell. It's the musical equivalent to a Men in Black Neuralizer - You forgot you listened to it almost immediately after it stops playing.

So really, three albums in what, 40 years since Roger left the band.

 

[Borillar]

Well, there was also two live double albums, Delicate Sound of Thunder and Pulse. There was also a couple Gilmour solo projects of which, On An Island, is more playable and memorable than anything Waters did solo, at least in my very humble opinion.