Roger Waters~Animals Reissue...Issue

SteveG wrote: If Waters put as much effort into being musically creative as he does into trying to preserve his place in history, we could have had 10 more decent solo albums from him.

Well, he could indeed use this energy for more useful things, but I don't think his creativity is suffering from it and I hope he will come out with something new and of his own again. His last album was OK - personally I think it sounded a bit too similar to what he has done before, but it is still a good album. He has already his place in history, with PF and as a solo artist. But I agree that we could do without this bickering with former band mates...

I hope Gilmour remains silent and above it all. The album's getting a release, so there's no need to react to Waters' craven need for a fight. I love that Gilmour's not publicly re-hashing things that took place 50 years ago. According to his Instagram, he's well and content with his large family, which seems to eat up Waters with bitterness. That's really sad.

The simple fact of the matter is, Gilmour *should* have an equal say in the liner notes. If he doesn't like it, they shouldn't be there. All the band members should have an equal say, and all should come to an agreement. That it's taken years for an Animals Deluxe release is Waters' fault, pure and simple.

We *know* Waters is a control freak and a micro-manager. It's absurd that he held up the release for years because he wanted those partisan, one-sided pro-Waters liner notes. Who does that? Seriously, there's something wrong with the guy  It's not that hard to have liner notes that celebrates Animals and Pink Floyd, one that all the member can agree on. FFS. No one even cares about liner notes; they're read once, if at all, and quickly forgotten about. They're superfluous fluff.

You have misread what has been said. I was responding to Gilmour’s silence since Waters posting, as per a previous comment. Gilmour has been silent.

And, yes, silence speaks volumes…..

(And in this instance, not in Gilmour’s favour.)

And sometimes silence speaks volumes. 

That’s exactly how I look at it. It’s kind of irrelevant what any of us think, in regard to whether or not it is a fair representation. It’s on Gilmour’s head, and his silence pretty much affirms what Waters has said.

Generally speaking, when it comes to matters of Pink Floyd, I tend to side with Gilmour rather than Waters. Much of Waters arguments stem from the idea that the group should have ended when he left, and that’s not one I agree with. He left the band, and just because he thought doing so meant the end of the band, does not make it so. Hence the lawsuits and eventual settlement.

But in this instance, I tend to side with Waters, as (regardless of whether or not I think this is is a fair representation), to find out after all this time that the reason for the delay of the reissue was down to Gilmour not liking these liner notes? As per the above - ridiculous….

But what is Waters to do if the idea for the cover art did come from him?  I would also point out that you are trying to overweight Gilmour's role by dismissing the other two tracks.  Essentially, two thirds of the album was written solely by Waters and Dogs was a co-write.  So it is almost exclusively a Waters project.  WYWH was the last all-hands-on-deck effort.  One can blame Waters himself for the fact that the albums after WYWH were Waters-dominated.  I would, for one.  I think what simply happened is he had his own album-length concepts that he essentially wanted to record with the help of Floyd (and it was less to do with a sudden dearth of creativity from the rest).  

But be that as it may, Animals-Wall-TFC are very largely Waters-driven projects.  Again, if it bothers Gilmour so much, he doesn't have to play anything from Animals or Wall.  But he can't re-invent reality so that it placates his ego. This episode comes across a bit like, "OK, since Waters wants to be the egoistic prick that he is, I will show him my ego too".  

And what happened in the process?  He, that is, Gilmour, held up the re-release and denied it to fans all because of his squabble with Waters over liner notes.  I get it loud and clear that you are firmly in the Gilmour camp but you can't argue your way out of the reality that in this instance, Gilmour prioritized his ego tussle with Waters over the fans and that is not a good look. If he didn't like the liner notes, he need not have approved the draft.  He could have simply rejected it and gone ahead or gone to the public and told them Waters stubbornly insists on his own self-glorifying liner notes.  He has not done either.  He has a big part of the blame in this whole episode.