Pink Floyd: Roger Waters' Peak Singing Voice

SteveG wrote: Sean Trane wrote: SteveG wrote: This is one of those threads where I think we're not listening to the same music or the same singer. I definitely would put Gilmour above Waters, with Wright a close second to Gilmour. Come on, Waters doesn't sing, he talks. You lidsten to too much rap Just take Numb: Roger's parts are sultry, dangerous, spooky and yet delightful and revving only at 55% of his capacity (Roger's near full capacity can be heard in Another Brick... or Eugene's Axe, FTM), while Dave's parts are yelled out at the top of his lung at at a hairline's width of breaking a chord as he's at 99% of his possibilities Gilmour yells his lyrics in Comfortably Numb? What did I just say about not listening to the same music?

Don't get me wrong, Gilmour is a great singer, especially if you were to give him any old song versus Waters trying it. I think Waters in his peak singing years was more effective at relaying the message of PF songs at that point. No way Gilmour should have had more vocals on Final Cut. Roger is the only person who could sing that material and his OWN material that he was writing at the time were vastly inferior. They ended up on About Face... Final Cut fit too well together to tag on any of that stuff, even as backing tracks. Could have even have cut his vocals in half on the Wall and it would have worked fine (though I don't think it would be necessarily better, and Comfortably Numb is almost unthinkable without Gilmour, remember, though, for stuff like Young Lust, the band actually tried out Roger's Sexual Revolution, and he had a lot more of that in the cache). I agree them sharing vocals was often effective. They contrast nicely. All in all, I think Animals-Final Cut period exhibited a very special vocal presence at the peak of his powers and that was Waters.

I do like Collins singing better than Gabriel's.

Somewhere around Careful With That Axe Eugene. Not really a fan of his shout-singing, but it does work well in between Gilmour and Wright's angelic vocals. On his own it just gets too much for me. Sorta like micing up an old grumpy man.

I think the most angered I ever got was when I read two interviews around the same time from Rick and Gilmour where they said they didn't "get" Roger's lyrics, the same ones they sang every night in the 80s and 90s and later. Millions (Billions?) of PF fans "get" PF lyrics and how important they are, yet Gilmour and Wright claim they don't. Either just trying to anger Waters or they are idiots without a hint of attachment to MEANING in music. I think its probably they were trying to get to Waters.

ReactioninG wrote: I think the most angered I ever got was when I read two interviews around the same time from Rick and Gilmour where they said they didn't "get" Roger's lyrics, the same ones they sang every night in the 80s and 90s and later. Millions (Billions?) of PF fans "get" PF lyrics and how important they are, yet Gilmour and Wright claim they don't. Either just trying to anger Waters or they are idiots without a hint of attachment to MEANING in music. I think its probably they were trying to get to Waters.

I read about Floyd book, that other band didn´t understand Waters at all in the begin of seventies, when Floyd started to earn much more money and Waters didn´t feel comfortably to start to live rich life when knowing there are lots of people who didn´t have even food every day. So I think there has been differences in philosophy of life with Floyd members already in the beginning.

Mortte wrote: ReactioninG wrote: I think the most angered I ever got was when I read two interviews around the same time from Rick and Gilmour where they said they didn't "get" Roger's lyrics, the same ones they sang every night in the 80s and 90s and later. Millions (Billions?) of PF fans "get" PF lyrics and how important they are, yet Gilmour and Wright claim they don't. Either just trying to anger Waters or they are idiots without a hint of attachment to MEANING in music. I think its probably they were trying to get to Waters. I read about Floyd book, that other band didn´t understand Waters at all in the begin of seventies, when Floyd started to earn much more money and Waters didn´t feel comfortably to start to live rich life when knowing there are lots of people who didn´t have even food every day. So I think there has been differences in philosophy of life with Floyd members already in the beginning.

I remember reading about Gilmour having similar feelings. I think he would say he didn't understand how they could make so much money by being a rock bands, while other people with as I would understand it, more merits (like his own parents, being scientists) had more modest income. Also, Gilmour has done his own share of donations, I particularly remember him selling a house (as I understand it a rather expensive one, I guess in London) in benefit of the homeless, since he said he didn't need it.

MortSahlFan wrote: Waters not only wrote 97% of the lyrics, but he wrote most of the music, and would hand the song over to David to sing (which I thought was a good idea).. As time went by, Roger sang more and more.

 

Sean Trane wrote: MortSahlFan wrote: Waters not only wrote 97% of the lyrics, but he wrote most of the music, and would hand the song over to David to sing (which I thought was a good idea).. As time went by, Roger sang more and more.   I don't know where you get this idea from, but it's the first time I hear of Waters writing 97% of Floyd material pre-TFC. even in The Wall, he doesn't get to those numbers.   Mortte wrote: Dellinger wrote: Mortte wrote: ReactioninG wrote: I think the most angered I ever got was when I read two interviews around the same time from Rick and Gilmour where they said they didn't "get" Roger's lyrics, the same ones they sang every night in the 80s and 90s and later. Millions (Billions?) of PF fans "get" PF lyrics and how important they are, yet Gilmour and Wright claim they don't. Either just trying to anger Waters or they are idiots without a hint of attachment to MEANING in music. I think its probably they were trying to get to Waters. I read about Floyd book, that other in the band didn´t understand Waters at all in the begin of seventies, when Floyd started to earn much more money and Waters didn´t feel comfortably to start to live rich life when knowing there are lots of people who didn´t have even food every day. So I think there has been differences in philosophy of life with Floyd members already in the beginning. I remember reading about Gilmour having similar feelings. I think he would say he didn't understand how they could make so much money by being a rock bands, while other people with as I would understand it, more merits (like his own parents, being scientists) had more modest income. Also, Gilmour has done his own share of donations, I particularly remember him selling a house (as I understand it a rather expensive one, I guess in London) in benefit of the homeless, since he said he didn't need it. Yes, I have read also that, also heard about Gilmour´s donations. What I talked about was time of Meddle, anyway before Dark Side. Maybe it´s all has more to do about the situation after Dark Side when Rog started to take a lead. And Rog has also been after Floyd really mean towards Gilmour, I haven´t ever understand that, why Rog laughed about Gilmour´s wife doing lyrics in the Division Bell. To me it´s quite the same who will do lyrics if the songwriter is not good to do them.   Well, about Roger's lyrics, obviously Rick & Dave were of awfully bad faith in the 80's & 90'zs, since unlike some, Waters' texts are easily understood by most, though the album's concept might escape a lot of mainstreamers .   As for not understanding why Waters was not living the rich life, I guess Waters' communist upbringing escaped them.   AQs for Polly's lyrics, they're not laughable per se, but totally forgettable and, in 90% of the cases, pointless, but not laughable. I guess it was part of the war or words.

Sean Trane wrote:   MortSahlFan wrote: Name the 3 songs Gilmour wrote lyrics for when they were together... "Fat Old Sun" "The Narrow Way" (which he asked Roger to finish, but it wasn't part of the Ummagumma theme).. and "Childhood's End"   Wouldn't Echoes be one of them?? Unless, of course, it's Rick Wright's lyrics...   But we've seen in his two solo albums that his lyrics were no better than Dave's.

Echoes is credited to the whole band, so Rog probably has been doing at least part of those lyrics.