Pink Floyd Online Forums

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

I LOVE Pink Floyd and I LOVE Roger Waters.

I think as a solo artist, Roger is the most underrated singer/lyricist in the history of music and his overall worldview and his politics as seen through the prism of his music is to me, spot on and far in advance of the way most people think.

Yet, he rarely (if ever) gets radio airplay. I never hear him on SIRIUS radio (or regular radio) and his CD's (which are musical masterpieces) consistently sit on the shelves at record stores, marked down in price to ridiculously low levels.

Most people have no idea what you're talking about when discussing his solo work even though most people know who he is, especially Floyd fans.

Anyone care to offer an explanation on why Roger Waters is so underrated, underappricated, and otherwise unknown to the masses?

Edited By AlienAnthropologist on 1147368492

Who is roger waters?

:Oo:

Maybe because his music is not the mass?

When he went solo i remember he was told that less people coming to his shows (compared to pink floyd ones). His answer: yes, but those who are coiming are more motivated!

Cool

pros and cons of hitchiking is good but its not better than his floyd work and fans wanna hear the floyd not sexual revolution!

It's a shame, I know. I think the answer lies partly in the fact that he refused to associate his solo work with Pink Floyd. If there were stickers on his albums that proclaimed "the voice and bass of Pink Floyd" (kind of how a few of David Gilmour's are presented these days...) more people would probably buy them. I think it's good that he didn't take that route. That would have been selling out, using the name of Pink Floyd just to sell records. Also, it means that the people who bought and are still buying his albums are either dedicated Pink Floyd fans who actually know who's who in the band, or are non-Floyd fans who heard his work and enjoyed it enough to buy it.

Also, another thing working against him, I think, was image. I've got a Pros and Cons TV promo where Roger says something (these aren't his exact words) like "since we never pushed our images in the band, I was able to go down to the shops and not be recognised by anyone. This is working against me now because I've reached a point where I do need to be recognised." The only way to do that in the 80s and 90s, unfortunately, was to release videos in high rotation on MTV. And if you've ever seen some of his videos between 84 and 92...well, let's just say they were no Sledgehammer. And really, what do you think MTV are going to play - some guy approaching his 50s talking about what God wants, or Vanilla Ice? They're going to play Vanilla Ice.

So yes, those two things, coupled with the fact that his music just isn't really "mainstream" would probably account for the fact that Roger Waters' solo work generally is underrated, underappreciated and unknown. Doesn't mean it's not excellent stuff, though. As for fans wanting to hear the Floyd, not Roger...well, I've had to replace The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking and Amused To Death TWICE, they've gotten that scratched from overuse. My A Momentary Lapse Of Reason CD hasn't seen any scratches on it yet. Only a lot of dust.

I've heard of him. He plays good bass on The Division Bell.

ItWouldBeSoNice Wrote:I've heard of him. He plays good bass on The Division Bell.

That's not Roger! Roger was the drummer on Division Bell.

upthekhyber Wrote:I think it's good that he didn't take that route

Agree with that !
I suppose he wanted people to buy his cds beacause of his actual work and not because of the name of PF. That's roger!

Some friends didn't even know who is roger. But when they listened to amused to death, they bought it next day.

rocker

Jumpy Wrote:
ItWouldBeSoNice Wrote:I've heard of him. He plays good bass on The Division Bell.
That's not Roger! Roger was the drummer on Division Bell.

Oh yeah, my mistake. I get him confused with Polly Sampson all the time.

Roger never actually played it was actually alan parsons who sang/bass and roger did the studio editing. bet you guys didnt know that

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

AlienAnthropologist

welcome_to_the_dark_side

welcome_to_the_dark_side

floydian72

upthekhyber

ItWouldBeSoNice

Jumpy

welcome_to_the_dark_side

ItWouldBeSoNice

floydian72