The three songwriters that Roger Waters will never stop listening

During his career, first with the Pink Floyd and then as a soloist, Roger Waters has always indicated In human relations the fulcrum of his writing and his music. “If I can excite someone, and that person listens to something and hears a shiver along my spine, then I acquitted my task,” explained the musician in a 1993 interview for “rockline”: “If I can make it reflect on something that goes beyond their lives, on the way in which it relates to other human beings, then it is an added value”. Leaving the task of tracing a common thread to empathy through their songs, also as a listener, Waters always has recognized in its favorite artists a guide on how to behave as an author. Rediscovering interviews of the past, For Roger Waters there are few songwriters who have continued to light the enthusiasm of making music in him. “If I have to be completely honest, I don’t listen to a lot of music, and certainly not much contemporary pop music,” explained the former Pink Floyd in an interview granted in 2007 to Mark Sainsbury for the New Zealand television program “Close up”: “I don’t want to say that it is not valid. It is only my interest goes in another direction. I still listen to music, I listen to a lot of classical music, which, when something new comes out, I take the time to listen to it. I always buy Bob Dylan’s new album, that of Neil Young, that of John Prineand maybe listen to two or three other things even if I happen to hear them on the radio. But overall, it’s not something that really interests me. “

On several occasions, Roger Waters has stressed that he was a big Young fan, and always feeding interest in Dylan’s music. “I have never been very interested in modern music. Some things can also like me, but they never really interested me. I have never really listened to the Clash, and certainly not the sex pistolsso I can’t really answer this question “, he had the opportunity to reiterate Water in a chat for a special” Q “on Pink Floyd, answering a question about his relationship with punk:” At the time – as still today – I listened to Neil Young. That kind of music, on the other hand, passed by me, without touching me. I always buy Dylan’s new album. But for someone else being able to enter what I listen to, it really takes something extraordinary“.

As written by Nino Gatti on Rockol, during the last song of the concert in 2023 in Milan, Roger Waters had also said that he was inspired by the text of “The Bar” a “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”, long song by Bob Dylan from the double album “Blonde on Blonde” of 1966, thanking him for the inspiration.

Among other things, in an interview given in October 2005 to “Msn Live!”, To the question if there was an artist with whom he would like to play or do a Jam Session, Waters had said: “I always like to work with Eric Clapton, who was in my band in 1985. I also worked with Don Henley, but I am my friends, and I am trying to think about someone else. Young, who are lonely, and it is difficult to imagine working together. I don’t really play in jam session with other peopleso it’s not something that comes to mind when I think about what I am enjoying me. Fishing, sex … but Jam Session, no “. In 2011, then, the English musician participated in the historic British radio broadcast of BBC Radio 4” Desert Island Discs “where the guest on duty is invited to indicate the songs that would take the ideal and phantom deserted island. In that situation, among the chosen songs, Roger Waters also indicated” Helpless “of Neil Young, recorded when the Canadian singer -songwriter played in the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young for the 1970 album “Déjà Vu”.Young singing ‘Helpless’. There is an honesty and a truth in everything he has done“, Waters explained:” Feeling man’s integrity and passion. I get back my hair on the nape Remembering the purity of the first notes of this song. It is extraordinarily moving and eloquent ”.

At John Prine, Roger Water has always been tied even from a deep friendship. In 2020, following the disappearance of the US singer -songwriter, the already bassist, singer and author of Pink Floyd had shared on his official social channels A version of “Paradise”a song that the artist originally released in his 1971 album: “My friend John Prine died. This is one of his songs, ‘Paradise’. I miss you, brother,” the English artist had written. Shortly after, Water had also published its own rereading, created together with Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius, of “Hello in There”, a song written by Prine originally published in the Etonimo album of debut of 1971 – and subsequently reinterpreted also by, among others, Bette Midler, Kris Kristofferson with Joan Baez, 10,000 Maniacs and Cher. “I played ‘Hello in There’ with John Prine at the Newport Folk Festival in 2017,” Waters explained in that situation: “They are precious memories”.