A fascinating interview with David Gilmour, from 1993 Guitar World, can be found here (others available here).
I'm a big Gilmour fan though not a big Floyd fan. I do not like Roger Waters much; he basically IS Pink Floyd, so it's rather a limiting factor for me. Musically, I like the things they do, but lyrically, well, much of it is just self-important psycho-babble trash. "Dark Side", "The Wall", etc. Life is just hell, isn't it Roger?
Gilmour, though, kicks serious ass as a guitar player. I'm sure this isn't really news to anybody.
One may note, throughout the interview, constant references to what a prick Roger Waters was.
GUITAR WORLD: There's a famous story about Syd Barrett being phased out of the band in 1968. You were all in a van, on your way to a gig in Southampton...
DAVID GILMOUR: Not in a van, no. In a Bentley.
GW: Right. And someone said, "Oh, let's just not pick up Syd tonight." Can you recall who said that?
GILMOUR: Probably Roger. Certainly not me-I was the new boy. I was in the back. Someone probably said, "Shall we go and pick up Syd?" And Roger probably said [in conspiratorial tones] "Oh no, let's not!" And off we went down to Southampton.
On Dark Side production issues:
GW: What was [producer/engineer] Chris Thomas' role on Dark Side of the Moon?
GILMOUR: Chris Thomas came in for the mixes, and his role was essentially to stop the arguments between me and Roger about how it should be mixed. I wanted Dark Side to be big and swampy and wet, with reverbs and things like that. And Roger was very keen on it being a very dry album. I think he was influenced a lot by John Lennon's first solo album [Plastic Ono Band], which was very dry. We argued so much that it was suggested we get a third opinion. We were going to leave Chris to mix it on his own, with Alan Parsons engineering. And of course on the first day I found out that Roger sneaked in there. So the second day I sneaked in there. And from then on, we both sat right at Chris' shoulder, interfering. Luckily, Chris was more sympathetic to my point of view than he was to Roger's. GW: Was that the first album where tension emerged between you and Roger? GILMOUR: Ah, there's always been tension. But it was all quite controllable until after The Wall album.
GW: There's creative tension and then there's outright hostility...
GILMOUR: There's creative tension and there's total egocentric megalomaniacal tension, if you like.
On Wish You Were Here, my favorite Floyd album, the only one I can say I really like, for the same reasons given below:
GW: Did the prospect of having to follow the huge success of Dark Side of the Moon create a lot of pressure on you during the sessions for Wish You Were Here?
GILMOUR: Yeah, that's what the album's about, I think as far as Roger's concerned anyway. It's about that feeling we were left with at the end of Dark Side-that feeling of "What do you do when you've done everything?" But I think we got over that. And for me, Wish You Were Here is the most satisfying album. I really love it. I mean, I'd rather listen to that than Dark Side of the Moon. Because I think we achieved a better balance of music and lyrics on Wish You Were Here. Dark Side went a bit too far the other way-too much into the importance of the lyrics. And sometimes the tunes-the vehicles for the lyrics-got neglected. To me, one of Roger's failings is that sometimes, in his effort to get the words across, he uses a less-than-perfect vehicle.
Other interesting quotes:
... I should add that I like structure. I'm very keen on melody, I'm a big Beatles fan, and just about everything else I love-like the blues-is highly structured. Totally free-forming is not my thing. But totally rigid structure isn't either.
... I just had a different view of our relationship with our audience than Roger did. Roger didn't like touring. And he felt there was no connection between him and the audience that were in front of him. I had a different view of it; I still do. And my view of what The Wall itself is about is more jaundiced today than it was then. It appears now to be a catalogue of people Roger blames for his own failings in life, a list of "you fucked me up this way, you fucked me up that way."
Roger is not Mr. Positive Mental Attitude, is he?
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
I'm seemingly one of the few people who actually likes the Gilmour-led Pink Floyd. I think they're beautifully produced and played albums, and doesn't involve the exhausting emotional depths of many of the Water-era Floyd albums. That said, my favorite Floyd album by far is Animals. Man, what a great album - I could probably live on that Floyd album alone, but I also really enjoy the psychedelic freakouts of the first couple albums, too. Syd was a genius - cracked or not, the guy had a great musical mind.
2 - Mark Saleski
it's kinda funny, for as popular as The Wall was...i got tired of it. and that's not something that usually happens to me. what ended up doing to was Waters solo material...which to me ends up sounding like retreads of The Wall.
i love Gilmour's first solo record.
3 - Piddle
This 'I like this guy better than that guy' thing gets to be a real bore after awhile. Whats worse is these schoolyard tantrums and taunts will be revisiting us on the internets for an eternity. Jeff Brokaw's comments aren't really criticism but a teen magazine stuff with gravitas. Whats far more interesting is what the creative tension and ultimately conflict produced.
4 - Priscilla Handzo
I also for some reason got tired of the Wall. Mother and Comfortably Numb I still love. Dark Side IMHO is better. Gilmour's playing I don't tire of. To each their own but I would go to a concert by David anytime. Still it's a shame that after all these years the 2 of them can't bury the axe once and for all.
5 - XII
I find you're all pretty sad really. Who gives a flying F what you think? Write some music, then we can all tell you what we think of you. The worst thing about so called Progressive Rock is it's anal retentive fans. Both Roger and David are excellent musicians and composers who have left the world with some truly inspirational music. What's it got to do with any of you whether they get on or not? Get a life of your own, and stop trying to live other people's lives.