Roger Waters as a bassist- underappreciated?

I often hear "but they were perfect for Pink Floyd".

But to my ears, the music sounds better played by the musicians who tour with Dave Gilmour. They're not adding flashy parts, or getting in the way of the spacey, open vibe; they're just more solid, especially the beat.

 

It's pretty clear that Roger doesn't consider himself to be primarily a bassist - in fact, he's always been pretty humble and realistic about his bass playing, which is remarkable when you think about it. He and Nick Mason created a wonderful launching pad for Barrett, Gilmour and Wright to color in the music, and if you asked any rhythm section to 'play like Pink Floyd' I'm sure they could slide right into an imitation of their style. Which goes to show how successful it was for them. His parts are often pretty simple, and when the recording called for a deft or delicate touch, he was happy to let Gilmour do the work. That's OK. I'm sure he would consider writing to be his primary vehicle, and the fact that a writer/conceptualist managed to develop a recognizable style on a instrument is high praise.

bummm
bum-bummm
bummm
ba-bum-bummm

 

As a partial answer to the thread question...

Perhaps Roger Waters is actually “over-appreciated”, by some Pink Floyd listeners, since they’ve been miscrediting some bass parts performed by Gilmour or Wright, to Waters.

 

Roger may not be a tecnically proficient bassist, but he can play, that's for sure (bass and guitar). Check out Piper, Dark Side live '74, The Making Of DSOTM and The Story Of WYWH documentaries and Live 8.

I remember reading a Gilmour interview where he says that none of them in Pink Floyd were technically brilliant musicians. This, of course, doesn't diminish them or their body of work. And, imo, they were/are perfect for the band.

 

My guess is Waters played less bass when the band did albums like Ummagumma and onwards.
Ummagumma's concept (the studio disc) actually was each member making material on their own, and Atom Heart Mother (Side 2) was similar.
Eventually their real 'duties' came back while making Meddle, Dark Side etc. Think it was around Animals or The Wall when Waters wasn't much keen playing the bass generally.

 

Roger was a creative genius. No doubt about it

But he couldn't even tune his bass

 

They weren't perfect for Pink Floyd, there were Pink Floyd. Other people might play the parts in a more technically proficient way, but they didn't write the parts or develop the sound.

 

Oh good grief........so Nick Mason is barely a competent drummer, and Roger Waters is bested on the bass by Joe Schmoe in some fly by night cover band that plays Pink Floyd songs. Just another delusional day on SHMF.

 

Roger said of his musicianship: For a while there I was worried I would end up the drummer. No mention of what that would have portended for Mason.

 

Maybe for some people but there's literally dozens of hours of bootleg Floyd live material out there and DG and Rick aren't playing the bass on them. Apart from The Wall concerts, live Floyd with Roger features Roger on the bass. People can hear that and decide for themselves. If they're listening to "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" and saying, "Cor, that Waters is an awesome bass player", they're incorrect, but I don't think it's all that hard to hear Roger's actual bass playing.

 

He, he. I love the fact that an appreciation sort of thread becomes mostly a ‘I wouldn’t have him in my cover band’ thread.

This is why the Floyd are such a great enigma to me: hard to define their best component parts or era.

 

Very under-appreciated. Throughout the early years, his playing is distinctive and a defining element of the Pink Floyd sound (pun unintended but I'll leave it in). Very creative.

Some of his parts really got honed live, too ~ example, Cymbaline.

 

Like I posted on the Waters tour thread last summer, one of the thrills of the show for me was him manually plucking the tick-tocks on his bass on the intro to Time. Hearkens all the way back to Interstellar, and the exploration of sounds (not just notes). Syd wasn't the only one experimenting, they all were together.

 

Furthermore, when did Rick Wright ever play bass?

 

A couple people have mentioned it, but I don't know that he actually did.

(I don't particularly believe that Roger was unable to tune his bass either, despite that photo that always comes up of Rick helping him tune it)

 

Pretty easy for professional side-players to walk in and "professionalize" music that's already iconic for a latter-day recitation. But could they have been loose enough, out of the pocket enough, innovative enough to have participated in the original creative process that produced that iconic music? Not to stay out of the way of the vibe, but be co-generating it?

I think not. No shame in saying Waters & Mason were merely "perfect for Pink Floyd." They were Pink Floyd. Any other rhythm section and that music never happens.

 

Do you know the reason?

 

I'm sure I read somewhere that Pino Pallidino played the fretless bits on The Wall but I can't seem to find any proof.

 

Look, Roger Waters' strength was always in his songwriting, not musical chops. It speaks volumes that even as far as "The Wall" Dave Gilmour was playing a lot of the bass parts. But that's not where Waters' reputation lies, it's in his status as 'Creator of Masterpiece albums'. He's like Giorgio Moroder or Steven Wilson in that respect. An auteur more than anything else.

Auteurs - they write all the material and can organize more talented musicians to realize their vision in the studio. That's what they do.

 

I've read interviews where Gilmour confirmed that he played them.

 

Of the rhythm section? Not to be flippant, but quite honestly - yes. Now Gilmour and Wright, that's quite another matter.

 

That is interesting because in 1966 to 1970 both Waters and Mason were pretty creative in their playing. Especially during Barrett era. Not that they went full retard afterwards but still...

 

Exactly. Why is this soooooo hard to understand?
Bottom line is, I think, there's a lot of semi-professional, bitter musicians on this board. Sadly.

 

I'll agree to disagree. But honestly I don't know how you can say that, when two thirds of their repertoire for their formative years was instrumental ~ being written, embellished, and/or improvised by all of them together. The music went where it did because of those four musicians, not those two musicians. Would another drummer have come up with the beat for Set the Controls (which we'll ignore that Roger wrote for the sake of the playing only), or another bassist been able to spontaneously co-compose Interstellar Overdrive or Saucerful? You certainly have a right to your opinion...but I say no way.

 

Wow, didn't realize you'd already said the same thing