![\"Roger](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Roger-Waters-Pink-Floyd-Young-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Sun 19 October 2025 19:00, UK <\/p>\n
There\u2019s a good chance that the Pink Floyd we know today wouldn\u2019t have existed without Roger Waters<\/a>. After the band started to cave in on itself due to the downfall of Syd Barrett, it was Waters who picked up the pieces and brought them into the next phase of their career, creating songs that would become anthems of the prog-rock scene on tracks like \u2018Money\u2019 and \u2018Time\u2019. Although Waters has a high opinion on many parts of Floyd\u2019s career, he feels this era doesn\u2019t deserve to be remembered.<\/p>\n In 1967, as acid-rock began to hit the streets of London, Pink Floyd were the one band who were seemingly soundtracking the new revolution. The band quickly became the sound of a new movement and started to construct the foundations of psychedelic prog-rock almost immediately.<\/p>\n One caveat we must add is that, thanks to the unique way Pink Floyd constructed and textured their songs, there is almost certainly always somebody who has found happiness in their more obscure songs. The band prided themselves on being mercurial, and they certainly lived up to that ethos, even from the very beginning.<\/p>\n Before becoming the band\u2019s de facto leader, Waters had no desire to be in the role of the frontman. Since Barrett was the one who wrote most of the material, Waters was more than happy to fade into the background, offering up the occasional song and watching the band try their hand at psychedelic rock on albums like The Piper at The Gates of Dawn.<\/p>\n Some of the songs are on the sillier side, but the youthful exuberance and enthusiasm that emanate from the album are beguiling. A debut record is your only shot at a first impression, and Pink Floyd made sure they wouldn\u2019t be forgotten in a hurry. More to the point, they represented the moving mind of Barrett. More than anything else, this was his album. <\/p>\n Although Waters would regret what happened to Barrett, he understood that specific mindset when the band became famous. Looking to document the kind of behaviour that he was seeing from the fans and the industry, albums like Wish You Were Here and The Wall were comprehensive studies of what the music business can do to someone.<\/p>\n After scaling new heights with the band, though, Waters would start to have disdain for how they started. When looking back on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the bassist would say that the band didn\u2019t grasp what they were trying to do most of the time, often trying anything they could in the studio and hoping for something to stick.<\/p>\n Compared to the songs they would create later, Waters still thinks this period is amateurish, telling Q Magazine<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t want to go back to those times at all. There wasn\u2019t anything \u2018grand\u2019 about it. We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn\u2019t play at all, so we had to do something stupid and \u2018experimental\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/The-Piper-at-The-Gates-of-Dawn-Pink-Floyd-1.jpg\")
<\/a>The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Credit: Pink Floyd)<\/p>\n