{"id":540012,"date":"2026-04-19T21:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540012\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T21:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:27:12","slug":"the-album-that-finished-pink-floyd-according-to-roger-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540012\/","title":{"rendered":"The album that “finished” Pink Floyd, according to Roger Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Roger<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n

Sun 19 April 2026 19:19, UK <\/p>\n

Whatever you might think of him, no one can deny that Roger Waters<\/a> isn\u2019t forthcoming with his opinions. Alongside being a musician of genius status, the former Pink Floyd man has made his name as one of the most outspoken figures in rock music, earning both plaudits and heavy criticism for such a nature. <\/p>\n

As is well-known, Waters\u2019 character is so imposing that it caused a schism with Pink Floyd after the release of 1983\u2019s The Final Cut. After leaving the band in 1985 and then trying and failing to end the band through heavy legal action, Waters would be regarded as the antithesis to his old bandmate and songwriting partner, David Gilmour. This notion is still alive today, with both enduring a long and brutal history since<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Waters\u2019 thoughts on Pink Floyd have always been a source of wonder due to his ability to vocalise his views as directly as possible. In 1987, when he was interviewed<\/a> by Chris Salewicz shortly after the release of his second solo album Radio KAOS, he revealed his thoughts on the album widely hailed to be Pink Floyd\u2019s finest, The Dark Side of the Moon. Despite the record being one of the most successful and influential of all time, after touching on its brilliance, Waters described it as the album that \u201cfinished\u201d the band off \u201conce and for all\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked why he thinks The Dark Side of the Moon was so \u201ccolossally successful\u201d, Waters replied: \u201cIt\u2019s very well-balanced and well-constructed, dynamically and musically, and I think the humanity of its approach is appealing. It\u2019s satisfying. I think also that it was the first album of that kind. People often quote S. F. Sorrow by The Pretty Things as being from a similar mould \u2013 they were both done in the same studio at about the same time \u2013 but I think it was probably the first completely cohesive album that was made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Touching on how the record signalled the end for the group, Waters continued: \u201cA concept album, mate! I always thought it would be hugely successful. I had the same feelings about The Wall. Towards the end of the studio work, at about the time I\u2019d be putting the tracks together, there was a very good feeling of satisfaction on both records. You\u2019d stand back from them and they\u2019d each feel very complete\u201d. <\/p>\n

Concluding: \u201cBut of course,\u00a0Dark Side Of The Moon\u00a0finished the Pink Floyd off once and for all. To be that successful is the aim of every group. And once you\u2019ve cracked it, it\u2019s all over. In hindsight, I think the Pink Floyd was finished as long ago as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment might sound like classic Waters contrarianism on the surface, but it actually cuts to the core of how he has always viewed art and success. For him, reaching the summit was never the end goal in itself. Instead, it marked the point where the hunger, tension, and uncertainty that fuelled creativity began to dissipate, replaced by expectation and repetition.<\/p>\n

In the case of Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon didn\u2019t just elevate them to global superstardom, it fundamentally altered the dynamic within the band. What had once been a collaborative unit searching for direction became, in Waters\u2019 eyes, a machine tasked with maintaining an impossible standard. The very cohesion that made the album so powerful also set a blueprint that was difficult to escape without fracturing the group entirely.<\/p>\n

Looking back, it becomes easier to understand why Waters would later double down on concept-heavy works like The Wall as a way of reclaiming that sense of purpose. If Dark Side represented perfection, then the only way forward was to deconstruct it, to push further into narrative and personal expression. In that sense, his claim that the album \u201cfinished\u201d Pink Floyd feels less like bitterness and more like a recognition that once you\u2019ve said something so completely, everything that follows is an attempt to either live up to it or break away from it entirely.<\/p>\n

Pushed to name the main problems with such immense success, Waters said: \u201cMainly the one of what to do with all the money! You go through this thing where you think of all the good you could do with it by giving it away. But, in the end, you decide to keep it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to The Dark Side of the Moon below. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still) Sun 19 April 2026 19:19, UK Whatever you might think of him,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,15742,34789,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-540012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-pink-floyd","11":"tag-roger-waters","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}