Roger Waters has secretly re-recorded Pink Floyd classic Dark Side of the Moon: “I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon. Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ crap!”

Roger Waters performing in 2022
(Image credit: Medios y Media/Getty)

Ex-Pink Floyd star Roger Waters has revealed that he’s completely re-recorded the band’s 1973 magnum opus, Dark Side of the Moon without his former colleagues’ involvement, or even knowledge.

They have no ideas, not a single one between them

Waters on his ex-Pink Floyd bandmates

The recording, currently in the polishing suite but revealed to The Telegraph (paywall), features reimagined versions of the original’s tracks, now with "Waters talking all over them", including Breathe recast as an acoustic epic, and Money sporting a new country vibe.

So why has Waters taken on this provocative project, which seems almost certain to hit heavy legal weather before release? “I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon,” a typically feisty Waters asserted. 

“Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ c--p! Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it. So… blah!” 

Unsurprisingly, he has nothing good to say about ex-bandmates David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, dismissing their contributions and creative input: “Well, Nick never pretended. But Gilmour and Rick? They can’t write songs, they’ve nothing to say. They are not artists.”

“They have no ideas, not a single one between them,” Waters continued. “They never have had, and that drives them crazy.”

Waters wrote the album's lyrics and is credited or co-credited for music on 5 of its 10 tracks. The re-recorded Dark Side’s launch, originally planned for March, has now been pushed back to May.

Waters has been in the news this week for reasons other than music, of course, airing his views on the war in Ukraine and addressing the UN on the subject (below). 

Will Groves
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