Former Pink Floyd singer/bassist Roger Waters recently released a rerecorded version of his old band’s classic 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. With that in mind, Waters answered a fan’s question in a recent video segment posted this past week on his YouTube channel asking which other Pink Floyd album he would choose to redo.
After pondering the question for a few second, Waters said, “There are parts of the production of The Final Cut that I would redo,” referring to the 1983 studio album, which was the last one he recorded with Pink Floyd, Americansongwriter report.
“The song ‘Breathe’ follows on from ‘Speak to Me.’ You know, you’re born and you’re the horrible little [baby],” he said in the interview-style video. “Well, they’re not all horrible, don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with a baby. But they are hard work. But anyway, that’s neither here nor there.
The 80-year-old musician went on to explain that he wasn’t sure that he, James Guthrie, and Michael Kamen, who co-produced the album, “made all the right choices, particularly in the drum levels on some of the tracks.”
He continued, “Some of it’s a bit overwrought and thinking too much, in my view. And some of the songs might have been better served by less production and more ‘how would this song sound if it was just … a band of good players … playing it in a more natural way?’ So, less … trying to be very theatrical.”
Waters said an example of what he was referring to was a particular drum part in “Your Possible Pasts,” which he thought “way too loud and explosive, and trying too hard.”
Waters also reflected on his experience recording The Final Cut in a separate YouTube video, in which he answered a fan’s question asking which Pink Floyd album he enjoyed working on the most.
“That wasn’t much fun,” he said of making The Final Cut, “’cause all I had was what’s his name [Davd Gilmour] sitting in the back playing Donkey Kong … and telling me what a load of crap it was. And so, it was hard.”
