Showing rebellion: Roger Waters turns 80

However, there are those in the rock environment who could perform at stadiums not only with songs, but also with educational lectures. Some even really manage to combine it. The most striking example, an outstanding one, is the legendary rock musician, co-founder of the cult band Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, who once said that, in fact, he is Pink Floyd. On September 6, 2023, he turns 80 years old. A great date to talk about Roger Waters himself, and Pink Floyd, and about serious things in general.

Let’s start with this, perhaps. What is rock and roll, rock music in its essence, in its quintessence, if you like? Before answering, we need to remember that we are talking not just about a musical genre, but about a global phenomenon that radically changed society in the second half of the 20th century. How this backfired in our country, many should know by 1991. “I follow the Moskva down to Gorky Park, listening to the wind of change…” – as we remember from Scorpions. So, rock in its essence is always protest, rebellion, rage, the desire for change, the desire to be different from everyone else, the persistence to be yourself and be real.

Yes, true rock was always born out of rebellion, it couldn’t be otherwise, but the trouble is that it was immediately picked up by musical bosses, producers – and everything turned into commerce (“Money” is a great Waters song). Someone held on to the present for a long time, like Led Zeppelin, and someone gave up almost immediately, like Guns’n’Roses, who recorded an excellent debut record “Appetite for Destruction”, and then deflated and now are driving around with a degraded version of themselves. Someone, in principle, could not stand money and fame and was cut out of life, like Kurt Cobain. Well, someone, having gained a cult status, became part of the world establishment, like Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney. Someone generally built a career on the political conjuncture – Bono from U2 will not let you lie and teach the other.

Victor Pelevin wrote: “In the field of radical youth culture, nothing sells as well as a well-packaged and politically correct rebellion against a world where political correctness reigns and everything is packaged for sale.” However, in rock music, they sometimes rebelled seriously and for real. And they tried to feed their creativity with it, use it as fuel. “Anger is energy,” said John Lydon.

The first rebellion is uncontrollable, unconscious, almost animalistic. It was revealed in 1977 by the Sex Pistols, although this group was originally conceived as a commercial project in general. It is curious that the Sex Pistols vocalist Johnny Rotten (Lydon) already mentioned by me walked around in an “I hate Pink Floyd” T-shirt; for which, according to legend, he was accepted into the group. The Sex Pistols only recorded one album, Never Mind the Bollocks, but what a blast! This is where the merciless verdict on the world is revealed.

Meanwhile, there is a second rebellion – intellectual, extremely meaningful, backed up by facts and details, reasoned, like an academic report, when the opponent is smashed not with rage, but with knowledge, erudition, pinning facts to the wall. In rock music, this is an exceptional rarity, I must say, but it, this unique beauty of the mind, was able to reveal to the world our hero of the day, Roger Waters. Yes, no one knows how to subvert opponents the way he does – and it is unlikely that anyone will learn.

For twenty years, Waters, who was born in Surrey, Britain, played in Pink Floyd. After about the same time, he did not communicate with his bandmates, endlessly suing and conflicting with them. If you believe the theory that we all come from childhood, and our views are so accurate, then it is not surprising that Roger professes leftist sentiments all his life. His parents were ardent communists, and in 1943 his father went as a volunteer to the front, to the Second World War, where 5 months later he was killed in the Italian town of Aprilia.

With such data, Waters would certainly have become an opposition politician. But life took a different turn. Roger listened to jazz, led a youth campaign for nuclear disarmament, and was preparing to change the world in his own way, but then he met future members of Pink Floyd – Nick Mason and Richard Wright. And, of course, David Gilmour and Syd Barrett. The latter became the soul and guru of the first line-up of Pink Floyd, writing and recording absolutely incredible, unlike anything else songs. I have listened to hundreds and thousands of records, but Barrett’s creations are a very special story. The tragedy is that genius always has a downside, and the shining diamond Sid, sinning with illegal substances, has irrevocably moved into the world of hallucinations.

And then, when a friend fell in the Looking Glass, Roger Waters took over the management of the group. And he did it in an almost dictatorial, authoritarian manner. But who will be able to present him with a bill for this? After all, it is Roger Waters who first of all owns the creation of the cult albums of Pink Floyd of the post-Barrett era. At first, of course, Syd’s baggage was felt in the Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother albums. Pink Floyd also turned to him later, but still the cult albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall – this is a completely different story than the early Pink Floyd. The one that occupies a very special place in rock music. It all ended on the great but controversial album The Final Cut – after which Pink Floyd disbanded.

Yes, later they reunited, but as a trio: David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason – without their demiurge Roger Waters. True, there was still a general reunion in 2005, but only for 20 minutes. Watching this on social networks is still joyful and unusual. Still, Pink Floyd without Roger Waters is over. However, the trick is that he himself largely remained somewhere there – in 1983. Although his solo albums are quite good, they are all rather predictable. And the greatness of Waters in the days of Pink Floyd consisted precisely in the fact that he changed from record to record, sometimes completely drastically and unpredictably. This included the rebellion and protest of the dollar multimillionaire Waters. He was not afraid to experiment, to surprise. In fact, for the music industry, this is quite a challenge.

What happened next? Perhaps Waters’ solo work was not fully accepted also because he himself finally fell out of favor with the powerful of this world, with that very establishment. Too much and too consistently Roger criticized the Western world, blasphemed and reproached cannibalistic capitalism. Although, to be completely honest, absolutely everyone got it from him, in fact. There is a great story about how in the Soviet Union they decided to let the citizens enjoy the album The Final Cut. After all, Waters criticized Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. But the enthusiasts were immediately pulled back: are you out of your mind? There are also attacks in the direction of Leonid Brezhnev.

And then Roger Waters became one of the most touring musicians in the world. His super-scale concert on the Berlin Wall is certainly phenomenal – yes, that’s the first thing that comes to mind. But almost all of his performances are a special act. So strong and provocative that in the “free civilized world” Waters’ concerts are periodically cancelled. And there really is something to see. And listen, of course, a priori everything is clear. Incredible, maximally politicized, socialized video sequence. And, of course, the perfect sound. The feeling is that you are not even at a concert, but at a protest rally, where an angry crowd is eager to take revenge on the damned capitalist world.

And, perhaps, in such a somewhat square statement, Roger Waters rediscovered himself in his own way. In his venerable 80 years, he is furious and uncompromising, like a hungry punk from London’s doorways. And despite the fact that he has $ 300 million in his account. Even more. Say: well, of course, he can afford all these rebellious things. Of course, but they didn’t knock them down from the top, right? And, mind you, the same punk, once in the studio, at an interview, turns into a brilliant polemist, a 100% intellectual, butchering his opponent with arguments. The amount of knowledge and erudition is really amazing.

And it is not surprising that it was Roger Waters who turned out to be, perhaps, the only famous musician who took an atypical position for the world establishment regarding the events in Ukraine. No, Waters did not support Russia, as they say in the media; such a formulation is nonsense. He is just trying to find answers, get to the bottom of the matter and, as a result, explain that all parties are responsible for what is happening, that the war was inspired and nourished by the West, that it needs to be stopped. It would seem obvious things, but miracles – today they are perceived as a challenge.

Once upon a time, Roger Waters – and there are plenty of anti-war quotes in his songs – began in a world where you had to radically protest against war on the streets in order to become an enemy of the state. Now, for this, it’s enough just to try to figure out what is happening – and that’s it, you are already an enemy of the system. The wall is still here, standing like an infernal monolith, it has not collapsed. And this wall is primarily in the minds – and Roger Waters, a real rebel from rock and roll, has been trying to destroy it for half a century now, asking the same question again and again: “Is this the life we ​​really want?”