Roger Waters shares the songs from the last twenty years which ‘excite’ him, including one from Bob Dylan’s son

Veteran musician and bass guitarist Roger Waters has shared the songs from the last twenty years which “excite him”.

One such song mentioned by the Pink Floyd member was a track from Bob Dylan‘s son, Jakob Dylan. An interview given by Waters saw the Amused to Death and The Wall hitmaker share his thoughts on modern music. He shared “one or two songs” from the last twenty years managed to excite him, with Waters picking through decades of work to find the best tracks of all. The interview, given in 2005, shines a light on what Waters was listening to at the time, and his choices seem to be still relevant pieces of work. His three songs may come as a surprise to progressive rock fans, as no such songs are found on his list.

But there was high praise for R.E.M., Sting, and Jakob Dylan in his round-up of modern songs. Waters told Word Magazine: “There’s been one or two songs in the last twenty years. Everybody Hurts by REM. That song is phenomenal. 

“And Every Breath You Take by Sting. I loved that song One Headlight by the Wallflowers [Dylan’s son Jakob’s band]. It probably appealed to me the same way Tommy Steel’s version of Singing the Blues did when I first heard it and took up my position in the corner of the playground to defend it against the Guy Mitchell version!”

Waters’ modern-day music selections followed his comments on “popular music”, something he says never “consumed” his interest. The veteran musician says his taste in music was more “Neil Young, John Lennon, Leonard Cohen…” than anything else released at the time.

He shared: “I’ve just never been consumed by popular music. I mean I was turned on by Elvis like everyone else, but my interest goes right back to the early part of the 20th century, back to Leadbelly, back to the first protest songs on the edge of the blues which is where the best of rock and roll still lives. 

“We haven’t moved far really. If you listen to Rust Never Sleeps, essentially it hasn’t really strayed that far from Bessie Smith and Leadbelly. But I’m still a big fan of certain writers. I saw John Prine the other day and he was unbelievable. 

“And Neil Young, John Lennon, Leonard Cohen… I could reel off twenty names of people I feel are really necessary to have around me.” Waters’ comments on music come as he shared one of the most “liberating” projects he worked on was in an unlikely genre.

Ça Ira, his 2005 opera, received mixed reviews from critics but was a “liberating” success for Waters personally. He shared: “It is [liberating]! But I wrote all the music – well, eighty per cent of it – to the French version of the libretto. 

“It was Sony who pushed me to write an English version, but in parts the literal translation, shorn of Etienne’s jeu de mots and idiomatic and literary allusions, didn’t make much sense. I had to rewrite the English to fit the metre of the French text. “