Roger Waters shares the ‘two bits’ he thinks were the most important parts of Pink Floyd

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Two bits of the legendary rock band Pink Floyd were its most important parts, according to Roger Waters.

The bassist and founding member would leave the band in 1985, three years after the second most important part of Pink Floyd. That is what Waters believed, anyway, and he made as much clear in an interview with TVNZ back in 2007. The Wall hitmaker would suggest two periods of the band were their best years, and both featured Waters as a driving creative force. One period with Syd Barrett, and a second period with Waters as frontman, would be the “two bits” the bassist says are the band’s most important times. He did pass comment on David Gilmour fronting the band, though was rather nice with his comments on how he simply didn’t think either A Momentary Lapse of Reason or The Division Bell holds up.

Waters said: “My view is this. And it’s only my personal view. There were sort of two bits of Pink Floyd that I thought was important. One was Syd Barrett and his extraordinary, most weirdly, wonderful songs that he wrote in 1966, ’67 and maybe even a little of ’68.

“And after Syd developed his disease we carried on without him and we struggled and struggled and eventually did some really compelling work between 1968 and 1982. And there was all the argy bargy and other people would say, then there were the two big tours that the boys did, and two albums that they made.

“I don’t really think that work holds up, that’s just a personal opinion of mine. It would have been better if they’d called it something else. But they didn’t and they took that decision and I promise you I have no problem with it.”

Despite not having any problem with it, Waters does not believe the nine years Pink Floyd spent on the road after his departure are all that important. Despite the band carrying on without him, the classic line-up would get back together for a one-off in 2005.

In interviews since the Live 8 show, Waters has expressed his surprise at the band’s ongoing relevancy. Decades after the release of Animals and The Final Cut, Waters said: “I’m thrilled. It’s very edifying. 

“I get people saying, ‘My 11-year-old is really into you,’ but it’s usually when puberty kicks in! When people start getting rebellious and having ‘different feelings’ and ‘what’s the meaning of life?’ I love it. I never expected it to last this long, but I am extremely glad that it has.”

It should come as no surprise that the likes of Wish You Were Here, Money, and Comfortably Numb are as influential now as they were on first release. The band would reunite just once with the Waters, Wright, Mason, and Gilmour line-up. Waters left the group in 1985, just two years after the release of The Final Cut.