An inability to play any instrument well was “an advantage” for Roger Waters, the bassist and Pink Floyd founder has said.
Waters would become a prolific musician all the same, though he says it was beneficial to his songwriting style that he was not proficient with instruments. It wouldn’t be an entirely positive experience, though the hindrance would be something Waters adapted to during his time in Pink Floyd and as a solo musician. Speaking to Rocky Mountain News in 2008, Waters said that he had to “think about things” when it came to writing songs. Waters would go on to briefly argue that it was better for a songwriter to write songs without a brilliant grasp on any instrument, and claimed it was even an “advantage” to how he wrote.
He said: “I always think it’s a bit of a handicap in terms of writing. If you’re a virtuoso guitar player or keyboard player or anything else, really. That could be a handicap. There’s a temptation to sort of noodle. However brilliant it may be, it’s not writing. I’ve always thought the fact that I can’t really play instruments really well has been something of an advantage to me. It means I have to think about things – what is the effect I’m trying to create here.”
Recently, Waters confirmed he had lifted heavily from Bob Dylan’s Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for his unreleased track, The Bar. The track would feature on his live album, This is Not a Drill, though a studio version has not yet been released.
He said before playing the song: “Before we sing this other verse of The Bar, I have to mention three names. The first name is Bob Dylan. Back in 1966, Bob Dylan made a great album called Blonde on Blonde. It’s a double album, a double vinyl album, and side four was a long, incredibly beautiful ballad called Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.
“I’m not ashamed to say that it crept into my head when I was writing this verse. And so I stole some of the lyrics. Well, I didn’t steal them, but I used them. I used the words ‘sad, eyed,’ and ‘lady’, and ‘big, brass,’ and ‘bed’. If you know the song, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
“So, Bob, thank you. Anyone, if you run into Bob, could you say Roger says, ‘Thank you’.” Waters would go on to share the “sad-eyed lady” in the song is his wife, Kamilah Chavis. He added: “She is the rock upon which I lean. I think she’s actually here tonight, so she’ll hear you if you do that [cheer].”
Waters’ love for Dylan’s work is long-standing, and also for Dylan’s song, Jakob Dylan. When asked for his favourite songs from the last twenty years, Waters said one from Wallflowers, the band which features Jakob, still “excites” him.
