Roger Waters says one unlikely album ‘finished Pink Floyd off’ for good

It may seem unlikely given the band’s history, but Roger Waters believes the beginning of the end for Pink Floyd came upon the release of their best album. The outspoken bassist and songwriter believes the band not only peaked creatively with The Dark Side of the Moon, but that there was little wiggle room for himself or his bandmates afterwards.

The Dark Side of the Moon was so successful in fact it made the rest of Pink Floyd’s time together useless, Waters claims. He believed the band had “cracked it” in 1973 and that the rest of their time together was merely trying to repeat a success they had already experienced.

He said: “But of course, The Dark Side Of The Moon finished the Pink Floyd off once and for all. To be that successful is the aim of every group. And once you’ve cracked it, it’s all over. In hindsight, I think the Pink Floyd was finished as long ago as that.”

Despite Waters’ thoughts on The Dark Side of the Moon effectively killing off the band, he also regrets that the rest of the band received songwriting credits on the album. Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and David Gilmour were each handed a songwriting credit for their work on the album, a choice Waters now contests.

In an interview with Uncut Magazine in 2003, Waters confirmed he “regrets” the decision to credit his Pink Floyd bandmates. He said: “This album is my baby. In terms of what the records were about, they were my ideas and I wrote them. Dave, particularly, but Rick as well, had major, important contributions.”

Though he was thankful for the contributions made by Gilmour and Wright, Waters remained clear in his belief that it was a mistake to credit them as writers for the album. Waters went as far as to single out a credit given to Mason which he had come to regret.

Waters shared: “I’ve regretted it rather a lot since, but I’m over that now. I went through many years when I really regretted having given away half the writing credits, particularly [Nick Mason’s solo credit for] Speak To Me. I gave it to him. Nobody else had anything to do with it at all.”

The bassist would also criticise Gilmour, who had suggested his contributions to The Dark Side of the Moon were not as great because he had been “lazy” around this period. Waters disagreed, though, and suggested the problem with Gilmour and The Dark Side of the Moon was not his attitude, but his ideas.

Waters added: “He doesn’t have very many ideas. He’s a great guitar player, but he’s not really a writer. However conscientious or hard-working Dave was, he would never actually write anything.”