I used to love music by Pink Floyd. I listened to their work all the time.
Back in 2004, I went to a Roger Waters concert. I was in a large group of 10-15 people, all good friends.
In retrospect, I should have seen what was coming, but...I didn’t.
It turned into a 3 hour political audiovisual tirade against conservatives and Israel, with some music mixed in. It looked like Code Pink put together the slide and video shows they had going on, showing the “injustices” against some ostensible muslims that played constantly.
I didn’t want to ruin the evening for the people I went with, but I was steaming mad. I grit my teeth and sat there. At the end of the “concert”, they released a 40 foot high ballon of a pig with “F*ck Bush” on one side and “Vote Democrat” on the other.
I have been unable to listen to any Pink Floyd music since then. It STILL pisses me off. (The “F*ck Bush” not so much in the intervening years.)
I should have known. I paid no attention to the political affiliations of artists for much of my life, but at that time, I just had not gone down that road. So that’s on me. But now I can rarely overlook it.
Why beat yourself up? Waters was NOT pink Floyd and has not been a member for 40 years.
There is an interview with Bob Ezrin , producer for the Wall that basically reveals , yeah while Waters may have come up with ideas for “The Wall” The band made a great album DESPITE Waters ego.
Waters ideas have always been whacko but the band and producers cleaned up and turned them into recording masterpieces despite Waters having no appearant musical talent. His bass playing is rather amatuerish.Gilmour did most of the classic lines in the studio.
Sad that you let Waters turn you off to their music. Animals and The Final Cut are pretty unsufferable, Waters-dominated music. Gilmour probably leans left, although his brand of social-justice really does jive with Jesus’: he believes in compassion for the poor, but he doesn’t prescribe doing it through government. The Gilmour-led Pink Floyd was fairly anti-partisan. (Dogs of War was a poor, miserable exception.) The most purely Gilmour album is “The Division Bell,” referring to the bell which makes British parliament members break to their own side of the aisle. It features songs such as “Keep Talking,” “A Great Day for Freedom,” “Lost for Words,” and “High Hopes.” The big weakness is that Gilmour doesn’t have the knack for melody that Waters had; the melody tends to fall into almost a cadence, with musical lines matching up with lyrical lines. My preferred Gilmour album is A Momentary Lapse of Reason, which is almost the antithesis of Waters-dominated The Final Cut.
Yes, you should’ve known better. By 2004 Waters had been gone from Pink Floyd for about 20+ years, but maybe you didn’t know what a left-wing nut he is.