“They’re about money”: The shows Roger Waters said had nothing to do with music
Rock and roll began life as a way to build community amongst a group of people. Anyone can try their hand at making a song that people can sing along to, but the core trademark of any great band is to find some sort of emotional catharsis among them and the people that they are playing to whenever they go out on their massive tours. And while Roger Waters has found no problem in making the most of every second he has onstage every night, he knew that some shows that he played were never done for the right reasons.
Looking through Pink Floyd’s career trajectory, though, the band were lucky to have made it to the other side of superstardom. Syd Barrett’s mental collapse was usually the first sign for many musicians to hang things up and go their separate ways, but Waters was never satisfied with being the kind of person to roll over and accept his fate. He had dreams of being a musician, and he would make them come true in whatever way he could.
And compared to Barrett’s version of the group, Waters wanted to make sure he pried open the third eye of every single person who came to one of his performances. There were bound to be amazing light shows during the Dark Side of the Moon tour or the flying pig throughout Animals, but the core message behind everything was about seeing the world around us and wondering if there was any way that music could make it better.
Then again, The Wall was the clearest example of why Waters’s message was falling on deaf ears. The whole point of them playing music now only served to entertain people that were one notch above clapping monkeys, to the point where everyone would be screaming for them to play singles like ‘Money’ rather than taking in the show whenever they played.
So while The Wall did allow the band to bring some theatricality to the proceedings, it did make for some uncomfortable moments when they started taking shots at the audience. The rock opera is a project that demands to be played in full, but looking at the insults that Waters throws at the audience during the show, it’s clear that he was having a lot of fun airing out his grievances at all of those lacklustre fans.
And even when he started his own solo career, he had no problems distancing himself from the kind of stadium rock that Floyd had become known for, saying, “I’d finally become completely disillusioned with the whole idea of stadium gigs in rock ‘n roll, because I’d come to the conclusion they’re not about music or communication or any of the things that I’m interested in – they’re only about money.”
Waters may have warmed up to the idea of playing stadiums when he started singing major traction for albums like Amused to Death, but even when he took to the road then, he made sure that he had a stern message above it all. He had already redone The Wall for stadium gigs when the Berlin Wall came down and had reunited with Pink Floyd for Live 8, but whenever he takes to the road now, he has always used it as a vehicle to talk about his politics, like when he performed selections from Animals with Donald Trump’s face plastered in the background.
Even though there’s a case to be made for leaving politics at the door when making a live show, Waters was never going to be that kind of person. He knew that all good art needed to have a message behind it, and if it managed to piss off a few people, he could still sleep easy at night knowing that it was focused on the message of the music rather than the paycheck he was taking home.
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