Just like the rabid authoritarian dogs depicted in Pink Floyd‘s Animals, Roger Waters has returned once again to take control. In a post made to his website on Monday, the former Floyd bassist updated fans on the new mixes for the band’s 1977 concept album as well as teased his forthcoming memoirs.
For those not up to date on the latest tiff between Waters and his former bandmate David Gilmour, the bassist has been locked out of the official Pink Floyd social media accounts and thus is forced to deliver even the most Floyd-centric news via his own outlet. According to Waters, the new James Guthrie stereo and 5.1 mixes for Animals have been sitting on a shelf since 2018 due to a dispute over liner notes written by music journalist Mark Blake.
Related: The Message Of Pink Floyd’s ‘Animals’ Still Resonates 44 Years Later [Listen]
Waters, ever the compromiser, has agreed to release the remastered Animals album without the liner notes. Instead, he posted Blake’s notes in full on his own website for all to read.
The musician even notes that Gilmour himself does not dispute Blake’s accounts of the events surrounding Animals, but contends that Gilmour objects to their publication because “he wants that history to remain secret.” According to Waters, this is merely the latest attempt by the cabal of Gilmour and his wife Polly Samson to afford the guitarist undue credit throughout Floyd’s 1967–1985 heydey.
While Blake’s account of the lead-up to Animals definitely gives Waters his fair share of credit, the notes feature little objectionable material and were even agreed to by drummer Nick Mason. Though Waters is depicted as the mastermind behind Animals, credit is also given to Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright, Mason, Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of the design company Hipgnosis, and more in bringing the iconic vision of the album together.
While Blake’s liner notes take a more objective and diplomatic tone, Waters drops the gloves by tacking on his own coda at the end. Waters adds that he is also working on his memoirs, a project he picked up during quarantine, partly in the interest of setting various records straight.
One specific slight he takes offense at is a 1982 interview Gilmour (or DG, as Waters shies away from typing his name) conducted with Rolling Stone‘s David Fricke in which the guitarist takes credit for recording the cash register sound effects at the beginning of “Money” from The Dark Side of the Moon.
“Well! The reason everything DG is saying here to David Fricke sounds like gobbledygook is because it is fucking gobbledygook. He has no fucking idea what he’s talking about,” Waters wrote. “Why? Because unless he was hiding under the fucking chair, DG wasn’t there when I made that SFX tape loop for ‘Money’ in the studio I shared with my wife Judy at the bottom of our garden at 187, New North Road, Islington, next door to the North Pole Pub where I used to play darts!”
Though the liner notes debate appears to finally have been settled, Waters shared no release date for the Animals remix. The full liner notes, as well as a snippet from his memoirs, are available to read on his website, free from Gilmour’s reach. Scroll down to watch a brief video from the bassist summarizing his latest gripe.
Roger Waters – Animals – New Album Mix Release Update
[Video: Roger Waters]