Roger Waters Says Re-Recording ‘Dark Side’ Was a ‘F—ing Mad’ Idea
Roger Waters has revealed further details behind his decision to re-record Pink Floyd’s classic 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. In a post to Facebook, Waters explained that the initial idea came to him while working on the Lockdown Sessions, a collection of minimalist versions of Pink Floyd and solo material that he recorded during the pandemic.
“When we recorded the stripped-down songs for the Lockdown Sessions, the 50th anniversary of the release of Dark Side of The Moon was looming on the horizon," Waters explained. "It occurred to me that Dark Side of the Moon could well be a suitable candidate for a similar reworking, partly as a tribute to the original work, but also to readdress the political and emotional message of the whole album."
Waters discussed the idea with some of his collaborators. “When we'd stopped giggling and shouting 'You must be fucking mad' at one another, we decided to take it on,” he explained.
A release date for the updated version of The Dark Side of the Moon has not yet been announced, though Waters noted he was “in the process of finishing the final mix.” The singer’s Facebook post was accompanied by a video, featuring a snippet of the new rendition of “Us and Them,” which you can watch in the below post.
“It's turned out really great and I'm excited for everyone to hear it,” Waters boasted. “It's not a replacement for the original, which, obviously, is irreplaceable. But it is a way for the 79-year-old man to look back across the intervening 50 years into the eyes of the 29 year and say, to quote a poem of mine about my father, ‘We did our best, we kept his trust, our dad would have been proud of us.’ And also it is a way for me to honor a recording that Nick [Mason] and Rick [Wright] and Dave [Gilmour] and I have every right to be very proud of.”