Music Roger Waters - Greatest Vocalist ever?

I know it sounds stupid, you're probably thinking 'Roger Waters? Pink Floyd were good but he's not that good a singer'

And you'd be right, if it weren't for one thing. The live Version of Hey You, from Pulse Live.


It really hammers home just how good a lyricist he is, on top of that, the second half just blows me away. waters has always sounded melancholy and sad, but its just unbelievable. Just that one section screams out. It really makes you feel like he's this lonely, sad individual with no-one in his life, a dead end job, a small flat, and absolutely nothing and no-one to live for, who just keeps plodding on through life because he has no other choice. Its just so incredibly desperate and powerful. Every time I listen to it I have to listen again, just to hear him screaming that one verse like a man possessed.

Hey you, out there beyond the wall, breaking bottles in the hall, can ya help me?

 

The Final Cut is one of my all time favourite albums.

 

Wish You Were Here.

 

I know this may seem like a thread crap, just i can not stand pink floyd. Many people are better, try little feat - teenage nervous breakdown

some contend that rock and roll is bad for
the body and bad for the soul
bad for the heart bad for the mind
bad for the deaf bad for the blind
makes some men crazy and then they
talk like fools makes some men crazy
and then they start to drool

unscrupulous operators could confuse
could exploit and decieve conditional
reflex theories and change probabilities
it's crass and rockous crackass place with
pavlov on the human race it's a terrible
illness it's a terrible case and usually
permanent when it takes place
it's a teenage nervous breakdown
it's a teenage nervous breakdown
it's a tenenerve nervetene
it's a tennenervenerna whoa!

Any one who can make lyrics with "reflex theories" and "pavlov" in deserves a medal.

 

Transient jet lag ecto mimed bison
This is the haunt of roulette dares
Ruse of metacarpi
Caveat emptor....to all that enter here
Open wrists talk back again
In the wounded of its skin
They'll pinprick the witness
In ritual contrition
The am trinity fell upon asphyxia-derailed
In the rattles of...
Made its way through the tracks
Of a snail slouching whisper
A half mass comute through umbilical blisters
Spector will lurk
Radar has gathered
Midnight nooses from boxcar cadavers
Exoskeletal junction at the railroad delayed
Exoskeletal junction at the railroad delayed
It's because this is
Cranial bleeding
Leaches train the living
Cursed are they who speak its name
Ruse of metacarpi
Caveat emptor to all that enter here
Exoskeletal junction at the railroad delayed
Exoskeletal junction at the railroad delayed
It's because this is
Ratteling the laughter
Hinges splintering inside
Bludgeoned to a saddle
Rang the cloister bell inside
inside
inside
Exoskeletal junction at the railroad delayed
Exoskeletal junction at the railroad delayed
it's because this is

 

What does that mean? It is just a collection of words, it tells me nothing.

 

Actually, it's Mars Volta. Dig it.

 

Exactly. Complicated lyrics dont mean anything to most people. Just like I don't care about Pavlov, you probably don't care about Cerpin Tax, a fictional being who feasts on the souls of people in coma's. Without a grounding meaning, lyrics mean nothing to me, hence why I prefer to think of Volta lyrics as another instrument, rather than a vocal line.

Waters lyrics and delivery actually man something, instead of just being collections of ideologies and descriptions, theres something deep underneath them that resonates with something more substantial than political views.

Hey You and The Wall in general actually mean something to me because they deal with oppression and the journey of this one sad figure from birth through life as it wears him down and frays his psyche until eventually he breaks down and snaps under the weight of societys expectations and rules. To me, the personal themes and the kind of reflection on how fragile the human mind is, the delicate balance between individuality and conformity, acceptance and ridicule, (The Trial) that gets me a lot more involved in the music than a comparatively simple little tune about a single stressful time of life, coupled with a paragraph or so on the bands ideology.


Don't get me wrong however, I love music as an emotional tool, its just that in the case of lyrics, its almost impossible to express properly whats meant. or every punk band who have made songs and raged on about anger and dissapointment, none of them have ever managed to capture the sense of desperation and despair that waters brings to the forefront of the wall.

 

Can't really comment on Pink Floyd as I've not really heard much of them. I found these guys RUSH are pretty good with the Lyrics, they cover quite a range of subjects aswell.
Recommend the albums
Power Windows
Presto
A show of hands (live album).

 

Excelent me too, followed closely by The pros and cons of hitchhiking

 

Live Wish you were here, but I would certainly say that others are as good as Roger Waters. Right off the top of my head Adam Duritz of Counting Crows and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith come to mind.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Roger Waters didn't sing on the Pulse tour (assuming you're talking about the 1994 concert). That was David Gilmour singing.

 

Hehe, great topic for a thread. Hes my idol, and I find my bass playing is very much influenced by his.

 

*shrug* If thats the case then change the thread title, I'm going on the live album, dunno who sang on it I just assumed it was waters.

Ok I just checked amazon and it isn't waters, doesnt say who it is though.

 

Gilmore, of course!

 

No, he's shite.

 

It's Gilmour. Had I noticed this thread earlier, I'd have added that correction myself. Waters left the band before the album "Momentary Lapse of Reason" and didn't return. Well, he did come back to do a performance of The Wall live in 1989 for the falling of the Berlin Wall. But that's it.

 

Technically, Waters played with all the other guys for Live 8. For the record, I thought they sounded kinda...well....eh... But it was complete Floyd, minus Barrett of course.

 

True, but no further album contribs. I honestly forgot all about the live 8 thing! thanks for the reminder