Rock and roll bands around the world have their band members each playing an attributed instrument based on their talents. Some musicians that play the instruments can sing or write songs at the same time. However, this subject is a bit more complicated when it comes to Pink Floyd. The band’s initial lineup consisted of Syd Barrett on guitar and lead vocal, Nick Mason on drums, Roger Waters on bass guitar and vocals, Richard Wright on keyboards and vocals, and finally, Bob Klose on guitars.
However, the lineup started to change when Klose quit a year after the band was founded. Three years after that, David Gilmour joined, and tensions between the band members, especially between Waters and Gilmour started to spark. The feud between the members affected the band in many ways including switching instruments every once in a while. In some Pink Floyd songs, David Gilmour plays the bass guitar instead of the band’s original bassist Roger Waters.
What Were Songs In Which David Gilmour Played Bass Instead Of Roger Waters?
The first song that Gilmour took the lead in bass guitar was ‘Fat Old Sun’ released in Pink Floyd’s 1970 album, ‘Atom Heart Mother.’ Although Waters contributed to the rest of the album, in this particular song, Gilmour took a bigger role. David Gilmour wrote and sang the song, played electric guitar, acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar, bass guitar, drums, and percussion while Wright played the Farfissa and Hammond organs.
The other two songs that David played bass was , ‘Pigs (Three Different Ones)’ and ‘Sheep,’ which were released in the ‘Animals’ album. The writing credits of these two songs were fully given to Roger Waters. He wrote the songs revealing his songwriting skills and creativity. However, Gilmour was still responsible for the music and had to take over Waters to play his bass guitar instead of him.
The last but not least, Gilmour also played the bass instead of Rogers in one of the band’s most acknowledged songs ‘Hey You.’ While David played the fretless bass guitar, Roger wrote and sang the iconic song that released in 1979. It is often rumored that Gilmour had to take over Waters’ music because even though he was talented in writing lyrics, he wasn’t that talented in playing music.
What Did David Gilmour Say About Roger Waters’ Bass Talents?
In an interview with Rock Compact Disc Magazine in 1992, Gilmour stated that he thinks that Roger Waters didn’t want to improve himself. David generally wanted to take control over to get it done better and faster and he also claimed that he played bass half of the time in their records. However, Rogers would still get all the credits for Gilmour’s work and even thank him for it.
Gilmour’s opinion about Rogers, as stated in 1992, is as follows:
“He had developed his own limited or very simple style. He was never very keen on improving himself as a bass player, and half the time I would play bass on the records because I would tend to do it quicker. Right back to those early records; I mean, at least half the bass on all recorded output is me anyway.
Well, I think it’s been said, but it’s certainly not something we go around advertising. Rog used to come in and say, ‘Thank you very much’ to me once in a while for winning him bass-playing polls.”
David Gilmour is known to be one of the most successful musicians in the world. He made it obvious many times that he gives grave importance to the music of the album, and he can play whatever instrument is necessary to play. Whereas Roger Waters is more on the lyrics side, thinking that it could be more important than the music itself. Their clashing point of view in creating music can easily be spotted which makes the conflicts in Pink Floyd gain meaning.
