Roger Waters releases Pink Floyd’s Animals remaster liner notes following dispute with David Gilmour

Roger Waters and David Gilmour
(Image credit: Avalon/PYMCA/Gonzales Photo/Tord Litleskare/Universal Images Group / Neil Lupin/Redferns via Getty)

Roger Waters has shared the liner notes for Pink Floyd’s recent Animals remaster following a dispute with electric guitar legend David Gilmour, alleging that Gilmour wanted them removed due to credit issues.

In a lengthy statement posted to his website on May 31, Waters accused Gilmour of wanting to bury the liner notes in order to “claim more credit… than is his due” for the album.

Waters also alleges that Gilmour “has for the last 35 years told a lot of whopping porky pies about who did what in Pink Floyd when I was still in charge”.

“As I am banned by Dave Gilmour from posting on Pink Floyd’s Facebook page with its 30,000,000 subscribers, I am posting this announcement here today and in full on rogerwaters.com,” the post reads.

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“What precipitated this note is that there are new James Guthrie Stereo and 5.1 mixes of the Pink Floyd album Animals, 1977. These mixes have languished unreleased because of a dispute over some sleeve notes that Mark Blake has written for this new release.

“Gilmour has vetoed the release of the album unless these liner notes are removed. He does not dispute the veracity of the history described in Mark’s notes, but he wants that history to remain a secret.”

Waters continues, “This is a small part of an ongoing campaign by the Gilmour/Samson camp to claim more credit for Dave on the work he did in Pink Floyd, 1967-1985, than is his due. He has for the last 35 years told a lot of whopping porky pies… There’s a lot of, ‘We did this’ and, ‘We did that’, and, ‘I did this’ and, ‘I did that.’”

As an example, the Pink Floyd bass player cites a 1982 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, during which Gilmour recalled the process of creating the cash register effect found on Money.

“The reason everything DG is saying here sounds like gobbledygook, is because it is fucking gobbledygook,” claims Waters. “He has no fucking idea what he’s talking about. Why? Because… DG wasn’t there when I made that SFX tape loop for Money in the studio I shared with my wife Judy.”

The liner notes, which Waters has posted in their entirety, will not feature when the remastered version of Animals is released.

Head over to Roger Waters’ official website to read the album liner notes in full.

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Matt Owen

Matt is a Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.