Roger Waters has released a new take on Pink Floyd’s Money, which serves as the lead single from the vocalist/bassist's forthcoming re-recording of The Dark Side of the Moon.
News of Waters’ revisionist project broke back in February, with the Pink Floyd co-founder reportedly cutting David Gilmour and the rest of the band out of the 1973 classic without their knowledge.
“I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon,” he asserted at the time in an interview with The Telegraph. “Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ crap! Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it. So… blah!”
Now, after sharing a brief snippet of a reimagined Us and Them in March, Waters has officially dropped the first preview of The Dark Side of the Moon Redux.
It’s certainly a stark contrast to the original. Gone are Gilmour’s swanky Fender Stratocaster snaps and electrifying guitar solos. Gone, too, are Mason’s galloping drums, and that sizzling sax solo.
Instead, Waters has flipped Money on its head, transforming it from a helter skelter thrill ride into a brooding, reflective acoustic guitar journey, further differentiating it from the original with dense layers of moody strings, foreboding piano and a spoken word section.
Also absent from the song is the opening’s iconic cash register sound effect – no wonder, considering the sound effect has been the cause of yet more tension between Waters and Gilmour in recent months.
Citing an interview Gilmour gave Rolling Stone in 1982 in which he described the origins of the cash register effect, Waters wrote on his website, “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.”
Upon releasing his new take on Money, Waters dove deeper into his reasoning for wanting to re-record The Dark Side of the Moon, arguing that the message of the original take “hasn’t stuck”.
“The original Dark Side of the Moon feels in some ways like the lament of an elder being on the human condition,” he offered. “But Dave, Rick, Nick and I were so young when we made it, and when you look at the world around us, clearly the message hasn’t stuck.
“That’s why I started to consider what the wisdom of an 80 year-old could bring to a reimagined version. I’m immensely proud of what we have created, a work that can sit proudly alongside the original, hand-in-hand across a half-century of time.”
Accompanying the single is news that The Dark Side of the Moon Redux will arrive on October 6, along with a 13-minute original composition to serve as the record closer.
For updates, head over to Roger Waters' website.
