“It’s like saying: ‘Give a man a Les Paul guitar and he becomes Eric Clapton.’ It’s not true”: Why Roger Waters thinks people are too preoccupied with gear
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters says giving someone a great guitar doesn’t necessarily mean they turn into a great guitarist, nor does it mean they immediately emulate the style of other musicians using similar gear.
As Classic Rock magazine looks back on Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii – from 1972 – archival footage of the band is reviewed and Waters gives his opinion on musicians overthinking the instruments they choose to use.
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“It’s a question of using the tools that are available when they’re available,” he says in the Live At Pompeii concert film footage.
He continues: “It’s all extensions of what’s coming out of our heads. It’s like saying: ‘Give a man a Les Paul guitar and he becomes Eric Clapton.’ It’s not true. Give a man an amplifier and a synthesiser… and he doesn’t become us.”
Commenting on his appearance in the documentary years later, Waters would go on to state, “You can see we were fucking stoned. Dave and I were completely out of our brains.”
Following Live At Pompeii, Pink Floyd didn’t go on to release a concert film until 1989’s Delicate Sound of Thunder.
Drummer Nick Mason says, “It’s a rare document of us before Dark Side [of the Moon] and Wish You Were Here. Now you only have to turn on the television and every band you’ve ever heard of has got a live film.”
Gilmour ended up returning to the amphitheatre to record a solo version of Live At Pompeii with accompanying film.
Elsewhere, last year, David Gilmour commented on his penchant for slower, more feel-driven solos, saying playing fast solos “just wasn’t ever going to happen”.
“I wasn’t gifted with enormous speed on the guitar,” he admitted. “There were years when I was younger were I thought I could get that if I practiced enough. But it just wasn’t ever really going to happen.”
The post “It’s like saying: ‘Give a man a Les Paul guitar and he becomes Eric Clapton.’ It’s not true”: Why Roger Waters thinks people are too preoccupied with gear appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
