Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters shared the first snippet of his reworking of ‘Us and Them’ on YouTube this week. This is part of Waters’ project of reworking Pink Floyd’s iconic The Dark Side of the Moon, the band’s best-selling album released 50 years ago on 1st March.
Waters spoke to The Telegraph about embarking on this project, saying, “not enough people recognised what it’s about, what it was I was saying then.” He believes this to be the perfect opportunity to point fans in the right direction, stating in the accompanying caption to the snippet of ‘Us and Them’ that reworking the album would provide a good opportunity to “re-address the political and emotional message of the whole album.”
Waters acknowledged that “it’s not a replacement for the original which, obviously, is irreplaceable.”
He continues, “But it is a way for the seventy nine year old man to look back across the intervening fifty years into the eyes of the twenty nine year old and say, to quote a poem of mine about my Father, “We did our best, we kept his trust, our Dad would have been proud of us”. And also it is a way for me to honor a recording that Nick and Rick and Dave and I have every right to be very proud of.”
Relationships between the ex-band members haven’t always been the best since Waters’ exit in 1985, with Waters anticipating backlash to this rerecording project. He told The Telegraph, “I wrote ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’. 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!”
Waters also revealed to The Telegraph that this project had been “secretly” in the works for months, reworking the entire track list “from scratch” unbeknownst to ex-band members David Gilmour and Nick Mason.
He is reportedly “planning a lavish vinyl release” of the rerecording, with the release date pushed back from March to May as Waters keeps “tinkering with recordings.”
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon,’ Pink Floyd have also announced a reissued version, due to be released on 24th March. The reissue will also include a live recording of Pink Floyd’s 1974 Wembley Stadium show.
A book will also become available on 24th March, titled ‘Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon: 50th Anniversary.‘ The book will include rare and unseen photos taken during tours between 1972 and 1975.
Additionally, harking back to Pink Floyd’s successful stargazing events at the London Planetarium in 1973, fans will also be able to experience ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ stargazing events at planetariums around the world.
Full details of the 50th anniversary reissues and events can be found here.
Purchase tickets for Roger Waters’ tour here.
31/05/2023 – Utilita Arena – Birmingham
02/06/2023 – 03/06/2023 – SSE Hydro – Glasgow
06/06/2023 – 07/06/2023 – The O2 – London
10/06/2023 – Manchester AO Arena – Manchester
Stream ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ here.
