In addition to being the man behind the driving bass lines of Pink Floyd’s iconic discography, Roger Waters has developed quite a reputation for his strong opinions. Be they musical, political, social, or otherwise, the rockstar has no problem telling it exactly how it is—or the way he sees it, anyway.
Waters will openly praise and condemn an artist, like Bob Dylan, who Waters has considered a massive lyrical and sonic inspiration à la Blonde on Blonde and an irritatingly wayward soul à la Shadows in the Night.
But one artist in particular seems to catch more flack from Roger Waters than he ever did praise: Phil Collins.
Roger Waters Called This 1980s Pop Icon A Phony
From his time as the drummer and lead singer of Genesis to his prolific solo career, Phil Collins’ mark on the music industry is undeniable. But if one were to ask former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters, that mark isn’t necessarily a becoming one. Waters shared his feelings about Collins in a 1992 interview with Musician magazine.
“You can draw a line between what I’m interested in and what I’m not interested in,” Waters began. “On the one side, you can name [Bob] Dylan and [John] Lennon, who observe the world and have feelings and write songs directly from those feelings. On the vapid side, you have pop groups who need material and write songs to fill the hole, rather than getting somebody else. But they might just as well get somebody else, because it’s a manufacturing process.”
“I seem to always wind up attacking poor Phil Collins, but it’s only because he’s so visible. He’s symptomatic of an awful lot of it. He might well disagree, and so might his fans, but the “feeling” I get is that he’s pretending to be a songwriter or a rock ‘n’ roller. It’s an act. That’s why it’s unsatisfying.”
Genesis’ Music Video Peeved the Pink Floyd Co-Founder
Roger Waters is nothing if not thorough, and he had examples to back up his hot takes about Phil Collins in his 1992 interview. One was the music video for Genesis’ 1991 track, “I Can’t Dance.” As Waters put it, “If you cared about what you were doing, you would not be able to do that silly walk, one behind the other, because you would find it impossible to ridicule your work in that way.”
Waters was seemingly referencing the part of the music video where the members of Genesis, clad in matching suits and sunglasses, walk across the screen in a synchronized “silly walk.” The Pink Floyd co-founder said this type of behavior had “taken over an awful lot of the business. You could say, ‘Well, why shouldn’t it?’ Absolutely no reason, so long as it doesn’t take over and squeeze out the Lennons and Dylans because they’re too good for it.”
Collins explained his take on the divisive track in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview. “It’s not about being unable to dance,” Collins said. “It’s about guys that look good but can’t string a sentence together. Each verse is a p*** take at the scenario of a jeans commercial. It was good fun, but the audience thought, ‘What does he mean that he can’t dance?’ They didn’t see the humor, and it killed the fun.”
Based on Waters’ remarks, it would appear that he didn’t see the humor, either.
Photo by T S/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
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