Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason said he’s heard Roger Waters‘ upcoming re-recording of The Dark Side of the Moon and thinks that it’s “absolutely brilliant.”
Earlier this year, Waters revealed that he had re-recorded the entire 1973 Pink Floyd album, a project Mason said he was vaguely aware of. “I heard the rumor that Roger was working on his own version of it,” Mason noted at a recent anniversary playback of the original Dark Side at London’s Dolby Atmos Immersive Studio [via NME]. “There was this suggestion that this was going to be a spoiler and Roger was going to go head-to-head with the original version and so on.”
Waters reportedly gave Mason a sneak peek. “He actually sent me a copy of what he was working on,” Mason said. “And I [wrote] to him and said, ‘Annoyingly, it’s absolutely brilliant!’ It was and is. It’s not anything that would be a spoiler for the original at all, it’s an interesting add-on to the thing.”
Mason clarified his opinion on revisiting and reimagining artists’ classic works. “One of the things I like about any sort of existing piece of music is to develop it or find some extra quality in it,” he said. “I just like this idea of developing music rather than trying to retain it exactly as it was.”
The drummer also recently expressed support for his former Pink Floyd bandmate by signing a petition calling for one of Waters’ canceled German performances to be reinstated. Two of Waters’ upcoming appearances in Germany were canceled because of his alleged antisemitic views. Other artists, like Eric Clapton, Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel, have also signed the petition.
Polly Samson, the wife of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, posted a tweet in February calling Waters ”antisemitic” and a ”Putin apologist.” Gilmour retweeted his wife’s post, adding, “Every word demonstrably true.”
Mason, who now leads the band Saucerful of Secrets, has repeatedly expressed regret that he often finds himself between Waters and Gilmour. “I actually get along with both of them,” Mason told Rolling Stone in 2018. “And I think it’s really disappointing that these rather elderly gentlemen are still at loggerheads.”
Waters’ new version of The Dark Side of the Moon is expected to be released sometime in May though no set date has been announced yet.