If Roger had remained...

I like the music on TFC better than anything on TDB or AMLOR. It's just less accesible but more artistic nevertheless.

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It's a crime that the swift should be held back by the slow, and it's criminal that nothing is going to rectify it.

And it never will because the people who prefer waters to gilmour will always bash AMLOR & TDB. I cant really say i prefer one to the other, and i dont think the music sucked when waters was in control, but it was poor compared with earlier work, and even AMLOR & TDB.

Sorry mate, but i just cant see how the message behind the album n all that crap is more important than how the music actually sounds to the ear. I was always led to believe music was about the sound, ofcourse its still important to have a message and a good set of lyrics to make a great album, but music should come first. If you just want to make a statement, write a book.

Amen.

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"Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk." Tom Waits

i think that the chemistry would still be too bad together so the music of floyd would probably be worse

besides The Division Bell is a great album

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Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all conscious of ourselves subjectivly,life is only a dream and we're just imaginations of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather.

This may be beside the point; Here's what I think would have happened IF Roger never left (I love playing the IF Game):
"The Pros & Cons of Hitch-Hiking" *might* have been released under the Pink Floyd name; if Dave felt like contributing to it, he would have left after or during recording, or stayed through the whole thing but left before the album's release, and Nick wouldn't be far behind. Eric Clapton wouldn't have played on the album because Dave would still be there (I still believe Clapton playing on Pros/Cons was just Roger's attempt to find another B.A. guitarist and say "Hey look I got somebody better than Dave!"...although E.C.'s playing on that album isn't anything extraordinary). And if Dave had left during the sessions, Clapton wouldn't have been his replacement, it would have been some studio musician.
Now...what would have been titled "Roger Waters' The Pros & Cons of Hitch-hiking, Performed by Pink Floyd", was released, Roger would have said "Screw it" anyway and dissolved Pink Floyd, and probably made "Radio KAOS" in 1987 as a solo record.

But I'm just glad things happened the way they did because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten to hear the great "Division Bell", which in my opinion is Pink Floyd's second-best album *musically* (not lyrically), second only to Dark Side of the Moon.

Yeah that's usually what people claim when the music sucks; "It was done that way for the sake of art!" or "it was an artistic statement!"
(*Kidding*)

BUT, in the case of "The Final Cut" it's actually true for once; the music was meant to be the way it was...I assume anyway, giving Roger the benefit of the doubt.
But Dave and especially Rick are still better *music* composers than Roger. Dave's music writing on The Division Bell was improved, and the team of Dave/Rick wrote some of Floyd's most defining musical landscapes on that album. In my opinion of course.

Some points good, others not so good.

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It's a crime that the swift should be held back by the slow, and it's criminal that nothing is going to rectify it.

Dertjer:
I whole-heartedly agree with you when you say "P&C is in fact a 45-min song"...it was always my opinion that it has a lot in common with "Thick As a Brick" in terms of musical concept and structure.

im just gonna throw my two cents in even tho its prolly worth as much as a peso but anyways:

Floyd is the musical icon that it is today do to the tension and drama within the band.

And as to the music vs lyrics argument i feel (as a musician) that the music and lyrics both have to be great to make the song moving or insperational or whatever u wanna call it but if i want to choose one or the other good music and chord structures make music, emo music might have nice lyrics but the music is basic power chords

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"But who can unlearn all the facts that I've learned
As I sat in their chairs and my synapses burned
And the torture of chalk dust collects on my tongue
Thoughts follow my vision and dance in the sun
All my vasoconstrictors they come slowly undone
Can't this wait till im Old?
Can't I live while I'm young?"
"Chalkdust Torture"-Phish

Bollocks thier two of thier most well respected albums only worked due ot he fact the band worked together. At the time Roger even said he couldn't have done Animals justice were it not for the rest of them. Even during The Wall whilst there were definate cracks apperaing (culminating in Write's dismissal) the band actuly worked quite well as a unit. It wasn't until TFC when tension really begin to rise and this can be heard in what is one of their least beautiful albums, it sounds harsh and uncomprimising just as Roger was at the time. I don't know what would have happened if he had continued but it probaly have meant a loss of the Pink Floyd sound.

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Bollocks indeed.

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"Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk." Tom Waits

Rick Wright's lyrical ability is overlooked. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

You are completely right (hey I didn't throw in a right/Wright pun...wait). I think his lyrics to "Summer '68" were brilliant and well constructed, and he did a good job on "Summer Elegy" and "Pink's Song."

Good idea it's a good point.

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The Pink Zeppelin Carries Aloft The Court Of The Crimson King Over Deep Purple In Rock