Before he agreed to produce Roger Waters’ first album in 25 years, Nigel Godrich had some hard words to say to the ex-Pink Floyd frontman.
“I told him what I thought of some of his earlier (solo) stuff,” said the studio wizard behind Radiohead, who has been dubbed the “sixth member” of the British band.
Godrich didn’t mince his words with his boyhood hero. “He made some records that were impenetrable. I can’t listen to them — I turned them off,” he told AFP.
“I tried to explain that to him,” the producer said of his frank first meeting with Waters, the lyrical genius behind the legendary albums “The Wall” and “Dark Side of the Moon”.
But rather than punch him in the mouth, the famously combative Waters, now 72, hired him.
“He got it,” said Godrich, who claimed that Waters’ powerful new album, “Is This The Life We Really Want?” is a “reaffirmation of him as a truly great songwriter”.
He said he realised Waters “really still had it” when he heard a demo of a new song, “Deja Vu”, that takes in everything from ageing to drone strikes.
Not that Waters’ entirely forgot the younger man’s cheek.
“Sometimes when we were working together he would recite lyrics from his last album (“Amused to Death”),” Godrich said.
“I would say it’s a shame that I couldn’t hear that because I couldn’t sit through the music to get the songs.”
