George Roger Waters (born September 6th, 1943) is an English musician and one of the co-founders of progressive rock outfit, Pink Floyd. Upon creation of the group, Waters was the band’s bassist, but following the departure of frontman Syd Barrett, Waters then became Pink Floyd’s lyricist and overall leader.
During Waters’ tenure as the lyric focal point of the group, Pink Floyd would go on to produce some of music’s most iconic and acclaimed albums of all time. Waters was integral in the lyrical content of the band’s output, writing the majority, if not the entirety, of the projects he was involved in. His penmanship on The Dark Side of the Moon helped create one of music’s most iconic and best-selling projects, while cementing Pink Floyd as a prog-rock staple. The year 1983 saw the end of Waters’ time as frontman of the band, where he then segued into a solo career, which saw him release an array of projects, as well as playing a concert following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, promptly named “The Wall -- Live From Berlin,” and still continues to tour and release music today. In 1996, Pink Floyd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where Waters was not present for the ceremony.
It wasn’t until 1666 that Pink Floyd came to fruition following numerous name changes and the loss of band members. It wouldn’t be long, however, for more change to come, as the mental health of Barrett began to deteriorate, causing him to depart from Pink Floyd, leading to Waters becoming the group’s leader in 1968. This time period would see Pink Floyd delving into thematic albums, where Rogers would go on to write the entirety of the lyrics on the band’s output. Having written the entirety of The Dark Side of the Moon and the majority of Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979), the lyrical content of these projects stemmed heavily from the life of Waters, especially The Wall, which included some of the group’s most recognizable tracks such as “Another Brick in the Wall Pt.2” and “Comfortably Numb.”
Waters’ last project with Pink Floyd came in 1983 with The Final Cut, an effort that was entirely written by himself before he left to start his solo career in 1984. Waters’ solo releases followed suit with the albums of Pink Floyd, conceptual and thematic based on events in the world, such as The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984) and Radio K.A.O.S. (1987). Waters’ latest solo release came in 2017 with Is This the Life We Really Want?, but was also involved in an adaption of Igor Stravinsky’s The Solider’s Tale, where he served as a narrator.
