Roger Waters’ opinion on Neil Young

The Pink Floyd co-founder, bassist and singer Roger Waters can be considered one of the greatest and most influential songwriters of all time since he became Floyd’s main songwriter in the following years after Syd Barrett was fired from the band. Most of the lyrics of classic albums like “Dark Side of The Moon”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Animals” and “The Wall” were written by him.

So he certainly should be up there with other great songwriters like Neil Young for example. But is Roger’s opinion on the legendary Canadian artist?

Roger Waters’ opinion on Neil Young

The original Pink Floyd bassist loves Neil Young’s work and praised him many times over the years. He even said in a session of Q&A with fans in 2024 that he wished he had written Young’s track “Powderfinger”.

The question was “What famous story do you wish you’d written or performed? Waters said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage): “‘Powderfinger’ – Neil Young, I think is from ‘Rust Never Sleeps’, but I could be wrong. ‘Look out ma, there’s a white boat coming up the river’. Great song, there are many songs, obviously, which I could have given my right arm to write, but that’s the first one popped into my head”.

He also likes “Helpless”

Waters was right, “Powderfinger” was featured on Young’s 1979 album “Rust Never Sleeps”. But that’s not Waters’ only favorite song by Neil Young, he had already mentioned “Helpless” in an interview in BBC’s Radio program Desert Island Discs back in 2011. It was one of the 8 songs he said he would take to a desert island.

“Neil Young singing ‘Helpless’. There is an honesty and a truth in everything that he’s done. You feel the man’s integrity and passion. I can feel the hairs standing up on the back of my neck now remembering the purity with which he hits the first notes of this song. Therefore, it’s extraordinarily moving and eloquent,” Roger Waters said.

Roger Waters is more interested in songwriters than bands or praised instrumentalists

In an interview with Joe Rogan back in 2022, Roger Waters explained why he is more interested in songwriters like Neil Young and Bob Dylan than artists like Eddie Van Halen and AC/DC. “I’m not very up on rock history. I’m not very interested in most popular music. I mean, there are certain people that I’m a great fan of, but mainly the sort of writers, the singer-songwriters. So (Bob) Dylan and Neil Young.”

During the same conversation he explained why he doesn’t like “loud Rock and Roll”. “But I won’t start a long list. I probably could but it’s that end of the spectrum that I’m more interested in. I’m not really interested in loud rock ‘n’ roll. Which some people are and they love it, but I couldn’t care less about AC/DC or Eddie Van Halen or any of that stuff. I just… Who? I don’t go ‘Who?’ Because I obviously know the name.”

“And I’m sure Eddie’s brilliant and a great guitar player and wonderful… But that just doesn’t interest me. But ‘Look out, Mama, there’s a white boat coming up the river.’ What was that called? ‘Powdermonkey’ (‘Powderfinger’ by Neil Young). Something like that I kinda have to take a deep (breath)… It’s kind of like ‘Wow! What did he just say?’” Roger Waters said.

That interview happened a few months after Young decided to remove his songs from Spotify. The reason was that the streaming service refused to remove false information about Covid-19 released by Rogan on his podcasts.

Roger Waters had the chance to share the stage with Neil in the past, like back in 2016 during the Bridge School Benefit. They played together the Bob Dylan classic “Forever Young”.