Roger Waters Covers Pink Floyd’s ‘Mother’ In Isolation
Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Press
Roger Waters has covered of Pink Floyd‘s ‘Mother’ while in isolation.
“Social distancing is a necessary evil in Covid world,” Waters writes via Twitter, “Watching ‘Mother’ reminds me just how irreplaceable the joy of being in a band is.”
Accompanying Waters remotely are members of his current touring band.
“15 years ago,” Waters states at the end of his performance, referring to mother Mary Waters. “Bless her.”
“This isn’t a portrait of my mother,” Waters has previously shared of the 1979 song, “although one or two of the things in there apply to her as well as to I’m sure lots of other people’s mothers.”
Later he would relate to Mojo Magazine that there are some connections with his relationship with Mary Waters.
“I grew up with a single parent who could never hear anything I said,” Waters shared of his Mary, “because nothing I said could possibly be as important as what she believed. My mother was, to some extent, a wall herself that I was banging my head against. She lived her life in the service of others. She was a school teacher. But it wasn’t until I was 45, 50 years old that I realized how impossible it was for her to listen to me.”
“The song is more general,” he later added, “the idea that we can be controlled by our parents’ views on things like sex. The single mother of boys, particularly, can make sex harder than it needs to be.”
At other times Waters has praised his mother’s dedication to liberal politics, activism, and the truth, something he believes deeply impacted his own outlook on life.
She would also purchase him his first guitar at age 14.
The song appears as the sixth track on Pink Floyd‘s 1979 album The Wall.
The cover follows Roger Waters’ recent appearance in podcast Rumble with film director Micheal Moore, where the pair entered a lengthy and candid discussion about Pink Floyd’s 11th album.
Currently on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, Waters’ This Is Not A Drill tour will resume in 2021.
Social distancing is a necessary evil in Covid world. Watching "Mother" reminds me just how irreplaceable the joy of being in a band is. pic.twitter.com/F4fxQCfbd6
— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) May 17, 2020
