Explaining who Pink Floyd are is probably a waste of time.
As one of the greatest rock bands in history, these true pioneers of progressive rock were constantly developing and with each album breaking new boundaries of what was possible in music.
It did become public how troubled they were and how bitterly they fought amongst themselves as to who was in charge and who had the strongest influence over the band.
Who was mostly at loggerheads were David Gilmour, vocals and songwriter and Roger Waters, bass guitar and songwriter as well.
For a long time these two geniuses were struggling to cooperate and often they did manage to overcome their respective issues resulting in extraordinary musical creations. But eventually their immense fame and wealth rendered their egos invincible. They no longer “needed” to compromise. Roger Waters left the band for good.
We looked into their elements to find out what might be the cause of such a clash, and, oh boy, what a clash it was.
Roger Waters is a strong Yin Fire personality, bold and reckless, a true artist who would often loose sight of reality. Just to let you know what we are talking about here, some of the greatest Yin Fire musicians are David Bowie, Robert Plant, Johnny Cash and Janis Joplin. Yin Fire artists are amazingly creative and their audience simply adores them. But you can’t count on them being fully down to earth, at least not all the time.
On other hand we have David Gilmour, a solid Yin Earth, down to earth and with a great ability to lead others, coach and develop them. He is an amazing guitarist who understands the technicalities in music, a destined band leader. He would often be unhappy about the way Waters played bass guitar and sometimes would record bass parts by himself. Waters, the creative Yin Fire, just couldn’t be bothered with such details.
The clash was due to their main elements or so called day masters.
Yin Fire (Roger Waters) feeds Yin Earth (David Gilmour) which gets stronger and stronger every day while Yin Fire becomes weaker and weaker. Earth or rather ashes are the product of fire, earth being the result in this case, the final product.
David Gilmour was getting a lot from Roger Waters’ genius work but Waters didn’t feel good in this cooperation. Gilmour was the one who took all the glory in presenting their common creation which was very much Waters’ baby as well. Gilmour is also a fantastic musician, he knew how to pack Waters’ genius. This is why Pink Floyd was so tremendously successful. But Waters was not happy, he also wanted to be in the lime light, he wanted to be just as much of a frontman as Gilmour but he didn’t have the voice and this must frustrated him and eventually hurt his pride
Another important aspect of David Gilmour’s chart is his extraordinary influence / fame luck. Therefore his appearance as frontman was very beneficiary for the band as a whole. Many people identify Pink Floyd with David Gilmour, and not so much with Waters. Due to his element combination, Gilmour simply has a unique ability to attract the audience’s attention.
Waters however has great money luck while Gilmour has no money luck at all. Gilmour’s money is a side effect of his strong fame luck, plus he was borrowing Waters’ money luck on top,
The whole element combination was actually more than perfect for the band’s ecosystem. Waters however was the one who had to sacrifice and surrender his ego to keep things together, and often this is the wisest thing to do. David Gilmour was his creative window, a guy who packs and presents his work to go big. Gilmoure was the earth, the product, Waters was fire, the energy source.
After Waters left, the creativity and general success of the band dropped drastically, which is no surprise. Waters was the one with the greatest creative influence and once he was gone that was simply not it anymore. David Gilmour continued his career with Pink Floyd, benefiting from his personal fame and influence luck, but he never reached the levels of Pink Floyd from previous years.
Roger Waters is now quite successful with a solo career. Finally he is able to control all the aspects of his music, but he never reached the quality of the Pink Floyd, as we knew it.
The two other members of the band also played an important part in the making of Pink Floyd.
Richard Wright, keyboards, was also Yin Fire – But somehow he didn’t have big issues with Gilmour, probably because he was not the key songwriter and not as ambitious as Waters. He was more than happy to supply band with whatever is needed.
Nick Mason, drums, is Yang Metal – He for sure enjoyed being moulded and improved by Roger Waters’ and Rick Wright’s fire, turning his raw metal into a useful tool. He added perfectly to the band’s balance. His Yang Metal element however wasn’t strong enough to influence Waters and Gilmour.
These four great musicians were such a wonderful combination of elements. Two Yin Fires fully supporting a Yin Earth person, who presents the whole unit with his magnificant fame luck. The modest hard working Yang Metal surrendering to fire people thus constanttly perfecting himself. A marvellously productive cycle. They had it all.
Some of the best element combinations will be quite tricky and it’s very important to be clear what one wants to achieve. Roger Waters was suffering from Gilmour’s dominance but he knew that this combination really works, so he had to surrender his ego, as long he could.
In the end, they got their place in history, became rich and famous, and in 2008 even managed to put their differences aside for one last performance in London, which everyone, including themselves fully enjoyed.
Because we lack knowledge of the laws of nature we often have to find out the hard way and suffer until we become wiser. With the Five Element knowledge situations becomes wonderfully transparent. Still, sacrifices need to be made and behaviour to be modified, but for sure the pain and stress no way out situations bring about can be reduced considerably.
In general we need to keep in mind that alone we can never be as great as when join forces with others, but then it is very handy to understand how we have to play in order to get what we want.
