Pink Floyd's Roger Waters releases Animals liner notes, continuing David Gilmour dispute

Roger Waters has released the liner notes David Gilmour wanted kept secret from the remastered version of Animals which is yet to be released.

The Pink Floyd bassist and vocalist announced on his Twitter that the band have a new mix of Animals, “which we finished about two years ago,” in a spiky video on his Twitter account yesterday (May 31st).

A note from @rogerwaters to @pinkfloyd fans 🐖:

As I am banned by @davidgilmour from posting on Pink Floyd's Facebook page with its 30,000,000 subscribers, I am posting this announcement here today and in full on https://t.co/1f2rcamerC.

Read more: https://t.co/kn3DaKjABE pic.twitter.com/1Cg5kxBEIN

— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) May 31, 2021

“As I am banned by Dave Gilmour from posting on Pink Floyd’s Facebook page with its 30,000,000 subscribers, I am posting this announcement here today and in full on rogerwaters.com,” he captioned the tweet.

The remastered version of Animals has, “been sitting in a cupboard, because a chap called Mark Blake wrote some sleeve notes for it. I thought they were good and should be included on the record but David, on the other hand, thought that they should not be included in the sleeve notes, because he wanted Pink Floyd to remain enigmatic,” said Waters.

The bassist said that Gilmour didn’t dispute the veracity of the contents of the sleeve notes which showed Waters to be the central figure in the conception of Animals. Gilmour however vetoed the album’s release unless they were removed. Waters claimed it was an attempt, “by the Gilmour/Sampson camp to claim more credit for Dave,” for his work in Pink Floyd, “than is his due.”

Waters also said he has agreed to release the remastered version of Animals without the sleeve notes but released the notes himself separately.

He took aim at Gilmour for claiming credit for things Waters believes he didn’t do. “Yes he was, and is, a jolly good guitarist and singer. But, he has for the last 35 years told a lot of whopping porky pies about who did what in Pink Floyd when I was still in charge. There’s a lot of ‘we did this’ and ‘we did that,’ and ‘I did this’ and ‘I did that’,” he said in an announcement on his website.

Waters said that Gilmour claimed in a 1982 Rolling Stone interview with David Fricke, that he came up with the cash register sound effects on, 'Money,' but the bassist claimed that this was false. He disputed Gilmour's claims ad the explanation of the effect. "The reason everything DG is saying here to David Fricke sounds like gobbledygook is because it is fucking gobbledygook. He has no fucking idea what he’s talking about."

Gilmour recently ended any chance of Pink Floyd reuniting. “It has run its course, we are done. I’m all for Roger doing whatever he wants to do and enjoying himself,” he said, “But I absolutely don’t want to go back."

Waters also announced that he is writing his memoirs during lockdown. “I thought bugger me if I don’t do it now, I’ll probably never do it.” The memoirs are set to include content present in the liner notes he released.

“For anyone with a faint heart, I suggest you sit down, but anyone who likes a good laugh, sit back and fucking howl!” he said about the memoirs in the announcement on his website.

“It’s a funny old world isn’t it? And don’t get me started,” he said before ending the video on Twitter.