The 'Nobodies' Project and Its Ghost in The Wall

Between Wish You Were Here and the band’s growing friction, Roger Waters started a side project called “The Nobodies” around 1975–76. The idea was a rock opera about a reclusive star—feeling anonymous despite fame—a theme that obviously evolved into The Wall. Waters demoed songs like “Your Possible Pasts” and some musical sketches that didn’t fit Animals or Wish You Were Here.

When The Wall began taking shape in 1978, Waters reached back into those Nobodies recordings. “Your Possible Pasts” made it onto the album mostly intact, and other melodic fragments—like the descending bass pattern in “Comfortably Numb”—can be traced to those early demos. So the Nobodies project wasn’t just a dead end; it was a subconscious blueprint for Pink Floyd’s most theatrical album.