Why 'The Final Cut' Is Essentially a Roger Waters Solo Album — Creative and Legal Tensions with David Gilmour

The most interesting thing about The Final Cut is that it’s a Pink Floyd album in name only. Roger Waters wrote almost every word, sang lead on nearly every track, and even took the sole writing credit for the entire album. David Gilmour later called it “a bloody waste of time” and made it clear he felt like a hired hand. So why not just call it a solo record?

The creative tension boiled down to one thing: Waters wanted to make a mournful, political song cycle about his father’s death in WWII and the Falklands War, while Gilmour wanted more traditional Pink Floyd rock songs with guitar solos and less spoken word. Gilmour has said he “just didn’t connect” with the material. The result is an album where Gilmour’s guitar only appears on a handful of tracks — and even his solo on “Not Now John” feels like a reluctant concession.

Legally, the band was still under contract with EMI and Columbia to deliver one more Pink Floyd album. Waters made it clear: if it wasn’t released under the Pink Floyd name, he would leave the band and bury the project. The others — Gilmour, Nick Mason, and the recently fired Richard Wright — had little leverage. So they slapped the Pink Floyd logo on it, let Waters run the show, and the band effectively dissolved for years afterward.