Roger Waters Unveils ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ Album
Roger Waters has confirmed The Lockdown Sessions, an album of material recorded during the pandemic.
Waters began updating various Pink Floyd classics as well as his own solo material in May 2020, and continued through earlier this year. The cover versions were shared with fans via YouTube and social media, but The Lockdown Sessions compiles all of them together in one place.
The six-track LP is available now on all major streaming services. Plans for a physical release of The Lockdown Sessions haven't been announced.
“Our Us and Them Tour lasted three years," Waters said in a news release. "At every gig we did an encore after the main show closed with 'Comfortably Numb,' the encore was always 'Mother.' I can’t remember why I decided to start doing other songs? Anyway, at some point after the end of the tour, I started thinking, 'It could make an interesting album, all those encores.'
"Then, I’m in England doing the Ginger Baker tribute gig one Tuesday night at the Hammersmith Odeon with Eric Clapton and the following Saturday marching from the Australian Embassy to Parliament Square to make a speech in support of Julian Assange – when bugger me, COVID. ... For me it was Friday, March 13th 2020. Lockdown! So much for the 'Encores' project. Unless …"
Three of The Lockdown Session's six songs – “Mother,” “Vera” and “Comfortably Numb 2022” – were originally released on Pink Floyd’s 1979 double-album The Wall. “I pitched ["Comfortably Numb'] a whole step down, in A Minor, to make it darker and arranged it with no solos," Waters previously explained, "except over the outro chord sequence, where there is a heartrendingly beautiful female vocal solo from Shanay Johnson, one of our new singers.”
An additional two tracks on The Lockdown Sessions – “Two Suns in the Sunset” and “The Gunners Dream” – were released in 1983 on Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut, while “The Bravery of Being Out of Range” came from Waters’ 1992 solo album Amused to Death.
Waters also confirmed work on a new original project built around “The Bar," a piano ballad which likewise originated during the pandemic lockdown then become a recent centerpiece of his concerts. The Pink Floyd legend's most recent studio effort is 2017's Is This the Life We Really Want?
Watch Roger Waters Perform 'Mother'
Roger Waters The Lockdown Sessions Track List
1. "Mother"
2. "Two Suns in the Sunset"
3. "Vera"
4. "The Gunner's Dream"
5. "The Bravery of Being Out of Range"
6. "Comfortably Numb 2022"
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