Monday, December 19, 2005

Wilkommen in der Schweiz, Herr Waters

I'm going to wait for Chrispy to break the news that the story about Roger Waters moving to Switzerland was, in fact, true.

At least that's what Chris told me on Friday night.

14 comments:

Chrispy said...

Sorry, it's still not true.

Nicholas Schaffner's book "A Saucerful of Secrets" does say that Waters moved to Switzerland during sessions for "The Wall", but several other sources (including Nick Mason's excellent "Inside Out") maintain that he was in France. Mason's book mentions the town Waters stayed in (I'll get that name tonight) and interviews with Bob Ezrin and Dave Gilmour support this.

Schaffner's book was likely the source of the Switzerland thing. But rest assured, Roger was in France with the rest of the Floyd while working on "The Wall," at least until they moved the production to Los Angeles at the very end.

Most of the record was written at Roger's home in England, and Ezrin did some work on the writing in England as well. In fact, they were booked to record at Brittania Row until they found out they had to leave the country. Most of the preproduction was done at Brittania Row.

I amn currently editing a big old blog entry called "Floyd vs. the Taxman" where I will detail the entire story.

I'm sure you can't wait.

Dave Cavalier said...

Everybody lies to me on this issue. I can't take it anymore.

Dave Cavalier said...

Are we sure he didn't live in Switzerland and just drive to France to record? He could have been living around Geneva and driven to France in 15 minutes every day.

Chrispy said...

I did mean to clarify on Friday night. Sorry.

It is a complicated web of lies and half truths, which I will try to detangle, because hey, enquiring minds want to know.

Chrispy said...

Superbear Studio is in Nice, France. Switzerland is a bit of a drive... I don't know how far.

Dave Cavalier said...

Nice is on the Mediterranean coast, so I doubt that he would have driven from Switzerland. I thought maybe the studio was in Besancon or something.

What a strange story this has become.

Chrispy said...

'Tis a strange story.

We know one thing, though.

Tax exile or not, all the members of Pink Floyd are rich.

Jackson said...

"Schweiz? Das ist enie gut idee." - R. Waters

"Ich wohne Schweiz." - R. Waters

(the last one was for you Tony)

Chrispy said...

uhhh....

i don't understand what jackson is saying.

Dave Cavalier said...

That's just because Jackson made a slight grammatical error. Idee is a feminine noun, so it should have been, "Ja! Das ist eine gute Idee."

Jackson said...

My own struggles with acedemic German, as well as French, are known to Brusars the world over.

Chrispy said...

Oh, of course - thanks Dave!

Much clearer now.

Except that Roger didn't live in Switzerland.

Perhaps Jackson should have had Rog say "Die Schweiz ist für Feiglinge und Uhren."

Jackson said...

As far as I can tell, Switzerland is for: banking, clock-making, chocolate, skiing, Deep Purple record making, jazz festivals, and Krokus.

Chrispy said...

close, Tony.

Cowards.

Cowards and Clocks.

It's also for Misses, if you know what I mean.