Roger Waters Releases “The Lockdown Sessions”

by Kevin Johnson Thursday, December 15th, 2022

Roger Waters: The Lockdown Sessions During the pandemic, former Pink Floyd bassist and vocalist Roger Waters kept busy with his band by recording tracks remotely from their own homes. Waters released the tracks vis his YouTube channel, but now he’s put them together as a new digital album called The Lockdown Sessions.

The five-song EP features tracks from the Waters solo catalog as well as his Pink Floyd days. That includes “Mother” and “Vera” from The Wall, “Two Suns In The Sunset” and “The Gunner’s Dream” from The Final Cut, and “The Bravery of Being Out Of Range” from his solo album, Amused To Death. It also includes his 2022 version of “Comfortably Numb,” which was recorded during his “This Is Not A Drill” tour.

Waters explains the backstory of the album.

“Our Us and Them Tour lasted three years…” he writes. “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’…’The Encores.’ ‘Yeah, has a nice ring to it!”=‘ 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…Schlummmm! For me it was Friday March 13th 2020. Lockdown! So much for the ‘Encores’ project. Unless… We’ve tacked ‘C. Numb’ on the end of the collection, as an appropriate exclamation point in closing this circle of love.”

As with “Comfortably Numb,” The Lockdown Sessions was co-produced by Gus Seyffert, who also plays bass for each of the songs. Check out “Vera/Bring the Boys Back Home,” where he plays both upright and electric bass.