Pink Floyd, one of the bands that contributed to the Progressive Rock genre reaching new heights, went on to become one of the all-time best-selling acts. Over the years, the band’s former singer and bassist Roger Waters expressed his genuine opinions about several different bands and musicians, two of which were Bob Dylan and The Beatles.

What is Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters opinion on The Beatles and Bob Dylan

Roger Waters, the former bassist and singer of Pink Floyd, discussed Bob Dylan and The Beatles with Howard Stern in a 2012 interview. “When I was at college I would listen to The Beatles. When they made Sgt. Pepper’s in 67 we were in the same studio making our first record. I remember when it came out, pulling the Zephyr Ford into a layby and listening to the whole thing, just sitting there with my mouth hanging open going ‘Wow, this is so complete and accomplished and whatever.”

“But it also was more than that. It had a ton of ideas and a ton of narrative in it. I feel more than any other record it was the record that gave me and my generation permission to branch out and do whatever we want to. If they can do it we can do it. We don’t need Tin Pan Alley anymore, we can write our own stuff, it changed everything. They instigated their own revolution, because obviously when they started over it was all ‘Please, Please Me’ and whatever.”

“They transcended all that and they transcended all the nonsense at Shea Stadium and you know, girls screaming and nobody being able to hear anything. Making songs that people really wanted to hear because they were really, really smart, clever, beautiful musical songs.”

Waters claimed to have learned from Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison that it was acceptable to write about their lives and emotions in a 2015 interview with radio station KLCS.

Waters’ opinion on Bob Dylan

During the same discussion with Howard Stern, Waters discussed Bob Dylan and disclosed how one of the artist’s songs fundamentally changed his own life. In response to Stern’s question on whether he resented the “rule” that the record companies had when he first started out, which said that songs had to be no longer than three or four minutes in order to be broadcast on the radio, Waters discussed Bob Dylan: “‘(Bob Dylan’s) ‘Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’ changed my life.”

“When I heard that I thought ‘Worthy’, if Bob can do it I can do it. It’s 20 minutes long, it’s a whole hour and in no way gets dull or boring or anything. You just get more and more and more and grow. It becomes more and more hypnotic the longer it goes on.”

Roger Waters has performed live covers of several Bob Dylan songs over the years, including “Forever Young,” and he even recorded a studio version of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” on the compilation album “Flickering Flame.”

But when Dylan released the 2015 covers album “Shadows in the Night,” which featured songs that were exclusively recorded by Frank Sinatra, Waters took issue with him.