Quote Originally Posted by mad rhetorik
After Syd left Roger was the leading songwriter in that band. I don't think that can be denied.
Of course it can. There WAS no songwriter in the band just after Syd drifted into orbit. PF fans were astonished that the band was going to continue. Waters wasn't gifted with songwriting, he had to work for it like every one else. In terms of volume, yeah, he had the lion's share but his early songs from that era aren't any better than Wright's, imo. But credit where credit is due, they stuck to it and Waters possibly worked at songwriting a little harder than the others. And that's really my point. I've heard many, many songwriters, everyone from Bryan Ferry to Elvis Costello to Andy Partridge, describe it as a craft you have to learn. Even McCartney and Lennon wrote their first 200 songs and basically threw them away. Now, if Waters is saying Gilmour is so ungifted that he CAN'T write songs, no matter how hard he tries, well....that's another issue.

Funny thing about artists. If you dismiss their work as something that just magically appears, they'll tell you there's a lot of hard work involved. If you dismiss their work as something anyone can do given enough effort, they'll tell you an artistic x factor is needed. Personally, I'd say it's about %10 X Factor and %90 sweat.