The Pink Floyd albums Nick Mason regrets: “It’s a great shame”

After paving the way for Britain’s expansive psychedelic scene during the 1960s, Pink Floyd grew exponentially, becoming one of the biggest groups on the face of the planet by the mid-1970s. Despite their unparalleled success and acclaim, though, the band itself was rarely a harmonious place to be. Arguments, infighting, and musical differences plagued the band’s line-up throughout much of its history, leading to more than a few regrets for the likes of drummer Nick Mason.

A founding member of the group, Mason was essential in creating the ever-expanding sound of the band, moving seamlessly from the psychedelic mastery of The Piper At The Gates of Dawn to the profound experimentation of The Dark Side of the Moon during the following decade. In fact, Mason has been the only constant within Floyd’s history, surviving the exile of original songwriter Syd Barrett, and the subsequent departures of Richard Wright and, eventually, Roger Waters.

Over the course of that vast, enduring, and often tumultuous career, Mason had multiple moments of glory. The Dark Side of the Moon, for instance, was the album that launched Pink Floyd into the global stardom they now enjoy, and Mason’s percussion performances were utterly essential to its sound and success. At the same time, however, Mason’s time with the band also witnessed its fair share of missteps, mistakes, and regrets, too.

In fact, one of the drummer’s key regrets lies within The Dark Side of the Moon. Despite its unparalleled success, both in a commercial and artistic sense, Mason told Rolling Stone earlier this year, “We should have spent more time playing Dark Side live and not worried about going back into the studio to make Wish You Were Here.”

Wishing the band had taken more time to master their live rendering of the record, he continued, “We actually spent quite a long time in the studio, having not a great time, when we could have just actually drawn things out a bit longer, done more live work, and filmed it.”

The drummer added, “I’m sorry we didn’t film the Dark Side tour.”

Although Mason maintains his sorrow over not perfecting that particular album tour before rushing off into the studio, The Dark Side of the Moon is far from being his biggest regret when it comes to Pink Floyd’s discography. That title would have to go to their much-maligned 1987 record A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The band’s first release without Roger Waters, the album didn’t feature a whole lot of Nick Mason, either.

When constructing the album, David Gilmour employed session drummers Carmine Appice and Jim Keltner, along with a whole host of drum machines, in order to create the ambitious percussion sound of the record. At the time, Mason didn’t feel as though he could take on such an ambitious performance and, as a result, his drumming often gets lost within the album.

“In retrospect, I rather regret that,” he later told Galore.

“The thing is that on A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, too many things were played by other people,” he admitted. “That was a mistake, but at the time, David Gilmour had an awful lot on his plate.” In his memoir Inside Out, the drummer expanded on his regretful view of the record, sharing, “It is a very careful album with very few risks taken. These things together make me feel ever so slightly removed from Momentary Lapse to the point where it doesn’t always sound like us.”

Seemingly, though, the band’s previous album, The Final Cut, rendered Mason’s drumming just as superfluous, with his contributions largely reduced to sound effects. Floyd’s regular collaborator Bob Ezrin later remembered, “Roger [Waters] worked on everybody’s confidence. In Rick’s case, it destroyed him. With Nick, it had been a matter of him being marginalised on The Final Cut.”

Explaining, “He hadn’t been practising, and he just wasn’t sounding like himself.”

Mason might have lost himself on records like The Final Cut and A Momentary Lapse of Reason, his percussion performances were pivotal in the sonic development and success of Pink Floyd during their most successful period back in the 1970s. What’s more, Mason’s lasting contributions to the band certainly eclipsed the relative disappointment of those 1980s efforts.