Roger Waters: Money, demo (1972)

One of the most interesting aspects of popular music reissues is when an expanded edition of a classic album (or artist) offers working drawings of songs which became -- usually much embellished or in some later form -- massive hits.

Back in the Eighties Pete Townshend of the Who began offering his double-vinyl home demo albums under the banner Scoop, the Beatles' Anthology had some fascinating rough drafts and . . . Pink Floyd belatedly came to the party in 2011.

Although known for scrupulously polishing material for albums and being rather over-protective of their image, for the last gasp reissue programe Why Pink Floyd? they included extra material in the expensive for-completist-fans box sets.

First out of the gate was the Dark Side of the Moon Immersion Edition, and included in it was this unpolished item. Roger Water sitting at home working out Money on an acoustic guitar.

Here is how the hit began.

The question is, if you were the producer or even in the band would you have said, "Wow Roger, let's really do something with that" or might you have said, "Sounds a bit on the dull side mate, I can't hear anything in it"? 

For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory use the RSS feed for daily updates, and check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.