"Why don't you give it a try?"
- THE PROS AND CONS OF HITCH-HIKING
- ROGER WATERS LIVE IN MOSCOW, 2002
In 1984 Roger Waters, the unquestionable leader of Pink Floyd for the past 8 years or so, released his first solo album and left his old group in totally control of David Gilmour. Well, at least it it was the first solo album technically. Pink Floyd’s 1983 album was nothing but a group effort in name only, and one can make the same argument about the big selling The Wall.
Anyway, if I understand the concept of this album correct, it’s about Waters’ love life, family life and how it’s torn apart. But is it really torn apart? You see, all songs are dreamed by the main character in this story.
One of the things most people don’t like on Pros And Cons are the bit about “Arabs with knives”. Well, if you don’t get turned off right there, continue to listen and it will all be explain later on. I’ll do my best to try to tell you how I see it.
”I opened
my eyes and to my surprise
There were Arabs with knives at the front of the bed
Right at the front of the bed
Oh my God, how did they get in here
I thought we were safe home in England”
What we
know this far is that there are Arabs in the bedroom, right? The song Go Fishing
has includes these lyrics:
“One weekend a friend from the East
Rot his soul
Stole your heart
I said, fuck it then
Take the kids back to town
Maybe I'll see you around”
Obviously the “Arabs with knives” were a metaphor for this friend from the East that stole Rogers wife. He thought he and his woman would be safe in England, safe from divorces and love affairs. The knife is representing the threat against their marriage. There, now you have an explanation for the “knife”-part that doesn’t makes sense for most people.
Back to the actual music. Pros And Cons sounds a lot like The Wall and The Final Cut. On those two albums David Gilmour was just about only noticed for his guitar playing. This album sure isn’t lacking good guitar performances, no sir! Roger Waters invited the not-so-obscure Eric Clapton and he takes Gilmour’s place with ease. I must say, that no matter how good Eric is on this album, another guest-star steals the show. David Sandborn pulls of very impressive sax parts throughout the album. Well, steals the show is to exaggerate a little. The main focus is still on Roger Waters. Besides some great songs, he also sings fantastically well on the album.
I find very little to complain about. The only song I tend to want to skip is Dunroamin, Duncarin, Dunlivin. Other than that, it's a great album. Also pay attention to the remarks about Yoko Ono in the title track (“Did you understand the music, Yoko, or was it all in vain”, “Jump, says Yoko Ono, I'm too scared and too good looking, I cried Go on, she says: Why don't you give it a try?”).
Anyhow, most people seem to love this album or hate it passionately. Me? I belong in the former category.
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Now, this is one hell of an album! The critical view of our society is right up in your face and it’s quite depressing. Still, Roger gets away with it thanks to his sarcasm and humour that flutter out of his lyrics.
This is Roger Waters thoughts about how capitalism and the public’s ignorance slowly leads to the end of our civilisation. He tells us how war, riots and suffering are used by television and other media to entertain a large and growing audience. How people spend their lives in front of their televisions and not really thinking about what they are being told. How the big cooperations runs our lives and how they oppress ordinary people in their search for fast and easy earning money.
Amused To Death relies more on the mood than any other album Roger Waters has released. There are dark, haunting keyboards and almost terrifying sound effects. The amazingly careful and precise guitar work of Jeff Beck adds even more paranoia to the sound picture. Waters uses his voice almost the extreme. He whispers, he screams. His vocals are sometimes gentle for in the next moment be loud. No matter which, it’s always emotional and sincere.
The highlights here are many, but I would like to mention Perfect Sense (Part 1 & 2). Roger Waters is often accused for not writing memorable melodies. Perfect Sense has one of the most striking and direct melodies I have ever heard. Some great piano runs beneath Rogers’s calm vocals. Of course, later on the song nearly explodes when he raises his voice. It’s beautiful. It’s fantastic.
Every single song has something to offer. The one that sticks out the most is probably the Dylan-inspired, folk-stylish Watching TV. It’s a story about a Chinese girl getting killed in the Tiananmen Square. She fought for freedom and Roger once again gets the chance to have his say on the commercial development in this world (And they turned Formosa into a shoe factory called Taiwan). Other sarcastic highlights can be found in It’s A Miracle (They had sex in Pennsylvania/A Brazilian grew a tree/And a doctor in Manhattan/Saved a dying man for free) and great plays with words in What God Wants (What God wants, God gets/God help us all).
In conclusion, Roger Waters continues to make great, moving, inspiring and engaging music. Something “that other band”, as Roger reefers to his old band mates, never managed to do after The Final Cut.
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…………..Another live concert which I have really presented….
Of course, I was very glad again, thou is wasn’t “The happiest day of my lives
”: The concerts of Yes (30th of October , 2001 ) and Deep Purple (15th of March,
2002) were better to me. This Roger Waters’s live-performance had one big lack
: the trio of soul-style-singing black women – it was absolutely out-of-place
for monumental psychedelic Roger/ Floyd’s music. But I must say again - I’ve
got a lot of enjoy and pleasure of 29th of may !
The concert-hall was installed by a plenty of different dynamics those were
reproducing all the original sound-effects of Pink Floyd and Waters albums (the
ticking of clocks, the falling-down of money, the roaring of helicopter and
train, the different speeches, etc.). the scene also were arranged by features
– the main of them was the giantic screen behind the scene; it was “all-time-working”
showing us excellent videos. The animation and the providing of sound-effects
were perfect!
I’ve enjoyed by this concert with the two old friends of mine, and one of them
came to Moscow for three days specially for this live-concert from Ufa (his
way was 36 hours by train!).
And now it’s time to tell about music… The Waters’s band consisted of two guitarists,
two keyboardists, percussionist, bassist (except Waters) and the trio of black-women-black-vocalists.
Waters sung, played bass, acoustic guitar and also he made some beats to a huge
gong.
Here’s the list of the performed compositions:
IN THE FLESH
THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIVES
ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART TWO)
MOTHER
GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY DESERT
SOUTHAMPTON DOG
PIGS ON THE WING (PART ONE)
DOGS
SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN
SHINE ON YOUR CRAZY DIAMOND (PART-ONE)
WELCOME TO MACHINE
WISH YOU WERE HERE
SHINE ON YOUR CRAZY DIAMOND (PART TWO)
BREATHE
TIME
HOME AGAIN
MONEY
EVERY STRANGERS’ EYES
PERFECT SENSE (PART ONE)
PERFECT SENSE (PART TWO)
THE BRAVERY IS BEING OUT OF RAGE
THE MIRACLE
AMUSED TO DEATH
BRAIN DAMAGE
ECLIPSE
COMFORTABLY NUMB
SHALL BE FREE
Basically we’ve had “the classical” versions of old Floyd’s (1973 –1979) songs
and basically there weren’t many changes – Waters and Co professionally performed
all their passages and features (IN THE FLESH, THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIVES,
ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART TWO), all the songs from DARK SIDE and WISH
YOU WERE HERE – except WELCOME TO MACHINE which was played by another tempo
and those unnecessary back- vocal-additions). I wanted ON THE RUN and THE GREAT
GIG IN THE SKY to be played here but unfortunately I haven’t heard them there.
And I was so happy that I haven’t listened the nasty HAVE A CIGAR – atrocious
number, isn’t it? Of course, I also wanted to listen my favorite compositions
of '6‘-'7‘ Floyd’s period (ECHOES or SAUCERFUL for example), but there was only
SET THE CONTROLLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN with images of young Pink Floyders
(with Syd!) at the screen – the figure of Syd Barrett constantly turned to the
public with almost every number of the concert, visually or not, but I must
say that possibly Waters feels himself guilty to Syd, though I’m not sure…
To my opinion, the biggest highlight of the show was DOGS. Oooh, it was the
greatest performance! When it was playing I felt myself as “somewhere but not
here”; I was absolutely “in” by the sound of this composition. I also must sign
one very interesting moment: when the slow psychedelic nmid-section (I hope
you know what I’m talking about!) Waters and the three other guitarists sat
at the low table and began to play cards (!) – what’s the funny surprise! –
“the playing cards with the sounds of dogs’ wailings and roarings”. After this
song I’ve understood that my life had the sense an I may die calmly…
It was also nice to listen series of four quiet acoustic numbers – MOTHER, GET
YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY DESERT, SOUTHAMPTON DOG, PIGS ON THE WING (PART ONE)
– and another beautiful acoustic song - the new Waters’s composition – SHALL
BE FREE (it would be at the new album of Roger– I think it would be very good
album!).
And undoubtly I was absolutely happy to listen the live versions of Roger’ s
solo-compositions: EVERY STRANGERS’ EYES (the only song from the ’84 album)
and some songs from the genius album AMUSED TO DEATH (1992) – both parts of
PERFECT SENSE (my second favorite performance of this concert – the real anthem!),
THE BRAVERY IS BEING OUT OF RAGE, THE MIRACLE and AMUSED TO DEATH – I wanted
to hear these compositions more and more but I understood that musicians cannot
play endlessly – they played more than three hours (!), and I’m so obliged to
them for these happy three hours!
If Roger Waters will make a concert somewhere near your hometown you would be
undoubtly glad to present it, believe me.
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