Pink Floyd All the Songs
Page 61
In 2015, Bob Ezrin made the following statement about this work that played such a big part in his career: “Making that album was a very difficult job, but it was thrilling because it was such a pure vision. When I finally got all four sides of the record done and I could play them 1, 2, 3, 4 in order, I broke down and cried because it was such a release. So many months in construction, pounding away and fighting with things, bending, adapting, and going without to get that final product.”119
On February 18, 2014, Roger Waters unveiled a memorial erected in Aprilia in Italy (near Anzio) in memory of his father and all his comrades of the Z Company who died in the battle with the Germans there 70 years before.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
For his famous performance of The Wall in Berlin in 1990, Roger Waters chose to replace “Outside the Wall” with “The Tide Is Turning” (from his album Radio K.A.O.S., 1987), a song of hope for a better world and the end of the Cold War.
What Shall We Do Now ?
Roger Waters / 3:20
Musicians: David Gilmour: electric rhythm and lead guitar, Prophet-5 / Rick Wright: keyboards / Roger Waters: vocals, vocal harmonies, bass, VCS3 / Nick Mason: drums / Recorded: Britannia Row, Islington, London: September 1978–March 1979 / Super Bear Studios, Berre-les-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes (France): April–July 1979 / Studio Miraval, Domaine de Miraval, Le Val, Var (France): April–July 1979 / Producers Workshop, Hollywood: September 12–November 1, 1979 / Technical Team: Producers: Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, Roger Waters / Co-producer: James Guthrie / Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Nick Griffiths, Patrice Quef, Brian Christian, Rick Hart
Genesis
“What Shall We Do Now?” (sometimes abbreviated to “Do Now?”) was removed from The Wall at the last moment due to a shortage of space on side two of the album. It was replaced by a shorter version named “Empty Spaces.” Because the album cover was already in production, however, it was too late to remove the lyrics to “What Shall We Do Now?,” which therefore remained in place, printed on the relevant inner sleeve between “Goodbye Blue Sky” and “Young Lust.”
Roger Waters’s initial idea for “What Shall We Do Now?” was to show the adult Pink wondering how to give his life meaning and taking an almost obsessive interest in other people’s uncertainties as a way of dealing with his own isolation. Hence the numerous questions that punctuate the song: Shall we buy a new guitar? Shall we… leave the lights on?… Drop bombs?… Break up homes?… Send flowers by phone?… Race rats? etc. Waters would explain to Tommy Vance that this song was an out-and-out attack on consumer society, in which people are judged on the basis of what they possess and the social connections of which they can boast. For Waters, the danger that lies in wait for all those who seek to define themselves entirely in terms of external factors, notably a permanent quest for recognition and an insatiable desire for material things, is frustration and a loss of individuality. “What Shall We Do Now?” went on to become a kind of transitional song in the dramatic development of Waters’s conceptual work.
Although absent from the album, “What Shall We Do Now?” was included in place of “Empty Spaces” (just after “Mother”) in the live show and in Alan Parker’s movie, where it is enhanced by Gerald Scarfe’s animations.
Production
“What Shall We Do Now?” shares the same musical basis as “Empty Spaces,” although the key is a tone lower. The intro is similar, with the same sequences played on the VCS3 (on which the wind noises and mighty percussion sounds are also created), the same distorted melodic line on the “Black Strat,” and the same bass and Prophet-5 pads. The next section is harmonically identical, with added string sounds from the ARP Solina and a motif also, presumably, played on the ARP Quadra. There is no Rick Wright piano, however. When Roger Waters subsequently launches into his lead vocal, a strong delay is applied to his voice, creating an even more unreal atmosphere. The following section is different, taking the form of an instrumental break opening with a lugubrious scream and based on a very good drum part from Nick Mason, who executes some impressive fills with reverse reverb. This is followed by a final rock sequence, in double time, sung by Waters, who also delivers a very good bass part; with Rick Wright on Hammond Organ; David Gilmour playing a rhythm part on his “Black Strat” with Big Muff distortion and colored by Electric Mistress; and Mason, who is particularly good on this track, on drums.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
The working title of “What Shall We Do Now?” was “Backs to the Wall,” as the “Immersion” box set of The Wall reveals.
Sexual Revolution
Roger Waters / 4:50
Musicians: David Gilmour: electric rhythm and lead guitar / Rick Wright: organ, Minimoog (?) / Roger Waters: vocals, bass / Nick Mason: drums / Recorded: Britannia Row, Islington, London: September 1978–March 1979 / Technical Team: Producers: Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, Roger Waters / Co-producer: James Guthrie / Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Nick Griffiths
Genesis
Like “Teacher Teacher” (which would be resurrected on The Final Cut under the title “The Hero’s Return”), “Sexual Revolution” did not get past the initial rehearsal stage for The Wall. Hey girl, as I’ve always said, I prefer your lips red, not […], Hey girl, look in the mirror, can you see what you are? The message was perhaps thought to be too cliché… And perhaps the music owed a little too much to “Corporal Clegg” on A Saucerful of Secrets.
Although not used in his conceptual work, this song in the form of a manifesto for sexual liberation was by no means abandoned by Roger Waters. Renamed “4.41 AM. (Sexual Revolution),” it reappears as the fifth track on his solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, a project Waters had developed in parallel with The Wall.
Production
It is David Gilmour who opens “Sexual Revolution” with an excellent, Hendrix-like riff played on a clear-toned “Black Strat” and supported by Rick Wright on Hammond organ. Initially bringing to mind “Corporal Clegg,” the song’s development makes it clear that only the intro retains traces of that earlier work. Nick Mason works his Ludwig with some power, Roger Waters supporting him on his Precision, the strange sonority of the bass suggesting that wah-wah is being used. It is also Waters who sings the lead vocal, in a very high voice at the limit of his range. After two verses, he can be heard counting in an instrumental section in a novel way: 4, 1, 2, 3! This is followed by a playback consisting of group accompaniment but no lead vocal, Waters simply giving a regular count in order to help the musicians get their bearings. The plan for this section was probably to overdub a Strat or B-3 solo. After the reprise of the verse (around 3:26), Waters can be heard singing la la las instead of words, which he had clearly either forgotten or not yet written! Finally, the song ends with an instrumental coda in which Gilmour and Wright play the same melodic motif in unison, the former on his Strat and the second almost certainly on the Minimoog. The later “cover” by Roger Waters is very good, slower but also more “soul.” Nevertheless, the Floyd demo of “Sexual Revolution” possesses a certain charm that gives a hint of what the group could have done with the song for The Wall.
1982
When
The Tigers
Broke Free /
Bring The Boys
Back Home
SINGLE
RELEASE DATE
UNITED KINGDOM: JULY 26, 1982
Label: Harvest Records
RECORD NUMBER: HAR 5222
When The Tigers Broke Free
Roger Waters / 2:55
Musicians
Roger Waters: vocals, VCS3 (?)
Michael Kamen: orchestral conducting and arrangements, keyboards (?)
New York Symphony : orchestra
Noel Davies: choir conductor
The Pontarddulais Male Choir: backing vocals
Recorded
Britannia Row, Islington, London: September 1978–March 1979
Super Bear Studios, Berre-les-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes (France): April–July
1979
Studio Miraval, domaine de Miraval, Le Val, Var (France): April–July 1979
CBS Studios, New York: August 1979
Producers Workshop, Hollywood: September 12–November 1, 1979
Mayfair Recording Studios, London: June 17–19, June 24, 1982
Technical Team
Producers: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, James Guthrie, Michael Kamen
Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Nick Griffiths, Patrice Quef, Brian Christian, Rick Hart, John McClure
Genesis
Roger Waters composed “When the Tigers Broke Free” for The Wall. But once the recording sessions got under way, it had been decided not to include this song in the concept album (unlike “What Shall We Do Now?”) on the grounds that it was too personal. In the song, which is around three minutes long, Roger Waters relates with unflinching precision the circumstances surrounding the death of his father, a soldier in the Eighth Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. First the dawn setting (one miserable morning in black Forty-Four), then the orders of the forward commander, the assault by enemy forces, and the high price paid for their victory. And the Anzio bridgehead was held for the price/Of a few hundred ordinary lives… Waters’s second verse comes from the heart, a heart forever broken: a letter from kind old King George to his mother saying that his father was dead—a letter in the form of a scroll/With gold leaf and all which the songwriter discovered many years later, In a drawer of old photographs, hidden away. The third and final verse takes us back to the battlefield: […] When the Tigers broke free/And no one survived from the Royal Fusiliers, Company Z […] And that’s how the high command/Took my daddy from me, sings Waters in a choked voice.
Omitted from the double album, “When the Tigers Broke Free” was instead issued as a single (with “Bring the Boys Back Home” in the version from The Wall movie as the B-side), on July 26, 1982. The song got to number 39 on the UK singles charts, and stayed on the charts for five weeks. The version used in the Alan Parker movie is slightly longer (3:17) than the version on the single, and is divided into two parts: during the first verse Pink’s father cleans and then loads his gun, while in the second and third verses, Pink discovers the official letter announcing the death of his father, and then puts on his father’s uniform.
Production
The wind is blowing (an effect probably produced on the VCS3). The mood is solemn with, in the background, a very discreet layer of sound in a low register (Prophet-5?). We hear an orchestral timpani ring out at regular intervals with deep reverb. French horns combined with the humming of a male voice choir create a poignant atmosphere that inevitably calls to mind the appalling sight of a battlefield after the battle. The music slowly swells, before Roger Waters sings his first two verses in a quiet, almost resigned voice. Then, in the third verse, he summons the full power of his voice, taking it to the limit, as he often does. (He double-tracks himself.) It is a moving performance, enhanced by Michael Kamen’s orchestration and the singing of the Pontarddulais Male Choir, conducted by Noel Davies—who also worked with Roger Waters on his solo album Radio K.A.O.S. in 1987. Finally, as we reach the concluding words of the song, the musicians and Roger Waters come to an abrupt halt, and Waters’s voice fades away into the reverb and the icy whistling of the wind.
Although David Gilmour’s name figures as one of the producers of this single, there is some doubt over whether he really was involved. Despite the evident qualities of “When the Tigers Broke Free,” this song has nothing in common with the musical universe created by the Floyd over the years. This is a Roger Waters song, not a Pink Floyd work. The single version was recorded at Mayfair Studios in London between June 17 and 19, 1982, then mixed in the same studios on June 24.
In February 2014, seventy years after his father was killed at Anzio, Roger Waters inaugurated a monument near the site of the battle in memory of Z Company.
The “Tigers” referred to are the notorious German Tiger I tanks.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
The sleeve of “When the Tigers Broke Free” bears the wording, “Taken from the album The Final Cut,” which is a mistake. The song would be added to the album for the CD reissue in 2004.
THE
FINAL
CUT
ALBUM
THE FINAL CUT
RELEASE DATE
United Kingdom: March 21, 1983
Label: Harvest Records
RECORD NUMBER: SHPF 1983
Number 1 (United Kingdom), on the charts for 25 weeks
Number 1 (France, West Germany, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand)
Number 6 (United States)
The Post War Dream / Your Possible Pasts / One Of The Few / The Hero’s Return / The Gunners Dream / Paranoid Eyes / Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert / The Fletcher Memorial Home / Southampton Dock / The Final Cut / Not Now John / Two Suns In The Sunset
The Final Cut, an Album by Roger Waters, Performed by Pink Floyd
After the worldwide success of The Wall and the release of its movie adaptation, Pink Floyd, now reduced to a trio, was required, under their contract with the record company, to bring out an album which had to include certain songs that had been rerecorded for the movie (both versions of “In the Flesh” performed by Bob Geldof, and “Bring the Boys Back Home”), as well as “When the Tigers Broke Free” and “What Shall We Do Now?” (omitted from the original album but released as a single, in the case of the former) along with a number of brand-new songs intended to bolster the narrative—in actual fact titles composed for The Wall but not included. Waters, who thought that “there really wasn’t enough new material in the movie to make a record that [he] thought was interesting,”25 eventually had a change of heart, suddenly spurred into action by events on the international stage, and found a purpose for this work provisionally entitled Spare Bricks, turning it into something altogether different from the movie soundtrack of The Wall.
A Pacifist Manifesto
It was the events of the Falklands War that so troubled Roger Waters. On March 26, 1982, Leopoldo Galtieri, the head of the military junta in Argentina, decided to invade the island of South Georgia, part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies, a British overseas territory (since 1833) over which Argentina claimed sovereignty (with the backing of the Organization of American States [OAS]). April 2 marked the start of Operation Rosario, which led to Argentina seizing control of the Falkland Islands and their capital, Port Stanley, and, consequently, the surrender by the British governor Rex Hunt.
In fact the Falklands War was only just beginning. In London, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had no intention of relinquishing the islands. On the contrary, despite attempts at a negotiated solution mediated by the United Nations Security Council and the United States, the “Iron Lady” proceeded to launch a major operation. On April 25, the British Navy landed on South Georgia and took two hundred Argentine prisoners. On May 1, the war intensified. The following day, a British submarine sank the Argentine cruiser, the General Belgrano. On May 5, the British destroyer, the Sheffield, was hit by an Exocet missile and sank in the Atlantic. On land, too, the fighting was extremely fierce. Then, on June 11, the British launched an attack on Port Stanley and, three days later, the Argentines surrendered. The Falklands War resulted in the loss of 907 lives.
In late spring 1982, Margaret Thatcher, whose hard-line economic and social policies had made her unpopular, basked in the victory of the British troops. The United Kingdom had restored its image, and many people credited the resident of 10 Downing Street. However, not all Her Majesty’s subjects shared this patriotic fervor. Roger Waters was one of them. “I’m not a pacifist,” he said, “I think there are wars that have to be fought, unfortunately. I just happen to think that the Falklands was not one of them.”1 Furthermore, the songwriter was a fierce opponent of the Conservatives, and Margaret Thatcher in particular, whom he saw not as the architect of Britain’s recovery, but as the person responsible for an explosion in poverty. “We experienced the beginn
ing of the Welfare State in 1946,” he explained in an interview in June 2004. “The government introduced all that new [postwar] legislation. At the point where I wrote The Final Cut, I’d seen all that chiseled away, and I’d seen a return to an almost Dickensian view of society under Margaret Thatcher.”119
The idea for the new album was taking shape… Its central character (the narrator) would be an ex-serviceman who had returned from the war profoundly traumatized. (The ex-serviceman was none other than the schoolteacher in “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” from The Wall.) The Final Cut would be a strongly antiwar album with two key concepts: the sacrifice made by the soldiers—in this case the British soldiers who fought in the Second World War—for the vain promise of a better world, and the betrayal perpetrated by a political class that triggered armed conflicts purely for its own profit.
So this twelfth album would be another homage to Waters’s father, as well as a scathing attack on Thatcher, the typical warmongering, neocolonialist politician, and, more generally, a targeted attack on the world leaders of the time, from Ronald Reagan to Leonid Brezhnev, not to mention Menachem Begin and Ian Paisley.