Without a doubt the most underrated Floyd album. But what we have here is Floyd chartering into what's awfully close to Roger Waters solo territory. I like to think of The Wall-The Final Cut-Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking as almost a trilogy. There is a connection between all and they are very similar (with each a bit less powerful than the one that proceeded it).
Great underrated album, but easy to see why in 1983 the rest of the band was saying "what the f*&k about the rest of us". Great album indeed that doesn't get the credit it deserves, but also a point where Roger's ego was destroying the band and neither Roger nor the remaining Floyd would ever be as good without the other.
One of my favorite albums EVER. I love the lyrics to this one:
The Fletcher Memorial Home (Waters)
Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
And build them a home, a little place of their own.
The Fletcher Memorial
Home for Incurable Tyrants and Kings.
And they can appear to themselves every day
On closed circuit T.V.
To make sure they're still real.
It's the only connection they feel.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Reagan and Haig,
Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisly,
"Hello Maggie!"
Mr. Brezhnev and party.
"Scusi dov'è il bar?"
The ghost of McCarthy,
The memories of Nixon.
"Who's the bald chap?"
"Good-bye!"
And now, adding colour, a group of anonymous latin-
American meat packing glitterati.
Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?
They can polish their medals and sharpen their
Smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for awhile.
Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you're dead.
Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
With their favorite toys
They'll be good girls and boys
In the Fletcher Memorial Home for colonial
Wasters of life and limb.
Is everyone in?
Are you having a nice time?
Now the final solution can be applied.
"All the rusted signs we ignore throughout our lives"--Ed
One of my favorite albums EVER. I love the lyrics to this one:
Is everyone in?
Are you having a nice time?
Now the final solution can be applied.
Here's one of the things I love about Roger Waters and Pink Floyd. That last line has just the perfect moral ambiguity to fit the rest of the song. Waters uses a Nazi metaphor to describe an appropriate way to deal with the world leaders that he considers criminals. Would putting them all in a room and killing them really be the best way to go, or isn't that exactly the kind of brutality that they are accused of? Maybe they deserve it. Maybe we should be bigger than that and show the mercy they lack. Is applying a "final solution" acceptable if the people are "bad" enough? Great stuff.
The lyrics to the title track always blew my mind too:
The Final Cut (Waters)
Through the fish-eyed lens of tear stained eyes
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time
And far from flying high in clear blue skies
I'm spiraling down to the hole in the ground where I hide.
If you negotiate the minefield in the drive
And beat the dogs and cheat the cold electronic eyes
And if you make it past the shotgun in the hall,
Dial the combination, open the priesthole
And if I'm in I'll tell you what's behind the wall.
There's a kid who had a big hallucination
Making love to girls in magazines.
He wonders if you're sleeping with your new found faith.
Could anybody love him
Or is it just a crazy dream?
And if I show you my dark side
Will you still hold me tonight?
And if I open my heart to you
And show you my weak side
What would you do?
Would you sell your story to Rolling Stone?
Would you take the children away
And leave me alone?
And smile in reassurance
As you whisper down the phone?
Would you send me packing?
Or would you take me home?
Thought I oughta bare my naked feelings,
Thought I oughta tear the curtain down.
I held the blade in trembling hands
Prepared to make it but just then the phone rang
I never had the nerve to make the final cut.
"Hello? Listen, I think I've got it. Okay, listen its a HaHa!"
"All the rusted signs we ignore throughout our lives"--Ed
It's not Pink Floyd. But Roger Waters was dead on. Everyone involved with that album made it amazing. And even though it was primarily a Waters effort than a Pink Floyd effort, doesn't mean it sucks.
Not only is it a good album, but if any of you still care about great audio quality, this is one of the better rock recordings of the past forty years. Listen to it on a stereo system that has good power and you'll hear what I'm talkin' about.
Not only is it a good album, but if any of you still care about great audio quality, this is one of the better rock recordings of the past forty years. Listen to it on a stereo system that has good power and you'll hear what I'm talkin' about.
I can only assume you are talking about the record and not the CD.
The Final Cut is probably the finest Roger Waters album but, not a great Pink Floyd album. I maybe wrong but, Micheal Kamen had more input on this album than David Gilmour and of course, Richard Wright was already out of the band.
It´s beautiful and very underrated. Probably my favourite Floyd album if I had to choose one.
Bu then again, you might discuss whether this is a Floyd album or a solo effort from Waters.
Roskilde 2000, Berlin 2006,
Athens 2006, Dusseldorf 2007, Copenhagen 2007, New York NY 1 + 2 2008, Berlin
2009, London 2009, London 2010, Berlin 2010, Manchester 2 2012, Berlin 1 2012,
Stockholm 2012, Oslo 2012, Copenhagen 2012, Amsterdam 1 + 2 (EV solo) 2012,
Amsterdam 1 + 2 2014, Stockholm 2014, Oslo 2014, Leeds 2014, Milton Keynes
2014, Heartland Festival DK (EV solo) 2017, Berlin 2018, Barcelona 2018, Copenhagen 2022, Prague 2022 (Cancelled)
Comments
Great underrated album, but easy to see why in 1983 the rest of the band was saying "what the f*&k about the rest of us". Great album indeed that doesn't get the credit it deserves, but also a point where Roger's ego was destroying the band and neither Roger nor the remaining Floyd would ever be as good without the other.
The Fletcher Memorial Home (Waters)
Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
And build them a home, a little place of their own.
The Fletcher Memorial
Home for Incurable Tyrants and Kings.
And they can appear to themselves every day
On closed circuit T.V.
To make sure they're still real.
It's the only connection they feel.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Reagan and Haig,
Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisly,
"Hello Maggie!"
Mr. Brezhnev and party.
"Scusi dov'è il bar?"
The ghost of McCarthy,
The memories of Nixon.
"Who's the bald chap?"
"Good-bye!"
And now, adding colour, a group of anonymous latin-
American meat packing glitterati.
Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?
They can polish their medals and sharpen their
Smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for awhile.
Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you're dead.
Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
With their favorite toys
They'll be good girls and boys
In the Fletcher Memorial Home for colonial
Wasters of life and limb.
Is everyone in?
Are you having a nice time?
Now the final solution can be applied.
Here's one of the things I love about Roger Waters and Pink Floyd. That last line has just the perfect moral ambiguity to fit the rest of the song. Waters uses a Nazi metaphor to describe an appropriate way to deal with the world leaders that he considers criminals. Would putting them all in a room and killing them really be the best way to go, or isn't that exactly the kind of brutality that they are accused of? Maybe they deserve it. Maybe we should be bigger than that and show the mercy they lack. Is applying a "final solution" acceptable if the people are "bad" enough? Great stuff.
The Final Cut (Waters)
Through the fish-eyed lens of tear stained eyes
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time
And far from flying high in clear blue skies
I'm spiraling down to the hole in the ground where I hide.
If you negotiate the minefield in the drive
And beat the dogs and cheat the cold electronic eyes
And if you make it past the shotgun in the hall,
Dial the combination, open the priesthole
And if I'm in I'll tell you what's behind the wall.
There's a kid who had a big hallucination
Making love to girls in magazines.
He wonders if you're sleeping with your new found faith.
Could anybody love him
Or is it just a crazy dream?
And if I show you my dark side
Will you still hold me tonight?
And if I open my heart to you
And show you my weak side
What would you do?
Would you sell your story to Rolling Stone?
Would you take the children away
And leave me alone?
And smile in reassurance
As you whisper down the phone?
Would you send me packing?
Or would you take me home?
Thought I oughta bare my naked feelings,
Thought I oughta tear the curtain down.
I held the blade in trembling hands
Prepared to make it but just then the phone rang
I never had the nerve to make the final cut.
"Hello? Listen, I think I've got it. Okay, listen its a HaHa!"
I can only assume you are talking about the record and not the CD.
4/5,6/9/2003, 9/1/05, 12/7/2005, 7/15,16,18/2006, 8/5/2007
6/24,25/08,6/27/08,6/28/08,6/30/08
9/21,22/2009, 10/4/2009
5/6,7,9/2010, 9/3/2011 9/4/2011, 11/15/2013,
11/16/2013, 12/8/2013, 10/5/2014, 10/12/2014,
4/23, 5/10, 5/12, 8/20, 8/22 2016,
8/8, 8/10, 8/18, 8/20 2018, 5/12, 5/13, 9/20 2022
A good album, yes. A Pink Floyd album, no.
This Ledbetterman10 seems to know his stuff.
Bu then again, you might discuss whether this is a Floyd album or a solo effort from Waters.
Roskilde 2000, Berlin 2006, Athens 2006, Dusseldorf 2007, Copenhagen 2007, New York NY 1 + 2 2008, Berlin 2009, London 2009, London 2010, Berlin 2010, Manchester 2 2012, Berlin 1 2012, Stockholm 2012, Oslo 2012, Copenhagen 2012, Amsterdam 1 + 2 (EV solo) 2012, Amsterdam 1 + 2 2014, Stockholm 2014, Oslo 2014, Leeds 2014, Milton Keynes 2014, Heartland Festival DK (EV solo) 2017, Berlin 2018, Barcelona 2018, Copenhagen 2022, Prague 2022 (Cancelled)