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roger waters and the post-war dream by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - December 28, 2000 |
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| He was the elusive sonic architect behind Pink Floyd, one of the most influential progressive rock bands to emerge from 1960s psychedelic London. Bassist and songwriter Roger Waters gradually became ascendent when PF's focus shifted from Syd Barrett's acid-fuelled inner explorations and baroque humor in Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967) and A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968) to the cutting-edge aural mosaics that would define 1970s rock: the epochal Dark Side Of The Moon (1973), the music industry satire Wish You Were Here (1975), and Animals (1977), a darkly pessimistic critique of human nature. Waters will probably be best remembered for The Wall (1979), a complex psycho-biography of Cold War paranoia and the perils of rock super-stardom (influencing Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails). The album spawned a subsequent feature film (1982), and a theatrical stage tour captured on the live album Is There Anybody Out There? (2000). Pressure was so intense that keyboardist Richard Wright was fired during recording sessions. The inevitable fall-out sustained public perceptions of Waters as a megalomaniac. Some regard The Final Cut (1983) as a segue between the creative end of PF and Waters' subsequent solo career. Drummer Nick Mason left during recording sessions; Waters sparred continuously with guitarist David Gilmour. In retrospect, Waters' swan song has legitimate anger and a social conscience missing from subsequent PF releases. The Final Cut is told through the eyes of the school teacher previously featured on PF's FM radio anthem, Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2), who is revealed to be an anguished war veteran. Human nature's ambiguities and recurring abuse cycles proved too harrowing for many. A poignant Rule Britannia requiem, it accurately captures the uncertainty of the early 1980s Cold War and flash-points such as the Falklands Islands war (1982) and Grenada (1983). It remains one of the finest poetic renderings of how Mutually Assured Destruction imprinted generations with fear (despite detente), and how incurable tyrants like Reagan, Haig, Thatcher, and Brezhnev betrayed the "post war dream" (peace). The Pros & Cons Of Hitchhiking (1984) had been offered to PF in 1978, and forms the final part of a Waters conceptual trilogy (linked by recurring motifs to his last two PF albums). Lyrically an exploration of betrayal, loneliness, memory, and sexual politics, the album's dreamy non-linear music (featuring guitarist Eric Clapton) recalls the fragile Last Year At Marienbad (1961). Waters toured in 1984, then split from PF in 1985. When The Wind Blows (1986) and the Fairlight synthesizer-drenched Radio KAOS (1987) continued stylistic innovations. Featuring dialogue by deposed KMET DJ Jim Ladd, Radio KAOS attacked formulaic FM radio (the weapon PF would use to marginalize Waters) years before the Pacific radio crisis. Radio KAOS' multimedia tour tapped into Live Aid euphoria and emerging global consciousness, but Amused To Death (1992), based on Neil Postman's history of media as political communication Amusing Ourselves To Death (Viking Press, 1986), and featuring guitarist Jeff Beck, depicted war as media entertainment, and consumer culture as sterile. Panama (1989), Tiananmen Square (1989) and the Persian Gulf War (1991) showed McKenzie Wark's Military-Entertainment complex growing; Waters reminded us that war affects everyday life (as he had with the July 21st, 1990 staging of The Wall in Berlin). The journey of the jackass, hyena, and monkey is a darkly evocative meditation on Crossing the Abyss. Waters was absent for most of the 1990s, although The Body (1970) was re-released, and he recorded music for The Legend Of 1900 (1998). The sell-out In The Flesh tours (1999-2000) signalled a much-needed re-examination of Waters' entire recording legacy. New projects beckon: he has finished Ca Ira, an opera written with Etienne Roda-Gil, about the French Revolution, and has plans for a new rock studio album. Just don't dare call it a comeback. |
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Pink Floyd: Is There Anybody Out There? God Wants Websites: Visual Quotes From The Lyrics Of Roger Waters God Wants Light The Power Plant Internet Movie Database: When The Wind Blows Internet Movie Database: Pink Floyd The Wall Internet Movie Database: The Body Internet Movie Database: Zabriskie Point Internet Movie Database: The Valley Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii Internet Movie Database: The Legend Of 1900 Roger Waters Pink Floyd SFX Networks: Pink Floyd: Is There Anybody Out There? Pink Floyd: The Wall DVD What God Wants: A Roger Waters Tribute Amused To Death Roger Waters International Fan Club Home Page Roger Waters WebRing Internet Movie Database: Roger Waters The Pink Floyd Archive The Kubrick-Floyd Site Who The Hell Does Roger Waters Think He Is? |
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