A
better title for this musical mess would
perhaps have be ‘The Final Straw’. Many
Pink Floyd Fans call this the first of
Roger Waters’ solo career rather than
a full blown proper Pink Floyd album,
and we all know how successful Roger Waters
has been solo. (Playing live in Bangkok
Roger Waters had to slip his solo songs
in between Floyd classics to keep the
audience attention from wandering too
far.) However, it has to be said the man
is a genius with the written word. His
lyrics on 'Dark Side Of The Moon' and
'The Wall' are nothing short of superb.
The trouble starts when he sets them to
music without the full support and musical
ideas of his colleagues.
'The Final Cut' is made up of some half
baked Roger Waters ideas and some things
that did not get onto 'The Wall'. So what
you are getting are songs that were once
considered not good enough. What the heck!
If the album cover has got ‘Pink Floyd‘
on it the gullible public will buy anything.
And buy they did. 'The Final Cut' got
to #1 in England, Italy, Norway, Sweden,
and West Germany, and #6 in the all-important
American market. But this was purely on
pre-release sales and the album forthwith
dropped out of the charts like the preverbal
falling brick.
Roger Waters had written all the lyrics
for the magnificent 'The Wall', and he
had the full backing of David Gilmour,
Nick Mason, and Rick Wright on that particular
masterpiece. Still 'The Wall' tour had
not been a happy experience for Pink Floyd.
Waters resorted to dictatorial methods
to dominate all the others. This put extra
strain on the band to the expense of performing
'The Wall' live. Plus they lost most of
their already amassed fortune by bad investments
by their accountants. Rock 'n' Roll and
money never seem to stay together long.
So before going into the studio again,
Roger Waters, to the amazement of the
whole rock world, fired Rick Wright. Actually
this had taken place during 'The Wall'
tour when Wright was cut off from the
Pink Floyd financial machine and put on
wages. This turned out to save him a fortune
when their investments crashed.
For the first time in their career Pink
Floyd went into the studio with only one
person allowed to write the songs and
no keyboard player (a certain Michael
Kamen played some keyboards, but remained
pretty anonymous). On one song only one
original member of Pink Floyd played as
Andy Newmark was on drums on ‘Two Suns
In The Sunset’. Technically David Gilmour
was not an original member of Floyd as
he was brought in to replace the wayward
genius Syd Barrett, and although Andy
Newmark is a fine drummer, Nick Mason
is the Pink Floyd drummer. The results
are disastrous.
While I sympathize with Waters views,
I in fact applaud them. The futility of
war, the innate powerlessness of the individual
in modern society to have any effect on
his surroundings, even from the giddy
heights of one of the world’s most recognizable
people, in parts of the album in the spoken
word his point comes across with great
bile and intensity. In these parts Waters
object was to create ‘A requiem for The
Post War Dream'. He succeeded with aplomb.
The music that accompanies it though
is embarrassing. Not only that, every
song is taken at the same turgid pace.
'The Poor old National Philharmonic Orchestra'
is used totally out of context and must
of been wondering what was going on during
recording. With Roger Waters limited musical
ability the orchestral arrangements were
done by Michael Kamen (co-producer of
Roger Waters’ wretched mess), who’s own
ideas seemed to cross Roger Waters’ plans.
It's all a bit like watching a musical
with the wrong soundtrack. Themes repeat
themselves again and again like a recurring
nightmare - quite unsettling. They are
only being broken up by the odd moments
of David Gilmour’s rapier like guitar
breaking through like a ray of sunshine
in a perfect storm. Unfortunately these
moments are too few and far between. You
would need to be a complete David Gilmour
anorak case (like this Dog) to get this
album just for these moments. David Gilmour
is perhaps not the greatest guitarist
ever put on the planet, but in the light
of these songs he positively sparkles.
The nadir of this album though is the
dreadful pathos that Roger Waters puts
into his singing when he is trying to
get his point across. It becomes cringing
when he actually takes on his own audience
in ‘Not Now John'. Talk about biting the
hand that feeds you.
So you buy the album. First time you
play it you desperately hope that things
will improve as things go from bad to
worse. Then to add insult to injury on
the 2nd last track the author starts slagging
you off. Great. I had to actually dust
this album off to listen to it again before
I could review it (with paws over ears).
Not an experience I shall gladly go through
again.
The Album comes with a sticker on the
front warning of lyrics that may be offensive
to some listeners. Well, there ought to
be one from the Trades Description Board
and the Office of Fair Trading as this
is a Pink Floyd album in name only.
Pawed by Mott The Dog
Remastered by Ella Crew
E-mail: review@mott-the-dog.com
