A big chunk of The Wall amounts to a series of anti-war songs protesting … World War II which Waters’ father died participating in somehow
Another chunk is an “ironic” celebration of racist skinhead culture, which was so convincing it inspired a real hate group that still exists
Maybe it was meant to be layers of metaphor, things standing in for other things, but the bottom line is Roger Waters is not a guy whose “politics” are going to stand up to a lot of close scrutiny, and he really shouldn’t be starting shit, or throwing stones at other people’s glass houses
As a huge early Floyd fan (pre-Gilmour) and as someone who called aMLoR “Pink Fraud” and as someone who embraced Radio KAOS I feel duped. I find it interesting that Roger did not make the statement about heading to the bar at the time the tickets are PURCHASED, it seems he is happy to take his “blood money” from Americans - I’m glad I am yet to purchase tickets for his DC show next week. It saves me from heading to the bar are ordering a club soda.
I’ve really felt he and Gilmour needed each other. I agree about Waters’ solo stuff. To me it’s great concepts with bite, but just not that interesting musically. Where Gilmours stuff is original, pleasant and lovely, just for me lacks bite.
It doesn’t seem likely they’ll ever put the peanut butter and chocolate back together again. It was great while we had it.
I can’t imagine what the late '60’s and early '70’s would have been like if artists, particularly musicians and songwriters, hadn’t worn their politics on their sleeves.
And the Final Cut, too. Apparently the worst part of WWII is that Waters’ daddy didn’t come home from it, which I suppose means that Churchill is History’s Greatest Monster.
It may be that Waters’ “It’s All About ME” way of thinking does not result in sophisticated analyses.
We aren’t really in a position to ‘allow’ or ‘forbid’ other people to have opinions. I don’t think you (or anyone here) is saying that. Someday soon, Brian May’s Interstellar Hedgehog Legions will bring truth and justice for all. Until then we all have to muddle along.
Ask anyone with a large audience whether their speciality lends weight to their opinion. People can be clever in one field and stupid in another. Roger Waters seems like a cranky old man in a pub who enjoys shocking people. Some people think he has money, fame, and musical talent, so maybe he knows something we don’t. I suspect having money and fame encourages you to say bad things for the attention; and the musical talent that started it all has no measurable effect.
The whole “shut up and play” thing really amuses me. Like sure it’s one thing if you’re going to see, say the Backstreet Boys eighth comeback tour and they take five minutes to talk about a tariff war. But Roger Waters’ work has been explicitly political for a long time. He always has political slogans on screens and projections during his live shows (including some pro-trans ones recently, which was pretty cool). If you go see Waters, or Rage Against the Machine or someone like that politics should be expected.
The last time Ministry played Dublin they had giant inflatable Trump chickens on either side of the stage and at one point Al knocked one into the crowd, and after it had been returned to the front, now deflated, he said “one down, one to go”. It comes with the territory.
I’d lean more towards this than him having any particular coherent political credo. “Everyone is saying X, so if I say Y then I will look clever” basically. (I know several people like this)
Especially because basically all of us are ‘guilty’ of making quick judgements without knowing everything about the deep socio-political background of a subject. But just because someone doesn’t know about (eg) the Azov Battalion, doesn’t mean that a conclusion that ‘Russia shouldn’t invade Ukraine’ is therefore wrong.
Of course. But so many entertainers thinking their public is interested in their political views seems to be a more recent phenomenon. Perhaps that’s just a perception brought on by them all having so much more presence and visibility in an age of media overload (and social media fuckwittery).
which Waters’ father died participating in somehow
