The Final Cut

Epignosis wrote: I don't have a great deal of respect for Waters as a person or as a musician, but I can oftentimes recognize a work of genius when I see it, and The Final Cut is his.

Robert, I often think of The Final Cut a the precussor to Amused to Death, which, IMHO, is THE work of genius by Waters, with both Floyd & solo.

Anthony wrote: If that's your intepretation of my words, fine. What I wrote is that it seems to me that Waters cannot write about anything else than his father's death and how evil the world is. And that's what I get tired of. I don't need to hear that a zillion times. Then the message doesn't get across anymore because it gets irritating. There are much more things one can write about. So if I was knocking Waters for something, then I was not knocking him for his father's death, but for him whining about it over and over again.

Anthony, I'll try to be more polite in this response

If what you say were true, I would really have some sympathy, but it really isn't true.

Whilst it is true that his father's death has had a profound influence on his writing, and let's be honest, isn't that natural, it is most certainly not all he writes about and he doesn't whine, as you put it.

His father's death was and is the catalyst for some of the greatest anti war songs I have had the pleasure of listening to. He doesn't merely write about Dad, but about the utter futility and waste of modern warfare. Having watched the news earlier with yet another bodybag procession in England from Afghanistan, his words are, to me, still unutterably relevant now.

In addition, Waters writes extensively about the human condition and mind, the disgusting capitalist system that he and we work within plus madness, human cruelty, the power of dreams, all of which are evident in the work of Floyd and his, sadly, limited solo work.

As I said before, The Final Cut was essentially a commentary upon the Flaklands War adventure by Thatcher, and other futile acts by modern politicians - certainly inspired by his father's death, but not actually about it. There is a difference I think.

You know what I get tired of? You ask for opinions why someone likes or dislikes this album, but once again it's clear that it's only allowed to say positive things, because if someone dares to say anything negative, he will get flamed for it. It's not like everybody in the whole world likes the same music, you know. Do I attack you because you DO like the album? No, I don't! You want me to get over it, then you should get over the fact that I don't like this album. (And hey, I even said that the guitar solo's of Gilmour were good, but nobody noticed, they only saw the negative).

I don't have a great deal of respect for Waters as a person or as a musician, but I can oftentimes recognize a work of genius when I see it, and The Final Cut is his.

If that's your intepretation of my words, fine. What I wrote is that it seems to me that Waters cannot write about anything else than his father's death and how evil the world is. And that's what I get tired of. I don't need to hear that a zillion times. Then the message doesn't get across anymore because it gets irritating. There are much more things one can write about. So if I was knocking Waters for something, then I was not knocking him for his father's death, but for him whining about it over and over again.

Anthony wrote: lazland wrote:  Maybe you are confusing this persona with the one that was at the heart of the Floyd split. By Waters own admission, to be fair to him, this was a story of four huge egos getting in each others way, with his being the largest. He has never taken any pride in this whatsoever - quite the opposite in fact. No matter whether he is proud of what he has done or not, he has done it! Putting people down so that they had to visit shrinks for years is despicable behaviour.

And that definitely justifies making fun of RW's father's death in a war, doesn't it.

Anthony wrote: The most dreadful album Floyd ever made...oh wait, it's not made by Pink Floyd, it's a solo album by Roger Waters. Which is a terrible thing in itself. Waters is the least talented musician in Floyd and therefore the album lacks good melodies, because he doesn't care about those, all he cares about are his lyrics and his ego. Even Gilmour's guitar solo's (of which there aren't many, but when there is one, it's a good one) can't save this dull album. And heartfelt lyrics? I'll let you in on a secret: To write heartfelt lyrics you need a heart. We all know what kind of person Waters is, so him writing lyrics that attack dictators is nothing more than hypocrisy. And to think that after this rubbish even worse was to come with the completely moronic story of "Radio KAOS" makes me just wonder why people still think highly of Waters

Here we go again...



I don't think the album is great, although I do think its a decent disc. If I had to rate it, I'd say 3.5/5. Its not brilliant, but I too find it difficult to understand why a lot of people around here dislike it so strongly. It has some ups and downs, but the one thing which seems different about this album is that the ups don't seem to get as high, if that makes any sense. They're still there, but they never quite reach the magnitude of some of PF's other works. The rest of the tracks seem pretty average imo.

Anthony wrote: The most dreadful album Floyd ever made...oh wait, it's not made by Pink Floyd, it's a solo album by Roger Waters. Which is a terrible thing in itself. Waters is the least talented musician in Floyd and therefore the album lacks good melodies, because he doesn't care about those, all he cares about are his lyrics and his ego. Even Gilmour's guitar solo's (of which there aren't many, but when there is one, it's a good one) can't save this dull album. And heartfelt lyrics? I'll let you in on a secret: To write heartfelt lyrics you need a heart. We all know what kind of person Waters is, so him writing lyrics that attack dictators is nothing more than hypocrisy. And to think that after this rubbish even worse was to come with the completely moronic story of "Radio KAOS" makes me just wonder why people still think highly of Waters

Sorry, but this is really unfair. In fact, if you read interviews with those who know him best, or work with him, they all tell the same story - that of a vastly misunderstood anmd exceptionally kind human being. And surely the one thing that nobody can ccuse him of is lacking a heart - just listen to all of those lyrics over all those years.

Maybe you are confusing this persona with the one that was at the heart of the Floyd split. By Waters own admission, to be fair to him, this was a story of four huge egos getting in each others way, with his being the largest. He has never taken any pride in this whatsoever - quite the opposite in fact.

Count me as a fan.How can you not feel Roger's emotion and anger.I know it's lyrically heavy but man there's some passion on this record. I like it better than "Momentary Lapse Of Reason" and "Division Bell".

I really like this album, in fact I prefer it to DSOTM and The Wall.  Always have.  There's an emotional resonance there, that I don't get from DSOTM and I find it more artistic than The Wall.  Hmmmm...maybe I'm just .