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Friday, July 21, 2006

Overgrown Infants


I've been drawn back recently to the last Pink Floyd album with Roger Waters, "The Final Cut." I wonder why. It was timeless then and poigniant now. I plan to periodically post the lyrics to selected songs, and hopefully they'll make you think as much as they make me think. The first selection I'll post musically starts out with ballroom dancing music, violins.
As you read, you can easily be drawn back 20 years ago when it was written, and you can also easily replace the names to today and get the same effect. In fact, I think he was 20 years ahead of himself in many ways. This album was the final nail for Pink Floyd, as the rest of the boys were tired of this direction in their music. In my opinion it's a masterpiece. It shows the madness and brilliance of Roger Waters, flaming liberal that he is.
If memory serves me correctly, the Fletcher referred to is Roger Waters' maternal uncle who fought in WWII. I don't have the album jacket at my fingertips. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
There is a video for the song but I find it distracting from the lyrics. So I'll link it here if you're not familiar with the song.
The intro is called "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert," which you won't hear on the video.
"Brezhnev took Afghanistan, Begin took Beirut, Galtieri took the Union Jack; and Maggie over lunch one day took a cruiser with all hands, apparently to make him give it back."
Now "The Fletcher Memorial Home:"
"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 TV, 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 Paisley, Mr. Brezhnev and party, the ghost of McCarthy, the memories of Nixon, and now adding colour a group of annonymous 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 favourite 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? 'Good time'. Now the final solution can be applied."


I hope that even if you don't agree with this in all its specificity, you'll agree with and appreciate its sentiment.

8 comments:

David said...

You pulled out one of my very favorites Zeb. I love this album and you're absolutely correct....timeless and poigniant.

Ingrid said...

I guess I should listen to it. I never got into Pink Floyd but I think it might be 'ahem'.. age related??lol
I'll check out the video later, we're off to the pool!
see ya
Ingrid

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the linkage, reciprocity achieved... Enjoy your weekend - that is - if the weekend, you know, ends.

With what's going on out there, one never knows.

James

El Mas Chingón said...

I don't have that album :-(

Zebster said...

Mash, but if he gets the album, he'll stop reading this when I'm adding the rest of it. LOL
Sis, I kept telling them we would have to watch that sometime. Even though they're teenagers and Floyd fans (because of me), I wonder if they truly got who and what it was about.

Kevin said...

My girlfriend insists that only guys really "get" Pink Floyd. Not sure that that's true but I don't know any women who are into Floyd, at least not their older stuff. But then again some purists insist that The Wall isn't real Pink Floyd because it's not the same cast of characters.

Zebster said...

The purists would be wrong, Kevin. Syd Barrett was on the first 2 albums in the late 60's and then it's the same group up through the Wall and the Final Cut.
I get them because I'm a lyrics guy and they're pretty heady, love the tunes too, of course.
Most women, if they can't dance to it or it sounds good in the background...now I'll catch hell. LOL

Ingrid said...

Zeb, check it out, you're in Mash's world wide of blogs list today..
Ingrid