Roger Waters will at last bring his live world tour of The Wall to Australia in early 2012.
I need to start this post by qualifying two points:
1) When it comes to the acrimonious split between Roger Waters & the rest of Pink Floyd band members in the mid 80s and what has followed ever since, I am firmly in the David Gilmour & Pink Floyd camp & resent Roger Waters for his pompous & arrogance which resulted in him being literally left out of Pink Floyd ever since.
2) However, the genius of Roger Waters is clearly on display in Pink Floyd's best albums & The Wall is his magnum opus.
The Wall is universally regarded as the greatest concept album in rock history. Roger Waters wrote most of the songs & just about all the lyrics for the album.
The album was performed live a mere 18 times in selected USA & European venues upon its release in late 1979 & Roger Waters & a cast of pop/rock artists re performed it once more at the site of the Berlin Wall before its demolition after the fall of eastern Germany.
Meanwhile, Pink Floyd fans worldwide have had to content with the numerous (and in some cases very good) Pink Floyd cover bands performing The Wall live around the world (including Australia) since 1981!
And now thanks to Roger Waters, Australia will finally get to see "The Wall Live" in early 2012!Why should you consider going to see it if you are not a huge fan, or are not familiar with Pink Floyd's music?
Besides enjoying "the theatre" of the best ever concept album in rock history, the music, it is most importantly Roger Waters' shear genius when it comes to lyrics that makes The Wall (and other Waters' penned songs) rock classics.
The earliest signs of Roger Waters' lyrical genius emereged in the late 60s when he penned his first major Pink Floyd song in their second album (A Saucerful of Secrets) & beautifully named it "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun":
Witness the man who raves at the wall
Making the shape of his questions to Heaven.
Whether the sun will fall in the evening
Will he remember the lesson of giving?
Set the controls for the heart of the sun.
The heart of the sun, the heart of the sun.
This was followed by great album titles such as "Atom Heart Mother" (a collective Pink Floyd chosen title) & subsequent maturity of Roger Waters' lyrics in the albums "Echoes" & "Dark side of the Moon" & culminated in the masterfully written album "Wish you were Here" with beautiful melodies & great lyrics as well as timeless song names such as "Shine on you Crazy Diamond", "Welcome to the Machine" & of course "Wish you were Here":
So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skys from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade
Your heros for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage? ............
Roger Waters' lyrical masterly continued with The Wall, his final Pink Floyd Album "The Final Cut" & throughout his solo career ever since as he continued to develop & express his political & social views into his lyric writing talents. This is where & why Roger Waters in a unique talent. He expresses political & social views in a masterful way no other noted rock identity has ever managed to do!
Here's brief selection of Roger Waters lyrics in the album The Wall:
If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
.......Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet..............
When we grew up and went to school
There were certain teachers who would
Hurt the children in any way they could
By pouring their derision
Upon anything we did
And exposing every weakness
However carefully hidden by the kids
But in the town, it was well known
When they got home at night, their fat and
Psychopathic wives would thrash them
Within inches of their lives.
We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry.
Mother's gonna make all your nightmares come true.
Mother's gonna put all her fears into you.
Mother's gonna keep you right here under her wing.
She wont let you fly, but she might let you sing.
Mama will keep baby cozy and warm.............
Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?
Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the
promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue
sky?
And the lyrics are not all that are extraordinary about this once in a life time event! The theatre, the music & of course watching Roger waters perform The Wall is a once in a life time event which will sadly never be seen again! A must see show! I will be going to every single night it will be performed in Sydney!
