As one of the millions of white males who had bought fully into the Classic Rock lifestyle marketing concept, it was inevitable that I would buy Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon back in the late `80's/early 90's. What inspired the purchase I don't know, because I had never been a big Floyd fan. However one day the CD was on the family hi-fi as I focused on a magazine, and my mom said out of nowhere, "Yeah, that's how it is." What was how it was? The song "Time," that was what.
You are young and life is long
and there is time to kill today
Then one day you find
ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
I listened to this song again and for the first time really focused on the lyrics. This immediately became my favorite lyrics ever, rivaled only by Rush's "Subdivisions," and they were the impetus for much of the manic creative activity of my 20's and very early 30's. Overall, though, Floyd left me flat.
Cut to the mid-`90's and my old pal Chad, a huge Pink Floyd and Roger Waters buff, and I went to the Point to see some Austin, Texas band that was heavily Pink Floyd-influenced. I learned a big lesson from the band that night: don't have Pink Floyd as your opening act. The venue was playing Floyd's Live from Pompeii video cassette on a big screen prior to their set, and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Careful with that Axe, Eugene" reeled me right in. The night's live performers were extremely pale in comparison. Turn the VHS back on!
That evening led to a purchase of A Saucerful of Secrets, the disc that had "Set the Controls" and "Eugene." Oddly enough even Pink Floyd paled in comparison to Pink Floyd. The disc was quickly traded in.
So last year I got The Wall just because it seemed like the last staple of classic rock radio I didn't have a copy of, when our sometime-poster Scott said I should check out Animals.
For the past several years I've tried to solidify in my mind a style of rock n' roll that would combine a jam/rave format with lyrics that would be far less than escapist, but would instead indulge my cynical and pessimistic mindset and give a melodic format to critique the world at large. Upon listening to Animals...well, shit, Roger Waters beat me to it! This is sort of the kind of thing I was thinking of. I can't help but smile every time I listen to "Dogs" and hear David Gilmour sing the line, "A sad old man/all alone and dying of cancerrr..." Could Irving Berlin ever have put a melody to such a line?
So this has inspired some Google searches on Roger Waters, whom I have learned was the mastermind behind these lyrics that have enchanted me. I contemplated going to see his recent tour stop in Atlanta but didn't follow up. Now that I read this blog entry about the show I really wish I had gone.
Note that 1/3 down the page that pesky nuisance of every chat board and blog shows up, the Angry Republican, who uses plenty of exclamation points (!!!!!!) and CAPITAL LETTERS to emphasize how angry he is that he spent $250 to see some "has-been English old fart" critique "his" president. Yes, the infamous Flying Pig bore the slogans "Don't be led to the slaughter. Vote Democratic Nov. 2" and "Impeach Bush" across it's pork chops, and this guy took great offense. I'm liking this Roger Waters guy more and more all the time!
Unfortunately I still find the majority of Pink Floyd's output kind of tedious, but I respect what Rogers (and Gilmour) were shooting for, and that they found massive commercial success with material that by all logic should have surpassed a mainstream audience's cognition.
So, yeah, I'm getting into Roger Waters.
Told ya so dooood. I don't *get* most the Syd Barrett stuff either. If you've haven't already give "Wish You Where Here" a listen. Not near as incredible as Animals but still pretty darn good. Meddle is also quite a nice listen.