The Instruments
The Floyd, now reduced to a trio, did not try anything particularly new in terms of instruments. Roger Waters played his Fender Precision Sunburst mostly, Nick Mason his Ludwig kit, and David Gilmour his “Black Strat.” However, Gilmour changed its neck, replacing it with a Charvel twenty-two fret, which gained him a semitone. He also later mentioned having used a Gibson Les Paul with a vibrato bar, probably a 1956 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop equipped with a Bigsby. In terms of his other guitars, effects and amps, he, like Waters, used essentially the same equipment as for The Wall.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
The Final Cut is the only Pink Floyd album not to have been followed by a tour. What’s more, Pink Floyd never played a single song from the album live (although Roger Waters did).
The giant pig used to promote the Animals album was stored in one of the annexes of the Hook End Studios, owned by David Gilmour.
A video of The Final Cut, nineteen minutes long, was shot by Willie Christie, featuring the actor Alex McAvoy (who plays the teacher in The Wall). It has four songs on it: “The Gunner’s Dream,” “The Final Cut,” “Not Now John,” and “The Fletcher Memorial Home.”
The Post War Dream
Roger Waters / 3:01
Musicians
David Gilmour: electric lead guitar
Roger Waters: vocals, bass
Nick Mason: drums
Andy Bown: Hammond organ
Ray Cooper: tambourine
Michael Kamen: harmonium and orchestral conducting
National Philharmonic Orchestra: orchestra
Richard Millard: one of the voices on the radio
Recorded
The Billiard Room, London: May–October 1982
Hook End Recording Studios, Checkendon: June, October 1982
Mayfair Recording Studios, London: June, October–November 1982; January 19, February 1983
Olympic Studios, London: June, September–October 1982
Abbey Road Studios, London: July 22 and 23, 1982
Eel Pie Studios, Twickenham: September 1982
RAK Studios, London: October 1982
Audio International Studios, London: January 26–30, 1983
Technical Team
Producers: Roger Waters, James Guthrie, Michael Kamen
Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Andy Jackson
Assistant Sound Engineers: Andy Canelle, Mike Nocito, Jules Bowen
Genesis
We hear a car radio being tuned in and out of different stations, and catch snatches of news broadcasts, one after the other, which together seem to give a snapshot of the state of the world: “a group of businessmen announced plans to build a nuclear fallout shelter at Peterborough in Cambridgeshire…”; “three high court judges have cleared the way…”; “it was announced today that the replacement for the Atlantic Conveyor, the container ship lost in the Falklands conflict, would be built in Japan, a spokesman for…”; “… moving in. They say the third world countries like Bolivia which produce the drug are suffering from rising violence…” Then Roger Waters sings: Tell me true, tell me why was Jesus crucified/Is it for this that daddy died?
“The Post War Dream” is the opening salvo in the songwriter’s indictment of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s prime minister at the time, whom he addresses directly in the penultimate and the final verse: What have we done, Maggie […]/What have we done to England? He accuses her of having put an end to the “postwar dream”—the dream of the welfare state and of a lasting peace—by dragging the United Kingdom into a conflict (the Falklands War) reeking of neocolonialism. On the domestic front, his attack is equally bitter: If it wasn’t for the Nips/Being so good at building ships/The yards would still be open on the Clyde. Waters is alluding here to the controversial decision by the Thatcher government to award the contract to construct a new container ship to replace the Atlantic Conveyor to the Japanese rather than to the Glasgow shipyards. (The Clyde is the river that flows through the Scottish city.) Putting an end to peace, and to the welfare state, ushering in an explosion in economic liberalism: these are the crimes of which the “Iron Lady” stands accused.
Production
So The Final Cut opens to traffic sounds from a relatively quiet road with only a few vehicles passing. The traffic noises are succeeded by scraps of radio broadcasts. One of the male voices coming from the radio was recorded by Richard Millard, the owner of Audio International Studios in Marylebone, London, in January 1983. Then in the distance we discern the sound of a harmonium, played by Michael Kamen, which calls to mind the Salvation Army. The metallic noises of coins, which flit about in the stereo picture, also add to this notion of charity. The sound effects, as in all Pink Floyd productions, are subtle and of a high quality. And there is a good reason for that, as they were recorded using Zuccarelli’s holophonic process, yielding a three-dimensional effect better than anything that had gone before. The effect is remarkable. The harmonium gets louder, and after fifty seconds of introduction, Roger Waters takes the lead vocal. His voice is soft and melancholic. Listening to the tune, one can’t help wondering whether it drew its inspiration from “Sam Stone” (1971), a song by John Prine that tells the tragic story of a Vietnam veteran decorated with the Purple Heart who died of an overdose. There is certainly an uncanny resemblance…
In the first line of the first verse (at 1:07), the words daddy died are echoed over and over—a technique that was used in abundance on The Wall—highlighting Waters’s preoccupations. In the third verse, French horns played by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Michael Kamen, provide a harmonious accompaniment. In the chorus, Waters double-tracks his voice against a lovely background of orchestral strings. Then a drum fill announces a rock section. Nick Mason pounds his Ludwig energetically, a tambourine played by Ray Cooper emphasizing his beats on the snare drum. The sound is live, and reminiscent of “In the Flesh” on The Wall, especially as Mason is accompanied on lead guitar by David Gilmour, the sound of his “Black Strat” heavily distorted by his Big Muff. Andy Bown has replaced Rick Wright on the Hammond organ. Waters plays the bass and performs the lead vocal. His voice comes across as rather strained, very intense and high-pitched. The piece ends with just the French horns, which immediately mingle with the sound of a moving train car grinding to a halt with a squeal of brakes.
“The Post War Dream” is a really good song, definitely in the same vein as The Wall. The production is particularly slick, and Waters’s performance is excellent. But this opening number confirms what the album cover tells us: this is indeed Roger Waters accompanied by Pink Floyd.
The British merchant vessel Atlantic Conveyor, which was carrying several helicopters, was hit by two Exocet AM39 missiles fired from Argentinian Navy Super Étendard jet fighters on May 25, 1982. Twelve men lost their lives in the ensuing fire. The ship that replaced it was also christened the Atlantic Conveyor.
Your Possible Pasts
Roger Waters / 4:26
Musicians
David Gilmour: acoustic rhythm guitar, electric rhythm and lead guitar
Roger Waters: vocals, bass
Nick Mason: drums
Michael Kamen: electric piano
Andy Bown: Hammond organ
Ray Cooper: tambourine
Recorded
The Billiard Room, London: May–October 1982
Hook End Recording Studios, Checkendon: June, October 1982
Mayfair Recording Studios, London: June, October–November 1982; January 19, February 1983
Olympic Studios, London: June, September–October 1982
Abbey Road Studios, London: July 22 and 23, 1982
Eel Pie Studios, Twickenham: September 1982
RAK Studios, London: October 1982
Audio International Studios, London: January 26–30, 1983
Technical Team
Producers: Roger Waters, James Guthrie, Michael Kamen
Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Andy Jackson
Assistant Sound Engineers: Andy Canelle, Mike Nocito, Jules Bowen
Genesis
This song was one of the ones rejected by David Gilmour, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason at the time of the recording of The Wall. The reworked version of “Your Possible Pasts” was to become one of the best protest songs ever written by Roger Waters, and is one of the main reasons that prompted Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone magazine to compare the British songwriter to Bob Dylan as “Masters of War.”
The song takes a rather dark, uneasy journey into the past, or more precisely the pasts, according to the song’s title. The narrator bears the painful and permanent scars of the Second World War, judging by the mention here of poppies (a symbol used by the British to commemorate fallen soldiers), which are entwined with the fateful cattle trucks lying in wait for the next time. However, his resentment seems to be directed not only at the authorities who forced him to fight and stole his youth (I was just a child then…). It is also aimed at religion, whose icy clutches he evokes: By the cold and religious we were taken in hand/Shown how to feel good and told to feel bad. Waters seems obsessed with ideas of repression, and the memories of a woman stood in the doorway, the ghost of a smile/Haunting her face are not enough to dispel in any way the gloom that hangs over him. That’s because this woman is engaged in a morbid waiting game, waiting on the one hand for her next customer and on the other for the executioner who will stab her with the knife he has hidden behind his back. Several pasts are possible, Waters sings.
Production
We hear again the train car that drew to a halt at the end of “The Post War Dream,” the previous song, and the sudden, sinister sounds of the doors opening, their creaking obviously bringing back terrifying memories. But only an icy wind emanates from the gaping opening. Gilmour’s “Black Strat” interrupts this somber atmosphere with arpeggios heavily colored by his Electric Mistress. Waters immediately follows with the lead vocal, in what is a very moving rendition. He accompanies himself on his Fender Precision, and it has to be said that his bass playing—on this piece particularly—is excellent, displaying an exceptional roundness and presence of tone. Once again it is Andy Bown we hear on the Hammond organ, his parts having been recorded at RAK Studios in October. The piece gathers in intensity, and a single beat of the snare drum reinforced by Gilmour’s distorted Strat emphasizes the words still in command, to which we hear the distant reply, Ranks! Fire! (at 0:30). A particular feature of the verses is the way they include a bar in 2/4 whereas for the rest of the piece the time signature is 3/4, which produces a rather unexpected hiatus. In the first chorus Waters injects more power into his voice, but his singing is somewhat bland and lacking in warmth, unlike on the previous track. This could well be due to the tensions within the band, which prevented him from giving himself entirely to the music. He again uses the same echo technique for the last words of certain lines, and in this case at the end of every chorus (for example at 1:14). The effect, though attractive, has been overused since Animals and at times feels intrusive. In this chorus, he is supported by Mason on the drums, along with Bown on the organ, and Gilmour’s clean-played rhythm guitar is underpinned with a distorted guitar line. For the next verse Michael Kamen is on the electric piano, and Gilmour plays an acoustic rhythm guitar with a tinge of what is probably a harmonizer. Faintly we hear the cries of children playing (at around 1:38), before Waters pronounces the word hand with force (at 2:04), once again reinforced by a violent crash of the snare drum and a distorted chord on the Strat. The next chorus ends with a sustained Hammond organ passage, and an excellent guitar solo by Gilmour. The moment he comes in, we are of course back to the old familiar Floyd sound. His handling of the instrument is as inspired as ever, and Waters was full of praise in this regard: “His guitar playing is fantastic. He’s a very underrated guitar player, in my opinion,”9 he would say in 1983. Gilmour plays his Black Strat distorted by his Big Muff and uses fantastic bends as well as his vibrato bar to add expression to his lines. At the end of his solo, we hear the sound of a tambourine, masterfully handled by the talented Ray Cooper. After a final verse and chorus, “Your Possible Pasts” finishes with a repetition of the last word of the song, closer, which gradually fades away to the sound of clocks ticking, calling to mind “Time” on The Dark Side of the Moon.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
For some unknown reason, Roger Waters does not sing two of the lines of the third verse that are printed on the booklet accompanying the LP and the CDs: Tongue tied and terrified we learned how to pray/Now our feelings run deep and cold as the clay. This was only rectified on the remastered versions.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
The refrain Do you remember me? How we used to be? is similar to Do you remember me? How we used to be helpless and happy and blind? in “Incarceration of a Flower Child,” a song composed by Roger Waters in 1968 but recorded by Marianne Faithfull much later, in 1999, for her album Vagabond Ways.
In the Alan Parker movie The Wall, only the chorus of “Your Possible Pasts” is heard, sung by Pink/Bob Geldof between “Waiting for the Worms” and “Stop.”
One Of The Few
Roger Waters / 1:14
Musicians
Roger Waters: vocals, acoustic guitar (?), synthesizer (?)
Michael Kamen: synthesizer (?), orchestral conducting
National Philharmonic Orchestra: orchestra
Unidentified Musician: vocal harmonies
Recorded
The Billiard Room, London: May–October 1982
Hook End Recording Studios, Checkendon: June, October 1982
Mayfair Recording Studios, London: June, October–November 1982; January 19, February 1983
Olympic Studios, London: June, September–October 1982
Abbey Road Studios, London: July 22 and 23, 1982
Eel Pie Studios, Twickenham: September 1982
RAK Studios, London: October 1982
Audio International Studios, London: January 26–30, 1983
Technical Team
Producers: Roger Waters, James Guthrie, Michael Kamen
Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Andy Jackson
Assistant Sound Engineers: Andy Canelle, Mike Nocito, Jules Bowen
Genesis
Waters’s new concept album continues with “One of the Few,” another song that was rejected during the recording sessions for The Wall. Its working title at the time was “Teach,” and indeed its central character is none other than the schoolteacher from “The Happiest Days of Our Lives,” the one who bullied his pupils because he himself was humiliated by his wife. We learn that he had fought in the Second World War. He managed to make it home alive, and pursued a career in teaching (to make ends meet, Waters sings), but at what price? The man has started to lose his mind. He seems gripped by paranoia, which causes him to subject others—in this case the pupils in his class—to the same treatment to which he was subjected by his superiors and the enemy during combat: Make ’em mad/Make ’em sad/Make ’em add two and two. Or else Make ’em do what you want them to/Make ’em laugh/Make ’em cry/Make ’em lay down and die. Words inspired by Waters’s conversations with Leonard Cheshire, a former Second World War bomber pilot.
Production
“One of the Few” is a mini masterpiece. Few instruments, few words, but an atmosphere that is absorbing, oppressive, harrowing, and immediate. The song starts with a bass note, a D played as a drone. It is played on the synthesizer, perhaps the Prophet-5 (by Waters or Kamen). The only rhythmic elements of the song are two ticking sounds, the first coming from a clock ticking quite slowly (on the left), the second from some kind of alarm clock ticking more rapidly (on the right). A steel-string acoustic guitar resonates in this strange atmosphere. The melody has touches of the oriental—one of Waters’s hallmarks. It seems to be him playing, perhaps on his Martin D-35 or his Ovation Legend. Behind the guitar we hear the sound of waves lapping at the shore, or of heavy breathing. Then Waters launches into the lead vocal in a voice that is
confidential, somber, and hypnotic. The word teach offered in answer to his second line is very faint, almost whispered, and seemingly repeated ad infinitum (from 0:37). Woodwind sounds recorded by Michael Kamen’s orchestra (from 0:50) underpin the first part of the song. A voice, probably female, also harmonizes with Waters on some words of the penultimate line, before a sadistic laugh erupts at 0:59. Toward the end of the piece, the sounds of a school playground come more and more to the fore… An extraordinary piece by Roger Waters.
The word few has another association here: it is the term used by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in his speech of August 20, 1940, to refer to the victorious RAF pilots of the Battle of Britain: “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.”
COVERS
“One of the Few” was covered by the British band Anathema (on the album Resonance, 2001).
The Hero’s Return
Roger Waters / 2:43
Musicians
David Gilmour: six- and twelve-string acoustic guitars, electric rhythm and lead guitars
Roger Waters: vocals, bass, acoustic guitar (?), keyboards (?)
Nick Mason: drums
Michael Kamen: keyboards (?)
Andy Bown: keyboards (?)
Recorded
The Billiard Room, London: May–October 1982
Hook End Recording Studios, Checkendon: June, October 1982
Pink Floyd All the Songs Page 63