Roger Waters Live Last Night in Glendale,AZ

@noromance

"Roger has always been political. If you didn’t go for the whole package, you’re not understanding him."

Completely agree.

@bigtwin

Otherwise keep this in mind. The bums in the seats that paid for the tickets, represent the Organ Grinder. Roger, you represent The Monkey.

Completely disagree.

I doubt whether Waters ever saw himself as a mere entertainer. Whether you like his opinions or not, just like Morrissey, Roger Waters regards himself as an artist

He was never one of those short sighted idiot entertainers who tried to drop the odd populist slogan for self gain. Waters has tried to debate with scholars and has tried to think things through.

Although I applaud his candour I would tend to disagree with his outlook but then I’ve not had his upbringing.

Taken from Wikipedia -

His father, the son of a coal miner and Labour Party activist, was a schoolteacher, a devout Christian, and a Communist Party member.^[3]

In the early years of the Second World War, Waters’s father was a conscientious objector who drove an ambulance during the Blitz.^[3] He later changed his stance on pacifism, joined the Territorial Army and was commissioned into the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers as a Second Lieutenant on 11 September 1943.^[4] He was killed five months later on 18 February 1944 at Aprilia, during the Battle of Anzio, when Roger was five months old.

@waytoomuchstuff 

"The Exodus of Authenticity."

Nice expression. It does seem as if everyone's got an angle these days, but someone delivering a pizza is not the same as someone  recording a rock album or playing a concert.

Nor was it the same when certain multinational companies seemed to be condoning the illegal actions of the likes of BLM not so long ago.

Anyway, it would appear as if even art is not exempt from the vagaries of politics manoeuvering.

Perhaps it never was, and that's why satire became popular.

Thankfully under capitalism the poor beleaguered, continuously targeted consumers still have the final choice where to spend their money.

If you don't like what Waters is saying then don't give him your money.

On the other nor should you be telling him what he can or cannot say at his own concerts.

Anyone who goes to a Bob Dylan concert knows that Bob is going to deliver the concert HE wants to and not what YOU might want to him to.

It's been that way since 1965.

Waters is an artist and not merely a paid entertainer. It is facile to compare going to a Waters concert with a visit to a restaurant.

If you don't like his art then you might be better off going to see an entertainer instead.

There's no shortage of those.
 

Waters on the other hand, to me, is more like edgy Lennon to Gilmour's crowd pleasing McCartney.

Together they are fabulous but apart they're somewhat diminished.

A bit like Simon and Garfunkel, Morrissey and Marr or David and Bacharach, it's their differences that makes their work interesting: but those differences often also end up eventually driving them apart.

If you really want to go see Pink Floyd, well, you can't.

However there must be plenty of tribute bands out there who will do a good job.  I saw one myself about 10 years ago, and they played the Barrett era/pre Dark Side Floyd.  

Pretty good they were too, and very loud with it.

I also remember seeing a Sex Pistols tribute band playing in a local pub and they too put on a great show.

However, that's all it was.

Carefully nuanced but fairly predictable fare delivered like a well prepared 3 course meal.

It was nothing like the chaos I imagine that an original Sex Pistols gig would have been like.

@teo_audio 

"Yet, americans are going about their lives as if nothing is going on, as the media and the politics are not letting them know how desperate things are."

Quite true. Thanks for that well thought out post.

However, there might come a point where the political actors can no longer distract their audience from the fact that the theatre is on fire.

What particularly bothers me is the seemingly irreversible increase in the national debt of countries such as the UK and the US.

At some point the interest repayments threaten to become unmanageable.

What happens then?

The old plan of invading other countries is becoming very difficult to sell these days.

As for the dangerous situation in Ukraine, it's disheartening to see that the western governments seem to have no interest in any attempts to broker peace.

Nor in the welfare of their own people.

Even during the darkest days of the Cuban missile crisis Kruschev and Kennedy managed to maintain a line of communication that eventually saved the world.

The situation here in the UK is now approaching critical as this weeks events illustrated.

We need more people of Waters' calibre inviting debate, not less.

Entertainers these days are no longer obliged to perform as the band on the Titanic once had to.

@mayabeez

I really want fans not to copy the ideologies of these musicians and just find their way of thinking. It’s a shame but probably fans will copy him or others no matter what.

I remember reading Hunter Davies Beatles biography when I was around 16/17 and being disappointed to find that they didn’t offer much by way of political advice.

Instead the message that was repeated by all of the fab four was that you must think for yourself.

Back then that was a disappointment because I didn’t know what to think, and I wasn’t comfortable with uncertainty either. I was just ready and eager to jump on any bandwagon my heroes suggested.

Grown up politics made no sense at all.

Wars made no sense as the gains were disproportionate to the losses I reckoned.

The economic system was totally unfathomable at 16, and school hadn’t taught me anything that would help.

It was almost as if the teachers themselves didn’t know.

Anyway, with the passing of time, that advice has proved itself to be correct.

Absolutely correct.

The young can be very impressionable and musicians should bear that in mind. It’s probably not such a big deal in Waters’ case as I imagine his audience would be mature enough not to be swayed so easily.

In her time Joan Baez spent a lot of energy campaigning for her beliefs. Ultimately it’s doubtful whether it did them any good, but they certainly impacted badly on her music.

The 2 sides of Roger Waters:

@idigmusic64

I haven’t, but I mean to listen to Animals in the near future.

For some reason I’ve laboured under the impression it was recorded in between Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Dark Side of the Moon. That initial post Barrett period is not my favourite.

In fact I only recently found out that Animals was released in 1977,
and there’s also a new 2018 remix released with an updated sleeve.

The only other Floyd albums, apart from a couple of compilations, that I’m familiar with are Wish You Were Here, The Wall, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. I think I’ve heard The Final Cut but if I have, it’s left very little lasting impression.

Anyway maybe I’ll give Animals a spin next week. I’ve been busy listening to another ’missed’ album this week, Ian Dury’s ’New Boots and Panties!!’ which was also released in 1977.