Amused to death
| Amused to death | ||||
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| Studio album by Roger Waters | ||||
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Publication |
September 1, 1992 |
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| Label (s) | Columbia Records | |||
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Title (number) |
14th |
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running time |
72 min 45 sec |
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Amused to Death (English for. " Amused to death ") is a rock album by Roger Waters from the year 1992 . The title is inspired by a book called Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman that Roger Waters had read.
Some of the songs published on it were actually intended as part of the Radio KAOS II project , which Waters started immediately after the Radio KAOS Tour in 1987 .
dedication
In the first song, the ballad of Bill Hubbard , the voice of Alf Razzell , a British soldier, can be heard, who describes how he found the badly wounded twenty-nine-year-old Bill Hubbard in no man's land in 1917 and had to leave him dying because of Bill immeasurable pain fails to transport it away from the battlefield.
At the very end of the album (song Amused to Death ), Alf Razzell explains that Bill Hubbards is commemorated at the Arras Memorial Cemetery near the city of Arras in the French department of Pas-de-Calais , and that he visited the memorial in 1984 .
The following dedication is noted on the album:
- Dedicated to Private William Hubbard (1888–1917), Eighth Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, City of London Regiment.
To the album
Roger Waters sees the concept album as a logical continuation of his work with The Wall and The Final Cut . It turns against the war in general, especially the Second Gulf War , against the mass media that report on the war like in a sports broadcast, against religious fundamentalism of all stripes, and describes how the TV society amuses itself to death.
A chimpanzee can be seen in front of a television on the record cover. The concept album can be understood as an evening on TV with this monkey zapping through the channels .
Many of the songs refer to historical events: The two parts of "Late Home Tonight" are about the bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986 (see Operation El Dorado Canyon ). “The Bravery Of Being Out of Range” picks up on the second Gulf War and describes how the war is trivialized by television reports. The song "Watching TV" (in a duet with Don Henley ) explores the importance of the mass media in connection with the bloodily suppressed demonstrations on Tian'anmen Square in Beijing in 1989 (see Tian'anmen massacre ). It is the only song in which Waters gives positive meaning to the power of the media. Quote: "She is the one in fifty million who can help us to be free / because she died on TV" (German: "She [a Chinese demonstrator]] is the only one of fifty million who can help us to be free / because she died on TV. ")
The album received a comparatively positive reception from music critics after its release and is often referred to as Roger Waters' best work since The Wall . Live excerpts could be heard on the world tour In the Flesh .
technology
For Amused to Death , Roger Waters used a variety of different recording techniques. The first recordings for the album were made on an analog 24-track machine using Dolby SR for noise reduction. A second 24-track machine was added later, so that there were 48 tracks in the analog process. The decision to use analog recording technology has to be seen in the context of the period in which the album was created. Amused To Death was written over a period of five years. As a result, the first recordings were made around 1988. At the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s, digital multi-track technology was still in its infancy, so this decision is understandable. A 32-track Mitsubishi X850 and later a Sony PCM-3348HP 48-track multitrack digital machine was only used in the further course of the recordings. Amused to Death was mixed using the Q-Sound process to cover a more natural, wider sound field. Q-Sound enables a semi- surround sound listening experience with just two speakers .
Track list
- The Ballad of Bill Hubbard
- What God Wants, part 1
- Perfect Sense, part 1
- Perfect Sense, part 2
- The Bravery of Being Out of Range
- Late Home Tonight, part 1
- Late Home Tonight, part 2
- Too Much Rope
- What God Wants, part 2
- What God Wants, part 3
- Watching TV
- Three Wishes
- It's a miracle
- Amused to death
Playing time: 72:45 minutes
Participating musicians
- Roger Waters - vocals, guitar, 12-string guitar, bass and EMU synthesizer
- Jeff Beck - lead guitar
- Andy Fairweather-Low - Electric and Acoustic Rhythm Guitar
- Tim Pierce - guitar
- BJ Cole - steel guitar
- Geoff Whitehorn - arpeggio guitar
- Steve Lukather - guitar
- Rick DiFonzo - guitar
- Bruce Gaitsch - acoustic guitar
- Randy Jackson - bass
- James Johnson - bass
- John Pierce - bass
- John Patitucci - acoustic and electric bass
- John 'Rabbit' Brundrick - Hammond Organ
- Graham Broad - drums
- Denny Fongheiser - drums
- Jeff Porcaro - drums
- Luis Conte - percussion
- Steve Sidwell - Cornet
- Brian Macleod - snare, hi-hat
- Katie Kissoon - vocals
- PP Arnold - vocals
- Rita Coolidge - vocals
- Doreen Chanter - vocals
- Natalie Jackson - vocals
- N'Dea Davenport - vocals
- Lynn Fiddmont-Linsey - vocals
- The National Philharmonic Orchestra Limited
- The London Welsh Chorale
literature
- N. Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business . Penguin Books, 1986, ISBN 0-14-009438-5 .
Web links
- Album description (English)
- Bill Hubbard's entry with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- Reviews of Amused to Death on the Babyblauen Seiten
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Matt: Pink Floyd news :: Brain Damage - Amused To Death: James Guthrie interview; win Roger Waters-signed picture disc! In: www.brain-damage.co.uk. Retrieved May 24, 2016 .