The Final Cut (Album)

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The Final Cut
Pink Floyd studio album

Publication
(s)

March 21, 1983

Label (s) originally:

New editions:

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

skirt

Title (number)

12

running time

43min 27sec

occupation Pink Floyd:

Additional staff:

  • Andy Newmark - drums

production

Roger Waters, James Guthrie and Michael Kamen

Studio (s)

Different studios

chronology
The Wall
(1979)
The Final Cut A Momentary Lapse of Reason
(1987)

The Final Cut is an album released in 1983 by the British rock band Pink Floyd . The musical style of the album is very different from that of its predecessors, it is very text-heavy and tonally rather monotonous. The album wasconceivedby bassist Roger Waters aloneand, after keyboardist Richard Wright had left the band after working on the previousalbum, The Wall , led to the collapse of Pink Floyd with Waters' exit.

It is dedicated to Roger Waters' father Eric Fletcher Waters and is subtitled " A Requiem for the Post War Dream ".

Origin and influence on the band

The bassist and chief songwriter of the band Pink Floyd , Roger Waters , lost his father as a toddler when he was killed in the battle of Anzio in World War II . Waters already dealt with the war issue, especially the heavy losses that a war brings with it, in places in the album The Wall , and even more so in the accompanying film. Waters' dispute with military conflicts was rekindled when the Falklands War broke out between Great Britain and Argentina in 1982 . Moved by this event, he developed the idea and structure for a new album and was able to fall back on material from the band's earlier work. So they wanted to publish a soundtrack for The Wall film under the title Spare Bricks , but after his experiences with the Falklands War, which he regarded as completely superfluous and fatal, Waters decided to use the music contained in the soundtrack for his planned album to use.

To Spare Bricks were already elaborate pieces that actually already for The Wall were provided but were not used. The album went under the title The Final Cut in the further processing, where it came to conflicts between Waters and the guitarist David Gilmour , who did not consider the pieces from Spare Bricks as mature. Already during the production of The Wall the band members distanced themselves visibly from each other - a development that continued during the work on The Final Cut .

Richard Wright was no longer a member of the band on this album. The two remaining members, David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason , were only called into the studio during the production of the album to record their respective instrumental parts. Their musical influence is correspondingly small. Gilmour wrote some guitar solos for the album, but otherwise it was entirely written by Roger Waters. It is the only Pink Floyd album in which Waters is listed as the sole author of the music and lyrics for every song. Michael Kamen , Andy Bown , Ray Cooper , Andy Newmark and Raphael Ravenscroft also worked on the album . It was recorded in eight different studios.

Although the album was released under the name "Pink Floyd", tellingly, however, with the addition "performed by Pink Floyd by Roger Waters". Above all, the strong change in style of the album compared to its predecessors caused tension within the band. After the album was released on March 21, 1983, Roger Waters was not involved in any other Pink Floyd album, he left the band in 1985 due to strong differences of opinion, leaving David Gilmour and Nick Mason as the last remaining members.

Band development after The Final Cut

After The Final Cut , the band members initially went their separate ways. David Gilmour released his second solo album About Face , which he promoted with an extensive tour. Roger Waters brought out his work The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking , which was composed at the time of The Wall . Richard Wright also released - together with Dave Harris under the band name Zee  - an album called Identity . Nick Mason developed his solo album Profiles together with Rick Fenn .

It wasn't until 1987 that the next Pink Floyd album was released, A Momentary Lapse of Reason , this time without Roger Waters, with the line-up of David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright, who was not an official member of the band at the time.

action

The Final Cut , like many other Pink Floyd albums, is a concept album ; the pieces are closely related to each other and build on each other. In a way, The Final Cut follows on from its predecessor, The Wall . As there, Waters uses similar autobiographical material here, the death of his father in World War II. At the same time he draws conclusions about British society under Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands War. In the song "The Fletcher Memorial Home" a vision is built up, according to which all the tyrannical rulers of the world are housed in a single place in a kind of "home" (Fletcher's Memorial after Waters' father), in which they can cause no harm. The piece loses its seeming harmlessness at the latest at its end, at which the question arises whether everyone is already "in" so that the final solution can be applied to them. "Two Suns in the Sunset" conjures up the scenario of a nuclear war and forms a final call for peace in the world, a message that shapes the entire album.

Cover, publication and live performances

The front cover of The Final Cut shows several strips of fabric placed on a black background. These are British (and Commonwealth ) military badges from World War II. The cover was created by Roger Waters alone, which makes it unique among Pink Floyd albums. Since the album A Saucerful of Secrets , the Hipgnosis design workshop under Storm Thorgerson has been responsible for the design of Pink Floyd LP covers. Thorgerson worked on later albums such as Pulse again with the cover design.

After its release, The Final Cut was largely negatively received. Both fans and critics accused Waters of greed for the sole rights to the song material and the strong change in style of the album found few supporters despite the current topic. A planned tour for The Final Cut has been canceled. A video with the same title was released to accompany the album, in which four of the twelve titles were implemented on film. Except for Roger Waters, none of the other band members are involved in the film.

Later, Waters often performed pieces from The Final Cut live. The remaining members of Pink Floyd had no rights to the songs and it is open whether they would have been interested in a performance of the album at all. Despite everything, The Fletcher Memorial Home and When the Tigers Broke Free appeared on the compilation album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd .

Trivia

  • In 2004 the album was re-released. As originally planned, the title When the Tigers Broke Free , which was taken from The Wall , was added to the fourth position before The Hero's Return .
  • Waters also played some of the titles such as Southampton Dock and The Fletcher Memorial Home on his 2006/07 world tour.
  • Because of its immense influence on the album, it is also often referred to as Waters' first solo album.
  • The sound effects of the album (plane, around gereichter collection plate etc.) were placed in artificial head - Stereofonie recorded.

Track list

All the pieces were written by Roger Waters.

Original LP:

First LP side:

  1. The Post War Dream - 2:56 min
  2. Your Possible Pasts - 4:38 min
  3. One of the Few - 1:14 min
  4. The Hero's Return - 2:35 min
  5. The Gunner's Dream 5:29 min
  6. Paranoid Eyes - 3:35 min

Second LP side:

  1. Get Your Filthy Hands off My Desert - 1:19 min
  2. The Fletcher Memorial Home - 4:11 min
  3. Southampton Dock - 2:14 min
  4. The Final Cut - 4:44 min
  5. Not Now John - 5:02 min
  6. Two Suns in the Sunset - 5:16 min

Re-release of the album on CD:

  1. The Post War Dream - 2:56 min
  2. Your Possible Pasts - 4:38 min
  3. One of the Few - 1:14 min
  4. When the Tigers Broke Free - 3:16 min
  5. The Hero's Return - 2:35 min
  6. The Gunner's Dream 5:29 min
  7. Paranoid Eyes - 3:35 min
  8. Get Your Filthy Hands off My Desert - 1:19 min
  9. The Fletcher Memorial Home - 4:11 min
  10. Southampton Dock - 2:14 min
  11. The Final Cut - 4:44 min
  12. Not Now John - 5:02 min
  13. Two Suns in the Sunset - 5:16 min

On the re-release of 2004, When the Tigers Broke Free was added as the fourth track .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The Final Cut - Pink Floyd | Songs, reviews, credits. Retrieved January 30, 2020 (American English).