Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Pink Floyd
Label: Harvest Records
Released: 1983
Runtime: 43:27
Rating: 3.5/5
An anti-war and Cold War political manifesto in one, »The Final Cut«, the last Pink Floyd album with Roger Waters, was closer to a solo project from the bassist/singer than a group effort by the legendary English progressive rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the seventies of the last century. One of the most controversial albums in the entire Pink Floyd history, it was a concept work and a somewhat less ambitious follow-up to the monstrously successful masterpiece »The Wall« (1979). Waters, who never hid his socialist philosophical convictions, used this egocentric project to keep pushing his bitter anti-capitalist, anti-war manifesto, and to pay a moving tribute to the memory of his father Eric Fletcher Waters, whom he lost in the maelstrom of World War II and to whom »The Final Cut« is dedicated.
The album’s anti-war concept touches on the personal story of Waters’ father, who fell in World War II hoping to secure peace for future generations, which, as we all know, sadly didn’t happen in the decades that followed. Waters was especially disappointed with the Conservative British government of the day, led by the infamous queen of neoliberalism Margaret ‘Maggie’ Thatcher, which had gotten itself tangled up in a war with Argentina to hold on to Britain’s colonial territory of the Falkland Islands. In the lyrics, Waters also takes jabs at various other world leaders of the time, led by US President Ronald Reagan, who kept poking the hornets’ nest of a possible nuclear apocalypse during the Cold War paranoia.
Roger’s ‘dictatorial’ appetites hit their peak on »The Final Cut«, where, as lead producer, he wrote all the songs, arrangements and lyrics himself. Back in 1981 he had already forced original keyboardist Richard Wright out, making this the only Pink Floyd album Wright didn’t appear on, while guitarist/singer David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason were ‘graciously’ handed the roles of session instrumentalists. All three musicians recorded their parts separately, given that Roger and David weren’t even talking to each other anymore. At first they tried working in the studio the way they used to, but with no success. While Roger raged furiously around the studio with the guest musicians to get his compositions down as fast as possible, David and Nick spent their free time playing the video game ‘Donkey Kong’, so in the end they just recorded separately.
Roger let David, with whom he now had a relationship much like cats and dogs, sing on just one track, »Not Now John«, which of everything on »The Final Cut« sounds the most like classic Pink Floyd. While Gilmour contributed a few superb solos on par with his best days, Mason’s contribution was drastically cut down, mostly to various percussion effects. Most of the percussion was actually supplied by guest musician Ray Cooper, while the drums on »Two Suns In The Sunset« were played by Anyd Newmark. The National Philharmonic Orchestra took care of most of the orchestral arrangements, while the hole left by Wright’s departure was patched up by American keyboardist (and later famed film composer) Michael Kamen and Status Quo keyboardist Andy Bown.
»The Final Cut« opens with »The Post War Dream«, whose lyrics radiate Roger’s disappointment that his father died in the war for ideals that fell on infertile ground in modern society, while wars are still a fact of life. He also takes a swipe at the decline of the British shipbuilding industry, which had by then passed into Japanese hands. Roger’s shifting vocals, moving from calm restraint to furious cynicism, are backed by hushed harmonium arrangements. The main peculiarity of »Your Possible Pasts« is that Roger brings back the sinister teacher from »The Wall« in the lyrics, this time set in the past, when the future tormentor of British children, full of optimism and victorious zeal, is just returning from the war. His return to civilian life goes badly, mostly thanks to a possessive wife who speeds up his metamorphosis into the pedagogical monster he later becomes. In the music, this transformation is aptly portrayed through Roger’s vivid vocal swings between optimism and cynicism, and through David’s bittersweet guitar solo.
The teacher’s story from his younger days continues on »One Of The Few«, a short, depressing track originally intended for the album »The Wall«. »When The Tigers Broke Free«, another vivid tribute to his late father, found on the 2004 reissue of »The Final Cut«, was also originally supposed to come out on »The Wall«, but the rest of the band deemed it too personal at the time. Pompous orchestral arrangements successfully accompany Roger’s paranoid vocal delivery. The teacher’s story rolls on with the dramatic »The Hero’s Return«, which almost manages to turn the hated, mentally wrecked schoolmaster into a sympathetic character, since he increasingly recalls Cankar’s Martin Kačur. This is yet another castoff from »The Wall«, originally titled »Teacher, Teacher«.
»The Gunner’s Dream«, one of the album’s peaks, is a moving anti-war requiem that tells the story of an anti-aircraft gunner who falls wishing for a future world with no more wars. The futility of his wishes, and the present-day reign of war and terror, comes through in Roger’s raging vocals and an expressive saxophone solo, before pompous symphonic arrangements crash in. On »Paranoid Eyes«, with the help of fragile piano arrangements, Roger returns to the teacher one last time on the album, a former war hero who slides into alcoholism and final personal ruin at this point. »Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert« is another very personal piece, where Roger lays out his philosophical views on wars and invasions in a theatrical and somewhat satirical fashion, and in passing roasts the Cold War leaders of the day, led by Leonid Brezhnev (the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan), Menachem Begin (the Israeli invasion of Beirut), Leopoldo Galtieri (the Argentine invasion of the Falklands) and Thatcher (the retaliation that kicked off the Falklands War).
One of the most vivid and successful pieces on »The Final Cut« is undoubtedly »The Fletcher Memorial Home«, where Roger’s vocals tear with rage and cynicism as the fictional lyrics imagine what would happen if all the leading politicians of the day gathered at his late father’s home, while ordinary people got to decide their fate. This interesting and deep composition also features a brilliant Gilmour guitar solo, on par with his best contributions to »The Wall«. »Southampton Dock«, a lament for soldiers who are just heading off to war (and coming back in coffins), has a slight folk flavor thanks to its gentle acoustic guitar chords.
The title track is yet another of the many pieces originally meant for »The Wall«, and in terms of direction it could really have slotted straight onto that album. The lyrics tell of a would-be suicide who goes through total isolation, depression and sexual frustration, which strongly echoes »The Wall«’s protagonist Pink. Moving orchestral arrangements are paired with David’s distinctively melancholic guitar solo, which, alongside Roger’s vocal chameleon act, helps make this one of the highlights of »The Final Cut«.
On the previously mentioned hard rock/prog rock hybrid »Not Now John«, the loudest and most commercially minded track on the album, which also features backing female vocal harmonies, the mic finally goes to Gilmour too, even though Waters’ vocal still occasionally ‘gets in the way’. David’s vocal and guitar contribution here sounds like he wants to let out all his pent-up frustrations with Roger and the resulting dysfunction of their band, which by then existed only on paper. The lyrics, which contain the most obscene words in the entire Pink Floyd history, are a bitter attack on a modern society obsessed with war and profit, ruled by greed, and sadly sound damn relevant today (actually more than ever). The closing track »Two Suns In The Sunset«, despite its fatalistic lyrics, where a nuclear explosion makes two ‘suns’ appear in the sky, is an atmospherically very pleasant anti-war requiem. Worth noting here is that Andy Newmark had to step in on drums for Mason, because the latter was technically unable to pull off the demanding time changes.
Waters’ personal frustrations, which hit their peak on »The Final Cut«, would surely have come across as more credible on a solo debut, rather than projected through the Pink Floyd frame, with his longtime fellow sufferers relegated to a mere supporting role. Even so, he managed to get all the traumas that were burning him at the time across to the world, and the album as a whole didn’t come off as just a second-rate sequel to the classic »The Wall«. The long-running frustrations between Roger and David peaked in 1983, so it’s no surprise there was no concert tour that year. When Roger released his solo debut »The Pros And Cons of Hitch Hiking« in 1984, as far as he was concerned Pink Floyd simply no longer existed, but Gilmour and Mason thought otherwise, and they properly ‘rebelled’.
The following year brought the ugliest chapter in Pink Floyd history, a court case in which the rights to use the Pink Floyd name went to David and Nick, while Roger kept a monopoly over most of the stage design and concepts. For more than two decades there was no communication between Waters and Gilmour, but after the ‘Live 8’ appearance their relationship thawed considerably, so an occasional joint performance is no longer pure science fiction.
Because the lyrics are so dominated by Cold War themes, »The Final Cut« has stood the test of time somewhat worse than most Pink Floyd albums, although, ironically, the Cold War has lately become relevant again, as history bitterly repeats itself. Plenty of music fans believe music should stay separate from politics, and they’re mostly right, given that it usually ends up as mutual abuse, but there are a few rare exceptions, like Waters and especially Frank Zappa, who always found the right, intelligent and often grotesque way to satirize politics, the police state and senseless social institutions and patterns. That’s exactly the main virtue of »The Final Cut«, and it’s why so many Pink Floyd fans so sorely missed his lyrics after Roger’s departure.
Lineup
Roger Waters – bass guitar, acoustic guitar, lead vocals
David Gilmour – guitar, lead vocals on “Not Now John”
Nick Mason – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Michael Kamen – piano, harmonium
Andy Bown – Hammond organ
Ray Cooper- percussion
Andy Newmark – drums on “Two Suns In The Sunset”
Raphael Ravenscroft – tenor saxophone
National Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted and arranged by Michael Kamen)
Production
Roger Waters, James Guthrie and Michael Kamen
Tracklist
1. The Post War Dream (3:00)
2. Your Possible Pasts (4:21)
3. One Of The Few (1:26)
4. The Hero’s Return (2:58)
5. The Gunners Dream (5:04)
6. Paranoid Eyes (3:49)
7. Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert (1:19)
8. The Fletcher Memorial Home (4:10)
9. Southampton Dock (2:05)
10. The Final Cut (4:53)
11. Not Now John (5:03)
12. Two Suns In The Sunset (5:17)
