766 lines
39 KiB
Plaintext
766 lines
39 KiB
Plaintext
Roger Waters exposes the secrets of Rock 'N' Roll's most
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self-destructive supergroup,
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PINK FLOYD
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Penthouse Magazine, September, 1988
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"Is there anything more sad and unjust than a *fake*?" frets
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radically flustered British rock legend Roger Waters, seated in
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his Spartan loft offices in London. His fervid question fairly
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scars the afternoon air with its savagery. "Can you imagine the
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disappointment in learning you'd spent your savings on a false
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Magritte or a fraudulent John Lennon manuscript? Not to mention
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the spiritual trust and emotion people invest in the symbolic
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power of any name."
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Indeed, Waters allows, in many ancient cultures names were sa-
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cred things that could never be changed, transferred, or falsely
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assumed. To tamper with a name, much less manipulate it in the
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marketplace, was to desecrate the spiritual force it contained.
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It was like spitting on the soul.
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"And it was the struggle *against* these kinds of attitudes,"
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adds the wiry Waters, his square jaw stiffening, "that helped
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John Lennon create the sense of artistic decency that I like to
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call `the Lennon Instinct.'"
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The fight that Waters is discussing is closer to home than any
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cunning exploitation of the farflung Beatles legacy, but the
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stakes are still plenty high. Indeed, one of the biggest and most
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bitter battles in the annals of the billion-dollar rock business
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concerns the much-coveted legal custody of a quirky musical
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trademark: Pink Floyd.
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In the beginning were the words, and the words were the Pink
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Floyd sound. Derived from the first names of two obscure Georgia
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bluesmen (Pink Anderson and Floyd Council), the term was applied
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in 1965 to a certain experimental British rock band; and over the
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course of two decades it has become synonymous with a magnetic,
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edgy music in which its pervasive chilling mood is the star.
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The man at the center of the ugly contest for control of this
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potent rock presence is songwriter Roger Waters, a lyricist *ex-
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traordinaire* whose spiky meditations on death, madness, and apo-
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calypse were pivotal in leading an obscure British psychedelic
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group to the pinnacle of commercial preeminence in progressive
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rock. In particular, Waters wrote all the words and the better
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part of the music for Pink Floyd's 1973 album, _The Dark Side Of
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The Moon_. One of the most successful records of all time, the
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hypnotic _Dark Side_ has lingered for a staggering 725 weeks on
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_Billboard_'s pop charts; yet its spooky cover image of a
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prismatic pyramid is the closest its faceless creators have ever
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come to iconlike stardom.
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Waters' legendary fertile imagination yielded another phenome-
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nal blockbuster in 1979, the epic autobiographical ode to postwar
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alienation, _The Wall_ -- and under his leadership the band would
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ultimately move more than 55 million albums. But the focus of
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fans' adulation remained the anonymous banner of "Pink Floyd."
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The Floyd broke up in 1983 -- notwithstanding all flamboyant
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appearances to the contrary -- and now Waters and longtime Floyd
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lead guitarist/vocalist Dave Gilmour are locked in a fight over
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rights to the name. Waters wants "the reigning trade-emblem of
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rock" to be permanently retired, pleading, "Let's be fair to our
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public, for pity's sake, and admit the group disintegrated long
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ago!"
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Gilmour vehemently rejects such notions, raging, "I've been
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working on my career with Pink Floyd for 20 years -- since 1968.
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I'm 44 now, too old to start all over at this stage of my career,
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and I don't see any reason why I should. Pink Floyd is not some
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sacred or hallowed thing that never made bad or boring records in
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the past. And I'm not destroying anything by trying to carry on!"
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Actually, these pitched acrimonies evolved out of a 1985
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management rift, in which Waters ended his representation by
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veteran Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke. Their falling-out was over
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contractual agreements for future Floyd output -- a matter Waters
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deemed moot since the band was, to his mind, defunct. When
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O'Rourke bridled, calling his termination by Waters a violation
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of his own formal agreements with, and responsibilities toward,
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the entity known as Pink Floyd, Roger sought support from former
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band members Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason (Roger even rashly
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proposed to cede the band's rights to Pink Floyd if they'd close
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ranks against O'Rourke's claims; neither Gilmour nor Mason ac-
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cepted Waters never-to-be-repeated offer.)
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As Waters tells it, when he calmed down and took the long view
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on both the deepening breach with O'Rourke and his estrangement
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>from Gilmour, Mason and Floyd orphan Rick Wright (who Roger says
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was fired by mutual consent of the rest in 1980), he decided the
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sanest course of action was a writ to nullify the name Pink
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Floyd.
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In 1986, on Halloween, Roger Waters filed suit in London
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against Gilmour and Mason. Last year, the dispute spilled out of
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the offices of the principals' attorneys and onto the world's
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concert stages. Roger Waters mounted a massive tour in support of
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_Radio KAOS_, his second solo LP, while Gilmour, Mason and Wright
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performed the _A Momentary Lapse Of Reason_ LP under the Pink
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Floyd flag.
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Waters' record drew wildly mixed reviews and sold modestly;
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yet his much-praised KAOS concert pageant, while pitted against
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the rising tide of pseudo-Floyd promotion, slowly prospered to
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where Waters could sell out solo shows in England's gigantic
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Wembley Arena on two consecutive nights. Meanwhile, the product
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of Gilmour's Floyd facsimile drew similarly mixed notices but
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triumphed in record stores, sparking a hefty 3 million purchases
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in the U.S. alone; and the lasers- and props-packed _Lapse Of
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Reason_ dates proved a steady sellout internationally.
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On both tours, crowds were treated to the bountifully forebod-
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ing sweep of the Pink Floyd aesthetic. Hits and FM favorites like
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"Welcome to the Machine," "Money," and "Another Brick In The
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Wall" were lavished on all comers -- but it was only during the
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_Radio KAOS_ concerts that noted Los Angeles deejay Jim Ladd
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(performing as the voice of the mythical KAOS station) deigned to
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declare, "Words and music by Roger Waters!"
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While Waters' authorship of the best of the Pink Floyd reper-
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toire was plain from the start, it was opponent Dave Gilmour who
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won the crucial first round at the box office. While savoring the
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bounty from _A Momentary Lapse Of Reason_, Dave permitted himself
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a bit of boasting last november in the pages of _Rolling Stone_:
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"We never sat down at any point and said, `It doesn't sound Floyd
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enough. Make this more Floyd.' We just worked on the songs until
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they sounded right. When they sounded great and right, that's
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when it became Pink Floyd."
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Roger Waters read that "arrogant soliloquy" down in Nassau's
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Compass Point Studios last spring while at work with Paul "Don't
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Shed A Tear" Carrack and the Bleeding Heart Band on the then un-
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titled follow-up to _Radio KAOS_.
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For Roger, Gilmour's assertion was the last straw. "That's an
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outright lie, absolute and barefaced," he seethed, slamming the
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magazine down, "and someday the world will know the depth of this
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entire hoax!"
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Waters saw Gilmour's quote in _Rolling Stone_ as the rock
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equivalent of the Iran-Contra crew and their droll demurrals con-
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cerning official misconduct, despite a damning paper trail to the
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contrary. The Gilmour statement emboldened Waters to come forth
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for the first time with details of what he sees as the behind-
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the-scenes disloyalties and double-dealings that gave rise to _A
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Momentary Lapse of Reason_. "I must say," Waters quips, "that
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under the circumstances, it's a superb title for a so-called Pink
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Floyd record."
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Granted, anyone can say anything to the press to justify his
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position to Pink Floyd's legion of rabid fans. However, the in-
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trigues that emerge from six months of independent inquiry into
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this epic test of rock'n'roll wills differ shockingly from all
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previous accounts.
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What emerges is a saga of greed, cynicism, and misrepresenta-
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tion in the modern music business. Over the last 20 years, rock
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has grown from the simple expression of a spirited singer and
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his song into a gigantic entertainment juggernaut in which even
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the most splendid displays of "talent" and "vision" can be of
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synthetic origin. Thanks to the convolutions of current recording
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technology, a musician needn't play, a band needn't assemble, an
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artistic bond needn't exist. A songwriter-producer can adopt the
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focused traits of an assembly-line foreman as he brings the illu-
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sion of a supergroup and its latest album into being. This is the
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story of a massive controversy, centered on the marketing of two
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seemingly foolish words: Pink Floyd.
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"You learn nothing from a lie," says Roger Waters, stretched
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out in the Billiard Room, a home studio that has supplanted the
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game room of his spacious house in Barnes, West London. It's been
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a troubled six months since our initial Pink Floyd-related talk,
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and the sinewy Waters looks distinctly world-weary. "Even as you
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discover a deliberate untruth, it always only confirms what you
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already knew but refused to face."
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This blunt observation is at the core of Roger Waters's
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outlook as a composer, since unsentimental confrontations with
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delusion form the fundamental themes of his work. Like many old-
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guard rock practitioners, Waters values the unconditional open-
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ness of the best rock as a public expression of a personal truth.
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Naysayers claim that rock no longer requires any creed or sub-
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stance beyond the brazen announcement of itself.
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"In Aldous Huxley's book *Brave New World*," mulls Waters,
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nursing a cup of strong tea, "he warned about every human being
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conditioned to accept his lot so that the bosses arrive at a nice
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smooth situation where nobody questions anything and everything
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is supposedly `taken care of.' This is the deluded scenario I put
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forth in *Radio KAOS* -- which was my doomsday-bound vision of a
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`soap-operatic republic' in which nobody gives a shit if, for in-
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stance, Oliver North did the right thing or was wrong, or what
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effect it had on anything else. All that many viewers still care
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about concerning the indicted Mr. North is whether he gave a
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good, solid, John Wayne television performance. And because
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North's airtime suddenly became entwined with the American net-
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works' sickening concept of what constitutes great television, it
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was literally excused!
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"What it comes down to for me is: Will the technologies of
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communication and culture -- and especially popular music, which
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is a *vast* and beloved enterprise -- help us to understand one
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another better, or will they deceive us and keep us apart? While
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there's still time, we all have to answer for ourselves. But nei-
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ther Huxley nor Meese nor Ollie North could have prepared me for
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the creative, technological and moral issues I'm facing with the
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Pink Floyd sham -- a grand display that's also being excused in
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public because it makes for great arena rock.
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"Naturally," he chuckles, showing a handsome, seldom seen grin
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that merits more exposure, "all of this solemn contemplation is
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showing up in my music. *Radio KAOS* was hopefully universal in
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its pained concern, but my new album's themes involve anguish in
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my very own backyard."
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Indeed, one day last winter, as the personnel calling them-
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selves Pink Floyd were moving across the map from San Diego to
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Sydney in fierce pursuit of ticket sales, a pensive Roger Waters
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went to the Billiard Room and began writing stanzas for what be-
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came a song for his new album:
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We watched the tragedy unfold
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We did as we were told
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We bought and sold
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It was the greatest show on Earth
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But then it was over
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We oohed and aahed
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We drove our racing cars
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We ate our last jars of caviar
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And somewhere out there in the stars
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A keen-eyed lookout spied a flickering star
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Our last hurrah
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(COPYRIGHT 1988 ROGER WATERS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
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Waters gradually realized the two verses were a requiem for
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the fragile integrity of the Pink Floyd reign. And yes, tens of
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thousands of spectators *were* at that moment crowding arenas to
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hear a band calling itself Pink Floyd. Yet the most devout fans
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surely were aware that the whole presentation could not be furth-
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er in fact or intent from the aims of the idealistic school chums
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who forged the Pink Floyd Sound.
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When a title for his bittersweet new song eventually occurred
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to Roger Waters, it also seemed an apt name for both his latest
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solo album and the tragic creative destiny that it summarized. "I
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didn't know what else to call it," he shrugs, "but *Amused to
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Death*."
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Among ultra-hard-core Pink Floyd zealots, the period of mourn-
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ing for the band commenced way back in 1968, when another Roger
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-- Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett -- was booted from the psychedelic
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act he'd named. A fellow student of Waters's at Cambridge High
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School for Boys, Syd Barrett was invited by Roger in late 1965 to
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join a combo he'd formed with two other architecture majors (Nick
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Mason, Rick Wright) at London's Regent Street Polytechnic. Spew-
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ing barrages of feedback-cum-Chuck Berry chords during Sunday-
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afternoon "Spontaneous Underground" sessions at the fabled Mar-
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quee Club, Pink Floyd quickly became the vanguard experimental
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outfit on the London underground scene.
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Unfortunately, young Syd too quickly became high-priest-
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without-portfolio of a surreal strain of hallucinogen-fueled rock
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songcraft, whose halcyon era was as hazy as his own cerebellum.
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While still sufficiently grounded as of January 1967 to author
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Pink Floyd's first British hit, "Arnold Layne," Barrett soon
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tired of the rigors of reality. He was halfway to the laughing
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house when *The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn*, the debut Floyd LP,
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emerged from Abbey Road Studios in August 1967.
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Cambridge High School alumnua`s Dave Gilmour, fresh from gigs
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as a male model in France, was brought on board in February 1968,
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to serve as backup guitarist and vocalist for the dangerously
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balmy Barrett. When too many visits to the popstar pharmacy paved
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the way for Syd's inevitable on-mental tour collapse, Gilmour got
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the nod as new guitar hero. Waters, Gilmour, and Rick Wright went
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on to assist Barrett in two loopy solo LPs (*The Madcap Laughs;
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Barrett*), and then Syd retired to his mum's house to preserve
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his premier rank as acid-fried rock savant.
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With Gilmour the appointed front man, Waters gripped Floyd's
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artistic reins and steered them into years of exotic
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progressive-rock reveries. The electronics-drenched albums had
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titles like *A Saucerful of Secrets; Ummagumma; Atom Heart Moth-
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er; Meddle. And the spacey songs followed suit: "Set The Controls
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For The HEart Of The Sun," "Astronome Domine." The band also pro-
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vided soundtrack scores for a few of the more outre' late
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sixties-early seventies art movies, notably *More* and
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Michelangelo Antonioni's daffily desolate *Zabriske Point*(1970)
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in which the Floyd song "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" soared
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over the closing sequence of desert explosions. (**note from
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typist/poster: the song in the movie is titled "Come In Number
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51, Your Time Is Up." and is a very souped-up version of "Careful
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With That Axe." This article contains some other minor inaccura-
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cies, but I couldn't let that one stand.**)
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The Pink Floyd stage productions of the era were the
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forerunners of the modern rock extravaganza, featuring elaborate
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special effects and one of rock's inaugural light shows, plus
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protracted instrumental suites served up via a remarkable 360-
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degree sound system called the Azimuth Coordinator. At one UK
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concert, a 50-foot inflatable octopus rose from an adjacent pond
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during a climactic number, the Floyd playing so loudly the deci-
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bel level actually decimated the real aquatic life in the water.
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For all its bizarre overkill, the Floyd had no impact on the
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American market until 1972's _Obscured By Clouds_ was embraced by
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FM radio. From there it was a short step to a commercial blast-
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off courtesy _The Dark Side Of The Moon_, with its immaculate in-
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strumentation, ominous phonic mumbles, and jarring sound
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effects(ticking clocks, ringing cash registers). Each band member
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contributed something to the mix of _Dark Side_, but lyrically,
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musically, and conceptually it was Roger Waters's coming out par-
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ty. While the rest of the group basked in the glow of their
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abrupt mass acceptance, Waters busily exorcised his ingrained
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demons, expounding throughout _Wish You Were Here_(1975, dedicat-
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ed to Syd Barrett), _Animals_(1977), _The Wall_(1979) and _The
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Final Cut_(1983), on gloomy human themes rooted in grief for his
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airman father's World War II death.
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"My father was a schoolteacher before the war," Waters ex-
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plains evenly. "He taught physical education *and* religious in-
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struction, strangely enough. He was a deeply committed Christian
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who was killed when I was three months old. A wrenching waste. I
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concede that awful loss has colored much of my writing and my
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worldview."
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It has also shaped Waters's intense sense of protectiveness
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toward Pink Floyd's recording heritage, since it encompasses ma-
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jor developmental horrors in his life -- whether they involved
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coping with the death of the dad he never knew, or the psychic
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dissolution of adolescent companion Syd Barrett.
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"Syd and I went through our *most* formative years together,"
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Waters shyly admits, "riding on my motorbike, getting drunk, do-
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ing a little dope, flirting with girls, all that basic stuff. I
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still consider Syd a great primary inspiration; there was a
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wonderful human tenderness to all his unique musical flights."
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From his alternately slack and hypertense body language to the
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crackling clarity of his discourse, Roger Waters, 44, is the epi-
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tome of the overly bright man for whom intellect, self-awareness,
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and social conscience are a decidedly mixed blessing. The hard-
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ness of his chiseled visage and flinty gaze are leavened, howev-
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er, by the disarming vulnerability of his nature.
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"There's something to be said for disastrous business miscal-
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culation and failure in the marketplace," he says with a hapless
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chuckle. "They send you back home to ponder your value systems,
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and at the same time they reward you with a new freedom to follow
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your creative heart without worrying about commercial tyrannies.
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"I've also discovered that the law is not so much interested
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in moral issues as the cold factors of ownership, treating the
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name Pink Floyd as if it were McDonald's or Boeing! On a personal
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level, I have nothing against Dave Gilmour furthering his own
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goals. It's just the idea of Dave's solo career masquerading as
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Pink Floyd that offends me!"
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Gilmour is the polar opposite of his adversary in both appear-
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ance and opinion. Round-faced, smiling, with a teddy-bear torso,
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he projects amicability and approachability -- until his darting
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eyes sense weakness in their vicinity. At which point, the smile
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turns to a fixed leer and a fabled sarcasm spills forth.
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"I don't share Roger's sense of angst about music and the
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world," he banters scornfully, speaking at dusk in a Providence,
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Rhode Island, hotel room shortly before another concert stand.
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"If I did, maybe we would have come to an agreement on our
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dispute. While Roger's acted dumbly and isolated himself, I've
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discovered new strength with the extra work load I've had to put
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on myself in this last year. But like him, I did several solo LPs
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myself and made no demands on anyone when I did. Granted, I did
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less work with Pink Floyd back in the old days, but that was
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something Roger was forcing. And now," Gilmour adds with glee,
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"the poor chap's lost his whip hand!"
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Perhaps. But David Gilmour is singing a vastly different tune
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than he did back when his solo future seemed brighter.
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"Roger comes up with the concepts -- he's the preacher of the
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group and spends more time home writing with Pink Floyd in mind,"
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a breezy Gilmour told _Rolling Stone_ in 1978, as his _David Gil-
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mour_ album was being issued. "We get along fine. I know what I
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give to our sound, and he knows it, too. It's not a question of
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him forcing his ideas on us. I get my ideas across as much as I
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want to. They would use more of my music if I wrote it."
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**(typists note: why might Gilmour have wanted/needed to publicly
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deny internal strife within the band in 1978? Think about it.)**
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Gilmour took an aggressive stab at writing his own music for
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his _David Gilmour_ and 1984 _About Face_ collections, but it ap-
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pears that only Pink Floyd cultists bought them (**typists note:
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and who bought Waters's solo projects?**) It was after his second
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solo album that he began to press the Pink ploy.
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"From there, the story takes a sordid turn," claims Waters,
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"and after long thought on this mess and the mountain of false-
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hood (**not to mention the money they're making with the band I
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thought was *mine* Waaah! -- typist's insertion. sorry, I'll stop
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:-)**) mountain of falsehood that this scheming bunch has creat-
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ed, I'm now going to divulge the cold, hard, indisputable facts.
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Please do feel free to go back to any of the parties mentioned
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about their side of the story. I think you'll stop them dead in
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their sneaky tracks."
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The first bombshell Waters drops is that Bob Ezrin, who served
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as coproducer on _The Wall_ as well as _A Momentary Lapse of Rea-
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son_, was originally supposed to produce _Radio KAOS_.
|
|
|
|
"That's right," Waters says with a grim nod. "We met in New
|
|
York City in February of 1986. This was after Gilmour had been
|
|
spouting for a year about how wise it would be to get Pink Floyd
|
|
back together in any passable form -- with me always refusing
|
|
that scam.
|
|
|
|
"So I see Ezrin for a two-day meeting and give him cassettes
|
|
of the _KAOS_ material I'm working on. He said he was interested
|
|
in doing the record. We shook on the _KAOS_ agreement, and we
|
|
agreed to start work in England on April 16 of 1986."
|
|
|
|
Come early April, Waters found it impossible to contact Bob
|
|
Ezrin.
|
|
|
|
"I couldn't reach him," says Waters. "Then,exactly ten days
|
|
before my first scheduled _KAOS_ session in England, I manage to
|
|
catch him at home in the wee hours of the morning. He picks up
|
|
the phone, is startled to find it's me on the other end, and he
|
|
blurts out, `My wife says she'll divorce me if I go work in Eng-
|
|
land!' I was stunned. I said, `Couldn't you have told me that
|
|
three months ago?'
|
|
|
|
"I'm in a state of shock, and the minute I put the phone down
|
|
after the conversation, my wife Carolyn says to me, `I'll bet
|
|
he's going to do that pseudo-Pink Floyd record David wants' All I
|
|
could reply was, `I can't believe he'd do *that*.'
|
|
|
|
"I discovered exactly one week later," Waters says, "that he
|
|
had indeed been hired to do a Pink Floyd record."
|
|
|
|
After having Waters's detailed accusations read to him, Bob
|
|
Ezrin replies, "I was in Los Angeles in the midst of a Rod
|
|
Stewart album when Roger called from London in February of '86,
|
|
and I set two days aside at Roger's insistence and we met each
|
|
other halfway, both of us flying to New York to talk about
|
|
_KAOS_. At the time I met with Roger, I said I wanted to do the
|
|
album, but I had an instinctive sense that he was being too rigid
|
|
and intense in his attitudes about the project. And believe me, I
|
|
know how rigid Roger can get from doing _The Wall_ with him.
|
|
|
|
"See, Roger was completely inflexible about when and where he
|
|
wanted to do _KAOS_. I have five kids, and he was wanting to move
|
|
my whole family to England for a minimum of three months. My wife
|
|
was against it because she felt it would disrupt our children's
|
|
school schedule. And so after I thought it through, I exercised
|
|
my right as a potential employee of Roger's to decline.
|
|
|
|
"It was a *full month* afterward," Ezrin proclaims, "that I
|
|
was approached by Dave Gilmour about producing a Pink Floyd pro-
|
|
ject. I hadn't been in touch with Dave since producing his _About
|
|
Face_ album."
|
|
|
|
So why, after rejecting a three-month Waters-related stay in
|
|
England for the good of his family, did Ezrin wind up spending
|
|
almost seven months in London recording _A Momentary Lapse of
|
|
Reason_ with Gilmour?
|
|
|
|
|
|
There, a long pause. "Dave didn't demand things like Roger
|
|
did," Ezrin finally replies. "While Roger was thinking only of
|
|
*his* family's schedule, Dave was willing to work out a more
|
|
flexible calendar plan that would accomodate the school schedules
|
|
of both our sets of kids. Also, Dave flew to LA to hang out and
|
|
play his work tapes -- rather than insisting that I go to him."
|
|
|
|
Ezrin's disclaimers sound peculiarly prissy coming from an
|
|
itinerant veteran whose studio dance card has regularly included
|
|
heavy-metal hell-raisers like Alice Cooper and Kiss. However,
|
|
giving him the benefit of the doubt, we move on to the artistic
|
|
integrity of _Lapse of Reason_. Roger Waters's outspoken ire,
|
|
you'll recall, was triggered by Gilmour's assertion to _Rolling
|
|
Stone_ that "we never sat down at any point during this record
|
|
and said, `It doesn't sound Floyd enough. Make this more Floyd.'"
|
|
|
|
On the contrary, according to Waters, it was Bob Ezrin who
|
|
rang just such an alarm at the halfway mark in the _Lapse_ ses-
|
|
sions.
|
|
|
|
"After four to five months of constant work with Gilmour and
|
|
company," says Roger, "Bob spoke to Michael Kamen, who did or-
|
|
chestral arrangements on _The Wall_ and also coproduced my first
|
|
solo album, _The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking_. (** typists note:
|
|
Kamen also did some arrangements for Queensryche, a very Floyd-
|
|
sounding band at times**) Bob told him the tracks were `an abso-
|
|
lute disaster, with no words, no heart, no continuity.'" Michael
|
|
Kamen, who had declined involvement at the start of the project,
|
|
confirms Waters's account of the conversation with Ezrin.
|
|
|
|
"Ezrin was so depressed," says Waters, "he took a cassette
|
|
copy of the tapes home to his house in Encino, where his teenage
|
|
son Josh discovered it and played it with his friend. Both of the
|
|
kids got angry, and Josh told Ezrin, `Dad, it's *not* Pink
|
|
Floyd!'
|
|
|
|
(** typists note: what would a teenager in 1986 have known
|
|
about the many different phases and sounds of Pink Floyd??? **)
|
|
|
|
"What happened next," says Waters, gathering steam, "was that
|
|
Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, and CBS Records executive Stephen Ral-
|
|
bovsky had a confidential lunch meeting at Langan's Brasserie,
|
|
the famous London bistro in Hampton Court, in October or November
|
|
of '86, wherein both Ezrin and Ralbovsky told Gilmour, `This
|
|
music doesn't sound a *fucking thing* like Pink Floyd!' And ac-
|
|
cording to what Dave told me, they had spent $1.2 million on it!"
|
|
|
|
Back to Bob Ezrin. Is Roger Waters's account of this secret
|
|
meeting correct?
|
|
|
|
"Omigosh!" gasps Ezrin in dismay. Then, in a quavery tone:
|
|
"How Roger could have known that we all had that meeting is re-
|
|
markable to me! Okay, fair enough; the *point* of the meeting was
|
|
for me to tell David that what he had thus far was not up to Pink
|
|
Floyd standards.
|
|
|
|
"Wait a minute, let me rephrase that: I said it was not up to
|
|
*our* standard of a Pink Floyd project, and that we should start
|
|
over again. And David was open and willing to do that.
|
|
|
|
"But the fact, amazingly, that Roger has become a *detective*
|
|
to learn about that meeting says to me that this thing has
|
|
become...er, it's gone too far past, er...It's not about the
|
|
music anymore! It's about the simple `making' of the _Lapse of
|
|
Reason_ record -- as well as the fact that Roger's not on it."
|
|
|
|
Precisely. Roger Waters's most vociferous charge has always
|
|
been that the intention on the part of Gilmour, Ezrin, et al.,
|
|
was never to create music that succeeded on its own terms, but
|
|
instead, from the corporate estimation on down, to endeavor to
|
|
fake the Pink Floyd Sound. Right?
|
|
|
|
Another uncomfortable pause. "Well," Ezrin murmurs, "I won't
|
|
tell you that there weren't times when I didn't say to David or
|
|
David didn't say to me, `This would be easier if Roger were
|
|
here,' or `Roger would know what to do,' or `Roger could give us
|
|
that flavor.' But both David and I knew that that would mean con-
|
|
tending with the rigid, intense, obsessive, and *artistic* Roger
|
|
-- which we didn't want."
|
|
|
|
And which Roger had closed the door on anyway.
|
|
|
|
"Er,...yes. So we had no choice but to go our own route and
|
|
start over -- and we did."
|
|
|
|
Which brings us to the question of exactly whose fingerprints
|
|
are on (and *not* on) the version of _A Momentary Lapse of Rea-
|
|
son_ that reached the marketplace. Scanning the fine print on the
|
|
inside of the expensive gatefold album jacket, one discovers --
|
|
in addition to Gilmour, Nick Mason, Rick Wright, and Bob Ezrin --
|
|
a guest list of 15 noted session musicians. (** typists note: How
|
|
many session musicians are on _Dark Side of the Moon_ and _The
|
|
Wall_? Even in the days of Barrett, session musicians were used.
|
|
An entire high school marching band sat in on _Jugband Blues_ and
|
|
I don't think that's Roger's voice singing _The Great Gig In The
|
|
Sky_ either....**) No less than 18 *more* musicians and technical
|
|
experts are acknowledged and thanked in the sub-fine print. ANd
|
|
the songwriters tucked away on the record's label include, be-
|
|
sides Gilmour and Ezrin, Messieurs Anthony Moore, Phil Manzanera
|
|
(** typist's note: Manzanera is a guitar wizard in his own right.
|
|
Check out his solo _Guitarissimo_ if you have a chance. **), Jon
|
|
Carin, and Pat Leonard.
|
|
|
|
This mysterious multitude is discreetly substituting for an
|
|
act that last consisted of Waters, Mason, and Wright, with Roger
|
|
doing the overwhelming majority of the songwriting. (** typist's
|
|
note: the article does NOT mention Gilmour in the previous sen-
|
|
tence. And what about Michael Kamen, or the orchestra hired to
|
|
play Kamen's arrangements on _The Wall_? Plus, while I rarely
|
|
listen to _The Final Cut_, I think I recall distinctly hearing
|
|
other singers and instruments on it as well. **) Does Dave Gil-
|
|
mour still presume to call this army of hired guns and mer-
|
|
cenaries Pink Floyd?
|
|
|
|
"Listen," Gilmour fumes, "the band is bound to change! It
|
|
must, regardless of the external or internal climate it faces.
|
|
But Nick and Bob Ezrin and I ultimately sat down with the materi-
|
|
al and decided what worked and what didn't!"
|
|
|
|
Notice there is no mention by Gilmour of the fourth "member"
|
|
of the unfathomable Pink Floyd, Rick Wright.
|
|
|
|
"That's because Rick Wright is merely on a wage on this entire
|
|
Pink Floyd world tour," Waters explains. "Rick has been burnt out
|
|
since 1979, when Gilmour, Ezrin and myself unanimously decided to
|
|
fire him.
|
|
|
|
(** typist's note: so it's ok with Waters to call it Floyd
|
|
without Wright OR Barrett...just not without Waters? **)
|
|
|
|
"Ezrin was the person to first call Rick during Rick's odd lit-
|
|
tle vacation that fall to Greece -- just as _The Wall_ was being
|
|
completed -- and said, `You're no longer pulling your weight.'
|
|
And Rick told him, `Fuck off!' It was then we all discussed the
|
|
matter, and Gilmour said, `Let's get rid of Nick Mason, too!'
|
|
Eventually Rick did some _Wall_ shows, but he only received a
|
|
wage, and then in 1980 we fired him for good." (Gilmour corro-
|
|
borated these charges of Wright's failings and "severance" ar-
|
|
rangement in a 1984 interview, in which he said of Wright, "He
|
|
wasn't performing in any way for us; he certainly wasn't doing
|
|
the job he was paid to do. On _The Wall_...Rick didn't play many
|
|
keyboards.)
|
|
|
|
"On August 4 of '86," Waters says, "I had a meeting with Dave
|
|
on the _Astoria__, his houseboat-recording studio that's anchored
|
|
on the Thames, because we were still trying to settle our differ-
|
|
ences. Dave told me himself that he still had no respect for ei-
|
|
ther Wright or Mason, but that they were useful to him. The man
|
|
who was most useful, however, was Bob Ezrin, which is why Dave
|
|
and Bob now each split three points right off the top from the
|
|
gross retail sales of _Lapse_. The remaining 12 or so points are
|
|
divided amongst a sea of other participants like Mason. As for
|
|
poor Rick Wright, he's on a weekly salary of $11,000. I know, be-
|
|
cause I've seen his contract with my own eyes.
|
|
|
|
"At least Rick knows it's just a payday. Nick Mason goes
|
|
around acting like Pink Floyd might really be a functioning tour
|
|
band. And once again, I invite and urge you to go to Wright and
|
|
Mason and repeat all these charges."
|
|
|
|
Unfortunately, Wright and Mason refused all requests for in-
|
|
terviews, which were repeatedly tendered through both the press
|
|
offices of CBS Records (which also remains Roger Waters's label)
|
|
and those of JLM Public Relations, Waters's own Manhattan
|
|
representative.
|
|
|
|
If, as Waters alleges, the erstwhile personnel of Pink Floyd
|
|
merely function as potted phantoms and paid-off tour props, who
|
|
can be counted on to propagate the Pink Floyd Ploy beyond the '88
|
|
World Tour?
|
|
|
|
"That's the most scandalous facet of this whole ruse," Waters
|
|
rules, "because Gilmour has built up an entire cast of backstage
|
|
characters that he's sought to enlist as sources of material for
|
|
the *next* so-called Pink Floyd album. Many of them are leftovers
|
|
>from the first abortive try, when he and Ezrin were pulling their
|
|
hair out in vain efforts to concoct a concept album. Failing
|
|
that, they just established relationships with anybody willing to
|
|
cook up songs that resembled something Pink."
|
|
|
|
Could Waters reveal the names of any of these other phantom
|
|
Floyds?
|
|
|
|
"Oh, sure. One is Eric Stewart, a founding member of the ori-
|
|
ginal 10cc band and a very talented British songwriter who's col-
|
|
laborated with Paul McCartney, for instance, on Paul's 1986
|
|
_Press to PLay_ album. Another lyricist David has waiting in the
|
|
wings is Roger McGough, the Liverpool poet, who was a member of
|
|
the famous experimental mid-sixties rock group Scaffold -- which
|
|
also had Mike McGear, McCartney's brother. And then there's
|
|
Carol Pope, who's one of the finest contemporary Canadian song-
|
|
writers. I'll give Gilmour credit: When he devises a fraud, he
|
|
goes to first-class talent for assistance."
|
|
|
|
"Yes," Eric Stewart confirms, "Dave Gilmour and I got together
|
|
around August or September of 1986 to work on a concept that was
|
|
definitely intended for the next Pink Floyd album. We sat around
|
|
writing for a period of time, but we couldn't get the different
|
|
elements and ideas to gel. The songwriting itself was acceptable
|
|
in certain parts, but not as awhole; so the concept was eventual-
|
|
ly scrapped.
|
|
|
|
"I don't want to divulge the concept because, especially know-
|
|
ing Dave, he may want to go back and revive it. It may well be
|
|
used in the future."
|
|
|
|
Peter Brown, former director of the Beatles NEMS Enterprises
|
|
management company and present manager of Roger McGough, is happy
|
|
to give similar confirmation of his client's Pink Floyd-related
|
|
collaborations with Dave Gilmour.
|
|
|
|
"Dave worked with Roger McGough late in 1986 on original ideas
|
|
for the Pink Floyd project," Brown explains, "but those ideas
|
|
remain a grey area. We're waiting for Dave to finish his Pink
|
|
Floyd world tour to see what will come of it all."
|
|
|
|
"The idea to contact me came from Bob Ezrin, says Carole Pope.
|
|
"It was January of 1987 and they were looking for somebody to
|
|
rewrite a batch of Dave Gilmour's material, so I went over to
|
|
England for a few weeks to lend assistance. Bob and David also
|
|
asked me if I had any suggestions for concept albums in the Pink
|
|
Floyd style. By the time I left England in February, they still
|
|
couldn't decide what to do. They did have one song, though, which
|
|
I thought was quite nice, though it never surfaced on _Lapse Of
|
|
Reason_. It was a mid-tempo thing about Roger Waters, called
|
|
`Peace Be With You.' Seems strange that they didn't use it."
|
|
|
|
And so, while the genuine creative alliance of the Pink Floyd
|
|
Sound lies in an unquiet grave, David Gilmour has contrived a
|
|
ghoulish farm-club system designed to generate prolific stand-ins
|
|
and impostors. As you read this, the current Floyd cavalcade is
|
|
fulfilling its last global concert commitments. But peace is not
|
|
at hand. Once Gilmour completes the tour, perhaps he'll contact
|
|
those collaborators currently on hold for whatever Pink Floyd
|
|
roles stand vacant. It's as if a surviving Beatle -- say, Paul
|
|
McCartney -- had instituted an employment agency for Beatles
|
|
clones, and found it worked efficiently enough to dare call the
|
|
fickle roster the Fab Four.
|
|
|
|
Bob Ezrin, who could be at the helm for the next episode of
|
|
this pop chicanery, has his own convoluted rationale for this en-
|
|
terprise.
|
|
|
|
"I think Roger is brilliant, but he's a tough guy to disagree
|
|
with, and he can be overly passionate and uncompromising. It's
|
|
those qualities that go into making him a great artist, but nei-
|
|
ther Dave nor I would ever consider ourselves great artists.
|
|
We're more interested in creating something that's popular and
|
|
fun. Actually, I *hate* the word *artist*, but I would definitely
|
|
concede that Roger is a great artist -- as well as a total obses-
|
|
sive and a psychiatrist's dream. I love Roger, and I truly love
|
|
most of what he does, but not enough anymore to go through what's
|
|
necessary to be a part of his process. It's far easier for Dave
|
|
and I to do *our* version of a Floyd record."
|
|
|
|
For Gilmour's part, he will press on unless a court decision
|
|
prohibits him from such activities.
|
|
|
|
"I don't see any reason why I should stop," he states tersely.
|
|
"It took decades of care and feeding for Pink Floyd to find its
|
|
loyal audience, and I won't throw in the towel, especially after
|
|
_Lapse of Reason_ has been such a huge success. Roger doesn't
|
|
have the right at present to tell me what to do with my life,
|
|
although he believes that he does. And he'll not ruin my career,
|
|
although lately he's been trying to."
|
|
|
|
Actually, apart from the ongoing legal fray, Roger Waters is
|
|
pouring most of his energies into promoting and performing
|
|
_Amused to Death_ -- plus writing material for a fourth album of
|
|
his own.
|
|
|
|
"Things change so drastically and yet they remain the same,"
|
|
Waters assures, leaving his chair in his West London home to be-
|
|
gin another afternoon of trial-and-error songcraft in the Bil-
|
|
liard Room. "The Lennon Instinct tells me that, as with John's
|
|
song of the same name, my approach to the Floyd fight is `just
|
|
like starting over.' Yet I'm also pleased that I've got a new
|
|
career, a solo career, that I've been nurturing since 1984.
|
|
|
|
"The main difference between me and Dave Gilmour is that, when
|
|
it comes time for him to finally confess his dishonest...venture
|
|
to the world, I'll at least have the justice of a solid, credible
|
|
head start on him."
|
|
|
|
Waters shows a fatigued grin. "That's the advantage of putting
|
|
your *own* good name on your work. If people do decide they enjoy
|
|
it, they always know who to thank and where to find you."
|
|
|