Amused To Death - Roger Waters

Please put in the right forum, I'm not too sure.

There is an album which I listen to a lot, and have listened to for a long time, but its only been the last say 5-6 years that the true impact of its message has taken effect.

The album I refer to is Amused To Death by Roger Waters, which is a beautiful crafted album covering the themes of popular culture, religion, war, and America and the UK.

I recently looked on the internet to see what others thought of this album, and came across the website below, which goes through each song, and breaks it down into the subjects Roger Waters covers.

Analysis of the lyrics of Amused To Death

I will below add a snip of each song, so you can get the Jist of it.

It's a very symbolic album, and probably the best most popular album to cover these subjects, that are still prominent in our lives 18 years after it was written.

Track 1: The Ballad of Bill Hubbard

Alf Razzell talks about one of his most haunting experiences in World War II. His monologue is about how he finds Bill Hubbard wounded in no-man's-land, and has to leave him behind

www.rogerwaters.org...

In the beginning of this song the sound of a television changing channels foreshadows one of the themes of the album, how television alters our perception of reality

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Track 2: What God Wants, Part I

starts by telling us how the will of the controllers of the mass media is imposed on the individual.

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" The monkey in the corner/Wrote the lesson in book" refers to how the monkey (which is used as a metaphor for the human race throughout the album) accepts the dogma without question. "... which is this idea of a gorilla who is a metaphor for the human race sitting watching television and trying to work out what his relationship is with all the other gorillas..."

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Track 3: Perfect Sense, Part I

Tells what got ancestors started on this destructive path. The song starts off with the monkey sitting on a pile of stones holding a bone. We aren't told what happened before the song starts but it must have been important because of the line: "Turned his back on the garden" which refers to the exit from Eden in the Bible. "The monkey" however does not, or refuses to learn from past mistakes. "Memory is a stranger/ History is for fools". The monkey also uses religion to justify his actions; "And he cleaned his hands/In a pool of holy writing"

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Track 4: Perfect Sense, Part II

shows how the mass media has persuaded people into doing what goes against human pleasure and logic. The most important set of lyrics in this song are: "Can't you see/ It all makes perfect sense/ Expressed in dollars and cents/ Pounds shillings and pence.

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Track 5: The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range

This song focuses on how the media has trained individuals to accept war by glamorizing it. The line "I looked over Jordan and what did I see" is a line taken from the song "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" which is a song about dying

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Track 6 + 7: Late Home Tonight, Part I and Late Home Tonight, Part II

presents the view point of the soldier as an individual who does not see the destruction he wreaks. The soldier is "Secure in the beauty of military life/ There is no right or wrong"

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Track 8: Too Much Rope

addresses the greed, guilt, and willingness to be satisfied with life as long as we have "bread and circuses". As well the media plays on that greed and guilt to keep us passive.

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Track 9: What God Wants, Part II

is very similar to "What God Wants, Part I" in that it portrays what God wants as not only good but bad as well. The song starts with the sound of a television evangelist preaching the word of god.

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Track 10: What God Wants, Part III

expresses a hope that the human species will escape the influence of the media.

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Track 11: Watching TV

shows that although the television uses asthetics to manipulate, and manipulate us through our guilt, and our greed, there are a lot of real messages underlying the propaganda.

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Track 12: Three Wishes

the man receiving three wishes realizes too late that he wants another wish but he's used them all up. The last wish in this case is for love

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Track 13: It's A Miracle

shows that we have got what God wants now: empty entertainment. The line "We've got famine when we need it" suggests that somebody needs famine. The line in the song "We've got choice" suggests in our luxury we have a choice of which car to drive, and that choice is more important than the famine in other countries.

www.rogerwaters.org...

Track 14: Amused To Death

Roger Waters points out that too much entertainment can kill the human spirit. The second line of the song "This supermarket life is getting long" expresses much the same way as "It's A Miracle" that this life is empty; there is no meaning, only entertainment. In the lines "What is the heart life of a colour TV/ What is the shelf life of a teenage queen" the types of life are deliberately reversed implying television is as valuable as human beings. It also links with "Too Much Rope" where the "tender TV" means that the television not only delivers the feeling but possesses some feeling itself.

www.rogerwaters.org...

That's it for the snippets, so please listen to the album and also read the rest of those song breakdowns to the fantastic album written by Roger Waters.

The points raised in this album, have a lot in comparison with many of the subjects here on ATS.

Enjoy

[edit on 2010/9/6 by GradyPhilpott]

reply to post by multichild


very cool!

Floyd were defiantly onto it eh!?

What's your take on dark side of the moon?

reply to post by watchZEITGEISTnow


Hi,

Ye I love Pink Floyd, and the Dark Side of The Moon album is the best, and I think it like most of the others deal with societal woes, and the pressures placed upon us from elite institutions and ideologies.

These albums also introduced me to the effect of music on the human soul, how different types of music can have no effect at all, but some music like Floyd's can leave an imprint, that not many artists have been able to do.

If they did, they usually ended up dead, so fair play to floyd, for living through it.

If any of you guys use Spotify, i have pasted the link to it below.

Spotify - Amused To Death

I'm sure there plenty of Pink Floyd lovers on this site.

One of my all-time favourite albums and currently in the car for another airing.
Another, in a similar vein, is The Final Cut, another heavily influenced Waters masterpiece.

Amused to Death seems to be more and more relevent and a truer reflection of modern society every time I listen to it.

Greetings multichild:

I Thank You for bringing this album to my attention. As a avid Pink Floyd fan of twenty + years ago, I was not aware of Amused to Death by Roger Waters.

I always say that if I had a dime for every time I listened to The Wall or Dark side of the Moon, I would be rich. I would listen to them on vinyl wearing head phones will I slept, for about 3 years, in high school. Other favorites of mine were Wish you were here, and The final cut.

They were definitely aware of the control of the masses that the majority of humanity have only become aware of in recent years.

Interesting Post !!!
Thank You again
trinity369

reply to post by trinity369


No problem at all, its not a worthless post of just one of my favourite albums, but an album that as the person before you said, it has more and more to do with the reality of today than ever.

Passing messages like these to the world, is best done in music, as once it has been created and on the shelves, it cant be undone or re-written.

Cheers

I started playing guitar 2 weeks ago because of The Wall, even though I've heard it countless times before it just got to me in a way it never had before. Pink Floyd doesn't fit into the group of bands I typically listed too, but the lyrics, timing, and unique rythms of their music sets them apart. I'll definitely be checking this album out.

I know it might seems strange that the way this thread is put together is more in tune with ATS rather than BTS, but I posted the thread in the NWO forum on ATS, and then it was moved here.

None the less, I love this album, and would recommend it to any person, of any background.

Cheers

Originally posted by trinity369

I always say that if I had a dime for every time I listened to The Wall or Dark side of the Moon, I would be rich. I would listen to them on vinyl wearing head phones will I slept, for about 3 years, in high school. Other favorites of mine were Wish you were here, and The final cut.

trinity369

Who are you?! You just stole my old life! Impostor!

How good was drifting off to Floyd - best sleeps EVER!

I have everything by Floyd, and Waters and Gilmour as well...I just recently purchased this album, and I have to say that it is pretty good.

Did any of you get to see the Wall live? It was AMAZING!

reply to post by multichild


hey pink floyd fans! they were great back then oh the memories,
I remember seeing them on TV playing "pompey" that blew my mind
and i was hooked.worth a small fortune that LP now.

I got really into sid barret and his funny little songs,then i fell into
the black hole that was Brick In The Wall, epic but was to shape
the way i thought for a while.dark times.
was gutted when Roger Waters left the band and it was sad reading
about sid barret,shine on you crazy diamond !
the rest is history ie dark side etc.

there stage shows were amazing but i never got to see them live.
are they still working now and then as floyd?

ANIMALS now that album rocks

reply to post by stealthyaroura


Roger and David tour as solo artists. Roger just came around the US doing the Wall...it was amazing!

reply to post by MarshMallow_Snake

yeah thought they would still be working on projects.
I can well believe seeing the wall performed was awesome.
Ahh great days.THE WALL such a powerful piece of cinema
and the tracks to the film are just the best.

reply to post by stealthyaroura


Agreed...I just watched the film again after seeing the concert. Why was "Hey You" not in the film?

reply to post by MarshMallow_Snake


"hey you" was a Roger Waters & Dave Gilmore effort
with them both singing on the track from the album "the wall"

Are you sure it's not in the film? I pretty much new the
film song for song but even I cannot recall the scene where
it was performed but it is on the album.
not too sure now??

reply to post by stealthyaroura


Yeah 100% sure. I watched it the other day and was surprised that it was left out.

Originally posted by MarshMallow_Snake
reply to post by stealthyaroura

 

Yeah 100% sure. I watched it the other day and was surprised that it was left out.

Well spotted
The only reason, by quick search, is as following :

"Hey You" is a song by Pink Floyd. It appears on The Wall album (1979). It starts the second disc of the double album. This song was edited out of the film for fear on the part of the filmmakers that the film was running too long; however, a rough version is available as an extra on the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD.

Most of the footage was used in other sequences (most notably "Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)".

source

Fingers crossed. I'm on "waiting list"

reply to post by flymetothemoon


Well that clears that up.
nicely done. Ahh google, really must use that