Tag: Roger Waters

100 Albums #2 – The Wall: Live in Berlin by Roger Waters (and various artists)

A couple of weeks ago I went to see the one-night-only showing of Roger Waters’ The Wall at my local cinema. That performance rekindled my love for that album – indeed Pink Floyd in general.

Yesterday I revisted an older performance of the album, which was given at the Berlin wall at the time when it was being torn down.

Very apt.

This performance of The Wall is unique, in that many of the songs are performed by guest artists. My personal favorites of these perfomances are Bryan Adam’s “Young Lust”, Paul Carrack’s “Hey You” and Van Morrison’s “Comfortably Numb”.

For any fans of The Wall, this album is a milestone performance and must be experienced.

All in all – thoughts of Roger Waters The Wall

A slow, winding blade of green weaves across the ever-growing familiar white brickwork from the left side of the stage. Then another from the right. They wind slowly across the length of the wall – both to the centre and up – until they blend seamlessly into one of the most iconic animations from The Wall – the flower scene over Empty Spaces.There are a few albums that have moved me in ways I can still feel: Radiohead’s The Bends, Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence. But the one that has had the greatest effect on me – and still continues to do so – is Pink Floyd’s The Wall.Tonight I went to see the one-off showing of the new film by Waters which was about 80% concert show and 20% pilgrimage by Waters to visit the resting places of his father and grandfather. The thing as a whole went together beautifully.One of the songs that continues to get me each time I hear it is Vera – and this time was no exception. I was suprised to hear, in the discussion that followed, that this was Waters’ favourite song off the album.The songs I were looking forward to the most were Comfortably Numb, The Trial and Empty Spaces. I love how the full version of Empty Spaces gets used when performed live.The usage of some of the animations from the 1980s film of the wall were a nice touch too.All in all it was a great performance of The Wall.

Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking

Today I rediscovered one of my all-time favourite albums — Roger Waters’ The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking.

Although known mostly for his work with British Rock band Pink Floyd, some of Roger’s best work — in my opinion — was in his solo albums. Though to be fair his Pink Floyd work is incredible.

The concept, as envisioned by Waters in 1977, rotated around a man’s scattered thoughts during a road trip through somewhere in Central Europe, focusing on his midlife crisis, and how he dreams of committing adultery with a hitchhiker he picks up along the way.

Along the way he also faces other fears and paranoia, with all of these things taking place in real time in the early morning hours of 4:30am to 5:12am on an unspecified day.

The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking — This concept album was offered to the rest of Pink Floyd along with the early concept for The Wall. The band went on to do The Wall and Roger completed Pros and Cons in 1983 as a solo piece.

From Wikipedia.

It features great guitar work from none other than Eric Clapton as well as featuring Jack Palance, who takes on the role of the Hell’s Angel in the story.

To be honest you could do yourself a favour and listen to anything that Roger Waters has created.