The Berlin performance of The Trial is on my opinion the definitive version of the song, instead of every voice sounding the same you got actual theater performers singing it and its a joy.
'Amused to death' is sensational, jeff beck's guitar work is stupendous throughout. The idea, concept, the lyrics, 'its a miracle' & the title track are two of the best things Roger ever wrote. A top 10 album of all time for me.
The Berlin performance of Comfortably Numb is one of the most underrated performances of the song. You might be cool, but you won't ever be guitar duel on top of the wall cool.
Have to disagree. Two guitarists and the biggest performance in terms of spectacle, can't hold up against any of David Gilmour's versions; no guitarist can play that solo like him.
You are so fookin spot on every time. Respect. If only clashing Floyd egos had been put aside in the late 80s/early 90s. BUT ... ego (the sense of self in varying states of consciousness in relation to the cosmic awe/all) has been part of Floyd since the beginning. The most most spiritual and most human band ever. The what-ifs often eclipse the what-exists. Numinous when it works. Thank you.
Roger revealed in an interview that he would do The Wall again for charity if the Berlin Wall came down, not thinking that would happen in 3 months. He had to start making phone calls 3 months later.
I think if you bought this the week it came out you were probably blown away. It was better than KAOS or Monetary Lapse, and you now knew that the days of great Floyd related albums weren't solely a thing of the past.
Love the album Amused to Death. Bought the CD on day one when it came out and for a couple of months, it was pretty much all I listened to. Was very disappointed he did not tour that album. Would have been a great live show. It wasn't until he toured in 1999 that I got to see him live, where he played some of the Amused to Death songs live. As for The Wall Live in Berlin, I was so excited that the local rock radio station in my city was going to broadcast it live. Recorded the whole thing on cassette and would listen to that in the car until it got its official release on CD. It was also a vinyl Record Store Day exclusive a couple of years ago and was happy to be able to get it.
Again, as a Pink Floyd fan, I bought The Wall Live in Berlin and Amused To Death the day they came out and still love both. With The Wall you just have to look at it as what it was: a global celebration - and NOT a faithful performance of the album. I love all the artists who stepped up to perform. To me this is the album that confirmed my faith that Pink Floyd had a global voice. With Amused To Death yes, this IS Waters' best solo album. To me the album flows from track to track, to where, at the last note I am left wanting more - to extend the lives on this planet, hoping we can all change, that this is not the end of our species that the alien anthropologists uncover...
Dang it JT, you did it again. Another great video in another great series. Love it. Quick question towards your music. What's your usual process for writing lyrics? My friend and I formed a band a little bit again and i've written some lyrics (though I'm mainly a drummer) but feel they're too bland and direct compared to the type of lyrics I wanna write like yours and like Floyd. Hoping your input helps me grow as a writer
Honestly I don’t really have a set process for writing lyrics. Most of the time I write the music first and the lyrics are set to it, other times I have a set of lyrics already written and form some music to them. Never Let the Bastards Grind You Down was an odd one because it was a hodgepodge of three different songs (one that my guitarist Todd Meredith came up with on his own) and that chorus and title were the last thing written fairly late in the demo process. I guess my only advice is figure out what you want to write about and just write and keep writing. Don’t get so hung up on rhyming or trying to match words perfectly. Let it flow naturally.
@JTCurtisMusic my brother and dad saw the Berlin show and brought back a Tshirt that I still have. It's older than I am and from what I've researched, very few left in circulation. 😂
Talk about "poles apart": I know keyboardist Peter Wood form Lou Reed's 1984 album New Sensations and Reed's ensuing 1984-85 tour. And I know Patrick Leonard from his production of Leonard Cohen.
There something so addictive in that album, i can’t forget it ! Every time i finish it, i want to listen to it back again lol ! Just like pros n cons by the way !
Berlin was a disaster. I pre-empted Lauper and went to Delicate Sound version of Another Brick and then went to Knebworth Comfortably Numb for Gilmour's parts right on cue and the epic finish for the band. Run Like Hell, same deal. Roger wanted Springsteen, Joe Cocker, Peter Gabriel and Rod Stewart, all said no or had to decline. Clapton was on tour. The drummer was going to be Rush drummer Neil Peart and Neil wrote a letter to Roger and his management team about an audition but Roger denounced Neil's drumming and told Neil to take a hike (Neil is 20 times the drummer that Graham Broad is, Neil was not called The Professor of The Drum Kit for kicks and giggles). Neil in a 2012 interview made that revelation and replied "Although Roger was quite rude about my request, I'm still a fan". Neil had class (may he lay in peace). David and Nick talked to Kurt Loder at Knebworth and said they and Rick had given the legal OK and green light to perform with him but David (in a fake crying voice which was hilarious) said "Roger never asked us" and Nick saying "If only the phone can ring and he be at the other end saying, let's play, and we would be there". Then on Rockline on July 2, 1990, Roger denied he ever said he might let the rest of the band play with me again (when he said to Redbeard that quote). As for Amused to Death, that was the first Roger album I was prepared for. As a 16 year old Pink Floyd fan in 1992 (plus Queen, Rush, Zeppelin, KISS, Eagles, Maiden and other bands) who had the whole catalog and both of Roger's albums and David's and the fact 1992 was the 25th Anniversary of the band. I was ready for AtD. What God Wants 1 was the first song released to American Rock Radio and was HUGE (most requested song on Rock stations in August/September 1992) so the anticipation was high and hearing the US album premiere piped up my interest even more (they played WGW 1 and 3, Bravery, Watching TV, It's a Miracle and the title cut). Then recorded off the radio the night before I started my Junior Year of High School and was my copy until my dad bought me the CD on 17 September (a few days after I watched Pink Floyd at Pompeii for the first time since 1985 when in '85 it went over my head like a lead balloon but at 16 and having lived with the catalog by then I watched three times in the rental period) and got AtD on CD and brought the booklet to school the next day to read the lyrics and credits and I left the booklet and the Momentary Lapse booklet of my CD in my locker and I panicked, rushed back to school and went to locker, retrieved them UNSCATHED and returned home. A Keith Moon like panic attack where he forgot to trash a hotel room. I hoped Amused to Death would hit the Top 10 in America but the Son of a bitch Cyrus (inbred redneck and his Achy Breaky Heart crap), BLOODY Garth Brooks (as Phil Collins would say, LOL) and grunge crap like Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains were riding high with Ten and Dirt respectively. All of the tracks featuring Jeff Beck were amazing. I didn't like the remix taking out the backward message of Perfect Sense nor the removal of the double kick drum, the Hammond Organ swell before the guitars kick in and the female raspy Joe Cocker vocal on the final verse of Bravery of Being Out of Range. If Steven Wilson remixed it he would have left all alone and also raise Jeff Beck's guitar on the song.
Music From Big Pink also served as a catalyst for Eric Clapton, orienting him away from Cream and toward what he would ultimately find in Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. He heard a pre-release copy and decided he wanted to make music more like what he heard on it than what Cream was doing. He envisioned Blind Faith as more of a Band-like outfit, but it turned out to be too much like another Cream. That's why he left the group for D&B and had Delaney produce his first solo album.
Another great video in a great series, but I've got two questions: 1) did I miss a video talking about Wet Dream and David Gilmour's debut solo album? 2) why did you stop rating the albums? Also, I listened to Elements the other day and it is a great piece of work, congrats!
1) I briefly discussed them in The Wall review and did a “Alternate Playlist” video where I incorporated some of them 2) I only rate the Pink Floyd studio albums (with the exception of Live at Pompeii) Glad you dig Elements! Thank you.
It's a good album, for sure. I love the clean sound it has, with the subtle synths contrasted to Beck's wailing guitar (a sound only he seems able to produce, to the point his guitar almost stops sounding like a guitar). But, personally, I would rate On An Island higher. More cohesive, better musically, not far behind lyrically, and a much better message.
@@CristiNeagu Gilmour makes people listen. Waters makes people think. That is why they had a winning "team" in 1970's Pink Floyd. Waters was never keen about melody . He was always about talking/ yelling / croaking his way through dense ponderous lyrics. "Amused to death" is a classic Prog. Rock record and is not aimed at being a pop hit or a best seller. It is art .It has concepts and gravitas that Mrs. Gilmour 's lyrics do not have. They are mostly doggerel.
@@MisterTMH I agree with the characterizations of Gilmour and Waters. As for the rest... Art still needs to appeal to people. Maybe Waters didn't aim the album at being pop music and hitting the charts, but he should still have had good sales. But as it was, it simply did not resonate with a lot of people, a lot of whom are into that sort of music. On An Island was also not meant to be a best seller. It's simply the kind of music Gilmour identified with at that point in life. He simply made better art, sorry to say. As for lyrics, I don't think Waters' lyrics during his solo career were particularly deep. Sure, he still has a way of speaking his mind that shows great skill and creativity, but there was nothing deep and ponderous about Amused To Death, nowhere near like with The Wall, or Dark Side. During his solo career, his message was delivered very much in the listener's face, devoid of much symbolism and hidden meaning. And I'm not saying he wasn't capable of deep verse, only that he probably chose a more up front delivery. And while not as deep as Waters' lyrics, On An Island are far from "doggerel". They achieve their purpose quite successfully, and are very much in tune with the general atmosphere of the album.
Heh, I remember they asked David G. about Wall in Berlin. He said, he was at madonna concert at the time, she cursed and swore so he got up and left. (disgusted)! Then he went home n saw the Wall on TV and got the same feelings lol. Anyway it was an exciting time and everyone wanted a piece of the actual wall as a souvenir...so diff. Singers singing those songs didnt matter but some are ridiculous now. Personally I only liked Bryan Adams performence , the guitarists were very excellent as well. Fantastic guitars really.
The Berlin show has its ups and downs, I really enjoy the orchestral part especially on the last few bricks and waiting for the worms, but even then I prefer the 1980/1981 shows (available here on UA-cam or you can buy a dvd of the show online which I did and feel the money was very well spent)
Amused To Death was a big step up from Water's two previous solo albums, but IMO, it is hardly the best solo album put out by members of Pink Floyd. All 4 of David Gilmour's solo albums have a melodic gravitas that is lacking in all of Water's solo projects. As you point out in your video, Waters doesn't discuss the music put forth in Amused To Death, and focuses solely on the albums conceptual/lyrical content. This approach by Waters was quite familiar to his former bandmates and since the completion of The Wall album, they have uniformly presented the narrative that Roger has little interest in the musical side of song construction. I'm looking forward to your review of The Division Bell. IMO, TDB and Obscured By Clouds are the most underrated albums in Pink Floyd's catalogue. If you like melody, smooth vocals and classic guitar work from Gilmour, and Wright's last vocal performance on a Pink Floyd album...The Division Bell should check all of the boxes. "Roger, had by this time had become the lyricist...David and me would write some music and Roger would say ok, I'm going to go home and write some lyrics for this and come back tomorrow." Richard Wright "My musical taste and abilities had just as much actually, if not more to do with it all than Roger, and that if I allowed this dictatorship to become real and total, then our music would suffer, as I didn't think that, uh, I still don't, that that is really Roger's main forte." David Gilmour
Funny I like all of Roger’s solo work. There’s some great stuff on Pros and Cons, KAOS is quintessentially 80s and Amused returns back to his War is Bad mkay message. I remove myself that they’re anything like Pink Floyd, they’re not. If Roger had never been part of PF they may be judged differently.
I'm sorry but I can't accept you opinion of the Run Like Hell performance! Roger's older angry voice along with his whole north korean dicator look makes the In The Flesh to Stop section the most convincing he's ever done them. 10/10 for me. I really can't understand how people prefer the 50/50 run like hell version with Gilmour... Roger war always superior over him vocally both in vocal range and dramatic intensity on those songs. Gilmour could have never get to the peaks of The Trial etc. The Wall was a Waters project and although everyone's else was contribution was great, his voice and sense of performance are what makes it what it is for me. Honestly, musically wise I prefer the rehearsals of this show where Roger sang without all the guest singers.
I get you seeing this as the superior version conceptually, but in terms of pure musicality, the distinction of two separate voices playing off of each other just makes for greater dynamics and intensity than one person singing what was originally written and recorded to be two different parts.
Oh, Man! The best performance on The Wall Live in Berlim, of course was done by Cindy Lauper singing Another Brick part 2 coming as a very angry high school student she was firme as eruption on stage. I apreciate her close relation with the musicians só funny and wild. Thomas Dolby who came after her become totally out of the range about Cindy show. She improve her show time.
Amused to Death is a close third to DSOTM and The Wall; a masterpiece (or at least a near-masterpiece) that blows all post-Waters Pink Floyd albums out of the water. The only weak track for me is "Watching TV" (I always skip past that one, though I love the history lesson about Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong and a "shoe factory called Taiwan"). "Three Wishes" doesn't really fit with the concept of the album, but it's still a genius song, its lyric about the consequence of getting too caught up in wish fulfillment (I think you are 100% right - there is a bit of a hidden tale here about Roger losing his second wife). "It's a Miracle" segues into "Amused to Death" in a heavenly way, Amen. I personally love the lines about Lloyd Webber since I, too, think that his stuff is awful. Roger can somehow evoke multiple emotions simultaneously (sadness, humor, angst), and he does it so well that I sometimes wonder if he is the actual alien. When he utters the line "and when they found our shadows grouped 'round the TV set" in the title track, I get chills... that hits me hard. I absolutely love the way he bookends the album with Alf Razzell's story. Again, just genius. I wish you could have gone a bit more into detail for this album specifically, but good work and thank you. By the way, how in the world did they get the crickets on Amused to Death to sound so perfect? Usually there are high gain/noise floor issues when you try to record them in nature.
Amused to Death is Roger's best solo album, but I don't think that's saying much. It has a few good songs, but like most of his solo work, it lacks the musicality of Pink Floyd. At least it's not as insufferably preachy as his most recent album.
I recently bought the amused to death on cassette. It sounds pretty good ngl. I still think it's nothing like what pink floyd did, including the final cut, it just doesn't sound as good.
Well I can't really speak for the songs on Amused to Death but Roger DOES write full songs. If you listen to the demo for Money, the riff (which David Gilmour praised in the Dark Side doc) and the melody (abeit slightly different) are there. Obviously the band really brought it to life though.
Amused to Death was definitely a return to form after Waters underwhelming 1980s output. ATD actually boasted number of bona fide classics - What God Wants, Perfect Sense, Bravery of Being Our of Range< Watching TV and It's A Miracle but its has some faults it's too long and too padded and his half spoken vocals and crazed primal screams do wear patience of the listener.
The Division Bell is rather padded too with Poles Apart and Marooned - tracks that could easily be cut from the album, Generally David's vocals hold up better across an entire LP than Roger's vocals.
@@robertmalyn6493I felt like David's voice on Division Bell, and especially PULSE, sounded really tired and almost strained. Not quite Perfect Sense Roger bad, but certainly strained.
@@robertmalyn6493 I couldn’t disagree more about Marooned. I think it’s one of the best tracks on the album and harkens back to the more instrumental / atmospheric vibe of the earlier Floyd records.
@@JTCurtisMusic The Division Bell is a very good album but one criticism is that it gets off to a slow start. After Cluster One and What Do You Want Me we get Poles Apart - which is the real culprit its not a very good song and goes on too long and is only on the album as it is obviously about Roger which fits the concept of communication breakdown. The only problem with Marooned is that it follows Poles Apart. In my opinion the series of songs on The Division Bell from Great Day For Freedom to High Hopes is the best slab of Pink Floyd since the first disc of The Wall.
Don't be afraid, it's only business! What God wants part III is the most epic song Roger has ever created...and that solo, oh man! 30+ years later I still get chills hearing that album, but that solo took me to places I never knew existed, this was the album that made me love Jeff Beck and made me believe that Roger was an essential component to Pink Floyd. I liked Division bell, MLOR I honestly can't stand, it's rancid...but ATD blew all post Waters' floyd efforts right out of the water.
Jeff Beck is phenomenal on the 3 credited cuts.
Recreating that famous photo of Roger holding his bass while wearing aviators is the perfect thumbnail for this video.
The Wall in Berlin feels way more epic than it should be. Missing David, Rick, and Nick tho.
Also, the bravery out of range version he did last year is out of this world
The Berlin performance of The Trial is on my opinion the definitive version of the song, instead of every voice sounding the same you got actual theater performers singing it and its a joy.
'Amused to death' is sensational, jeff beck's guitar work is stupendous throughout. The idea, concept, the lyrics, 'its a miracle' & the title track are two of the best things Roger ever wrote. A top 10 album of all time for me.
"Could you imagine if Dave got to play guitar in the Wall with Roger?"
Me: *Looks at Rogers' 2011 The Wall*
Don't worry, you'll get your time
The Berlin show and Amused to Death are up there with Roger’s time with Pink Floyd as his defining moments in his career.
I pressed like before the ads finished
The Berlin performance of Comfortably Numb is one of the most underrated performances of the song. You might be cool, but you won't ever be guitar duel on top of the wall cool.
Have to disagree. Two guitarists and the biggest performance in terms of spectacle, can't hold up against any of David Gilmour's versions; no guitarist can play that solo like him.
@@threadsoflifebooks1878 Word!
Van Morrison sounds terrible to me in that version, and I’m someone that really likes Van Morrison.
Yeah gunna have to disagree too. That may look cool but it just goes against the subtlety of what the second solo is supposed to be.
I don’t know about you guys but… I fucking love Jeff Beck
You are so fookin spot on every time. Respect. If only clashing Floyd egos had been put aside in the late 80s/early 90s. BUT ... ego (the sense of self in varying states of consciousness in relation to the cosmic awe/all) has been part of Floyd since the beginning. The most most spiritual and most human band ever. The what-ifs often eclipse the what-exists. Numinous when it works. Thank you.
I remember the Berlin "Wall" concert was touted in around August 1989 about 3 months before the Wall came down in November 1989.
Roger revealed in an interview that he would do The Wall again for charity if the Berlin Wall came down, not thinking that would happen in 3 months. He had to start making phone calls 3 months later.
I think if you bought this the week it came out you were probably blown away. It was better than KAOS or Monetary Lapse, and you now knew that the days of great Floyd related albums weren't solely a thing of the past.
Love the album Amused to Death. Bought the CD on day one when it came out and for a couple of months, it was pretty much all I listened to. Was very disappointed he did not tour that album. Would have been a great live show. It wasn't until he toured in 1999 that I got to see him live, where he played some of the Amused to Death songs live. As for The Wall Live in Berlin, I was so excited that the local rock radio station in my city was going to broadcast it live. Recorded the whole thing on cassette and would listen to that in the car until it got its official release on CD. It was also a vinyl Record Store Day exclusive a couple of years ago and was happy to be able to get it.
Again, as a Pink Floyd fan, I bought The Wall Live in Berlin and Amused To Death the day they came out and still love both.
With The Wall you just have to look at it as what it was: a global celebration - and NOT a faithful performance of the album. I love all the artists who stepped up to perform. To me this is the album that confirmed my faith that Pink Floyd had a global voice.
With Amused To Death yes, this IS Waters' best solo album. To me the album flows from track to track, to where, at the last note I am left wanting more - to extend the lives on this planet, hoping we can all change, that this is not the end of our species that the alien anthropologists uncover...
Dang it JT, you did it again. Another great video in another great series. Love it. Quick question towards your music. What's your usual process for writing lyrics? My friend and I formed a band a little bit again and i've written some lyrics (though I'm mainly a drummer) but feel they're too bland and direct compared to the type of lyrics I wanna write like yours and like Floyd. Hoping your input helps me grow as a writer
Honestly I don’t really have a set process for writing lyrics. Most of the time I write the music first and the lyrics are set to it, other times I have a set of lyrics already written and form some music to them. Never Let the Bastards Grind You Down was an odd one because it was a hodgepodge of three different songs (one that my guitarist Todd Meredith came up with on his own) and that chorus and title were the last thing written fairly late in the demo process.
I guess my only advice is figure out what you want to write about and just write and keep writing. Don’t get so hung up on rhyming or trying to match words perfectly. Let it flow naturally.
I find it funny that that Three Wishes, the song on Amused to Death, came out the same year as Aladdin. Talk about perfect timing
The thought occurred to me as well...
One of the greatest Art Rock and Progressive albums of all time
I have the DVD and CD, I really should give them another whirl after this.
@JTCurtisMusic my brother and dad saw the Berlin show and brought back a Tshirt that I still have. It's older than I am and from what I've researched, very few left in circulation. 😂
Talk about "poles apart": I know keyboardist Peter Wood form Lou Reed's 1984 album New Sensations and Reed's ensuing 1984-85 tour. And I know Patrick Leonard from his production of Leonard Cohen.
2 of the very best right there, love them both ❤️
"Amused To Death" was,pretty much,all I listened to,that summer.
Beautiful album.
There something so addictive in that album, i can’t forget it ! Every time i finish it, i want to listen to it back again lol !
Just like pros n cons by the way !
Berlin was a disaster. I pre-empted Lauper and went to Delicate Sound version of Another Brick and then went to Knebworth Comfortably Numb for Gilmour's parts right on cue and the epic finish for the band. Run Like Hell, same deal.
Roger wanted Springsteen, Joe Cocker, Peter Gabriel and Rod Stewart, all said no or had to decline. Clapton was on tour. The drummer was going to be Rush drummer Neil Peart and Neil wrote a letter to Roger and his management team about an audition but Roger denounced Neil's drumming and told Neil to take a hike (Neil is 20 times the drummer that Graham Broad is, Neil was not called The Professor of The Drum Kit for kicks and giggles). Neil in a 2012 interview made that revelation and replied "Although Roger was quite rude about my request, I'm still a fan". Neil had class (may he lay in peace). David and Nick talked to Kurt Loder at Knebworth and said they and Rick had given the legal OK and green light to perform with him but David (in a fake crying voice which was hilarious) said "Roger never asked us" and Nick saying "If only the phone can ring and he be at the other end saying, let's play, and we would be there". Then on Rockline on July 2, 1990, Roger denied he ever said he might let the rest of the band play with me again (when he said to Redbeard that quote).
As for Amused to Death, that was the first Roger album I was prepared for. As a 16 year old Pink Floyd fan in 1992 (plus Queen, Rush, Zeppelin, KISS, Eagles, Maiden and other bands) who had the whole catalog and both of Roger's albums and David's and the fact 1992 was the 25th Anniversary of the band. I was ready for AtD. What God Wants 1 was the first song released to American Rock Radio and was HUGE (most requested song on Rock stations in August/September 1992) so the anticipation was high and hearing the US album premiere piped up my interest even more (they played WGW 1 and 3, Bravery, Watching TV, It's a Miracle and the title cut). Then recorded off the radio the night before I started my Junior Year of High School and was my copy until my dad bought me the CD on 17 September (a few days after I watched Pink Floyd at Pompeii for the first time since 1985 when in '85 it went over my head like a lead balloon but at 16 and having lived with the catalog by then I watched three times in the rental period) and got AtD on CD and brought the booklet to school the next day to read the lyrics and credits and I left the booklet and the Momentary Lapse booklet of my CD in my locker and I panicked, rushed back to school and went to locker, retrieved them UNSCATHED and returned home. A Keith Moon like panic attack where he forgot to trash a hotel room. I hoped Amused to Death would hit the Top 10 in America but the Son of a bitch Cyrus (inbred redneck and his Achy Breaky Heart crap), BLOODY Garth Brooks (as Phil Collins would say, LOL) and grunge crap like Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains were riding high with Ten and Dirt respectively. All of the tracks featuring Jeff Beck were amazing. I didn't like the remix taking out the backward message of Perfect Sense nor the removal of the double kick drum, the Hammond Organ swell before the guitars kick in and the female raspy Joe Cocker vocal on the final verse of Bravery of Being Out of Range. If Steven Wilson remixed it he would have left all alone and also raise Jeff Beck's guitar on the song.
RIP Sinead O'Connor.
Music From Big Pink also served as a catalyst for Eric Clapton, orienting him away from Cream and toward what he would ultimately find in Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. He heard a pre-release copy and decided he wanted to make music more like what he heard on it than what Cream was doing. He envisioned Blind Faith as more of a Band-like outfit, but it turned out to be too much like another Cream. That's why he left the group for D&B and had Delaney produce his first solo album.
Another great video in a great series, but I've got two questions: 1) did I miss a video talking about Wet Dream and David Gilmour's debut solo album? 2) why did you stop rating the albums?
Also, I listened to Elements the other day and it is a great piece of work, congrats!
1) I briefly discussed them in The Wall review and did a “Alternate Playlist” video where I incorporated some of them
2) I only rate the Pink Floyd studio albums (with the exception of Live at Pompeii)
Glad you dig Elements! Thank you.
It's a good album, for sure. I love the clean sound it has, with the subtle synths contrasted to Beck's wailing guitar (a sound only he seems able to produce, to the point his guitar almost stops sounding like a guitar). But, personally, I would rate On An Island higher. More cohesive, better musically, not far behind lyrically, and a much better message.
"On an Island " is a snooze fest. .zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
@@MisterTMH And yet it vastly outsold anything Roger ever put out. So what does that say about Roger's stuff?
@@CristiNeagu Gilmour makes people listen. Waters makes people think. That is why they had a winning "team" in 1970's Pink Floyd. Waters was never keen about melody . He was always about talking/ yelling / croaking his way through dense ponderous lyrics. "Amused to death" is a classic Prog. Rock record and is not aimed at being a pop hit or a best seller. It is art .It has concepts and gravitas that Mrs. Gilmour 's lyrics do not have. They are mostly doggerel.
@@MisterTMH I agree with the characterizations of Gilmour and Waters. As for the rest...
Art still needs to appeal to people. Maybe Waters didn't aim the album at being pop music and hitting the charts, but he should still have had good sales. But as it was, it simply did not resonate with a lot of people, a lot of whom are into that sort of music.
On An Island was also not meant to be a best seller. It's simply the kind of music Gilmour identified with at that point in life. He simply made better art, sorry to say.
As for lyrics, I don't think Waters' lyrics during his solo career were particularly deep. Sure, he still has a way of speaking his mind that shows great skill and creativity, but there was nothing deep and ponderous about Amused To Death, nowhere near like with The Wall, or Dark Side. During his solo career, his message was delivered very much in the listener's face, devoid of much symbolism and hidden meaning. And I'm not saying he wasn't capable of deep verse, only that he probably chose a more up front delivery.
And while not as deep as Waters' lyrics, On An Island are far from "doggerel". They achieve their purpose quite successfully, and are very much in tune with the general atmosphere of the album.
Imagine the berlin wall didnt get taken down until after the wall performance
Heh, I remember they asked David G. about Wall in Berlin. He said, he was at madonna concert at the time, she cursed and swore so he got up and left. (disgusted)!
Then he went home n saw the Wall on TV and got the same feelings lol.
Anyway it was an exciting time and everyone wanted a piece of the actual wall as a souvenir...so diff. Singers singing those songs didnt matter but some are ridiculous now.
Personally I only liked Bryan Adams performence , the guitarists were very excellent as well. Fantastic guitars really.
The Berlin show has its ups and downs, I really enjoy the orchestral part especially on the last few bricks and waiting for the worms, but even then I prefer the 1980/1981 shows (available here on UA-cam or you can buy a dvd of the show online which I did and feel the money was very well spent)
Amused To Death was a big step up from Water's two previous solo albums, but IMO, it is hardly the best solo album put out by members of Pink Floyd. All 4 of David Gilmour's solo albums have a melodic gravitas that is lacking in all of Water's solo projects. As you point out in your video, Waters doesn't discuss the music put forth in Amused To Death, and focuses solely on the albums conceptual/lyrical content. This approach by Waters was quite familiar to his former bandmates and since the completion of The Wall album, they have uniformly presented the narrative that Roger has little interest in the musical side of song construction. I'm looking forward to your review of The Division Bell. IMO, TDB and Obscured By Clouds are the most underrated albums in Pink Floyd's catalogue. If you like melody, smooth vocals and classic guitar work from Gilmour, and Wright's last vocal performance on a Pink Floyd album...The Division Bell should check all of the boxes.
"Roger, had by this time had become the lyricist...David and me would write some music and Roger would say ok, I'm going to go home and write some lyrics for this and come back tomorrow." Richard Wright
"My musical taste and abilities had just as much actually, if not more to do with it all than Roger, and that if I allowed this dictatorship to become real and total, then our music would suffer, as I didn't think that, uh, I still don't, that that is really Roger's main forte." David Gilmour
Funny I like all of Roger’s solo work. There’s some great stuff on Pros and Cons, KAOS is quintessentially 80s and Amused returns back to his War is Bad mkay message.
I remove myself that they’re anything like Pink Floyd, they’re not. If Roger had never been part of PF they may be judged differently.
Will you be reviewing David's 1978 David Gilmour album, or Rick's Broken China?
I already talked about his 1978 album in The Wall review. Broken China will probably be discussed at some point but not a full blown review.
I'm sorry but I can't accept you opinion of the Run Like Hell performance!
Roger's older angry voice along with his whole north korean dicator look makes the In The Flesh to Stop section the most convincing he's ever done them. 10/10 for me.
I really can't understand how people prefer the 50/50 run like hell version with Gilmour... Roger war always superior over him vocally both in vocal range and dramatic intensity on those songs. Gilmour could have never get to the peaks of The Trial etc.
The Wall was a Waters project and although everyone's else was contribution was great, his voice and sense of performance are what makes it what it is for me. Honestly, musically wise I prefer the rehearsals of this show where Roger sang without all the guest singers.
I get you seeing this as the superior version conceptually, but in terms of pure musicality, the distinction of two separate voices playing off of each other just makes for greater dynamics and intensity than one person singing what was originally written and recorded to be two different parts.
Are you planning on covering any of Syd/Rick/Nick/David/Roger's solo work since you covered amused to death?
Already have in The Wall review and the Why Roger left video.
egg on my face, what a way to admit i haven't watched the whole series, how embarrassing
Thanks haha these vids are so good!
Forget about David… and you ll be able to listen to these 2 master pieces with much more pleasure…
My favorite Roger Waters album…. That said…. Not better than On An Island or Rattle That Lock. I play them all.
Rattle that lock sucks. It’s down there with endless drivel.
I consider On An Island to be better. Rattle That Lock is missing something. Of the three it's the worst, but still a pretty good album.
Oh, Man! The best performance on The Wall Live in Berlim, of course was done by Cindy Lauper singing Another Brick part 2 coming as a very angry high school student she was firme as eruption on stage. I apreciate her close relation with the musicians só funny and wild. Thomas Dolby who came after her become totally out of the range about Cindy show. She improve her show time.
Amused to Death is a close third to DSOTM and The Wall; a masterpiece (or at least a near-masterpiece) that blows all post-Waters Pink Floyd albums out of the water. The only weak track for me is "Watching TV" (I always skip past that one, though I love the history lesson about Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong and a "shoe factory called Taiwan"). "Three Wishes" doesn't really fit with the concept of the album, but it's still a genius song, its lyric about the consequence of getting too caught up in wish fulfillment (I think you are 100% right - there is a bit of a hidden tale here about Roger losing his second wife). "It's a Miracle" segues into "Amused to Death" in a heavenly way, Amen. I personally love the lines about Lloyd Webber since I, too, think that his stuff is awful. Roger can somehow evoke multiple emotions simultaneously (sadness, humor, angst), and he does it so well that I sometimes wonder if he is the actual alien. When he utters the line "and when they found our shadows grouped 'round the TV set" in the title track, I get chills... that hits me hard. I absolutely love the way he bookends the album with Alf Razzell's story. Again, just genius. I wish you could have gone a bit more into detail for this album specifically, but good work and thank you.
By the way, how in the world did they get the crickets on Amused to Death to sound so perfect? Usually there are high gain/noise floor issues when you try to record them in nature.
i actually own the original amused to death cd and i have to say how much better the bravery of being out of range is.
It would be so nice #JTCurtis if you review Roger (& his albums) without wearing Dave's undergarments. Amused To Death was a standout album.
Best Roger waters albums Is radio kaos
Just when I thought I'd discovered the worst opinion of all time, a new one pops up
RIP Sinéad O'Connor
Amused to Death is Roger's best solo album, but I don't think that's saying much. It has a few good songs, but like most of his solo work, it lacks the musicality of Pink Floyd. At least it's not as insufferably preachy as his most recent album.
I recently bought the amused to death on cassette. It sounds pretty good ngl. I still think it's nothing like what pink floyd did, including the final cut, it just doesn't sound as good.
Pink Floyd on top fr
yeeesss
I believe Roger doesn´t really write his songs. He comes with the lyrics and let the band develop it. That´s why he never talks about it.
Well I can't really speak for the songs on Amused to Death but Roger DOES write full songs. If you listen to the demo for Money, the riff (which David Gilmour praised in the Dark Side doc) and the melody (abeit slightly different) are there. Obviously the band really brought it to life though.
"Roger didn't tore this album." So it remains untorn?
TOUR this album
Roger without David, Rick and Nick = what's the point.
Amused to Death was definitely a return to form after Waters underwhelming 1980s output. ATD actually boasted number of bona fide classics - What God Wants, Perfect Sense, Bravery of Being Our of Range< Watching TV and It's A Miracle but its has some faults it's too long and too padded and his half spoken vocals and crazed primal screams do wear patience of the listener.
The Division Bell is rather padded too with Poles Apart and Marooned - tracks that could easily be cut from the album, Generally David's vocals hold up better across an entire LP than Roger's vocals.
@@robertmalyn6493I felt like David's voice on Division Bell, and especially PULSE, sounded really tired and almost strained. Not quite Perfect Sense Roger bad, but certainly strained.
@@robertmalyn6493 I couldn’t disagree more about Marooned. I think it’s one of the best tracks on the album and harkens back to the more instrumental / atmospheric vibe of the earlier Floyd records.
@@JTCurtisMusic The Division Bell is a very good album but one criticism is that it gets off to a slow start. After Cluster One and What Do You Want Me we get Poles Apart - which is the real culprit its not a very good song and goes on too long and is only on the album as it is obviously about Roger which fits the concept of communication breakdown. The only problem with Marooned is that it follows Poles Apart.
In my opinion the series of songs on The Division Bell from Great Day For Freedom to High Hopes is the best slab of Pink Floyd since the first disc of The Wall.
Except the bunker was just a prop
Idk what it is, but you kinda look like eric clapton.......
I don't even like "what god wants". Starts off great but gets boring for me very soon.
I don’t like RW music at all. PF is my favorite band in the world ❤
Don't be afraid, it's only business!
What God wants part III is the most epic song Roger has ever created...and that solo, oh man!
30+ years later I still get chills hearing that album, but that solo took me to places I never knew existed, this was the album that made me love Jeff Beck and made me believe that Roger was an essential component to Pink Floyd.
I liked Division bell, MLOR I honestly can't stand, it's rancid...but ATD blew all post Waters' floyd efforts right out of the water.