Pink Floyd: The Final Cut?

[JonFromMaplewood]

Tom,

What are your thoughts regarding The Final Cut?  Beautiful? Shmaltzy? Too much Roger Waters influence? Or aided by Roger Waters' total control?

And do you speak less about it than other albums by them because it's hardly a Pink Floyd album and really a Roger Waters solo album?

Just curious.

Thanks,
Jon

[JonFromMaplewood]

Boy, I really opened up a Pandora's Box with that question.

[buffcoat]

Jon - I'm not Tom, but I'm a (rare?) fan of both The Final Cut and A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

And I really don't like the later Waters solo stuff or The Division Bell.  I *really* don't like The Division Bell.

I guess TFC and AMLoR were just Floyd enough for me to enjoy them.

On The Final Cut, I particularly like the rockier numbers:  "The Fletcher Memorial Home" and "Not Now, John."  Eff all that.

[Tom Scharpling]

The answer is forthcoming in a public forum.

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Tom.

[Tom Scharpling]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/scharpling/how-to-really-understand-pink-floyd

HERE'S YOUR ANSWER!

Tom.

[SJPete]

Great one Tom! Pretty much hit the nail on the head.

The Final Cut was one of those albums I held off on because I knew the dreadful history behind the making of it before I heard a note of music from it. I've grown older since, and I've tried to not let it affect my enjoyment of the music. It's still the one PF album I put on the least, along with Division Bell, but it's not bad. Just a little hard to listen to sometimes.

I like the assesment that WYWH is the "Being in PF sucks" era. Could you imagine what it would've been like if Household Objects had been followed through on? It would've been the "We are famous now, so we are doing a bat-s**t crazy album" era instead.
And finally, somebody's noticed how sick Nick Mason's drumming is on the Pompeii "Echoes! I used to show that to my friends all the time saying "See? I told you so!"

[nec13]

That period of time between Syd's departure and Waters essentially taking over the band is really interesting. They didn't make a truly great album during that time period, but there are some outstanding individual moments on each and every one of those records. I've been playing this one a lot lately:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w3YQmigKg4

[JonFromMaplewood]

Well then. Question answered. In spades.

THANK YOU!

[nec13]

Well then. Question answered. In spades.

THANK YOU!

You're welcome!

[buffcoat]

That period of time between Syd's departure and Waters essentially taking over the band is really interesting. They didn't make a truly great album during that time period, but there are some outstanding individual moments on each and every one of those records. I've been playing this one a lot lately:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w3YQmigKg4

Rick Wright is criminally underrated.

I really like "Paint Box" - I think it's a lost classic of whatever type of music that is.  "Out of the front door I go / Traffic's moving rather slow"

[BrotherBen]

The Final Cut is one I never got into as a youngster but have come to appreciate more recently. I never enjoyed the album because it lacked both memorable songs and the sort of instrumental magic you expected from Pink Floyd. However as a manic/cinematic anti-war invective it's a compelling listen, very dark and even frightening at times, but you can't help but be moved by the intensity Waters put into it. I hear it less now as a conventional rock album, and more as a soundtrack to Waters personal and political views, with the prominence of orchestral music and sound effects lending to that feel. There was even a short film (available on YouTube) made to accompany the album.

[masterofsparks]

That period of time between Syd's departure and Waters essentially taking over the band is really interesting. They didn't make a truly great album during that time period, but there are some outstanding individual moments on each and every one of those records.

I like this period a lot as well. One of my favorites (and also one of the least Pink Floyd-sounding songs they ever did) is "The Nile Song":

http://youtu.be/ok8eeJXllUE

[JonFromMaplewood]

I was in a supermarket in Jersey City back when I used to live there in the 90's (the supermarket on the way from the WFMU area to the Holland Tunnel). There I was shopping for whatever.  They were playing the typical supermarket music (Bryan Adams, Katrina and the Waves, etc) when what should come on but "San Tropez" off of Meddle.

Definitely an odd and unexpected treat.

Pink Floyd - San Tropez

[Smelodies]

Back in the early '90s, I read Stephen King's The Mist while listening to Atom Heart Mother.  They really seemed to go to togther, much like Dark Side of the Moon and The Wizard of Oz, I suppose.

[Frank the Painter]

Final Cut is great. It's easy to call it a solo record but the soft sweet melancholy music thing they did on that one (except for Not Now John) sort of falls apart when Waters did it again on his actual solo album Pros and Cons of Hitch Hicking (although I kind of dig the title track on that one, in a cheesy 80s way). Also, while Final Cut was culled and expanded from some deleted Wall material, Pros and Cons actually recycles more themes/music from the Wall in, again, an inferior way.

Paranoid Eyes is a great song.