Roger WatersAmused to DeathStudio CDRecorded: 1988-1992
Released: 7 September 1992
BandRoger Waters (bass, synth, guitar)
Jeff Beck (guitar)
Geoff Whitehorn (guitar)
Andy Fairweather Low (guitar)
Tim Pierce (guitar)
B.J. Cole (guitar)
Steve Lukather (guitar)
Rick DiFonso (guitar)
Bruce Gaitsch (guitar)
Patrick Leonard (keyboards, programming)
John "Rabbit" Bundrick (organ)
James Johnston (bass)
Randy Jackson (bass)
John Pierce (bass)
John Patitucci (bass)
Graham Broad (drums)
Denny Fongheiser (drums)
Jeff Porcaro (drums)
Brian Macleod (snare, hi-hat)
Steve Sidwell (cornet)
Luis Conte (percussion)
Additional vocalistsMarv Albert
Katie Kissoon
Doreen Chanter
N'Dea Davenport
Natalie Jackson
P.P. Arnold
Lynn Fiddmont-Linsey
Jessica Leonard
Jordan Leonard
Don Henley
Jon Joyce
Stan Farber
Jim Haas
Rita Coolidge
Alf Razzell
Also featuring Guo Yi and the Peking Brothers (dulcimer, lute, zhen, oboe, bass).
All tracks authored by Roger Waters.
Track listing1. The Ballad of Bill Hubbard (4:19)
2. What God Wants (part I) (6:00)
3. Perfect Sense (part I) (4:16)
4. Perfect Sense (part II) (2:50)
5. The Bravery of Being Out of Range (4:43)
6. Late Home Tonight (part I) (4:00)
7. Late Home Tonight (part II) (2:13)
8. Too Much Rope (5:47)
9. What God Wants (part II) (3:41)
10. What God Wants (part III) (4:08)
11. Watching TV (6:07)
12. Three Wishes (6:50)
13. It's a Miracle (8:30)
14. Amused to Death (9:06)
ReviewI'm quite ambivalent when it comes to this album. On the one hand, it has the direct, biting lyrics Roger used to deliver without fail in the '70s, and the addition of Jeff Beck on guitar injects these songs with a dimension of musicianship that has been missing ever since
The Wall. On the other hand, Roger seems to have developed little as a musician, only occasionally producing a song that couldn't be mistaken for something straight off
Wish You Were Here or
The Wall. Still, I would rate this as being Roger's best solo album yet, and most certainly better than
The Wall.
The main underlying concept of the album is the idea that television is a double-edged sword; that as powerful a medium it can be for good, so too is it a powerful weapon of evil. Accompanying that are the usual Roger Waters themes of war, religion, commercialism and globalisation, and the damage each one can do to society. The lyrics are very heavy on symbolism; throughout the album, "the monkey" is used to represent the young and innocent part of ourselves which is gradually diminished by all of these influences; in What God Wants (part III), it is said that "the monkey in the corner [is] slowly drifting out of range".
The opening track, very unusually for a Roger Waters album, is instrumental. It does have the voice of Alfred Razzell, a World War I veteran, taken from a documentary in which he recounts being forced to abandon a fellow soldier, Bill Hubbard, in no-man's land. However, there are no sung lyrics, and the music is very reminiscent of the start of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, with full-bodied synth chords and Jeff Beck performing a guitar solo over the top.
In very typical Waters style, the opening instrumental abruptly cuts, with the sound of a television changing channels, to a sample of a young boy saying "I don't mind about the war, that's one of the things I like to watch, if it's a war going on". This heralds the start of What God Wants, a three-part song which, by dealing with both the harmful nature of religion (part I) and commercialism (part II), draws a connection between the two, in that both are revered and worshipped by many people incapable of thinking outside those paradigms.
Perfect Sense serves to deliver a back story for the aforementioned monkey symbol. It begins with the very dawn of civilisation ("the monkey sat on a pile of stones, and he stared at the broken bone in his hand"); a reference to
2001: A Space Odyssey, from which Roger wanted to include the famous "stop, Dave" monologue at the beginning of the song. Stanley Kubrick, however, refused permission for Roger to sample the film, and so it was replaced with a backwards message expressing Roger's frustration with the situation.
Continuing with the story being told in Perfect Sense, the monkey is revealed to have been presented with a series of confusing lectures and given "command of a nuclear submarine and [sent] back in search of the Garden of Eden". What Roger seems to be saying here is that as young minds grow and mature, they are preyed upon by the commercial giants, especially in terms of propaganda shown on television as they grow up. The second part of Perfect Sense addresses this point far more directly, claiming that everything that has happened "makes perfect sense, expressed in dollars and cents, pounds, shillings and pence".
The Bravery of Being Out of Range and Late Home Tonight are a return to the self-indulgent, war-oriented Roger we know and love. The former is a commentary on the bravery (of lack thereof) shown by the US military when they bomb targets that can't possibly fire back with anything capable of reaching the people in charge, with a direct reference (though not by name) to George H. W. Bush, then president of the USA. The latter tells a more personal story of the 1986 US air strike against Libya, with Roger as narrator taking on the perspective of various individuals (one not directly involved in the strike, but watching it on TV; one pilot involved in the strike; and one victim).
Too Much Rope is where this album begins to show its true potential. Until now, Roger's voice has been a mere shadow of what it was on
The Wall and
Pros and Cons, but his performance on this track, while still noticeably worse than his prime, is far better than I remembered from my last listening. It's no Hey You, but he manages to hit some pretty powerful high notes here. Likewise, while the composition isn't mind-blowing, it's one of the few songs on the album that manages to set itself apart from Roger's earlier work with Floyd. Definitely a high point.
Watching TV is another high point, and my overall favourite track. Musically, it's very unusual for Roger, bordering on country rock. Indeed, the vocals are sung in harmony by Roger and Don Henley (of Eagles fame), itself one of very few instances I can recall where Roger harmonises with anyone for the lead vocal. But lyrically, I would rate this song as among Roger's best work.
It starts out as a very personal, melancholy story about losing a loved one in the Tiananmen Square massacre, with the protagonist giving a very detailed, intimate description of the person. As the song goes on, it is gradually revealed that the source of grief (who is consistently referred to as "my sister") is actually a protester whose death happened to be captured on TV ("she's the one in fifty million who can help us to be free, because she died on TV"). It's an extremely effective way of communicating what is at once the powerful informative capacity of television and its tendency to encourage viewers to shut out all else from their mind while watching.
Three Wishes, while it is another powerful song, introduces a fantasy element that doesn't seem to belong on this album; it revolves around finding a genie, making three wishes, and then remembering a long lost one ("who you've just learned to miss") and being too late to bring them back. It's a Miracle brings us crashing back down to the album's theme of commercialism, with various aspects of modern globalisation (from McDonald's in Tibet to a benevolent doctor in Manhattan) being described as miraculous. Roger also can't seem to resist taking a shot at Andrew Lloyd Webber; "Lloyd Webber's awful stuff runs for years [...] then the piano lid comes down and breaks his fucking fingers", an event which is also claimed to be a miracle.
The final track, Amused to Death, brings a finality to the concept in a distinctively Waters-esque fashion. Despite another cheap shot (this time at Nick Mason's racing hobby), Roger brings the album's story to a close by describing the exhaustion of the resources which feed commercialism ("we ate our last few jars of caviar"), and hypothesising that aliens who stumble upon the dead human race huddled around their television sets would be baffled as to what had caused their extinction. Finally, a short sample of Alfred Razzell closes the album in the same vein as it is opened, with him relaying his own sense of finality upon seeing Bill Hubbard's name on a list of missing soldiers at a war memorial many years after the war was over.
This album is far from perfect, but given the extremely inconsistent nature of Floyd members' solo works, coupled with Roger's tendency to go way overboard in his self-indulgence, it turned out to be far better than I might have hoped for. The weaker points that don't add anything new to the catalogue (The Ballad of Bill Hubbard, The Bravery of Being Out of Range) are nicely balanced by the more distinctive, challenging numbers (Too Much Rope, Watching TV) to create an album that is pretty damn good, all things considered.
Roger himself has characterised this album as the third installment in a set with
The Dark Side of the Moon and
The Wall. I'm not sure I'd agree with that assessment, but it's good enough that if you enjoy those two, you really ought to give this a listen and make up your own mind.