Amused to Death

Dette album regnes af mange Waters fans som hans absolut bedste. Det er nok også hans tungeste, hvad angår hans tekster. Det her er vel hvad Waters har bygget op til i alle sine år i Pink Floyd. Det er et koncept album og der er en masse stemmer og lyde i baggrunden, som begge dele var noget Floyd begyndte på i 1972 og Waters siden har viderudviklet på sine efterfølgende plader både solo og i Floyds navn. Så på mange måder det ultimative Waters album, og derfor bestemt også albummet der skiller bukkene fra fårene, da det helt klart kræver en del af sin lytter, at rumme alt det pladen byder på.
Som sagt er dette hvad Waters har "bygget op til" igennem sin lange karriere som musiker. Waters endelige mål, den perfekte plade. Lidt store ord måske, men det kunne forklare hvorfor Waters ikke siden har udgivet en ny rock-plade.

Og det er vel også derfor at det er denne plade Waters valgte udgive i en opdateret udgave 23 år senere.
Der er numre der er ændret og så er lyden på hele pladen opgraderet, eller pudset af om du vil. Så medmindre du sidder og lytter til dem begge for at opdage forskelen er her i det store hele tale om en genudgivelse.
De to numre der er ændrede er:

Perfect Sence I
På den oprindelige plade er der en længere historie med baglæns tale.
På den nye er der stadig lidt baglæns, men ellers resten erstattet af,.. ja det Waters mangelde eller ikke turde tage med, dengang pladen oprindeligt blev inspillet i 1992. Længere historie. Lad os skynde os videre til næste nummer:

The Bravery of Being out of Range
Her er hele lydbilledet ændret. Der er også enkelte ændringer i musikerne der er krediteret på dette numer.
For det første så står der ikke længere "Harmond Organ ud for Patrick Leonard, men Piano. Uden at være den store instrument ekspert, så kan man godt forestilel sig at det kune give en ændring i lydbilledet. DEt mest bemærkelsesværdige synes jeg dog er at Jeff Beck ikke var krediteret på den oprindelige udgave af dette nummer, men det er han nu. Og det kan man klart høre.

Vocal 12 string guitar - Roger Waters
Harmond organ, Synthesizer -Patrick Leonard
Solo Guitar Jeff Beck
Guitar Tim Pierce
Bass John Pierce
Drums Denny Fongheiser
Background vocals - Natalie Jackson Lynn Fiddmont-Linsey ditto

Har du endnu ikke lyttet til hverken den nye eller den oprindelige version af pladen, kan jeg kun anbefale det, da man skal lede længe, efter en plade der har så meget at byde på. Oprindeligt serveret i Q-sound for at give en fantastisk lydoplevelse. Jeg ved ikke hvad man kalder det i den nye finpusede udgave, men dårligere er det ikke blevet.

I 2016 vandt Amused to Death en Grammy i katagorien "Best Surround Sound Album", og det er bestemt ikke uden grund. Det er et fantastisk 5.1 mix!
James Guthrie og Joel Plante har arbejdet med de originale bånd og har virkelig løftet denne plade. Som nævnt tidligere, så er det her det ultimative Waters album, med alle de velkendte lydbilldere i baggrunden - i rigtig stor stil. Det har da virket fint nok siden 1992, men nu når de har "splittet billedet" ud fra stereo til surround, får lytteren fuld valuta af alle de ting der "sker" i baggrunden. Man sidder virkelig midt i Waters univers. En oplevelse der kun kan anbefales.

Titlen og inspirationen kommer fra Niel Postman's bog "Amusing Ourselves to Death." Niel Postman - Amusing Ourselves to Death

Der er dog noget der tyder på at de to ikke havde aftalt dette, for i en senere bog kvitterer Postman med denne svada

"The level of education required to appreciate the music of Roger Waters is both different and lower than what is required to appreciate, let us say, a Chopin étude... There is in short something missing in the aesthetic experience of our young."

Morsom udtallelse. Jeg må da mangle en hel del i min uddannelse, da jeg ikke har opdaget det fantastiske ved Chopin.

Pladens tema udspringer vel i bund og grund i det samme man ser i filmen The Wall med Waters far der dør i krigen. Det har gennem tiden ført til Waters' krig mod krig. Det kommer klart frem i The Final Cut og også i When the Wind Blows. Også samme tema i KAOS og det var faktisk lige efter KAOS at Waters begyndte på denne plade. Han havde dog en del store projekter som The Wall i Berlin og også allerede dengang var der Ça Ira. Så dette projekt blev udskudt hele tiden.

Man hører i starten og slutningen af pladen en ældre herres stemme. Det er Alf Hazzel som fortæller om sine oplevelser i 1.verdenskrig og er taget fra en BBC-dokumentar. Bill Hubbard er navnet på den soldat Alf prøver at redde livet på - dog uden held.

Af en eller anden grund ville Waters gerne have brugt noget lyd fra Stanley Kubricks film "Rumrejsen år 2001". Det er blevet hævdet at det var fordi denne film starter med nogle aber / neandertaler der slår på en sten med en knogle og dermed opdager at de har udviklet et våben osv. Som Waters starter sangen Perfect Sence I med.
Waters fik dog ikke lov til at bruge et originalt klip fra filmen.
I den nye version der blev udgivet i 2015 på blandt andet Blue ray i 5.1 surround, er det dog det originale klip der er med. I mellemtiden er Stanley Kubrick jo død, så er det jo i orden... eller...

Teksterne herunder er stort set afskrift fra innercoveret, men de ting der bliver sagt mellem numrene, er noget jeg fandt på en fransk side på nettet.

...believable bargain.
It certainly is!
Why did you grab it, dear ?
Well, I bought a thread of pearls from you last year for one daughter. So, I figured, well, I'll get to the other daughter this spring.
Yeah, it's about once a year you'll see the six-millimeter size.
Oh, they're beautiful!
I'd say extremely high luster, perfect roundness, and the six-millimeter size all add up to one thing: A phenomenal giveaway...

Oh (? tape something for the album he's watching ?) so call...
...Animals. ...
...I love you Harry!...
...and the box...hundred seventy-nine...
...Ninety-seven cents...And it certainly is a top one.
...So it's much desired and a marvelous way to, uh, wear your jewelry. Have fun.

...Really gonna miss you and the...and your voice...will be in my thoughts a nd in my heart. Happy new year, Bubba...Tracy
What do you think of Canterbury station...Take Harold home...

Cheer up!
...short...
...practical beast

[Alf Razzell:]
"Two things that have haunted me most are the days when I had to collect the paybooks; and when I left Bill Hubbard in no-man's-land."
"I was picked up and taken into their trench. And I'd no sooner taken two or three steps down the trench when I heard a call,
'Hello Razz, I'm glad to see you. This is my second night here,' and he said
'I'm feeling bad,' and it was Bill Hubbard, one of the men we'd trained in England, one of the original battalion. I had a look at his wound, rolled him over; I could see it was probably a fatal wound. You could imagine what pain he was in, he was dripping with sweat; and after I'd gone about three shellholes, traversed that, had it been...had there been a path or a road I could have done better.
He pummeled me, 'Put me down, put me down, I'd rather die, I'd rather die, put me down.'
I was hoping he would faint. He said 'I can't go any further, let me die.' I said 'If I leave you here Bill you won't be found, let's have another go.' He said 'All right then.' And the same thing happened; he couldn't stand it any more, and I had to leave him there, in no-man's-land."

What God wants, God gets, God help us all

What God wants, God gets, God help us all

What God wants, God gets

What God wants, God gets

What God wants, God gets

The kid in the corner looked at the priest
And fingered his pale blue Japanese guitar
The priest said
God wants goodness
God wants light
God wants mayhem
God wants a clean fight

What God wants God gets
What God wants, God gets

Don't look so surprised
It's only dogma
The alien prophet cried
The beetle and the springbok
Took the Bible from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the lesson in his book

What God wants God gets
What God wants, God gets
What God wants, God gets

God wants peace
God wants war
God wants famine
God wants chain stores

What God wants God gets

God wants sedition
God wants sex
God wants freedom
God wants semtex

What God wants, God gets
What God wants, God gets

Don't look so afraid
I'm only joking
The alien comic lied
The jackass and hyena
Took the feather from its hook
The monkey in the corner
Wrote the joke down in his book

What God wants, God gets
What God wants, God gets
What God wants, God gets
What God wants, God gets

God wants boarders
God wants crack
God wants rainfall
God wants wetbacks

God wants voodoo
God wants shrines
God wants law
God wants organized crime
God wants crusade
God wants jihad
God wants good
God wants bad

The monkey sat on a pile of stones
And stared at the broken bone in his hand
And the strains of a Viennese quartet
Rang out across the land
The monkey looked up at the stars
And he thought to himself
Memory is a stranger
History is for fools
And he cleaned his hands
In a pool of holy writing
Turned his back on the garden
And set out for the nearest town

Hold on hold on soldier

When you add it all up
The tears and the marrowbone
There's an ounce of gold
And an ounce of pride in each ledger
And the Germans killed the Jews
And the Jews killed the Arabs
and the Arabs killed the hostages
and that is the news
And is it any wonder
That the monkey's confused

He said Mama Mama
The President's a fool
Why do I have to keep reading
These technical manuals
And the joint chiefs of staff
And the brokers on Wall Street said
Don't make us laugh
You're a smart kid
Time is linear
Memory is a stranger
History is for fools
Man is a tool in the hands
Of the great God Almighty

And they gave him command
Of a nuclear submarine
And sent him back in search of
The Garden of Eden

Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense
Expressed in dollars and cents, pounds, shillings, and pence
Can't you see it all makes perfect sense

Little black soul departs in perfect focus
Hold on soldier
Prime time fodder for the News at Nine
Hold on, hold on soldier
Darling is the child warm in the bed tonight

Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense
Expressed in dollars and cents, pounds, shillings, and pence
Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense

And here come the players
As I speak to you now the captain
Has his cross hairs zeroed in on the oil rig
It looks to me like he's going to attack
He's at periscope depth
By the way did you know that a submarine
Captain earns 200,000 dollars a year

Oh that's less tax Marv

yeah less tax. Thank you Emery
You're welcome
Now back to the game he fires one
Yes ! There goes two. Both fish are running
The rig is going into a prevent defense
Will they make it ?
I don't think so
Look out!
Look at that baby burn

Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense
Expressed in dollars and cents, pounds, shillings, and pence
Can't you see, it all makes perfect sense
Can't you see, it all makes perfect sence

You have a natural tendency
To squeeze off a shot
You're good fun at parties
You wear the right masks
You're old but you still like a laugh in the locker room
You can't abide change
You're at home on the range
You opened your suitcase
Behind the old workings
To show off the magnum
You deafened the canyon
A comfort a friend
Only upstaged in the end by the Uzi machine gun
Does the recoil remind you
Remind you of sex
Old man what the hell you gonna kill next
Old timer who you gonna kill next

I looked over Jordan and what did I see
Saw a U.S. Marine in a pile of debris
I swam in your pools
And lay under your palm trees
I looked in the eyes of the Indian
Who lay on the Federal Building steps
And through the range finder over the hill
I saw the front line boys popping their pills
Sick of the mess they find
On their desert stage
And the bravery of being out of range
Yeah the question is vexed
Old man what the hell you gonna kill next
Old timer who you gonna kill next

Hey bartender over here
Two more shots
And two more beers
Sir turn up the TV sound
The war has started on the ground
Just love those laser guided bombs
They're really great
For righting wrongs
You hit the target
And win the game
From bars 3,000 miles away
3,000 miles away
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range
We zap and maim
With the bravery of being out of range
We strafe the train
With the bravery of being out of range
We gain terrain
With the bravery of being out of range
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range

Standing at the window
A farmer's wife in Oxford shire
Glances at the clock it's nearly time for tea
She doesn't see
The phantom in the hedgerow dip its wings
Doesn't hear the engine sing

Secure in the beauty of military life
There is no right nor wrong
Only tin cans and cordite and white cliffs
And blue skies and flight flight flight
The beauty of military life
No questions only orders and flight only flight

What a beautiful sight in his wild blue dream
The eternal child leafs through his war magazine
And his kind Uncle Sam feeds ten trillion in change
into the total entertainment combat video game

And up here in the stands
The fans are goin' wild
The cheerleaders flip
When you wiggle your hip
And we all like the bit when you take
The jeans from the refrigerator and
Then the bad guy gets hit

And were you struck by the satisfying
Way the swimsuit sticks to her skin
Like BB gun days
When knives pierce autumn leaves
But that's okay see the children bleed
It'll look great on the TV

And in Tripoli another ordinary wife
Stares at the dripping tap her old man hadn't time to fix
Too busy mixing politics and rhythm in the street below

På arabisk:
And then what ! why don't you ever help me? You all the time leave me alone at home and go join your fat friends in your endless useless discussions...
I work for you and your family from dawn to dusk, and you don't give a damn!
I badly need to rest, I just wish the devil's angel will soon come and take me with him...
...is Great... is Great... God is great...
Death, Death, Death to the imperialists !...
...his days are rarely spent at home...
As for her, she stays alone; she stays alone at home... While all the men are out gathered at the square, she's left to loneliness and oblivion.

Hark the wire service sing
Clear the satellite link
Check the fax machine
Hold the lead story boys
There's some great pictures coming in

Now the pilot's heartbeat slows
Palms dry out
No questions only orders
And the F-1 glides in nose-up
Through the cloudbase and the
Ground crew cheers as he puts down
His landing gear

Hey boy you're a hero take this cigar
Back home in Cleveland
All the papers and local TV stations
Will be calling your ma

And the farmer's wife
Shoos the cat off the chair
She says sit down my dear
Was the milking all right
Our American friends are late home tonight

When the sleigh is heavy
And the timber wolves are getting bold
You look at you companions
And test the water of their friendship
With your toe
And they significantly edge
Closer to the gold
Each man has his price Bob
And yours was pretty low

Now history is short
The sun is just a minor star
The poor man sells his kidneys
In some colonial bazaar
Que sera sera
Is that your new Ferrari car
Nice but I think I'll wait for the F50

You don't have to be a Jew
To disapprove of murder
Tears burn my eyes
Muslim or Christian Mullah or Pope
Preacher or poet who was it wrote
Give any one species too much rope
And they'll fuck it up

Last night on TV
A Vietnam vet
Takes his beard and his pain
And his alienation twenty years
Back to Asia again
Sees the monsters they made
In formaldehyde floating 'round
Meets a gook on a bike
A good little tyke
With the same soldier's eyes

What does it mean
This tear jerking scene
Beamed into my home
That it moves me so much
Why all the fuss
It's only two humans being
It's only two humans being
Tears burn in my eyes
What does it mean
This tender TV
This tear jerking scene
Beamed into my home
And you don't have to be a Jew
To disapprove of murder
Tears burn my eyes
Muslim or Christian, Mullah or Pope
Preacher or poet who was it wrote
Give any one species too much rope
And they'll fuck it up

What God wants God gets God help us all
God wants dollars
God wants cents
God wants pounds shillings and pence
God wants guilders
God wants Kroner
God wants Swiss francs
God wants French francs

God wants escudos
God wants pesetas
Don't send lira
God don't want small potatoes
God wants small towns
God wants pain
God wants clean up rock campaigns

God wants windows
God wants solutions
God wants TV
God wants contributions

What God wants God gets, God help us all
What God wants God gets, God help us all
God wants silver
God wants gold
God wants his secret never to be told
God wants gigolos
God wants giraffes
God wants politics
God wants a good laugh
What God wants God gets God help us all
God wants friendship
God wants fame
God wants credit
God wants blame
God wants poverty
God wants wealth
God wants insurance
God wants to cover himself

What God wants, God gets God help us all
What God wants, God gets God help us all
What God wants, God gets God help us all
What God wants, God gets God help us all
What God wants, God gets God help us all

Don't be afraid it's only business
The alien prophet sighed
The vulture and the magpie took
The cash box from its hook
The monkey in the corner wrote
The figures in his book

Crazed the checkout lady's fingers
Flash across the till
The captain posts the menu for the day
And in banks across the world
Christians Moslems Hindus Jews
And people of every
Race creed colour tint or hue
Get down on their knees and pray

The raccoon and the groundhog
Neatly make up bags of change
But the monkey in the corner
Well he's slowly drifting out of range

Christ it's freezing inside
The veteran cries
The hyenas break cover
And stream through the meadow
And the fog rolls in
Though his bottle of gin
So he picks up a stone
That looks like a bone
And the bullets fly
And the rivers run dry
And the fat girls sigh
And the network anchor persons lie
And the soldier's alone
In the video zone
But the monkey's not watching
He's slipped out to the kitchen
To pile the dishes
And answer the phone

Oh, darling, you really must keep in touch
Only bears hibernate, you know.
A heh heh
He said you can get a vicari...
...Power doorlocks Power mirrors, AM/FM Cassette, Air conditioning...
I made this sharp as is practically possible
So this cuts off the flow of liquid...
Whatcha doin man?
Diamond cutting, madam...
Did you find any?
You've heard of the hope diamond
Oh, yes, I know about that!
I've been sound in my policy Escape from the icehouse?

In Tiananmen Square
Lost my baby there
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes
She was a short order pastry chef
In a Dim Sum dive on the Yangtze tideway
She had shiny hair
She was the daughter of an engineer
Won't you shed a tear
For my yellow rose
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes

She had perfect breasts
She had high hopes
She had almond eyes
She had yellow thighs
She was a student of philosophy
Won't you grieve with me
For my yellow rose
Shed a tear
For her bloodstained clothes

She had shiny hair
She had perfect breasts
She had high hopes
She had almond eyes
She had yellow thighs
She was the daughter of an engineer
So get out your pistols
Get out your stones
Get out your knives
Cut them to the bone
They are the lackeys of the grocer's machine
They built the dark satanic mills
That manufacture hell on earth
They bought the front row seats on Calvary
They are irrelevant to me
And I grieve for my sister

We were watching TV
Watching TV
We were watching TV
Watching TV

She wore a white bandanna that said
Freedom now
She thought the Great Wall of China
would come tumbling down
She was a student
Her father was an engineer
Won't you shed a tear
For my yellow rose
My yellow rose
In her bloodstained clothes

Her grandpa fought old Chiang Kai-shek
That no-good low-down dirty rat
Who used to order his troops
To fire on the women and children
Imagine that, imagine that
And in the spring of '48
Mao Tse-tung got quite irate
And he kicked that old dictator Chiang
Out of the state of China
Chiang Kai-shek came down in Formosa
And they armed the island of Quemoy
And the shells were flying across the China Sea
And they turned Formosa into a shoe factory called Taiwan

And she is different from Cro-Magnon man
She's different from Anne Boleyn
She is different from the Rosenbergs
And from the unknown Jew
She is different from the unknown Nicaraguan
Half superstar half victim
She's a victor star conceptually new

And she is different from the Dodo
And from the Kankanbono
She is different from the Aztec
And from the Cherokee
She's everybody's sister
She's symbolic of our failure
She's the one in fifty million
Who can help us to be free
Because she died on TV

And I grieve for my sister

I went and buy a gas bottle
At first I wanted to buy a big one,
But then I hadn't got enough money
So I had to buy a smaller one
And I think if I bought a bigger one
Then it would have been... the way I wanted it
And then, er, we went down, and ahm,
I put the children to bed
And I tidied the flat
And everything and then
And they were asleep
And everything was a kind of at night
I made a bed in the bathroom
I carried them there
And put on the gas bottle
But today when I think a back peh.. about that...
if God did take me, then I would've been in hell Because I wasn't right

Reached back for the bottle
And rubbed against the lamp
Genie came out smiling
Like some Eastern tramp
He said
"Hey boy what's happening
What is going on
You can have three wishes
If you don't take too long
If you don't take too long"
I said
well I wish they were all happy in the Lebanon
Wish somebody'd help me write this song
I wish when I was young
My old man had not been gone
Genie said consider it done

There's something in the air
And you don't know what it is
You see someone through the window
Who you've just learned to miss
And the road leads on to glory but
You've used up your last wish
Your last wish
And you want her to come home
Bring her home
Genie said
"I'm sorry
But that's the way it goes
Where the hell's the lamp sucker
It's time for me to go
Bye"
There's something in the air
And you don't know what it is
You see someone through the window
Who you've just learned to miss
And the road leads on to glory
but you've used up your last wish
Your last wish
And you want her to come home

Miraculous you call it babe
You ain't seen nothing yet
They've got Pepsi in the Andes
They've got McDonalds in Tibet
Yosemite's been turned into
A golf course for the Japs
The Dead Sea is alive with rap
Between the Tigris and Euphrates
There's a leisure centre now
They've got all kinds of sports
They've got Bermuda shorts
They had sex in Pennsylvania
A Brazilian grew a tree
And a doctor in Manhattan
Saved a dying man for free
It's a miracle
It's a miracle
It's a miracle, another Miracle

By the grace of God Almighty
And the pressures of the marketplace
The human race has civilized itself
It's a miracle

We've got warehouses of butter
We've got oceans of wine
We've got famine when we need it
Got designer crime
We've got Mercedes
We've got Porsche
Ferrari and Rolls Royce
Yeah, we've got choice

She said meet me in the Garden of Gethsemene my dear
The Lord said Peter I can see your house from here
An honest man finally reaped what he had sown
A farmer in Ohio has just repaid a loan
It's a miracle
It's a miracle
It's a miracle, another Miracle

By the grace of God Almighty
And the pressures of the marketplace
The human race has civilized itself
It's a miracle

We cower in our shelters
With our hands over our ears
Lloyd-Webber's awful stuff
Runs for years and years and years
An earthquake hits the theater
But the operetta lingers
Then the piano lid comes down
And breaks his fucking fingers
It's a miracle

Consider it a bargin at even 6 or 7 or even 8 hundred dollars
Hi!
You're live on the show!
Hi!
Denise from delaware
How are you?
First time I've even been this.. uh, spoke to you.
Why, it's my pleasure!
...son, bought that thing for me, and you were supposed to give
it to me on Mother's Day.
Uh-huh
But you didn't.
...tell me...
Ah, maybe about 7 or 8 hundred dollars
Seven or eight! A congratulation!
OK!
bye-bye
bye-bye
We own this at four hundred dollars
You gotta be kidding me!
Seven, eight, nine hundred dollars!
Tell ya what
While it was seventy-five, eighty maybe
Cut the price
Cut it and give it away
To end the day
To end the day out there...
It's incredible...
Not even worth selling...seventy-seven

Doctor Doctor what is wrong with me
This supermarket life is getting long
What is the heart life of a colour TV
What is the shelf life of a teenage queen

Ooh western woman
Ooh western girl

News hound sniffs the air
When Jessica Hahn goes down
He latches on to that symbol of detachment
Attracted by the peeling away of feeling
The celebrity of the abused shell the belle

Ooh western woman
Ooh western girl

And the children of Melrose strut their stuff

Is absolute zero cold enough
And out in the valley warm and clean
The little ones sit by their TV screens
No thoughts to think
No tears to cry
All sucked dry
Down to the very last breath

Bartender what is wrong with me
Why am I so out of breath
The captain said excuse me ma'am
This species has amused itself to death
Amused itself to death
It has amused it self to death
Amused itself to death

We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told
We bought and sold
It was the greatest show on earth
But then it was over
We ohhed and aahed
We drove our racing cars
We ate our last few jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed look-out
Spied a flickering light
Our last hurrah

And when they found our shadows
Grouped around the TV sets
They ran down every lead
They repeated every test
They checked out all the data on their lists
And then the alien anthropologists
Admitted they were still perplexed
But on eliminating every other reason
For our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death
No tears to cry no feelings left
This species has amused itself to death

[Alf Razzell:]
"Years later, I saw Bill Hubbard's name on the memorial to the missing at Arras. And I...when I saw his name I was absolutely transfixed; it was as though he was now a human being instead of some sort of nightmarish memory of how I had to leave him, all those years ago. And I felt relieved, and ever since then I've felt happier about it, because always before, whenever I thought of him, I said to myself, 'Was there something else that I could have done?'

"Put me down. put me down I'd rather die, I'd rather die. Put me down"

And that always sort of worried me. And having seen him, and his name in the register - as you know in the memorials there's a little safe, there's a register in there with every name - and seeing his name and his name on the memorial; it sort of lightened my...heart, if you like."
(woman) "When was it that you saw his name on the memorial?"
"Ah, when I was eighty-seven, that would be a year, ninete...eighty-four, nineteen eighty-four."