The Final Cut

I first was told about Pink Floyd's The Final Cut when I was in high school. It came recommended by a young, cool, inspirational teacher whom, needless to say, I respected a lot. I kept my eye out for the album when at record stores and whatnot, but never saw a copy. It turns out that The Final Cut was pretty rare in America. None of the songs ended up becoming rock radio mainstays, most likely due to the subject matter, which we will dive into later. Back in 1997/8 the internet was just starting to expand. This was pre-itunes and pre-napster.

We take rare albums for granted in the information age. Essentially we have created a system where there are no truly "rare" recordings. File sharing and digital downloads means that there is no cost in production. It can be reproduced for free, and thus if an album is rare it is not due to a lack of copies, but because it is unpopular. It's a very democratic way to run a library.

A few years later, in a time where I may have been able to find a copy of The Final Cut online, the album had fallen off of my radar. It was a great surprise to me when I was pawing through a local vinyl records shop to come across an excellent condition copy of the album.

Back in the late 90's when I first head about the album it was described to me as songs from the Pink Floyd album The Wall that didn't make it onto the album. This is partially true. The Final Cut has a very similar sound to The Wall, and a lot of the themes are reused and reworked, and it really has a similar feel to The Wall. It turns out that originally the material on The Final Cut was going to be a soundtrack to the movie "The Wall". At one point it was going to be known as "Spare Bricks". But back in 1982, smack dab in the middle of production, Great Britain invaded the Falkland Islands, and Roger Waters decided to change the theme to postwar Britain, the economic downturn, and heading back into war. Those of you who spent their teens listening to The Wall with headphones on the bus ride home like I did will recall that The Wall was all about Roger Waters losing his father in World War II and how it caused him to wall himself up on the inside.

Other members of the band, David Gilmour in particular, were not happy about the change of theme of The Final Cut. Tensions rose and they started working separately to finish the album. The album came out officially titled The Final Cut, A Requiem For The Postwar Dream, Written by Roger Waters, Performed by Pink Floyd. Soon after the album was released, Waters announced that he had left the band.

Now that you have a good amount of back story and useless information, we are going to take a look at the title track,

"The Final Cut" written by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd, from The Final Cut



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnnA_HJ_i30&


Note: This video is the second part of a 4 song video project that Pink Floyd put out tied to this album. Here are the other parts

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3PIG6XXIdw
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpL6EWpM6oo
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dpyjvo3XWk

"The Final Cut" is a first person narrative of a man in the deepest pits of depression desperately attempting to claw his way out. It starts as a solo vocal with piano accompaniment. "Through the fish-eyed lens of tear stained eyes I can barely define the shape of this moment in time, and far from flying high in clear blue skies, I'm spiraling down to the hole in the ground where I hide." In this couplet, Waters has written an amazingly vivid, yet beautifully simple description of the plunge. I certainly have not heard a more eloquent representation of the subject matter on which I write.

As the orchestration thickens with guitar, drums, and strings, our narrator goes on to explain his internal guards. "If you negotiate the minefield in the drive and beat the dogs and cheat the cold electronic eyes, and if you make it past the shotguns in the hall, dial the combination, open the priesthole, and if I'm in I'll tell you *BLAM*" We didn't make it past the shotguns, but the lyrics included with the record finish the lyric "what's behind the wall."

As the strings start playing the same arpeggiated pattern from "Comfortably Numb" we get a view on how our narrator feels trapped somewhere inbetween childhood and manhood. "There's a kid who had a big hallucination making love to girls in magazines. He wonders if you're sleeping with your new found faith. Could anybody love him, or is it just a crazy dream?" Roger Waters always had trouble recording vocals. This comes as no surprise if you've listened to any songs on which he sings. He has a fragility to his voice, a lack of confidence. It is the kind of thing that works really well with songs dealing with internal struggle. Water's voice is perfect for the songs on which he sings and works extremely well here. He really opens up on this last lyric and his voice cracks in just the perfect way. He really lets you know that the character thinks it is crazy that someone would ever love him.

At this point we cut out to a minimal organ/string accompaniment to Waters frail vocals. "And if I show you my dark side," (There is no dark side in the moon really, matter of fact it's all dark,) "will you still hold me tonight? And if I open my heart to you and show you my weak side what would you do?" Just then the band kicks back in and an air of anger and accusation comes into Waters voice. "Would you sell your story to Rolling Stone? Would you take the children away and leave me alone, and smile in reassurance as you whisper down the phone?" The band drops out for the first half of this lyric before kicking back in for the song's climax as we get to the real crux of the matter. "Would you send me packing," and with that beautiful crack in Waters voice once more, "or would you take me home?"

David Gilmour comes in with a short but sweet guitar solo that is also reminiscent of "Comfortably Numb"

Waters comes in furiously with "Thought I oughta bare my naked feelings. Thought I oughta tear the curtain down. I held the blade in trembling hands, prepared to make it but... " The bottom falls out, and ...

" ...just then the phone rang. I never had the nerve to make the final cut." And it doesn't work out. It's a catch-22. It's too painful to change so instead I'll cause myself more pain. the song recedes into nothingness. It fades like the character, walled up deeper and deeper until they can no longer be seen.

As always, feel free to comment or suggest a song either here or at suicidesongs@communistdaycarecenter.net

Please Tell My Brother

Jeff Tweedy is currently one of the most prominent American songwriters. Tweedy fronts the group Wilco, which has seven studio albums to date, comprising of 90% or more Tweedy written songs. Before Wilco, he was in the band Uncle Tupelo, one of the most influential bands in the 'Alt-Country' or 'Americana' or whatever you want to call the genre to which it was influential. Tweedy also has been in and is involved in multiple other groups like 'Loose Fur,' and 'Golden Smog.' In between doing all the work with Wilco and these other groups he still finds time to go out and play full solo tours. Needless to say, the man is prolific. There is no doubt in my mind that within twenty years Jeff Tweedy will be commonly mentioned in the same breath as Seeger, Dylan, and Springsteen. He will have a spot in the canon of American songwriters. Today we are going to take a look at one of my favorites from Jeff Tweedy's solo repertoire, "Please Tell My Brother"

"Please Tell My Brother" by Jeff Tweedy



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSOUrws_ZQ4


"But wait!," you say, "This is a Golden Smog tune. It's on 1998's Weird Tales." You are correct, and here's a link to it: http://vimeo.com/3466571. I chose the live version because it is how I was introduced to the song. I knew this song before I knew that Golden Smog was a band. Also, if you listen to the Golden Smog version, well, it's just Jeff Tweedy and an acoustic guitar, so it's really solo Tweedy anyway.

I wanted to give a view into what a Jeff Tweedy solo show is like. Last time I talked about the intimacy that Sam Beam projects through his music. It is a very personal, one on one kind of intimacy. Tweedy shows have a whole different kind of intimacy happening. He is active with the crowd. This is evident at the beginning of the video where you hear him respond "ok" to a member of the crowd and everyone laughs. He creates an air of close knit community and makes one feel like they belong there with everyone else. Tweedy turns concert halls into bonfires.

Our tale begins "Please tell my brothers I love them still over the mountains on their phone bill. I should call more often, but I know I never will. Please tell my brothers I love them still." Our protagonist is far from home. He is over a mountain away, and whether it is physical or metaphorical, it still represents a nearly insurmountable distance.

We continue "Please tell my sister I miss her too, my nieces and nephews and their swimming pools. When I think about her, her skies are blue. Please tell my sister I miss her too." Our narrator is separated from more than just his brothers. He is separated from his entire family. Where is he? What is he running from? As listeners we know that he has separated himself because of the line "I should call more often, but they know I never will." It is up to him to call home, but he can't for some reason. Something from his past is haunting him.

"Please tell my father I love him still. Head for the cooler and drink your fill. Forget the railroad and all those bills. Please tell my father I love him still." Dad, it's ok. Forget your troubles. Forget what happened. Grab a beer, relax. More than anything I wish I was there having one with you, but I just can't.

Now, at the end of the song, we finally get to hear to whom our protagonist is talking; to whom he is asking to check in on his family. "Listen dear mother I miss you the most, and as I travel from coast to coast I feel your love and I feel your ghost. Listen dear mother I miss you the most." Our protagonist is haunted by his mother's ghost. For some unexplained reason he feels guilty and has removed himself from his family and can not go back, at least not yet, not until he himself can come to terms with whatever happened.

There are so many Tweedy penned songs to choose from, why choose this one? There is no lack of sadness and turmoil in his repertoire, so why pick something so simple and benign by comparison? In a word: Lonesome. This is one of the most lonesome and alienated songs I have ever heard. The character is so separate and lonely. He wants nothing but to be with his family, but he can't. The part that hurts is that his absence is self imposed,

and he knows it.

As always feel free to comment or suggest songs here or send me an email at suicidesongs@communistdaycarecenter.net