Roger Waters

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George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the bass player, lyricist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Pink Floyd. Following the departure of fellow founding member Syd Barrett in March 1968, Waters became the band’s lyricist, principal songwriter and conceptual leader. The band subsequently achieved worldwide success in the 1970s with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall. Following creative differences, in 1985, Waters left the group and began a legal battle with the remaining members over their future use of the “Pink Floyd” name and material. It is estimated that as of 2010, Pink Floyd have sold over 200 million albums worldwide including 74.5 million units sold in the United States.

His solo career has included three studio albums: The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking (1984), Radio K.A.O.S. (1987), and Amused to Death (1992). In 1986, he contributed songs and a score to the soundtrack of the movie When the Wind Blows based on the Raymond Briggs book of the same name. In 1990, he staged one of the largest rock concerts in history, The Wall – Live in Berlin, on the vacant terrain between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, with an estimated 200,000 people in attendance. In 1996, Waters was inducted into the US and UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pink Floyd. He has toured extensively as a solo act since 1999 and played The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety for his world tours of 2006–2008. In 2005, he released Ça Ira, an opera in three acts translated from Etienne Roda-Gil and his wife Nadine Delahaye’s libretto based on the early French Revolution. On 2 July 2005, he reunited with other members of Pink Floyd—Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and David Gilmour—for the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park, Pink Floyd’s only appearance with Waters since their performance of The Wall at Earls Court in London 24 years earlier. In 2010, he commenced The Wall Live tour.

In 1969, Waters married his childhood girlfriend Judy Trim; their marriage produced no children and was dissolved in 1976. Later that year he married his second wife, Lady Carolyne Christie, the niece of the Marquess of Zetland. His marriage to Christie produced a son, Harry, a musician who has played keyboards with his father’s touring band since 2006, and a daughter, India, who has worked as a fashion model. Waters and Christie divorced in 1992. In 1993, he married American actress Priscilla Phillips, and they had a son, Jack Fletcher, in 1997. Their marriage ended in 2001, and in 2005, Waters got engaged to filmmaker Laurie Durning, as of 2010 they are still together.

His primary instrument in Pink Floyd was the electric bass guitar. He briefly played a Höfner bass but replaced it with a Rickenbacker RM-1999/4001S, until around 1970 when he switched to Fender Precision basses. He often plays bass using a pick but is also known to play fingerstyle. Not only a bassist and vocalist, Waters has experimented with the EMS Synthi A and VCS 3 synthesisers and has played electric rhythm and acoustic guitars in recordings and in concert.

Roger Waters – Amused to Death
Amused to Death further explores Waters’ disillusionment with modern Western society, focusing specifically on the influence of television and the mass media. The album was inspired by the book Amusing Ourselves to Death, a critique of television and its related culture by Neil Postman. Continuing Waters’ trend of having well known guest guitarists featured on his solo albums, Amused to Death features Jeff Beck on lead guitar.

Like every studio album Roger Waters has recorded since The Dark Side of the Moon, Amused to Death is a concept album. This one is organised loosely around the idea of a monkey randomly switching channels on a television, but explores numerous political and social themes, including critiques of the First Gulf War in “The Bravery of Being Out of Range” and “Perfect Sense”, in which famed sportscaster Marv Albert narrates a war as if it were a basketball game, and a massive choir sings their “global anthem”:

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

The song “Watching TV” (a duet with Don Henley) explores the influence of mass media on the Chinese protests for democracy in Tiananmen Square.

Roger Waters, English, musician, singer, songwriter, rock, band, Pink Floyd, concept albums, Amused to Death, television, mass media, Neil Postman, Jeff Beck, First Gulf War, sportscaster, Marv Albert, Don Henley, Chinese, protests, democracy, Tiananmen, Square

Roger Waters – The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking

The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking is a concept album by English musician Roger Waters. People assisting Waters during the recording of the album were conductor Michael Kamen, actor Jack Palance, saxophonist David Sanborn and guitarist Eric Clapton. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in April 1995.

The album concept is about a man’s midlife crisis and how he dreams of committing adultery, among other things. Its cover prompted controversy for featuring a rear-view nude photograph of the model Linzi Drew. All editions distributed by Columbia Records censored Drew’s buttocks with a black box. The censored version remains the only version available in regions such as the United States where the record is distributed by Columbia.

The album takes place in Real time from 04:30:18 am to 05:12 am. As the original album was on two-sided vinyl format, there are a few seconds missing between sides one and two, allowing the listener to flip the record. The second half starts at exactly 4:50 am. When the album was released on CD, however, this short gap was lost due to continuous play, throwing the time back several seconds. Also, the times for 4:37 AM (Arabs With Knives & West German Skies) and 4:46:48 AM (The Remains Of Our Love) on the first side are incorrect: the songs begin several seconds earlier than indicated, as they start during the seconds of 4:36 AM and 4:46 AM, respectively.

Roger Waters, English, musician, singer, songwriter, rock, band, Pink Floyd, concept albums, Michael Kamen, Jack Palance, saxophonist, David Sanborn, guitarist, Eric Clapton, midlife crisis, adultery