Re: [PinkFloyd] Re: ROGER WATERS: THE PINKO IN FLOYD
onezebra12
Actually I didn't write this. It was written by >> Michael Smerconish of the >> Philadelphia Inquirer as indicated at the beginning of the article.
>onezebra12 wrote:
>> 2006-09-22,08:16:01
>>
>> Michael Smerconish
>> Philadelphia Inquirer
>> FOR THE second time in my life, I'm writing a column about
>> Pink Floyd. Specifically, about the man I've always considered
>> to be the brains of the band: Roger Waters. The first time I
>> wrote about him was 26 years ago when I was a high school
>> senior at Central Bucks West in Doylestown and editor of the
>> school paper, the Chatterbux.
>>
>> Back then, I was one of the lucky few to see Pink Floyd perform "The Wall,"
>> live at the Nassau County Coliseum on Long Island, N.Y. My review earned me
>> an invitation to the principal's office. I was encouraged to write a
>> retraction on the grounds that I'd promoted a band whose lyrics the
>> principal associated with drug use.
>>
>> It was a moment straight out of "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2," "We
>> don't need no education" indeed. I told the principal to pound sand. Maybe
>> even called it a matter of "free speech."
>>
>> For three decades, the Floyd has never left my playlist.
>>
>> In fact, I have done what I call "the cycle" for every Floyd and Roger
>> Waters recording, meaning I bought it in all forms in which it was released:
>> album, 8-track, cassette and CD. I once made a London taxi driver take me to
>> the Battersea Power Station just so I could photograph the image that
>> appears on the cover of my favorite album, "Animals." No one was more
>> pleased when the band reunited to headline at Live 8. And in the
>> never-ending debate among Floyd fans on David Gilmore vs. Rogers Waters,
>> I've always sided with Waters.
>>
>> My affinity for Waters has always been in spite of his politics. Chalk that
>> up to spending too much time studying song lyrics back in the day when they
>> printed such things. I thought rock stars had all the answers.
>>
>> Fast-forward 25 years.
>>
>> Last Wednesday, I sat in the front row for a Roger Waters performance at
>> Madison Square Garden. (The same show came to the Tweeter Center in Camden
>> Saturday night.) The crowd was diverse, but mostly like me: white
>> middle-aged guys with receding hair and expanding waists.
>>
>> It should have been a night to have a few beers and enjoy the soundtrack of
>> my life. Instead, I sat there in my expensive seat, and heckled the guy
>> whose music I know by heart.
>>
>> Waters' politics are no longer just liberal, they're over the top.
>>
>> I was expecting the line about "incurable tyrants and kings" when he sang
>> "Fletcher Memorial Home," and I knew there'd be references to Margaret
>> Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
>>
>> What I wasn't prepared for was a photo montage featuring Osama, Saddam and
>> George W. Bush. Especially not two days removed from the anniversary of
>> Sept. 11 in the city where the most death and destruction occurred.
>>
>> I'm sick and tired of entertainment types arguing a moral equivalency
>> between our president and the Butcher of Baghdad and the architect of 9/11.
>>
>> It's not that I object to the criticism of the president or his policy. But
>> Waters and others lose all credibility when they treat Bush and bin Laden
>> the same way. And that was before Waters announced he was beginning the
>> "controversial" part of the show.
>>
>> I held my breath as he introduced "Leaving Beirut" with a long-winded story
>> about his teens. Then came:
>>
>> Are these the people we should bomb
>>
>> Are we so sure they mean us harm
>>
>> Is this our pleasure, punishment or crime
>>
>> Is this a mountain that we really want to climb
>>
>> The road is hard, hard and long
>>
>> Put down that two by four
>>
>> This man would never turn you from his door
>>
>> Oh, George! Oh, George!
>>
>> That Texas education must have f------ you up when you were very small.
>>
>> This is Waters' ridiculous ode to some guy who gave him a lift and a meal
>> when he was hitching in Beirut at 17. According to the logic of his lyrics,
>> because he received this courtesy, we're supposed to overlook the murder of
>> innocents at the hands of radical Islam, including the close to 3,000 who
>> died almost five years to the day, and just blocks from where I was hearing
>> him sing.
>>
>> I couldn't take it any more. "Go visit Ground Zero!" I shouted from the
>> front row. He heard me, and proceeded to avoid our corner of the stage
>> except to oblige a hottie who wanted to take his picture with her cell
>> phone.
>>
>> Then the pig came out.
>>
>> I refer to a giant inflatable pig, a hallmark of many Floyd shows, and the
>> symbol of my aforementioned favorite album. Only this time, the pig was a
>> billboard for Waters' twisted priorities. "Habeas Corpus Matters," it said,
>> among other things. How appalling. I wondered how many in the New York
>> audience had lost relatives or friends in the 9/11 attack and now were
>> witness to his call for more rights for the murderers?
>>
>> "Go visit Ground Zero," I yelled again.
>>
>> Roger Waters still has free-speech rights. Bald, bespectacled and willing to
>> shell out for a front-row seat, so do I.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> onezebra12
>>
>> http://www.mail2web.com/onezebra12
>
>Couldn't have said it better myself. I have always loved Waters, but
>his politics don't interes me in the least. I have a recording of that
>show you went to and can actually hear some jeering from the
>crowd...especially on Leaving Beirut. I wonder if one of those people
>is you. Talk about terrible timing on his part!
>
>
>
onezebra12
http://www.mail2web.com/onezebra12