Originally Posted by
500N
I wish Roger Waters would stick to just writing music / songs and performing, something I think he is actually good at even though my estimation of him has gone down. I also didn't hear Roger Waters saying anything about the Falkalnds in 1982 when The Wall was being sold in the millions.
You didn't buy
The Final Cut, then? That was Waters' rant about the Falklands (and other matters Maggie-related). Indeed, I suspect that were he still with us, Rick Wright might be tempted to suggest that Mrs T's decision to follow Admiral Leach's advice led not only to the removal of a malign dictatorship, but also brought about the collapse of General Galtieri's regime...
IIRC, David Gilmour (who has some equally odd views about Op Corporate, being both against it and in favour of it because of his inability to allow his pacifism to trump his views on the importance of self-determination for the islanders) was so irritated with the album being a rant about Corporate that it proved the straw which broke the camel's back and led to the band imploding (Gilmour refused to have his name in the credits and Waters sacked Rick Wright from the band).
Waters has some decidedly odd views about world affairs, in no small part influenced by his interpretation of his father's life: Eric Waters was a pacifist and conscientious objector, who drove ambulances in the Blitz, before deciding as a result of his experiences that being a CO in a fight against Hitler was morally unacceptable, leading him to the Army, the Anzio beaches and his death when young Roger was just months old (and to '
When the Tigers Broke Free' and in no small part to
The Wall itself). Waters
fils was chairman of Cambridge CND when he was 15/16 or so, and has, I'd suggest, always been likely to have held views such as this about Dependent Territories, etc.
Partly because of that, and partly because he has produced some rather decent music, I'm willing to sigh very deeply, wish that he stuck to what he's damn good at, and to vaguely tolerate his ill-informed ramblings as being at least possessed of some well meaning intent in their origins, no matter how silly I might find them.
As opposed to tolerating the views of the odious, wife-beating publicity-seeking Mr Penn and that odious, depressing, publicity seeking
Mr Morrissey for a nanosecond, since that pair strike me as the archytypal 'look at me! I have something to say' sort of character who used to last about five seconds before attitude reajudstment occurred at the hands of teacher/in the playground of my rather robust primary school.