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I've always had mixed feelings towards Roger Waters as a lyricist; a fine wordsmith, he can often sound heavy and bombastic, and the constant barrage of surrealistic imagery can seem overstated at times. Sometimes, though, he can write something like this, about a soldier returned from WWII to become a teacher:
...and even now part of me flies over
Dresden at angels one five
though they'll never fathom it, behind my
sarcasm desperate memories lie
Sweetheart, sweetheart, are you fast asleep? (good)
'cause that's the only time that I can really speak to you
and there is something that I've locked away
a memory that is too painful
to withstand the light of day
To me, those few lines- from "The Hero's Return," on The Final Cut- shine like a star, speaking so much about how war can change us, scar us, make it difficult to re-enter the world. How strange, and how wonderful, that he could write those lines write after composing The Wall, with its insistent demonization of teachers- indeed, authority figures of any kind. Perhaps that's the mark of the truest kind of artist: that he can continue to re-evaluate a subject, even to the point of seemingly contradicting himself, refusing to simply let it go.
Dresden at angels one five
though they'll never fathom it, behind my
sarcasm desperate memories lie
Sweetheart, sweetheart, are you fast asleep? (good)
'cause that's the only time that I can really speak to you
and there is something that I've locked away
a memory that is too painful
to withstand the light of day
To me, those few lines- from "The Hero's Return," on The Final Cut- shine like a star, speaking so much about how war can change us, scar us, make it difficult to re-enter the world. How strange, and how wonderful, that he could write those lines write after composing The Wall, with its insistent demonization of teachers- indeed, authority figures of any kind. Perhaps that's the mark of the truest kind of artist: that he can continue to re-evaluate a subject, even to the point of seemingly contradicting himself, refusing to simply let it go.
