The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking is the first solo studio album by Roger Waters,bassist/songwriter and co-founder of English rock band Pink Floyd;it was released in 1984. The album was certified platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 1985.
The concept was originally envisioned by Waters in 1977 and refined in the early 1980s. In its completed form,it rotates around a man's scattered thoughts during his midlife crisis. These are explored on a dream journey during which he takes a road trip through California,commits adultery with a hitchhiker he picks up along the way,attempts to reconcile with his wife by moving to the wilderness,and finally ends up alone but with greater insight into a common human compassion. Along the way he also faces other fears and paranoia.
The entire story is framed in real time as a fitful dream taking place in the early morning hours of 4:30:18am to 5:12:32am on an unspecified day. At the end of the dream,the man wakes up lonely and contrite and turns to his real wife for comfort,presumably having processed his crisis.
In July 1978,Waters presented the concepts and played demos of The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking as well as what was then titled Bricks in the Wall,which became The Wall,to his bandmates in the group Pink Floyd,asking them to decide which should be a group album,and which should be his solo album.[5][6][7] After a long debate,they decided that they preferred the concept of Bricks in the Wall,[6] even though their manager at the time,Steve O'Rourke,thought that Pros and Cons was a better-sounding concept,[8] and David Gilmour deemed Pros and Cons stronger musically.[6]
Waters declared:
Well, the idea for the album came concurrently with the idea for The Wall – the basis of the idea. I wrote both pieces at roughly the same time. And in fact, I made demo tapes of them both, and in fact presented both demo tapes to the rest of the Floyd, and said "Look, I'm going to do one of these as a solo project and we'll do one as a band album, and you can choose." So, this was the one that was left over. Um...I mean, it's developed an awful lot since then, I think.[7]
Bricks in the Wall, retitled The Wall, became the next Pink Floyd album in 1979, and Waters shelved Pros and Cons. In early 1983, Waters undertook the shelved project himself.[9] It was recorded in three London studios between February and December 1983: Olympic Studios, Eel Pie Studios and Waters' own Billiard Room, where his demos were constructed. The album features conductor Michael Kamen, actor Jack Palance, saxophonist David Sanborn and guitarist Eric Clapton. Guitar player Tim Renwick said:
Roger's a very different sort of person [i.e. from Eric Clapton or David Gilmour, described as easygoing]. I have tremendous respect for him. He's a very clever man, but he is very serious. When Eric and I toured with him, he wanted everything exactly the same as the record, which, unfortunately, kind of took the fun out of performing.[10]
Track 7, 4.50AM (Go Fishing), includes the same refrain as "The Fletcher Memorial Home" from Pink Floyd's The Final Cut: "The Fletcher Memorial Home for incurable tyrants and kings". This song also includes one of the car sounds, and the slightly changed chorus melody, from that album's "Your Possible Pasts".
"I played through some of the songs from the Pros and Cons album," Waters remarked in 1992, "and I was struck by how good they sounded. Looking back, that record dragged a little but, individually, some of the material was excellent."[11]
Notes on real time
The original album was released in 1984 on the traditional two-sided vinyl LP and cassette formats. In keeping with Waters' concept, there are five seconds missing between sides one and two to allow the listener to flip the record (or turn the cassette) in order to keep the second half starting at exactly 4:50AM as planned.
An unintended consequence of the album being released on CD a few years later was that this gap was lost due to continuous play, which moves the start of the second half back to 4:49:55AM, and the start of the final track, 5:11AM (The Moment of Clarity), back to 5:10:59AM.
Further to this, Track 6 on the first side, 4:47AM (The Remains of Our Love), actually begins at 4:46:46AM.
Packaging
Gerald Scarfe, who had created the album artwork and some animation for Pink Floyd's The Wall album, created all the graphics and animation for the Pros and Cons album. Its cover prompted controversy for featuring a rear-view nude photograph of model and softcore porn actress Linzi Drew. Although it was originally released with the nudity intact, subsequent editions distributed by Columbia Records censored Drew's buttocks with a black box.
Possible film
A film based on the concept was proposed, and in 1987 a press release for the Radio K.A.O.S. album claimed a film adaptation of Pros and Cons... had been completed, though nothing has been heard of it since. The screenplay was written by BBC/Radio Times Drama Award winner Pete Ward, who used excerpts from Waters' songs/lyrics from 1967 to 1987 as background to his award-winning play, Yesterday's Triumph,[12] exploring the 20-year relationship of two close friends – one who attempts to fake mental illness to be with the other, who is an institutionalized "catastrophic schizophrenic". Ward was commissioned to expand the plot and characters in The Pros and Cons around the album's 42-minute real-time dream sequence based on Waters' own dreams.
A film was made in 1984 and 1985 which combined Gerald Scarfe's animations and Nicolas Roeg's live-action footage with slit-scan photography created by Peter Truckel at The Moving Picture Company. Also directed by Nicolas Roeg the film was projected on a backdrop behind the stage as the band played. Three promotional videos were also directed by Roeg. "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking" features snippets of the live action material from the screen films interspersed with footage of "Shane" and other cowboy films. "Sexual Revolution" also featured screen film material interspersed with footage Waters singing the song and playing his bass. "Every Stranger's Eyes" is identical to the screen projection, except for the fact that footage of Waters is also interspersed here.
The Wall is the eleventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979 by Harvest/EMI and Columbia/CBS Records. It is a rock opera that explores Pink, a jaded rock star whose eventual self-imposed isolation from society forms a figurative wall. The album was a commercial success, topping the US charts for 15 weeks and reaching number three in the UK. It initially received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom found it overblown and pretentious, but later received accolades as one of the greatest albums of all time.
George Roger Waters is an English musician and singer-songwriter. In 1965, he co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd as the bassist. Following the departure of the songwriter, Syd Barrett, in 1968, Waters became Pink Floyd's lyricist, co-lead vocalist and conceptual leader until his departure in 1985.
In the Flesh was a series of worldwide concert tours by Roger Waters that spanned three individual tours over the course of three years. Returning from a 12-year-long hiatus from the road, In The Flesh was a showcase of his best known work from his days with Pink Floyd, with that material dominating shows. Songs were also performed from Waters' most recently released solo album, 1992's Amused to Death, being played live for the first time. The tour's name is an allusion to the 1977 Pink Floyd tour for the Animals album, as well as the two songs so titled on the album The Wall.
A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the thirteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in the UK on 7 September 1987 by EMI and the following day in the US on Columbia. It was recorded primarily on guitarist David Gilmour's converted houseboat, Astoria.
The Final Cut is the twelfth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 21 March 1983 through Harvest and Columbia Records. It comprises unused material from the band's previous studio album, The Wall (1979), alongside new material recorded throughout 1982.
Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81 is a live album released by Pink Floyd in 2000. It is a live rendition of The Wall, produced and engineered by James Guthrie, with tracks selected from the August 1980 and June 1981 performances at Earls Court in London. The album was first released in The Netherlands by EMI Records on 23 March 2000, who released a limited edition in the United Kingdom on 27 March. The general release followed on 18 April 2000 with US and Canadian distribution by Columbia Records.
Music from The Body is the soundtrack album to Roy Battersby's 1970 documentary film The Body, about human biology, narrated by Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Finlay.
Pink Floyd – The Wall is a 1982 British musical drama film directed by Alan Parker, based on Pink Floyd's 1979 album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The Boomtown Rats vocalist Bob Geldof plays rock star Pink, who, driven to insanity by the pressures of stardom and traumatic events in his life, constructs a physical and emotional wall to protect himself. However, this coping mechanism eventually backfires, and Pink demands to be set free.
"In the Flesh?" and "In the Flesh" are two songs by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on their 1979 album, The Wall. "In the Flesh?" is the opening track, and introduces the story concept of the album. "In the Flesh" is the twenty-first song of the album, and is a reprise of the first with a choir, different verses and more extended instrumentation.
"Welcome to the Machine" is the second song on Pink Floyd's 1975 album Wish You Were Here. It features heavily processed synthesizers and acoustic guitars as well as a wide range of tape effects. Both the music and lyrics were written by bassist Roger Waters.
Andrew Steven Bown is an English musician, who has specialised in keyboards and bass guitar. He is a member of the rock band Status Quo.
Timothy John Pearson Renwick is an English guitarist. He is best known for his association with Al Stewart in his early career and for his long-standing role as lead guitarist for the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver. His single "Dark Island" peaked at number 80 in Australia in 1980.
The Bleeding Heart Band was the name Roger Waters gave his backing band for a brief period of his post-Pink Floyd solo career.
The Wall – Live in Berlin was a live concert performance by Roger Waters and numerous guest artists, of the Pink Floyd studio album The Wall, itself largely written by Waters during his time with the band. The show was held in Berlin on 21 July 1990, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall eight months earlier. A live album of the concert was released 21 August 1990. A video of the concert was also commercially released.
"The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking", is a song written and performed by Roger Waters from his debut studio album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. It was released worldwide on 9 April 1984.
In the Flesh – Live is a two-disc live album that captures performances from Roger Waters' three-year In the Flesh tour. He states to Classic Rock that "I've been involved in two absolutely classic albums – The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. And if you haven't got Amused to Death, you haven't got the full set. So this album – the live one, which pulls together songs from all three albums – hopefully redresses the balance." The album features selected songs from a number of Pink Floyd albums, Waters' solo efforts and a new song, "Each Small Candle".
K.A.O.S. On the Road was a concert tour performed by Roger Waters in 1987 in support of the album Radio K.A.O.S. (1987). The shows included material from the album as well as songs from well known Pink Floyd albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975) and The Wall (1979). The tour started in North America on 14 August 1987 and ended on 22 November 1987 with two performances at Wembley Arena in London, England.
Andy Jackson is a British recording engineer, best known for his work with the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He was also the owner and operator of Tube Mastering, a private studio specializing in recorded music mastering.
Roger Waters's primary instrument is 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. Throughout his career he has used Selmer, WEM, Hiwatt and Ashdown amplifiers, also employing delay, tremolo, chorus, panning and phaser effects in his music.
1 2 3 Carruthers, Bob (2011). "The Wall". Pink Floyd – Uncensored on the Record (E-booked.). Cooda Books Ltd. ISBN978-1-908538-27-7. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
↑ Blake, Mark (1992). "Still Waters". RCD. Vol.1, no.3. p.57.
↑ The title for the play Yesterday's Triumph is taken from the line "And we'll bask in the shadow of yesterday's triumph and sail on the steel breeze..." from the track "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" on Pink Floyd's album Wish You Were Here.
↑ Waters, Roger (1984). The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (Liner notes). Columbia Records. CK 39290.
↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.334. ISBN0-646-11917-6.
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