You cannot begin to discuss The Final Cut, the 1983 masterpiece album by Pink Floyd, without first discussing it's spiritual predecessor, 1979's The Wall. The Wall is one of Pink Floyd's most successful and well-known works, and has also become the very definition of the term "concept album." It's main architect and lyrical mastermind, Roger Waters, conceived the album after an infamous incident on the 1977 tour for the Animals album in which Waters completely lost it and not only stopped the concert to berate audience members who were apparently shooting off fireworks in the stadium, but also spat in the face of a fan who was attempting to make his way up to the stage. Waters was distressed at what he was becoming and was not comfortable with what he felt was a disconnection between the band and the audience, especially since the band had started playing to larger audiences in a stadium setting. He visualized this disconnection as a brick wall between the stage and the audience, and used this idea to create what would become Pink Floyd's most ambitious project, which told the story of rock star named "Pink," a combination of former band member Syd Barrett and Waters himself.
The story loosely followed Pink through his childhood up through his adult years and described numerous traumatic experiences he encountered that each led to a metaphorical "brick" in Pink's mental "wall," which he used to distance himself emotionally from everyone in his life. The brick perhaps most related to Waters in real life was the death of Pink's father in World War II - identical to the death of Waters' real father. This is where The Final Cut came in.
The Final Cut was originally envisioned as a soundtrack for the 1982 The Wall film, but nothing from the film was used in the original version of the album, although Pink does sing a snippet of "Your Possible Pasts" in one scene, which I will discuss in that song's post. The reason the album is connected to the death of Pink/Waters' father more than any other part of The Wall (although there were several other connections, particularly in the title track) is because The Final Cut expands on the war themes heard in tracks from The Wall like "Vera," "Bring the Boys Back Home," and, in the movie, "When the Tigers Broke Free" (the latter of which was actually included on a reissue of The Final Cut). As Chris Ott said in Pitchfork's review for The Final Cut, "For years now, it's seemed so obvious, perhaps only to a few, that the stretch running from 'Is There Anybody Out There' to 'Bring the Boys Back Home' works as a transition into The Final Cut." The reason for this is that all of those songs are connected to the effects of war and the death of his father on Pink, and every song on The Final Cut has a similar, and in many cases, more universal theme. As Kurt Loder expressed in Rolling Stone's review of the album, The Wall was really only a prequel to The Final Cut in this sense.
Although the album originally took a lot of heat for it's music, which many critics criticized as being nothing more than a Roger Waters solo album, it has become more accepted for it's brilliant lyrical anti-war themes in recent years. The criticisms also make very little sense, considering David Gilmour played just as much a role musically, including a few guitar solos, as he did on The Wall, which means The Wall must be a Roger Waters solo album as well. Another thing that puzzles me is why this is a bad thing, considering the genius of Waters' solo albums The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking and Amused to Death. At any rate, an in-depth look at such an overlooked and underrated classic album is long overdue, and that is exactly what I intend to provide, for free, with this analysis, which is very much inspired by Bret Urick's complete literary analysis of The Wall, which can be found at this link. Other helpful resources include Cliff Jones' book Another Brick In the Wall, which is highly recommended for its vast amount of Pink Floyd related information, not only in relation to this album, but all other Floyd works as well. Please note that this site is a work in progress, so try to forgive me for any mistakes or misinterpretations I make in this analysis. With that in mind, enjoy the site once it's up and running and feel free to comment, as long as you keep your comments tasteful and respectful of others. "Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend. We were all equal in the end."
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