Whatever you think of Rogers Waters’ music, his anti-Israeli propaganda is offensive

National Post ^ | August 27, 2014 | Avi Benlolo

[Squawk 8888]

In May, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Nick Mason published an open letter to the Rolling Stones encouraging the band not to perform in Israel. The Stones summarily disregarded Waters and Mason, and played to 50,000 adoring Israeli fans in June.

Even the Stones realize that Waters and Mason’s denunciation of Israel as the new “Sun City” is off base. Israel is not apartheid-era South Africa; its security barrier is not the Berlin Wall.

Waters and Mason are simply old-school hipsters who have latched on to the Palestinian cause to stay relevant. Their new film — The Wall — which launches at Toronto’s International Film Festival this Fall, undoubtedly will bring renewed attention to their music. But they see themselves as more than musicians. Like all artists, they seek to take down walls; deconstruct social systems; create revolutions that transform societies; and connect with a cause that seems just. Their decision to partner with extremists who seek to boycott Israel is part of that misguided project.

[Squawk 8888]

Was that the one that was the soundtrack for The Valley? I never saw or heard anything about the movie but was intrigued by the stills on the cover and by some of the lyrics.

[montag813]

Like all artists, they seek to take down walls; deconstruct social systems; create revolutions that transform societies; and connect with a cause that seems just. Their decision to partner with extremists who seek to boycott Israel is part of that misguided project.

No. It goes deeper than naivete. Waters is a hard-core virulent, angry leftist. He has penned songs with very disturbing anti-Israel and anti-conservative lyrics. The Wall portrays his hated Tories as anti-Semitic (See In The Flesh), when it is the British Left that is so. In one Pink Floyd song he has even expressed an interest in putting all his hated (nearly all "right-wing" or Israeli) politicians in a "home" and killing them all.

In The Fletcher Memorial Home, named for Eric Fletcher Waters, his father who was killed in WWII, who he never knew and is endlessly bitter about, he wrote:

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Reagan and Haig,
Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisly,
Mr. Brezhnev and party.
The ghost of McCarthy,
The memories of Nixon.
And now, adding colour, a group of anonymous latin-
American meat packing glitterati.

....

Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
With their favorite toys
They'll be good girls and boys
In the Fletcher Memorial Home for colonial
Wasters of life and limb.
Is everyone in?
Are you having a nice time?
Now the final solution can be applied.

Brezhnev is cynically added for "balance", imho. -montag813

[married21]

I’m really sorry to hear about Roger Waters being anti-Israel. I wish he would have kept his mouth shut. Now I have to tell my kids and they will be disappointed about it. My daughter’s marching band is doing a “Wall” themed half-time show this year and we have started to hear the music and think a little bit about it.

Too bad talent and good sense are not a package deal.

[dfwgator]

IMHO this is the best Early Floyd song, and it was a Rick Wright song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oABmz4qse3w

[mylife]

A great band that I saw several times that kept politics to themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTrNtrIQVdo

[montag813]

You might enoy this:

Curb Your Enthusiasm - Larry David Whistling Wagner (YouTube)

[crazydad]

Wow you do know your Floyd.

[Squawk 8888]

Yep, and blaming Maggie for Britain's woes was also moronic, as was the "irony" about the replacement ship being built in Japan. He also blames "the Nips being so good at building ships" for the decline of the British shipbuilding industry.

The only merit to the album is the title track, the music for which is a clone of Comfortably Numb:

If you negotiate the minefield in the drive
And beat the dogs and cheat the cold electronic eyes
And if you make it past the shotgun in the hall,
Dial the combination, open the priesthole
And if I'm in I'll tell you what's behind the wall.

[mylife]

Loved that show!

[chris37]

I don’t know I really like The Gunner’s Dream, but yeah he was much better in Floyd.

He’s a brilliant musician, and an utter madman.

[Netz]

Rock stars have been pushing political agendas since the 1950s.
Pink Floyd is legendary but I always wonder why certain performers or stars seem to have a deep-seated almost obsessive cause like being against Israel. It's one thing to express your views, it's quite another to constantly harp on and push against a Democratic and Western state like Israel.
Waters (who really does not have a clue about the conflict there)is either being paid for his services by Qatar or is an anitsemite.

[golux]

I was once a fan. I have now told everyone I know to boycott Pink Floyd. They are finished as a group, and utterly banished in my house, in our friends’ houses, and frankly at local radio stations. In fact, they are disappearing on the radio all over the country. Pink Floyd in their mansions picked sides. Too cowardly to walk the walk, too cowardly to visit these places, too cowardly to even VISIT the Middle East, they nevertheless spouted off. They’re done. Tell your friends, tell your family, make their anti-Israel concerts utterly uncomfortable. Return what you can and do not teach yourchildren about their music. (I haven’t, my friends haven’t.) It is time their little dysfunctional, hateful, distant, fascist, utterly self centered (Oh hello Pink!) rock group felt the pain.

[Squawk 8888]

Ah yes, Gunner’s Dream, the one track that was worth the price of an uneven album. Should be played every Remembrance Day IMO.

[sushiman]

Screw Rogers Waters and Nick Mason . I’d rather listen to Gary Numan who DID play in Israel in February . He was also a Thatcher supporter back in the day when 90% of other Brit rocks stars loathed her . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB4KAOvScMs

[Squawk 8888]

That would explain why all the other punk & new-wave fans had such a visceral hate-on for all things Numan. I once DJ'd a party for artsy types and made the mistake of playing Are Friends Electric. Nearly incited a full-blown riot and effectively quashed my dream of becoming a major club DJ. I was frog-marched out the door and my only gigs after that were at roadhouses that paid $40/night and towards whom a certain Bob Seger song, followed by a certain Don Maclean song, EVERY DAMN NIGHT, was a contractual obligation.

[chris37]

Agreed.

That is a haunting song.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Whatever you think of Rogers Waters’ music

Not much. Amazingly self-absorbed and self-indulgent even for "progressive" rock. '70s punk and New Wave came along not a moment too soon. Even New Wave mope-rockers like Joy Division made Waters seem like a whiny drama queen by comparison - Ian Curtis didn't need 25 minutes per song or styro-foam walls on stage.

[Squawk 8888]

I was also impressed by how the rest of Joy Division recovered from Ian's suicide. They were arguably the best to come out of the UK in the 1980s, Bizarre Love Triangle notwithstanding. I strongly suspect that Perfect Kiss was about Ian, and 1963 makes my mind race because I still haven't figured it out.

[sushiman]

Numan : “ “I’m not socialist, I know that. I don’t believe in sharing my money.”

[rlmorel]

I hate that liberal rat SOB.

I used to really enjoy the music of Pink Floyd. I listened to their work all the time.

Back in 2004, I went to a Roger Waters concert. I was in a large group of 10-15 people, all good friends.

In retrospect, I should have seen what was coming, but...I didn’t.

It turned into a 3 hour political audiovisual tirade against Bush, neocons, conservatives and Israel, with some music mixed in. It looked like Code Pink put together the slide and video shows they had going on.

I didn’t want to ruin the evening for the people I went with, but I was steaming mad. I grit my teeth and sat there. At the end of the “concert”, they released a 40 foot high ballon of a pig with “F*ck Bush” on one side and “Vote Democrat” on the other.

I have been unable to listen to any Pink Floyd music since then. It STILL pisses me off.