New Roger Waters album "Is This The Life We Really Want?" - June 2, 2017

"Tell me true, tell me why, was Jesus crucified...."

"If it wasn't for the nips, being so good at building ships, the yards would still be open on the Clyde (...bastards!)...."


Can't wait for this. I love Roger, the boring old fart.

 

What he is talking about is the concept of US and Them. When you don't look at the world as one, you look at it as Us Vs Them. So, an example would be if I use this pesticide it's hurting them not me.

 

I see your point, but it's really stretching that concept to its breaking point IMO.

That mentality of seeing everything as a predatory relationship stifles meaningful progress. I mean, after all, you can't take three steps without crushing a bug and someone will always hate what you're doing, no matter how benign it may be.

Maybe I have too idealized a view of the species, but I think it's entirely possible to have our pesticides and bees at the same time - and to strive to achieve without stealing from the mouths of babes, etc...

 

@Runicen, I don't understand why are you so obsessive about old Rog's points of view and your disagreement with them.

There are parts in that interview that are really simplistic, but so what? He's a musician, not a politician. Plus it's a Rollingstone interview, not conference, you have to keep it simple (and the editing will do the rest).
(BTW your objections sound pretty simplistic too, read from here - these things need more space to be discussed properly)

He has his own ideas and as an artist he trows them out there. I'm pretty sure he expects people to think with their own head about them, not take 'em as granted.
So where's the problem? If someone disagrees, that's part of the picture. We're not drones. Hurrah.
You don't have to agree to everything but also don't have to be disappointed if he's expressing his own political thinking and it's different from yours.
Rog isn't anybody's prophet.

Let it be.

Peace.

 

I'll definitely agree that more space is needed, but political discussion is verboten and I'm trying to voice my reception of this stuff without digging that particular hole. Simplistic it is. If nothing else, I do believe the type of things he's saying require some backing facts rather than some understanding that you're either a true believer and "on his side" or effectively one of the evil misled. Make an argument. Don't just preach to the choir.

And I've said before, he's totally at liberty to voice his opinions, but they're all title and no book. He goes on about having a speech written for desert trip which he didn't read because "it would make bad theater." Then he proceeds to pat himself on the back for lambasting Trump as an idiot and a sociopath. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. It's not enough to just declare these things as true. I respond the same way to the Alex Jones types who start spouting off about people being literal devils or lizardmen or whatever conspiracy they're on about. You kind of need to back that up, otherwise it comes off as petty and stupid - assuming the claims made don't leap over the fence and go tearing off at a full gallop into lunacy park.

End of the day, the airwaves are polluted to the point of saturation with invective, hyperbole, outright falsehoods and empty posturing. I'm just having a hard time getting over the realization that Roger Waters, of all people, is contributing to that problem rather than offering a genuine voice of sanity or reasoned debate in the midst of all this nonsense. THAT is my beef and I make no apologies for that. If there was something for me to apologize over, it'd be putting him on a pedestal to give a crap what he has to say on the market price of fish in south Asia, let alone the socio-political state of the western world. But, if nobody thought he was particularly astute in that area to begin with based on his past work, nobody would be interviewing him on these stances to begin with, much less buying concept albums from him on the topic at hand, so it's kind of circular past a certain point. He's not just "a pop singer" and never really was.

 

The 'politics' of navigating a Roger thread without running afoul of the rules is heady stuff indeed.

If only all lyrics simply involved cutting people into little pieces it would be a more pleasant discussion.

 

We're not permitted to discuss politics...but bees! There's a serious issue with bees dying and problems with pollination. That's a fact.

 

Strawman. Who here is saying he doesn't have the right to speak his mind?

I'm personally not sure I'm ready to plunk down 250 bucks (ah, the irony) to hear what he has to say.

Actually, I can't flippin' afford the 250, so perhaps Roger will subsidize the cost for me, or maybe at least have the rest of the fans pay for my ticket?

 

If you read some of the other posts, some people almost seem to be advocating censorship because they don't like some of Rog's public statements. I was responding to that kind of mentality, if that's a strawman then so be it. I'm so tired of all the sensitive types getting riled everytime something isn't funneled through the PC meat grinder. I really don't care at all about Waters' opinions, but I'm enough of an adult to simply ignore them and move on. I happen to enjoy the guy's music, it doesn't mean I have to even care what his worldview is.

 

Maybe the title should be "Speakers Corner".
Of course there is the off chance he won't pontificate?

 

With, without
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?

 

I think people should try a little harder to respect forum policy with regards to political discussions. I understand that it can be challenging with a topical artist like Waters. I'm as political as anyone, but I try to exercise restraint because I understand how acrimonious things would get around here if such debates were allowed to pop up unchecked. There are any number of different sites online where people can go to argue about politics. I like the fact that people of all different viewpoints can come here, put aside all that noise and celebrate a love of music (or argue about other silly non-political stuff, as is often the case!).

 

Excellent points. However, I do think that to approach a discussion of something like this upcoming Roger Waters album without addressing the politics is very naive. The solution, then, would be to simply seek other forums for this case. By all means, keep this thread open, as a safe little SH.TV hangout for those interested in the album, to talk about pre-orders, prices, and eventually sound quality and other things. But for a proper discussion, if one is interested, perhaps it's best to take it somewhere else. The other solution would be to consider relaxing the ban on political discussions for this thread, but I'm not advocating that!

 

I just went through the interview and I must say it raises my appetite for the new album. He is still a smart one no doubt. Okay, the beekeeper part is indeed a little out of the blue. I actually didn't know that he is very much into that. How are the chances that we might have a nice bee song on the new release?

The point I stumble over again is that he obviously leaves adbsolutely no chance unused to emphasizes on who wrote the songs that make 75% of his upcoming tour program. Let me guess, it was no one less than the Creative Genius himself, eh? - This is absolutely Us And Them or better Me And The Others thinking. And what is the fighting all about? Is it Money? Sorry Rog, I can't stand that hybris any longer.

 

Suspect this is the theme for th Bee side of the album?

 

It's frustrating, but I get it too. The two upsides of it are that it avoids threads like this turning into a YouTube comments section, and also that a bunch of people on here seem very nice and genial, and I have to base this entirely on their musical tastes and posting eloquence rather than their political alignment.

It's highly unlikely I'll ever meet anyone on here in real life, so I'm happy to maintain this perspective of them rather than letting their political views colour my opinion of them.

 

What concerns me about this upcoming release is Roger's motivation. It feels like he's creating this album not because he's got the music in him bursting to get out, but because he wants to make some points about society.

Interesting that he's only touring the one place in the world that he has the biggest issue with. Thought his support for BDS might prevent him from doing so, perhaps filling the available dates in his schedule with shows in the West Bank, Gaza City, Sudan, Somalia. Can't understand why he's not doing that.

 

We were watching a bee
Watching a bee
We were watching a bee
Watching a bee
...

 

I have great tickets for Vegas and Milwaukee. As for my humble opinion, writers should be keen observers of society. If that bothers some, there's always Hot Blooded for your listening experience.

 

Don't even bring up that song! I was never able to listen to Foreigner again after they came down so stridently on the state of healthcare in the western world.

 

It's his site AND Twitter is a different platform than the forum discussion boards.

 

Is This The Life You Really Want? is on the calendar for release on May 19.

New Roger Waters Solo Album, Is This The Life You Really Want?, On Calendar

 

Are you kidding? Can you imagine how ugly this board would become if political discussions were allowed, particularly now in the hyper-polarized climate we live in? I can think of several posters who I get along with just fine as long as we stick to discussing music, but we would likely be at each others throats if the restriction was lifted. As someone who has spent (too much) time on politically oriented boards, I find that there is relatively little in the way of thoughtful, constructive debate and a lot in the way of partisan bashing, trying to score points rather than reach a deeper understanding. We don't need that toxic stuff here--it's all too prevalent out there already. We have enough crap to argue about.

 

Can't argue with that...

D.D.