Poll: Favourite song from Pink Floyd's 'The Final Cut' album

the first pink floyd album that seriously disappointed me.

but in the scheme of things i would consider it more of a waters solo effort than a band collaboration. just not a very record at all.

 

the gunners dream is brilliant ... i love the whole album, but that's probably the standout track to me

 

The opener is killer - stunning song really. The title track is devastating. Paranoid Eyes and Gunners Dream a close tie for 3rd.

 

Fletcher Memorial Home. Genuine anger on that one, but still with a slight smile.

 

Not Now John is leading the poll... what???

 

Best track: The Final Cut

Worst track (by far): Not Now John

 

... indeed, makes you feel you just want to give up...

 

... if anything, Not Now John is a good candidate for the worst ever PF song.

 

...and as the teardrops rise to meet the comfort of the band, you take her frail hand, AND HOLD ON TO THE DREAM!!!

 

"The Fletcher Memorial Home" stands out the most.

"Two Suns In The Sunset" because it has struck me as an interesting closing song.

 

I bought the album when it was released and was quite disappointed. Played it a couple of times but didn’t bother with it again until a friend gave me his early CD last year. And to my surprise I liked it a lot better than in 1983.

After all that time there were 4 songs I remembered vividly: the one with the fighter jet, Fletcher Memorial Home, Not Now John and Two Suns In The Sunset. Of those I like FMH the most. Because of the part where all the dictators and tyrants are summed up. And how they can watch themselves on closed circuit TV. As in: don’t bother us with your megalomania and cr*p. Quite strange how we don’t care about those people at all anymore, after 35 years.

 

The Fletcher Memorial Home

 

Yes, "Your Possible Pasts" was a very close second to "The Gunner's Dream" for me. In an album full of disheartening final lines, I think "Strung out behind us the banners and flags of our possible pasts lie in tatters -- and rags" might take the cake, if you will.

 

A great song and of course it repeats the lyrical motif of "recourse to the law" started in "The Gunner's Dream". Sadly, one of the two suns in the sunset shatters the post war dream, i.e. "...you have no recourse to the law anymore..." When you realize what's happened in the song it's the aural equivalent of the final scene of the movie "Threads".

 

'When the Tigers Broke Free'

Most emotional Floyd song I've ever heard. Why on earth wasn't on the original release?

 

Worst poll result ever! This explains a lot.

 

Great album. I voted for the title track. Always loved it. That bit about Rolling Stone for example, I just love the sound of Roger’s voice over the perfect bed of music - goes really well together. The musical performance of the bass guitar, piano, orchestra - the Comfortably Numb-like arpeggios in the arrangement (a bit of musical conceptual continuity) - it’s a masterpiece composition/arrangement/performance.

I’m a bit surprised Not Now John is leading. It’s alright but always one of my least favorites on the album - it’s a bit goofy to me. Although I do like the “can’t stop, lose job, mind gone, silicon…” bit - that’s always been really cool.

Many other highlights. I could name all the other tracks as highlights actually. Except for “Tigers”. Never one of my favorites from the film and I admit I probably haven’t listened more than once to the album version in its context but feel it makes momentum stall going into The Gunner’s Dream which is unfortunate b/c “Gunner’s” is such a great track that it doesn’t deserve that, so “Tigers” probably weakens the album.

 

I'll just rank mine, since voting for one (which I did) made the others inferior.

-Two Sunset in the Sunset
-The Fletcher Memorial Home
-The Final Cut
-Your Possible Pasts
-The Gunner's Dream
-Not Now John

 

'The Fletcher Memorial Home', 'Not Now John' and 'Two Suns In The Sunset'. Picked the last one.

 

Went with Fletcher but could have easily hit Post War Dream.

 

I voted for The Gunner's Dream but I could have picked just about anything except Not Now John (which really spoils the album for me...)

Why oh why hasn't the full Gunner's Dream been included on the repressing of this album? I'd rather have that than 'Tigers' (although I also love that song - just not on here...)

 

Gunner’s Dream for me, followed by Fletcher and the title track. Gunner’s Dream makes me choke up just about every time I hear it.

Very surprised that Not Now John is leading the poll. The only thing I like about that song is the way that it storms out of the end of “The Final Cut”. The juxtaposition between the narrator’s emotional fragility in the title track and the callous “f&$@ all that” that follows it is one of the harshest moments on the record and a perfect encapsulation of Rog’s favorite theme of the dehumanizing effects of big business and big government.

Love the whole record.

 

I believe it was already used or was being slated for use for The Wall movie soundtrack, as it appears on that release.

I agree it works better in the context of The Final Cut, but I've still yet to hear the version of the CD which has it sequenced in.

I agree re: "Not Now John", it's an okay song but it's so hamfisted and hamhanded, like a sledgehammer compared to the biting observations of "Have A Cigar". "NNJ" was constructed to be an upbeat single for the album and it shows.

 

Yes, it appears in the Wall film but there was no related soundtrack album released.
'Tigers' was eventually released as a single, backed with a new version of 'Bring The Boys Back Home'.

[Edit:] Interestingly, it mentions that 'Tigers' would be part of The Final Cut even back then.
Why the song didn't make the cut there (probably pun intended) is a good question...

 

To me it's the other way round. I got to know this album by a recent CD release (2004) and missed 'Tigers' when I got an original vinyl copy. I'm so used to the 'updated' tracklist version.^^