Pink Floyd. Timeless masters of music. Many know of their work.

Not many ever explore their entire career though, beyond the popular mainstream classics like Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb, Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, and perhaps Money, and of course Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict!

Never heard of that one? It’s a hoot. It’s ok if you’ve just became aware of Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict. I understand. It’s an acquired taste.

Their career has spanned over 50 years and produced some amazing music.

One of the most under-rated albums from Pink Floyd is The Final Cut.

It’s an interesting album for many reasons.

It’s mostly the work of bassist Roger Waters.

The Final Cut album largely focuses on Roger Waters personal struggles at losing a father to World War 2, and the fascist politics of the time effecting the United Kingdom. The lyrics are haunting.

It was also recorded at a time when Pink Floyd were being ripped apart by internal power struggles.

A feud that hasn’t resolved in over 30 years and probably won’t ever.

It was also the followup album to their monster double album that you’d all know of, The Wall.

It also contains a lot of leftover material from The Wall.

Why am I telling you this? There’s a bloody good reason.

Fascism is on the rise again, and Donald Trump is President Of The United States. If that doesn’t concern you, it should.

We’ve learned nothing at all in 30 years.

Let’s examine the track The Fletcher Memorial Home on The Final Cut album.

You can explore the rest of the album in your own time. You won’t be disappointed.

Here’s the lyrics…

“Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
And build them a home, a little place of their own.
The Fletcher Memorial Home
For Incurable Tyrants and Kings.

And they can appear to themselves every day
On closed circuit T.V.
To make sure they’re still real.
It’s the only connection they feel.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Reagan and Haig,
Mr. Begin and friend, Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisly,
“Hello Maggie!”
Mr. Brezhnev and party.
“Who’s the bald chap?”
The ghost of McCarthy,
The memories of Nixon.
“Good-bye!”
And now, adding color, a group of anonymous latin-
American Meat packing glitterati.

Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?
They can polish their medals and sharpen their smiles
And amuse themselves playing games for awhile.
Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you’re dead.

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.”

Those words have a lot of meaning to today’s geopolitical landscape. The song was penned in 1982 at the height of Margaret Thatcher’s reign on politics in the United Kingdom.

Here’s an experiment to try to bring the song into modern times.

Swap the names of political figures of the 1980s with the names of current right wing world leaders, and you’ll soon realise we’ve progressed not an inch in over 30 years.

We need that Fletcher Memorial Home opened, now, and filled to the brim with dangerous tyrants, kings, dictators and fascists.

Because if you thought the world was a tough place to live in today, wait until they gain control.

The Final Cut album concludes with a dire warning, disguised in the cryptic words of Two Suns In Sunset.

Romantic huh? Not at all.

“The sun is in the east,
Even though the day is done.
Two suns in the sunset.
Hmmmmmmmmm.
Could be the human race is run.”

Meaning,…

Nuclear war!

Enjoy your Pink Floyd, but also do try to listen to the message they’ve been trying to deliver for half a century now, before the lunatics eventually take over the asylum, dooming us all.

By the way, Roger Waters is currently laying the smackdown at Donald Trump in many different ways, artistically of course.

I’ll let you Google that yourselves or I’ll never finish this article. It’s hilarious, and on form!

Now go listen to the best band in the universe. Thank me later for the pleasure. It’ll be yours.