The Fletcher Memorial Home by Roger Waters/Pink Floyd

[tom_paine]

This song has so much more meaning now that the Imperial Subjects of Amerika are now officially without a vote, without a vocie, and service by a media-industrial complex that is, in it's own way (and given the different time & different cultures/traditions) is nearing becoming as bad as Marcos' Phillipines, Stalin's Russia, 1947 S. Africa, or Hitler's Germany.

Without further or do, the lyrics that meant so much even during the Days of the Old Republic and mean even more now that the Bushevik boot is resting (gently still, for who knows how much longer) on our necks.

Pink Floyd - The Fletcher Memorial Home 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 paisley
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"
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 a while
boom boom, bang bang, lie down you're dead
safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
with their favourite 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

=================================================

Right on, Roger. Right on.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

1. I told my kids about this song a couple of weeks back

My oldest son, talking about Bush, mentioned that people like him should just be sent somewhere where they couldn't do anyone any harm.

So I told the kids such a place already existed, at least in song.

I didn't, however, recite the lyrics to Not Now John to my kids. :)

[tom_paine]

2. Heh Heh

What's so bad about that song? It, too has new meaning

fuck all that we've got to get on with these
got to compete with the wily chinese
no need to worry about the EU please
got to bring the Korean Jong to his knees
well, maybe not the Korean Jong
maybe iraqis
we showed afghanistan
now lets go and show these
make us feel tough
and won't Smirky be pleased

Lyrics updated for the 21st Century Amerikan Empire

[Elidor]

3. I often think I'm the only person who likes The Final Cut

Which was basically the first Roger Waters solo album. Fletcher Memorial Home is great. Gilmour's solo is one of his better moments on the album. Fletcher is a reference to Waters' father, if memory serves. His name was either Fletcher Waters or Harry Fletcher Waters. Something like that. Killed in the fight for the bridge at Anzio in Italy, WWII (see "When the Tigers Broke Free" for a description).

Waters is one of the most underrated lyricists of our time. Amused to Death is another classic in my book, even though Roger's singing sounds...umm...constipated at best. The dvd of the tour he did in 2000 is superlative, possibly the best concert film I've yet seen, excepting my old favorite: Live at Pompeii.

[tom_paine]

4. Did you ever hear "When the Tigers Broke Free"?

It was an unreleased song from the Wall, and goes into more detail about the death of Waters' father. Snippets are also played in the movie "The Wall"


It was just before dawn
one miserable morning in Black '44
when the forward commander was told to sit tight
when he asked that his men be withdrawn

And the Generals gave thanks as the other ranks
held back the enemy tanks for awhile
And the Anzio Bridgehead was held for the price
of a few hundred ordinary lives

(chorus)
It was dark all around
there was frost in the ground
when the tigers broke free
and no one survived from the Royal Fusliers, Company C
they were all left behind
most of them dead, the rest of them dying...dying
and that's how the High Command took my Daddy from me

And Kind old King George sent Mother a note
when he heard that Father was gone
It was, as I recall, in the form of a scroll
with gold leaf and all

I found it one day, a drawer of old photographs in the way
And my eyes still grow damp to remember His Majesty signed
with his own rubber stamp.

(chorus)

Yet another song with new meaning now in the 21st Century Amerikan Empire...