EPISODE · May 27, 2023 · 15 MIN
Redux - Waiting for the Worms
Roger Waters recently performed The Wall in Berlin, but this time around he has managed to attract the attention of German police. "The context of the clothing worn is deemed capable of approving, glorifying, or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace." https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1662231475687682048 The "clothing worn" is a costume that's part of the portrayal of Pink, a rock star who becomes - in his dreams or reality, it's not clear - a fascist leader, accepting adulation of the crowd and inviting them to choose violence in his name. As the CNN host there notes, the red armband is not a swastika, but two crossed hammers - iconography used going back to the original album. The singer has posted a response on Twitter https://twitter.com/rogerwaters/status/1662213373772328961 Re-posting this one in part because its timely, but also because it's a suggestion of the generational skew I see in Germany, which appeared to have been in a Second Turning during World War II, a Fourth Turning around the time The Wall came out (and the Berlin Wall came down) and is back in a Second Turning again. And might follow up with an episode specifically about that. ============================================= Looking at Authoritarianism and Awakenings, but this time using Pink Floyd's 1979 album The Wall for further insights into how alienation feeds into it as well. Follow up to the other boomer fascist stuff, w radio ga ha and the fall of the wall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall Released 30 November 1979 - this recording is from ten years later1990, done at the site of the berlin wall, which had recently fallen after 28 years. 40 years after the invasion of Poland and the start of World War II. Roger water's father would die at Anzio, and the loss of his father has a notable impact on the ideas of alienation and loss that are the core of the wall. Roger Waters was born 1943 . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Waters Gilmour 1946 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gilmour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Ga_Ga Released 1984 CSUN Matador Band - The Wall https://youtu.be/cyzWuzW0BMg A short essay on the hammers http://www.feelnumb.com/2012/11/16/pink-floyds-double-crossing-hammer-logo-from-the-wall/ Gohil's - the source of the Gohil's Boots referenced at the end of Nobody Home. (It's a leatherworking shop - they don't do boots anymore, though.) http://www.gohils.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/notes/roger-waters/an-open-letter-from-roger-waters/688037331210720/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinhead An interview with Roger Waters by Jim Ladd on the release of The Wall in 1980 http://www.pink-floyd.org/artint/119.htm Roger Ebert liked the movie in 1982, and eventually (2010) even gave it a Great Movie review https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-pink-floyd-the-wall-1982 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Flesh_(Pink_Floyd_tour) https://www.ign.com/articles/top-14-greatest-rock-operasconcept-albums-of-all-time Couldn't find another listing, but this shows that number 11 is Jim Morrison, 38 is Live Aid, so 27 of them - fully half - are in the middle of the Awakening. http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Rolling-Stone%27s-list-of-the-50-Moments-that-Changed-Rock-and-Roll This version of Waiting for the Worms is from The Wall Live in Berlin, was also intended as a charity concert. Waters had intended to create The Fletcher Memorial Fund, named after his father, whose death in WWII had been a source of the alienation explored in the original album. A random and unrelated item here: The Killing Star uses We Are The World, another supergroup single, as the first time that the human reace was reasonable unified. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Star I'm on Twitter @generationalize and can be found also (sometimes) at the blogs Welcome to the Crisis & Stories of the Generations as well. http://crisis.generationalize.com http://stories.generationalize.com
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Redux - Waiting for the Worms
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