Roger Waters to play The Wall In Houston

Any Pink Floyd Fans? Roger Waters is playing The Wall from start to finish around the nation starting in September (Houston Nov 20th). I saw him play Dark Side of the Moon back in May of 2008 - amazing show. If you've never heard The Wall or seen the movie, don't fret. It's guaranteed to be visually stunning and psychedelic with a lot of themes I highlight in my blog.

The album has a lot of powerful messages about fear and its effects to keep us apart, naive and dependent on the wrong things for answers.

You can take the album simply at face value because it's so easy on the ears, but if you listen carefully, Roger Waters takes you through a mental journey of breaking down the walls that separate us from progressing, highlighting the accompanying fears, isolation and finally liberation.

Even if you can't catch the show wherever he's playing for the tour, pick up the album and the movie.

This is the blurb Roger Waters has written about the upcoming show:

I recently came across this quote of mine from 22 years ago:

” What it comes down to for me is this: Will the technologies of communication in our culture, serve to enlighten us and help us to understand one another better, or will they deceive us and keep us apart?”

I believe this is still a supremely relevant question and the jury is out. There is a lot of commercial clutter on the net, and a lot of propaganda, but I have a sense that just beneath the surface understanding is gaining ground. We just have to keep blogging, keep twittering, keep communicating, keep sharing ideas.

30 Years ago when I wrote The Wall I was a frightened young man. Well not that young, I was 36 years old.

It took me a long time to get over my fears. Anyway, in the intervening years it has occurred to me that maybe the story of my fear and loss with its concomitant inevitable residue of ridicule, shame and punishment, provides an allegory for broader concerns.: Nationalism, racism, sexism, religion, Whatever! All these issues and ‘isms are driven by the same fears that drove my young life.

This new production of The Wall is an attempt to draw some comparisons, to illuminate our current predicament, and is dedicated to all the innocent lost in the intervening years.

In some quarters, among the chattering classes, there exists a cynical view that human beings as a collective are incapable of developing more ‘humane’ ie, kinder, more generous, more cooperative, more empathetic relationships with one another.

I disagree.

In my view it is too early in our story to leap to such a conclusion, we are after all a very young species.

I believe we have at least a chance to aspire to something better than the dog eat dog ritual slaughter that is our current response to our institutionalized fear of each other.

I feel it is my responsibility as an artist to express my, albeit guarded, optimism, and encourage others to do the same. To quote the great man, ” You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”

"In my view.

RELIGION provides A WALL between US and the reality of OUR lives.

Also,

There is a WALL between:

RICH and POOR,

NORTH and SOUTH

THE OLD and NEW WORLDS and THE THIRD WORLD

It is A WALL of FEAR and GREED

There is enough of everything in THE WORLD for us all to have enough to eat, to be warm and dry and to have a colour TV and a car. WE are taught to FEAR that if WE share what WE have with THEM, WE won’t have anything left for US.

WE also FEAR that THEY may try to take what WE have away from US, so WE spend WAY more than THEY would need to feed, house, clothe, and EDUCATE THEMSELVES, on weapons to prevent THEM from taking what WE have away from US.

There is another WALL between US and the reality of OUR lives.

This WALL is called THE MEDIA. This WALL is a tool that is used to divert US from inconvenient truths.

Perhaps I should stop now, before I alienate anybody."

- Roger Waters, 2010