Wish You Weren't Here - Pink Floyd '79

Part of a series of interviews, reviews, news articles that chart an alternate path for Pink Floyd, beginning with...

---

Melody Maker - October 21st 1979

PINK FLOYD - THE PROS AND CONS OF HITCH HIKING (Harvest)


Given the lacklustre, knee biting mentality of the recent crop of punk-derived groups - emphasis on the common denominator of 'derived' - you can be forgiven for weaning yourself back onto the music your school-inflicted persona once mournfully swayed to merely a decade ago, even within the reaches of psychadelic exuberance. The keeper of The Pink Floyd Sound without reservation or trade of wonderfully told storytelling for unabashed whinging - as explained later - still remains with Syd Barrett, seemingly unable presently to operate in a day to day life, let alone the parlour of musical creation. With his early departure from the founding line-up of Pink Floyd, the band was given a brisk hand-me-down with the introduction of David Gilmour. A blues-adoring, jawline-strutting guitarist who can effortlessly outplay himself on a decade matured legacy of increasingly conceptual, increasingly singularly themed albums.

Though with that, lies the truth all concerned tried to keep bouyant from. This is the Roger Waters band née experience. He writes the lyrics, he creates the concepts, he whinges with impeccable timing and ignorance of his peers and finally, with an inevitable sense of timing as we hurtle into the 1980's, Pink Floyd really has became part of its own self-inflicted joke.

The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking is a wholly owned Roger Waters mid-life crisis from start to finish with little, if any, remnants of the almost tactical stereo cannon blasts that signalled their genre and live arena domination with The Dark Side of the Moon. The album begins with a hastily assembled audio collage, giving clue to a nightmare that our brave protagonist lurches out of and into the loving arms of his dear... wife? partner? bird? Who cares, the album relies on a shockingly narrow selection of melodic appeasements, well I may as well not lie, sound 'bites' that are meant to link each theme, each song to one another. This works in principle if you are reciting the collected works of George Orwell's ad man, but it's not the muster of a band that opened the decade without the knowledge that a song doesn't have to be sixteen minutes in length (without a tea break). You can tell I'm procrastinating, I am, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking is a horrible long-player with weedy, rattling production, bitingly lurching and morose lyrical content and virtually free of bluesy, or even influential guitar backing and organ playing from Messers Gilmour and Wright. There is need for the ability to outrank your peers in times of crisis, but Roger Waters really has took the piss this time in the post-'Animals' era. Did he lose the plot trying to reach out to hundreds of thousands in culturally absent stadiums? Or was this his plan all along?

Come back Syd, your band, no, your country needs you.

---

OOC - The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking was the alternate concept piece considered by the band before they settled on 'The Wall', which went on to be one of the most successful albums of all time. Roger Waters went on to record Pros and Cons as a solo album in 1984.
 
Record Mirror - February 1st 1980

Excerpt from the Roger Waters interview 'Which One's Pink? - The Greatest Con Of Them All'


'It [the Pros and Cons album] never really came about with the ferocity that we should've, or maybe I would have brought to it, especially after the f**king dire straits of the American tour, what a f**king farce from the off'.

Do you feel touring is something the band would take up this year? There were rumours of Richard Wright temporarily removing himself from the band as a result of the Pros and Cons recording sessions.

No chance, the needless drive to fill those stadiums all, ALL to meet quota so two hundred union workers can keep their pay and then have some drunken mule from New Jersey set off fireworks amongst what... seventy thousand people who are barely listening while we're barely keeping up with ourselves just put an end to it. The horrible vacuous nature of the last tour really got to me, not so much Dave and Nick, they seem pretty happy to keep on playing to empty spaces but hey, I'm an accessory to that murder as well!

What about Rick?

What about him?

To quote David Gilmour - 'He's had enough of it for now, summertime blues, he's sailing and taking time to see his family'.

Well thanks Dave! [Laughs] Rick didn't really get to grips with the material once I came back with a good idea for the musical quotiant, he's a jazz man and I'm your typical twelve bar junkie, so he didn't really contribute. Most of the keyboard parts were completed by either Dave or myself.

So no to touring for the foreseeable future?

Half the planet has seen us in the last four years or so, why would you wanna see four old dogs battle it out over a few rock 'n roll songs about hitch hiking?

---

OOC - 'The Wall' spawned a live show that ran for a number of weeks both in 1980 - 81. Smaller venues with far more clearer sound and pioneering theatre visuals allowed the band to immerse the audience in the story and allowed Roger Waters to partially reconnect with the audience, a link lost through large scale arenas. Rick Wright was fired from the band during 'The Wall' recording sessions and was seen as the clear indicator of Roger Waters control over the band, musically and egotistically.
 
This looks pretty interesting. Consider me subscribed. There's always been too few cultural timelines on this board for my taste so I'm happy to see one. Plus, I'm a pretty big Pink Floyd fan so this'll be pretty fun. Keep it up!:D
 
May 1980 - Musician Magazine

Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour - Going Solo?


Given the decision to haul in the old guard for another tug of war between concept and tune, something lacking in the most recent Pink Floyd release, guitarist Dave Gilmour has decided to focus his attention on an overdue second solo outing, this time however without the critical backing of a decently received new album from the mothership to help him along into the hazy highs of the top ten, a steady entry for any solo effort.

'Yes it's rather true, though I wouldn't call it a solo effort, more my inability to shy from the studio during down time, something we've all [Pink Floyd] suddenly had alot of'.

The lack of a tour to support 'The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking' has left both fans and the band floundering, the album itself reaching the top ten but quickly falling out of the charts, leading many to wonder what exactly happened within the ranks, and especially to lyricist and bass player Roger Waters.

'Rog is fine, we've hardly seen each other since the album was put out, what, seven or eight months ago? But that's alright, he's partial to a lone walk in the woods every so often'.

Don't expect a Gilmour solo work immediately though, as with a man gracious with his share of the credit, he may very well be chapping doors soon and getting his bandmates to play along. How boredom transfers so easily...

---

OOC - David Gilmour - Never 'Dave' - released his second solo album in 1984 after it was evident that he could never happily work with Roger Waters again after the infamously bitter and dividing recording sessions for the 1983 Pink Floyd album 'The Final Cut'.
 
Last edited:
For a good music TL (IMO, some of you might disagree) see The Eyes That Smiled: An Alternate Beach Boys Saga on othertimelines.ipbfree.com.

The PoD is that Brian Wilson manages to finish Smile, leading to the Beach Boys becoming as popular as The Beatles. Among other things, disco never becomes popular, Phil Collins leaves Genesis instead of Peter Gabriel, and Terry Kath doesn't kill himself by accident.
 
May 23nd 1980 - Extract from letter to Gilmour, Wright and Mason from Waters

(Page 2)
...disbanding was an idea that rattled around, it's got to be said you know, especially after we trod through the f**king American concerts, Anzio f**king front didn't have a step on us considering the emptiness of it all AND considering we trumped the unholy order of success with Dark Side. I just feel a hell of alot of good delivered to us from the last few records came from trying to rebuild that united front that really took us through the Dark Side sessions, we've hit this shitty rehash that's culminated in Pros and Cons, I like that LP but I honestly feel, honestly honestly feel that the 'Walls and Barriers' concept could've really f**king been something great. I was still willing to set aside alot of bullshit I was facing when I handed out the demos but no doubt the admittedly stark lyrical content swayed us all towards Pros and Cons...

(Page 4)
...I'm just feeling numb, really down and out about all this, don't worry about me in any other sense, I'm seeing someone, kicking my heels into some emotional tinkering with a shrink as per, but things are alright. Pink Floyd is still that nine piece tea party tea chest pop group Syd had a keen and f**king vision of. If you guys are willing to hold out for a while, we should get back to the studio, lay down some tinkering of our own, it's been a long time since we pissed about with a purpose...
 
Nice stuff.. I love a good music WI.

(I've been mulling the idea for a timeline where PF drafts-in Kevin Ayers to help Syd in 1967. Any interest out there?)

It'll be cool to see where the 1980s Pink Floyd goes after "Pros & Cons".
 
Top