Thirty-one years ago in 1983,
Pink Floyd released their last album as the collective the world had gotten to know after founding member Syd Barrett departed after the release of their first record. The record,
The Final Cut, would be the final Floyd record with bassist, songwriter, and singer
Roger Waters and the first recorded without member
Richard Wright on keyboards.
The Final Cut, sometimes called
A Requiem for the Post-War Dream was originally intended to be the soundtrack to the film, The Wall, based on the Floyd record of the same name. Instead, with the Falkins War looming and then eventually taking place during the 1982 recording sessions for the album, it took on a whole new life and Waters crafted a concept record and his sentiments about then
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's handling of the war in the Falkins against Argentina and her betrayal to British servicemen. Water's father served in World War II and thus led to the record being a personal fight against Thatcher and her government. With
The Final Cut, Waters recorded his manifesto and showed the world what he did as all songs and lyrics are credited to him, and all songs were sung by him with the occasional backing vocal of
David Gilmour. When the record was released, it was given mixed reviews and the band opted not to tour behind it and leaving the relationship between Waters and the rest of the founding members of Floyd at an all-time low. Waters would eventually leave the band after the release of the record and resulting Gilmour and drummer
Nick Mason to carry on as Pink Floyd which resulted in a massive legal battle with Waters over the rights of the name. Waters would lose out on the deal and Floyd carried on without him until the mid 90's when they stopped recording all together. Now, all these years later, the record still is a haunting reminder about the power of musical storytelling and as we get "New" Pink Floyd material later this year, it will conjure up the memories of what could have been and what was had they continued on with Waters.
