Pink Floyd Biography
The final cut (1983 - 1986)
Four years after the release of The Wall, which was in 1983, one of the
commercially less successful Pink Floyd albums was released. The Final
Cut in fact consists of songs that were left over from The Wall and is
often (mistakenly) considered the first Waters' solo album after the
break-up of Pink Floyd. Lyrically, the album is largely anti-war and
influenced by the then ongoing Falklands War fought between the UK and
Argentine. Its other lyrical themes include the possibility of a nuclear
war (Two Suns in The Sunset) and the Cold War. The artwork was designed
by Waters and is by no means any wonder. It shows a Remembrance Day
poppy and WWII medal ribbons.
The vast majority of both the music and the lyrics was written by
Waters. Gilmour co-wrote the music for two of the songs, but Waters
decided not to mention that in the album credits. Gilmour also provided
vocals on Not Now John. The last track was even recorded without any
of the other members of the band, just with hired musicians. Michael
Kamen recorded all of the piano parts and the drums on the last track
were recorded by Andy Newmark. Gilmour did not take part in making the
track in any way, which makes it the first ever Pink Floyd song to be
credited to Waters only. The partition of the band was confirmed by a
note on the album cover: "The Final Cut by Roger Waters performed by
Pink Floyd." Inside, you could read the ugly truth most of the fans had
not noticed yet: "Pink Floyd are: Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick
Mason" - not a single word about Rick Wright.
Waters brash behaviour during the recording of The Wall and Final cut
added to the animosity between him and the rest of the band. In the
end, Waters decided to leave the band and continue touring with hired
musicians under the name of Pink Floyd. Naturally, Gilmour and Mason
protested and so the so called "Floyd war" began. It was "fought" in
private, in the media and also at the court. Gilmour even reflected it
in a song called You Know I'm Right on his 1984 About Face album.
The anonymity of the band members, who, unlike other bands, never
wanted to become media celebrities and preferred to advertise the band
as a whole instead, came to an end by that time. When there were no more
things to use against them, Waters condescended to commissioning 100
rolls of toilet paper imprinted with Gilmour's face. Mason jokingly
commented on that, saying that if his children did something like that
to each other, he would be angry at them to the point of not giving them
any pocket money for a week. However, the time for joking had long been
gone.
The controversy ended up at court, when David and Nick refused to
stop using the name Pink Floyd and Waters, who was the author of the
majority of the songs, sued them for using it without his permission.
After he won in the first hearing, Mason and Gilmour appealed and later
the judge granted the right to use the name Pink Floyd to them, along
with all of the original trademarks, reportedly because of their
"numerical superiority," (their Pink Floyd included two members of the
original band, while Waters' just one, to put it simply). Waters than
sued them again, this time for using his invention, the inflatable
flying pig, at shows and won £5000. Pink Floyd, now just Gilmour and
Mason, then decided to prevent such complications and added a huge penis
to the pig, changing the conception so they didn't have to pay for the
copyright. However, in The Delicate Sound Of Thunder, a credit shows in
the very end reading: "Original Pig Concept by R. Waters"
 continuation
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