TV Runs Deep For Waters In Post Pink Floyd Days

[The Piper]

ATD Article from Halifax, Canada Newspaper -- 10 Sep 92

[From: Mike Merriam]

Following is a review/interview which mostly covers old ground, but I'll
include it anyway:

"TV Runs Deep For Waters In Post Pink Floyd Days"
From Halifax Chronicle-Herald, Halifax, Canada
By Keith Leslie, Canadian Press, Toronto
10 September 1992

Roger Waters left Pink Floyd in 1983 in a bitter dispute, but musically he
has never strayed far from his famous roots.

Waters, 48, has again returned to the progressive rock sound that made
Pink Floyd so popular in his third solo LP, Amused to Death.

The 73-minute concept album, released in Canada last week, is Waters' view
of the world as seen through television.

He describes it "as a gorilla watching TV."

"The record springs from my feeling that television is the single-most
important facet in all our lives, providing us with a medium with which
to communicate with each other for good and for evil," said Waters in an
interview in Toronto.

"It's a kind of two-edged sword and it interests me because it's so powerful."

Waters ranks Amused to Death right up there with the Pink Floyd classics
Dark Side of the Moon (1973) which has sold 15 million copies, and the
1979 epic The Wall.

"To have made two records like that, I was absolutely certain, really,
that I would never make another one. I think I've made another one."

While Waters still bristles at any mention of his former colleagues, who
still record and tour as Pink Floyd, he's determined to let his music
prove he was the creative force behind the band.

His guest list on Amused to Death includes ex-Eagle Don Henley, Rita
Coolidge and guitarist Jeff Beck, who is featured on seven of the album's
14 songs.

Waters had to send Beck a demonstration tape before the guitarist would
agree to play on the album.

"He's such a sweet guy," says Waters. "Jeff could never say no to you to
your face, so he has to listen to the stuff in a separate room so if he
doesn't want to do it he doesn't have to tell you.

"But he did want to do it, thank God."

It's been five years since Waters' last album Radio KAOS, which was
followed by a tour that featured many gems from the Pink Floyd vaults.

He hasn't decided about a tour this time, but if he does hit the road he's
of "two minds whether to do anything from the past or not."

He believes Amused to Death should become "a theatrical piece that stands
on its own" so "the audience might have to wait for me to do something old
for an encore."

Waters admits he has many personal favorites from his Pink Floyd days, but
he still fells The Wall was his best work.

"We'll have to see how I live with Amused to Death, but The Wall is really
the thing I'm the proudest of. I think it's pretty well flawless."

Waters also wants to stage another presentation of The Wall in the year 2000.

I did it in 1980 (with Pink Floyd). I did it in 1990 (an all-star
production at the Berlin Wall). I'd quite like to do it in 2000."

He just has to decide between his two preferred locations: "the Grand
Canyon or Wall Street."