"Amused to Death:" Analyze the album

What is this album about?

What does it mean to you?

Here is what I get from it:

'Amused to Death' refers to Roger's statement at the end of the album that "This species has amused itself to death." Of course, the species is humanity.

Throughout the album Roger touches on the uselessness and cowardice of war (Bravery of Being Out of Range) with an eye towards political leaders who send others to their deaths and kill others while being safely another continent away from the battle. Perhaps he is also condeming the people who support such wars from the comfort of their own homes (or the local bar).

Roger further points the finger at the government on 'Watching TV' in which a young girl with "high hopes" is squashed by a tank in Tiennamen Square. The responsible party here is again the government/military, but he also seems to be mocking the people who he repeatedly declares were "watching TV" when this happened. We weren't brave enough or strong enough to stand with this little Asian girl, but we were sitting in front of the TV (again, safely out of range) when it happened. The song is both a beautiful eulogy and a biting commentary on the ordinary citizen.

'Three Wishes' is a song that doesn't really fit in with the rest IMO, but it is a good enough song to warrant inclusion. I read an interview of his in which he simply refers to it as "the old three wishes story" - he gets his wishes, but doesn't get what he really wants - love.

'What God Wants' - all 3 parts - is a shot at organized religion and those who corrupt and abuse it for their own gain. Immoral money-loving "preachers' whom I won't point out by name who tell us what God wants. But why should they know what he wants? Roger effectively points out the ridiculousness that trying to interpret what God wants results in - he wants war, peace, sex, crack all at the same time and "What God wants, God gets." God help us all...

'Its a Miracle' - a complicated song that is hard for me to completely decipher. At the beginning Roger seems to be making an anti-globalization statement - "McDonalds in Tibet...A Leisure Center between the Tigris and Euphrates..." but at the end he shifts and names an incident that could be interpreted as a miracle with a sense of irony - after surviving an earthquake, the piano lid comes crashing down and "breaks his f*cking fingers." Too much hanging around with Alanis Morissette?

'Perfect Sense' pts. 1 and 2 - an eloquent, intelligent anti-military machine song. In the end, its all about money. War, lives lost...When you consider the dollar, it all makes sense (or cents).

'Amused to Death' - the grand finale. Brings together all the themes from the previous songs, most notable 'Watching TV' 'Perfect Sense' 'Bravery' 'What God Wants' and 'Its a Miracle.' The title is a sad phrase with more than a hint of irony. Roger watches everything that has gone on and is going on its just so dam funny to him. But in a sad way, like there is nothing to do but laugh because it is so ridiculous - war, religion, etc...

The album ends on an extremely dour note, yet in his recent song 'Each Small Candle' Roger seems to have adopted a more upbeat note, as if we can beat this thing, every little bit counts...


Thanks for reading

All comments are welcome and encouraged

nicely done it should come close.

Yep......That's about it..

Well, its nice to hear I got something right!

The Roger Water's Amused to Death is one off my favorite albums. The album should be funny, if it wasn't the fact beeing so near to reallity. On Radio K.A.O.S. and Billy's joke positvie end, on the contrary, Amused to Death's final is pessimistic. It should be funny, if wasn't so possible to happen.

Waters again satyrised the modern man, allienated, tired of the supermarcket shopping kind of live, wanting to knows how much time an TV colour set will last, and hou many time a quenn-beea sorvive, but confunding the two answers. It show how bannalized technology is and shows our knodlege superficiality.

And then, it was fun. It was the greaetest show on heart. We eat our caviar and drive our sport cars. We taste, spend and waste our natural recources, proffiting till the end the banquet that's was prepared for us in this planet. We watch war on T.V. and even didn't notest teh show is over. Maybe that bomb in the screen finally was droped on us.

Apreending our last ligh remain, this alien race arrives on earth to study all human's life data. After checking and recheking information they concludes this only result: human kind amused themself to death.

A nice Roger ears-pushing. To chame it isn't quite apreciated.

I agree jose. Interesting how Roger's vision made for a fine solo album (I still haven't heard his other 2), but Dave's solo albums leave me wondering what the hell he was doing. Roger's Amused to Death is coherent, intelligent, musically pleasing, and he is saying something that no one else has said before. Whereas Dave's 2 solo efforts don't accomplish any of these things...

In fact, there are 6 Roger Water's solo albums:

The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking - 1984
First Roger's solo work, it tells the story of a common man's nightmare, and shows his fears and feelings.

When the Wind Blows – 1986
Sound trailler, it's about world war and it's consequences.

Rádio K.A.O.S. - 1987
This album talks about politics and it's consequences, the "cold war" affair that could end in a third world war.

Amused to Death - 1992
The last and Roger's most brilliant work, it talks about contemporaneous issues, and mostly cryticies the unstopable consumism.

In the Flesh – 2000
Live Album record from his USA shows

Flickering Flame – 2002
Roger's best of since he left PF, with some unrealeased themes.

And two more: "Music from the body", soundtrack with Ron Geesin and "the wall", live in berlin.

Shine on

Well, I have 'In the Flesh' on DVD and 'Flickering Flame' for the most part is prereleased stuff, eh?

So all I am planning on getting is 'Pros and Cons' and 'Radio KAOS' although that 'When the Wind Blows' thing sounds interesting...

you should definitely get pros and cons it's great. radio kaos is also good but a bit too 80's

yes, most part. it's an alibum for you to save some money, though for roger's solo work complete understanding you have to buy all albums.
Do you ever notest that "Dark Side...", "the Wall" and "Amused to Death" completes an trilology both in the set as in the narrative? So, i recommend this last one if you already have the other two.

Just thought I'd say that I find this to be one of the nicest and most informative threads in APFFN. In fact, I have just rated it 5 stars.

I find ATD one of the most powerful pieces of art and criticism on modern society. Roger has also released a book with the same name, "Amused to Death", which is available at Amazon (BTW, any orders made through this link will help support APFFN), although I haven't had the chance yet to get my hands on it. Did anyone read it? I think it may give very good insights on the whole concept behind the album.

By the way, I just read an article that mentioned studies made that show that americans are less happy now than 50 years ago, even though they are richer and the majority of people have access to things that, 50 years ago, were only available to rich people. I would post a link to the article, but it's in Portuguese, so I guess it would be pretty useless. But anyway, I think this article pretty much describes in an academic way what Roger wrote about in ATD: about how shallow, egotistical and lost the human race has become.

Well, thanks for the kind words about the thread Piper

Every now and then I get inspired to write a detailed album review, and Amused to Death has most definitely kindled my enthusiasm. It is an extremely powerful work.

I've heard the same thing about Americans being less happy now...

I've never heard of that book before, so I don't know what it is...Could be interesting...

Hey, there are some PORTUGUESE people around here, please post the link. Thanks.
p.s. i just might do an translation... if i can.

good one

Did anyone else notice how the lyrics (about the war anyhow), still apply to THIS war? After 12 years, Roger's words remain true as ever