Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Discussions about Pink Floyd and Solo Official Album CDs and DVDs.

Rate this album

5 - Best
11
15%
4
16
22%
3
15
20%
2
12
16%
1 - Worst
20
27%
 
Total votes: 74

ZiggyZipgun
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

I've been giving this album more attention today than it deserves, mainly because I keep forgetting that Clare Torry is on it. The "goodbye, little spy in the sky..." bit is the same melody and chord progression as Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat" ("Jane came by with a lock of your hair..."). Because it's a Roger Waters album, I have to assume that the same melody appears in other songs, but I'm not going to listen to it again just to find out. I probably only noticed it in Clare's part because she knows how to deliver a melody, while Roger's vocals sound like he's straining his vowels.
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by space triangle »

Those who say that this album is too much 80's probably didn't lived in the eighties. I was quite young att the time not knowing that much about Pink Floyd att all. But, a some things I do remember. Compared to many other albums by former prog artists who released albums at the time, this album was absolutely bearable. Compared to the albums by Genesis, Phil Colins, Yes, Rush, Jethro Tull at that time ... Radio KAOS was not seen as ovenrly offensive album (production vise) at all. Radio KAOS was something that could be called moderate production of the 80s.Comparable roughly to Bowie's albums as Tonight or Let's Dance. Four of the eight songs on this album have almost no 80's production att all. Home, Four Minutes, Me Or Him and The Tide Is Turning (After Live AID). What Roger was supposed to do was to include Going To Live In LA and Get Back To Radio. In that case, Radio KAOS would be a really good album.
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

space triangle wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 7:32 amThose who say that this album is too much 80's probably didn't lived in the eighties.
I was born in the '80s, and the first song I remember hearing on the radio was "Maneater" by Hall & Oates. Of the artists you mentioned, David Bowie is the only one I would consider to be on the same level as Pink Floyd. I never liked Never Let Me Down until they released the reworked version, which was based on detailed instructions he wrote shortly before his death. After hearing it, I can now appreciate both versions. But his whole reason for doing it was that he felt that they were very good songs that were spoiled by the production, and that they deserved to be heard.

Even if Radio KAOS had been made in the '70s, it would likely still be the weakest album in the combined Pink Floyd canon, for several reasons: it's entirely fictional, the seemingly-hip-hop-inspired songwriting is extremely repetitive, and if you disregard all of the non-musical dialogue and sound effects, there is no coherant story or concept. And if the production doesn't make it sound "too '80s", the fact that it's a mash-up of War Games starring Matthew Broderick and My Left Foot starring Daniel Day-Lewis makes it a strong contender for weirdest fucking album ever made. Roger has said he regrets trimming it down from a double-album since it did lose some of the plot, but he also said, "I should never have made that record."
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by space triangle »

Gave this album a spin today. Oh my lord... Home - Four Minutes - The Tide Is Turning give me a goosebumps! Nothing on the Amused To Death gave me a goosebumps ever! Even if ATD is still a great album. Man...Roger was on the top of the game at this time! I agree with Mr. Mosepa, this is Waters best solo album.

''shrug''
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

Home is the best track on the album for sure. You can see that influencing Bird In A Gale. Was Radio Kaos ever boxed treatment?
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by space triangle »

Jimi Dean Barrett wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 4:20 pmWas Radio Kaos ever boxed treatment?
As far as I know no never.
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

It doesn't appear to be on Google Play at all.
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

It occurred to me today that "Radio Waves" is awfully similar to "Five Feet High and Rising" by Johnny Cash.

"Awful" being the operative word.

https://youtu.be/BK7P4Sgomtw
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by Master_Chief »

space triangle wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 2:57 pm Gave this album a spin today. Oh my lord... Home - Four Minutes - The Tide Is Turning give me a goosebumps! Nothing on the Amused To Death gave me a goosebumps ever! Even if ATD is still a great album. Man...Roger was on the top of the game at this time! I agree with Mr. Mosepa, this is Waters best solo album.

''shrug''
I have to admit that for a long time this way my favourite Roger Waters solo album, as to some extent it still is. I thought the theme was perfect, the dash of 80s acceptable and the overall product very good. I remember reading in a biography about him that had Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith or even Pink Floyd created such a concept it would've been received almost as well as The Wall.

It seems with Roger's solo work that people who dislike seem hellbent on disliking it and/or him, and have this urge to raise these opinions whenever they can. Admittedly Roger is a very odd character, and that's coming from someone who enjoys is solo work almost as much as Gilmour's Floyd-led stuff. His political opinions are sometimes poorly executed, but when you read between the lines they mean well.

Admittedly his opinions about his former bandmates are sometimes out of place, but again they all seem to follow the same narrative, and it's probably bitterness at the lost years prior and after Live 8. He knows he screwed up with regards to Floyd, but his pride won't let him admit that.

Getting back on topic I feel Radio KAOS needs an extensive re-release, along with the B-side singles and any other demos and such. It was and is a great album, that simply lacks the Pink Floyd punch we all seem to expect. Personally I'd love to see this album re-released alongside his work from When the Wind Blows in a special boxset.
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

I'm only critical of Radio KAOS because I have a lot of respect for The Wall, The Final Cut, Pros and Cons, and Amused to Death. I've always disliked the overall sound because a lot of it gives me a Huey Lewis vibe, but I still sit through it trying to figure out how it fell so short of those other albums. KAOS really needed someone like Bob Ezrin - the most important thing he did for The Wall was to go through the demos, write a script of what was happening in the songs, change the running order to make it more linear, identify what scenes were missing, and crack the whip on Roger to fill in those gaps. I think the problem with KAOS is that Roger wrote the script, and most of it ended up in Jim Ladd's dialogue with a Speak-n-Spell. Only a few lines in each song actually serve to move the story forward, and in some songs...none. A lot of it is just his repetitive word soup that first made an appearance on "Not Now John". But the story itself could use a significant rewrite, because of tropes like disabled people having superpowers (there's actually a page about Roger on tvtropes.org, and it's pretty entertaining).
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by Annoying Twit »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:27 pm I'm only critical of Radio KAOS because I have a lot of respect for The Wall, The Final Cut, Pros and Cons, and Amused to Death. I've always disliked the overall sound because a lot of it gives me a Huey Lewis vibe, but I still sit through it trying to figure out how it fell so short of those other albums. KAOS really needed someone like Bob Ezrin - the most important thing he did for The Wall was to go through the demos, write a script of what was happening in the songs, change the running order to make it more linear, identify what scenes were missing, and crack the whip on Roger to fill in those gaps. I think the problem with KAOS is that Roger wrote the script, and most of it ended up in Jim Ladd's dialogue with a Speak-n-Spell. Only a few lines in each song actually serve to move the story forward, and in some songs...none. A lot of it is just his repetitive word soup that first made an appearance on "Not Now John". But the story itself could use a significant rewrite, because of tropes like disabled people having superpowers (there's actually a page about Roger on tvtropes.org, and it's pretty entertaining).
Wasn't it said further up (or perhaps in a review I read) that the album was cut down from a double to a single, and that weakened the concept/store considerably?

I gave it a spin yesterday, and it does sound as if Roger was trying to get a hit. Which backfired as it wasn't a hit and didn't really satisfy his fans/PF fans either. He did a much better job with AtD.
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

Annoying Twit wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:31 pmWasn't it said further up (or perhaps in a review I read) that the album was cut down from a double to a single, and that weakened the concept/store considerably?
It was, and who knows what was cut besides "Going to Live in L.A." and "Molly's Song", but neither of those add much to the story, lyrically (again, outside of on-air dialog). And one of them sounds like Tina Turner yelling at a satellite, fer chrissake.
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

I'm mostly just disappointed with myself for caring about this stuff so much, because I don't enjoy the album. It's as if Hemingway wrote an episode of Married With Children, and everyone sat around analyzing it for decades.
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by space triangle »

Annoying Twit wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:31 pmWhich backfired as it wasn't a hit..
I recall 'Radio Waves' and 'Who Needs Information' got quite a lot of radio play when album was new released. Radio Waves was a minor hit The song was played quite often on the then newly formed MTV channel. Eh, those were good times!
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Re: Roger Waters - Radio K.A.O.S (KAOS)

Post by Annoying Twit »

space triangle wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 6:07 pm
Annoying Twit wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:31 pmWhich backfired as it wasn't a hit..
I recall 'Radio Waves' and 'Who Needs Information' got quite a lot of radio play when album was new released. Radio Waves was a minor hit The song was played quite often on the then newly formed MTV channel. Eh, those were good times!
According to https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/2 ... er-waters/, Radio Waves got to No. 74, and The Tide is Turning got to No. 54. By 'hit' I meant a bit higher in the charts. The album did better getting to No. 25, but again I meant a better chart placing than that. All his subsequent original albums did much better.

Roger himself said: "Between Ian Ritchie and myself, we really fucked that record up. We tried too hard to make it sound modern. I allowed myself to get pushed down roads that were uncomfortable for me. I should never have made that record."

That's why I think the album backfired on him. He ended up releasing an album he didn't like, and it didn't even do well in the charts.
ZiggyZipgun wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 2:43 pm It was, and who knows what was cut besides "Going to Live in L.A." and "Molly's Song", but neither of those add much to the story, lyrically (again, outside of on-air dialog). And one of them sounds like Tina Turner yelling at a satellite, fer chrissake.
And "Molly's Song" steals the melody from "When I Need You".