Is Radio Kaos total "Kaos"?

All discussion related specifically to Roger Waters.
User avatar
cwta eugene
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1009
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2004 4:57 pm

Is Radio Kaos total "Kaos"?

Post by cwta eugene »

I think Radio Kaos is my favorite solo album of Roger's, I like it alot. BUT.. Where did he get that stupid story line? I bet if he had presented this to Dave, Rick, and Nick for a possible Floyd project back in the days they would have been like "excuse me?" I think the whole story is complete chaos. It's like he started out with a welsh boy who was handicapped (Good Idea) whose brother gets put in jail for dropping a concrete block on somebody (not so good) who recieves radio waves in his head (getting worse) who warns of a nuclear holocaust (getting really bad now). Anybody else agree? :D
doctorb
Embryo
Embryo
Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 1:42 pm
Location: Austin, TX

Post by doctorb »

I don't post much here but I completely agree. I love Roger's work, but this story line is a bit silly. His work is usually timeless and universal, I couldn't relate to this story at all.
User avatar
0010
Blade
Blade
Posts: 206
Joined: Mon May 10, 2004 5:03 pm
Location: dayton, ohio, usa

Post by 0010 »

i have always looked for deeper meaning in the album, but... i got nothing.

things like that i always wonder, how did they come up with that? i mean that is not just something that anyone could have thought of. it is not an album that i will listen to over and over again. its not that i do not like the album, in fact its an enjoyable listen, but its my least favourite roger album.

i do give Roger points for originality, cause i never could have thought up that! :D [-D-]
User avatar
mosespa
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 11555
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2002 5:54 pm
Location: In the editing bay...working on the final cut...

Post by mosespa »

He got the handicapped boy idea from...I can't think of the guy's name now, but he was the subject of the movie My Left Foot (was it Chris Browne? something like that...)

He got the radio format idea from his relationship with Jim Ladd and what Jim was going through at the time (radio formats becoming stricter...less and less room for the DJ's to get any kind of personality across, even in their between-song spiel which keeps getting shorter and shorter as time goes on...listen to the radio sometime and you'll see what I mean...)

He got the nukes idea from the fact that it was the mid-1980's and the (allegedly) greatest country in the world was being run by a "second-rate actor" and there was a VERY REAL threat that nukes could fly at any minute.

Ever since 1990 or 1991 when the US and the Soviet Union agreed to begin dismantling large numbers of their warheads, people have forgotten that there once was a time when the threat of nuclear devastation was so prevalent that it bordered on a way of life to be constantly scanning the skies to see if they were about to blast you out of existence.

Especially in the mid-1980's.

Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen even has a sub-plot about Russia being close to invading Afghanistan and starting WW3.

Personally, KAOS is my favorite Waters solo album...but to each his own.
User avatar
cwta eugene
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1009
Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2004 4:57 pm

Post by cwta eugene »

Mosespa-
Thanks alot for the informative answer. I guess it was just Rogers way of incorporating all that was going on around him into one story? :D
User avatar
Big Kelv
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 544
Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2003 1:53 am
Location: Stalham, Nr Norwich UK

Re: Is Radio Kaos total "Kaos"?

Post by Big Kelv »

cwta eugene wrote:It's like he started out with a welsh boy who was handicapped (Good Idea) whose brother gets put in jail for dropping a concrete block on somebody
Such an incident happened during the miners strikes of the mid '80s.
User avatar
Massed Gadgets
Supreme Lord!
Supreme Lord!
Posts: 5001
Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:16 am
Location: Take it easy, man

Post by Massed Gadgets »

I'm honestly not sure which is my favourite of Roger's solo albums, though Radio KAOS was the first one I owned. I'm not one to pay much attention to lyrics, so all I can say is musicially, it holds up and is a more coherent and focused effort than his other works, to me anyway.
Lurking Fear
Axe
Axe
Posts: 88
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2003 9:50 pm
Location: Methuen, MA (USA)

Post by Lurking Fear »

THe Watchmen is an excellent series-
highly recomended.

Funny about KAOS though, while it's an ok album, it only holds its weight against AMLOR. I think the lawsuits cost both camps in the creative department.
Once they were through that, ATD and TDB both are better albums- less pressures of one-upmanship, I think.

Lurk
Tenniru
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1401
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2005 11:34 pm
Location: Sterling, VA

Post by Tenniru »

I rather like KAOS. Compared to all the other concept albums out there (especially Roger's), it's bordering on wacky with it's bizzare concept. Musically it's a few steps ahead of his usual work, plus a lot of it's more universal messages really get across to me easily (see the concept of Four Minutes).

Also, the tour was pure GENIUS. The world needs more of that kind of show. It's a real pity the "Dry Floyd" flattened it.

(An added note: Fish Report With A Beat is simply Roger Waters' funniest work ever. How can a man who wrote The Gunner's Dream and The Fletcher Memorial Home suddenly sit down and turn out such a massive load of concentrated juvinile sexual innuendo?)
User avatar
Yucateco
Supreme Judge!
Supreme Judge!
Posts: 3152
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2003 11:23 am
Gender: Male
Location: Munich, Germany

Post by Yucateco »

Tenniru wrote: Also, the tour was pure GENIUS. The world needs more of that kind of show. It's a real pity the "Dry Floyd" flattened it.

(An added note: Fish Report With A Beat is simply Roger Waters' funniest work ever. How can a man who wrote The Gunner's Dream and The Fletcher Memorial Home suddenly sit down and turn out such a massive load of concentrated juvinile sexual innuendo?)
so true. best tour ever with a brilliant concept. Too bad theres no offiial release of it. Fish Report is hilarious...
radiowaves

Post by radiowaves »

so no surpring it is my favourite solo album by any member of floyd (after amused to death, that is)
User avatar
0010
Blade
Blade
Posts: 206
Joined: Mon May 10, 2004 5:03 pm
Location: dayton, ohio, usa

Post by 0010 »

thats it. now i have to go back and listen to Kaos again. must gain new appreciation!
User avatar
J Ed
Supreme Lord!
Supreme Lord!
Posts: 5133
Joined: Tue May 11, 2004 2:36 am
Location: in a midwestern-type autoplant town, waiting for the autopocalypse to come

Post by J Ed »

in the KAOS tour programme there is a huge interview between Roger Waters and Chris Salewicz
covering the history of Pink Floyd and Rogers motivations
and this following explanantion of Radio KAOS:
___________________________________________
Q: What is the central theme of the Radio KAOS album?
A: Included in this program is a map of the northern hemisphere, showing all the western listening devices, where they are and what they are, and including an exploded map of South Wales where Billy, the main character, comes from, and an exploded map of LA, where he goes to. It's a bit like the map in the frontispiece of Winnie The Pooh, in that it has dotted lines showing Billy's route, where great-uncle David's house is, and where Radio KAOS is in Laurel Canyon. It is lend credence to the idea that in there somewhere is a story, if you care to search for it.

To answer your question of what the main themes of the record are, Ian Ritchie, who produced the record, is quite distressed that I didn't call it Home, which for a long time was the working title, because one of the things that the record is about is what home is. Is home keeping out of the weather? Being reasonably well fed? Being safe? Is home doing those things in the context of a family? We all think we understand what we mean by the idea of home. But is home the most important thing to a human being in the sense of belonging to a certain thing or person? Having that sense of security and the feeling you are not going to be moved on or blown to pieces? The feeling that you have the right to a continous existence within the context of the society to which you belong from the moment you are born to the moment you die in order to arrange yourself into a good shape to die in?

I don't know. I know there is a utopian idea that the possibility exists for communities to exist where people try to look after one another, and co-operate with one another, in the hope that they can get from the cradle to the grave, and at some point along the way feel fulfilled. And that we can reduce the percentage possibility of some truly appalling trauma, be it the Bomb, AIDS, a minor invasion, or simply being told you have no worth, we don't need you, piss off. I just feel we could be doing a lot better than we are if we off-load the idea that the only route to progress, the cause of human happiness, is competition.

I'am concerned with the idea in this piece that rampant, unrestricted market forces are trampling over everybody's fucking lives and making the world a horrible place to live in and also increasing the potential risk of us all blowing ourselves up because we've become so frustrated in our efforts to compete with each other. Which is why I have great concerns about the proliferation of nuclear weapons and why I think it essential that Europe becomes a nuclear-free zone. Because one of these people who think they're not getting a fair slice of the cake is going to get hold of these weapons and fucking well let them off. What's Reagan going to do if one of his frigates is blown up by Gaddafi using a nuclear weapon? I hate to think. They've already gone out and quite happily bombed Tripoli. In the preamble to this record I talk about that, because one of the other parallel concerns in the record is the idea of politics as entertainment. The idea that by isolating the high- profile enemy like Gaddafi you can entertain the electorate into polling booths to put the X in the right place is what I call the soap opera of state.
___________________________________________
J Ed speaking again:
I dont think Roger wrote "Fish Report...", I think that was a segment from Jim Ladd's radio show.
Theres a good article on Radio KAOS here:
http://www.rogerwaters.org/kaosdisco.html
that claims there were 16(!) songs written for the album, but the record company made Roger cut it back to 8 songs plus the bsides, which is one reason the story seems so fragmented.
User avatar
PFralst
Knife
Knife
Posts: 337
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2005 10:49 am
Location: Sweden

Post by PFralst »

Radio K.A.O.S. = The album I almost never listen to.
User avatar
J Ed
Supreme Lord!
Supreme Lord!
Posts: 5133
Joined: Tue May 11, 2004 2:36 am
Location: in a midwestern-type autoplant town, waiting for the autopocalypse to come

Post by J Ed »

I found a copy of VFitch's Pink Floyd Encyclopedia
(very nice book Mr Fitch sir, I know your a forum member!)

he describes Fish Report With A Beat as being "originally broadcast on Radio Station KMET, in Los Angeles", eg Jim Ladds old station, and featuring "Parraquat" Kelly and Cynthia Fox
thus its something Ladd and his pals created, not Roger

an additional bit of trivia I also learned from this book:
Cynthia Fox played the role of the longwinded MC in the very 1st Wall shows in LA, thats her we can hear on Azimuth Coordinator 3

I think Roger must have met both of them when he was working on the final mixes of The Wall in LA a year earlier