Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

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

Rate this album

5 - Best
23
29%
4
13
16%
3
21
26%
2
8
10%
1 - Worst
15
19%
 
Total votes: 80

Bumr50
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by Bumr50 »

I love the concept and narrative. Eric Clapton was the wrong guitarist for the job. David had a way of accentuating Roger's lyrics that Clapton simply did not have the chemistry for.
Even without Dave, a more cohesive guitarist with a similar style would have made this album better, along with a few, er, suggestions that people more familiar with Roger's self indulgence would've proven a boon.

PS- I love Eric Clapton in almost all of his solo and band incarnations.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by grelch »

I loved the album when it came out, but I'm not so sure that I was capable of being objective about anything Pink Floyd related back then. Rog could have blown his nose in a tissue and I would have declared the act genius. At any rate, I have a hard time listening to this album now. It drones, it drags, he moans, he whines. Musically, the entire album is based on a three note acoustic guitar progression (undoubtedly the wrong description) borrowed from Possible Pasts from The Final Cut. It's not hard to understand why the rest of the Floyds chose the Wall over Pros & Cons when offered a choice of which to record. I don't dislike the album now, I just don't find it to be up to his high standards.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by princessDungan74D »

I like the album for some odd reason. It is an intersting album that is good for a road trip.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by oz1701 »

Bumr50 wrote:I love the concept and narrative. Eric Clapton was the wrong guitarist for the job. David had a way of accentuating Roger's lyrics that Clapton simply did not have the chemistry for.
yes - that is something i have often thought - although i feel that Eric is trying to sound like David where if he had stuck to his own style it might have worked better .

i still prefer this to Roger's other officially solo works.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by Idisaffect »

oz1701 wrote:i feel that Eric is trying to sound like David
Don't you think his tone on all of those songs is too clean if he is trying to sound like Gilmour? It sounds like standard blues guitar to me. Both his tone and his choice of notes.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by Jacek »

Currently my favorite Roger Waters solo album (it displaced Radio KAOS some time ago), but I also find it to be a brilliant record in its own right. Sure, it does revolve around just a few simple melodies and musical motifs, but I don't mind because, in the context of this particular project, such an approach works; I like the way the narrative is grounded in them, and the subtle changes that take place each time they come around again. I've been listening to Pros & Cons for years, and wasn't aware that this was simply an expansion of what Roger did with some of the melodies in The Final Cut, but it seems to me that he got some good practice there, then took the approach to an extreme here - successfully.

The most recent time I listened to this record was at nighttime, by candlelight, and it was an awesome experience. As an earlier poster said, it really is just one long song, and because of the lighter (though still plenty emotional) story it is easier to take in than, say, The Wall. Even with the absence of the other Floyd members, I honestly think this record comes hot on the heels of The Wall in terms of quality. True, Clapton may not have much flare in his guitar-playing here, but he sounds great enough to keep me from missing Gilmour (which is not true in the case of Amused to Death, alas), and the songwriting and composition matches and often even tops that on the Wall. I love the flexibility of the story as well, the mixture of dream & reality. Also, props to Roger for using those female vocalists he loves so much right for once (well, the title track aside).

I like the idea of The Wall, The Final Cut, and this record forming a "trilogy" - it does seem that all three emerged from the same creative space and informed each other heavily, despite their differences. In fact, after my most recent listen to Pros & Cons, I realized (to my own surprise, mind) that it may actually be my favorite of the three (although I'm long overdue a front-to-back relisten of The Wall, which may very well knock this back into second place).

In any case, I do truly consider this record a masterpiece. Someone posted earlier that they wish Roger could have kept on going down this same road, but I don't think that was really possible; the period during which most of this "trilogy" was conceived (which I believe happened around the same time - when Dave and Rick were recording their first solo albums, yes?) was clearly an extremely fruitful one for Roger (by far his best, IMO - most of what he wrote before and/or after just doesn't compare, excellent as much of it is). I don't think Radio K.A.O.S. and Amused to Death were the results of significantly different decisions in terms of where to take his music; Roger's inspiration was simply at its high point here, and of course the great Muses come and go as they please...

5/5
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by David Smith »

One thing that really makes this album stand out is it's about the only time that Waters delves heavily in to the territory of exploring romantic relationships, or certainly at least more so than The Wall and TFC wherein the broken love stories took a back-seat to the rest of the album's themes.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by Jacek »

David Smith wrote:One thing that really makes this album stand out is it's about the only time that Waters delves heavily in to the territory of exploring romantic relationships, or certainly at least more so than The Wall and TFC wherein the broken love stories took a back-seat to the rest of the album's themes.
Right! That definitely contributes significantly to my appreciation for this record, too. It is impressive how much ground he covers and how well he does it all: the unspoken tension of the opening track, the glimpses of hope in For the First Time Today before the letdown of Go Fishing, and of course the positive (but realistically tentative) conclusion - and that's not even all. As [almost] always, Roger's lyric writing is top-notch.

Also, I forgot to stand up in my original post for the German festival section. I think it fits in there wonderfully, and is one of those quirky but effective asides that flesh out the album & story so well.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by princessDungan74D »

It is a great album and one of my favorite Roger Waters album and Pink Floyd album and I admit it is very funny but the album can be pretty creepy at points for me as a woman. I am not saying its a bit of an over share album or its a bad album its just creepy at points. It is a funny album and its a great album. Trust me Roger has talent and can get away with this kind of album.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by Djgilmour »

This album is an amazing piece of art, it's a masterpiece. I love to play this album in my car on a hot summer day, 5/5.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by J Ed »

libby wrote:the album can be pretty creepy at points for me as a woman
I dont doubt this, Roger reveals quite a bit of ugly misogyny on this albuma as well as side 2 of The Wall
the advertising campaign for this album featured the album cover art reproduced as a giant billboard and was protested by feminist groups as objectifying women
the model (Linzi Drew) Roger hired for the cover, the video and Nicholas Roeg's concert films was a porn actress so the feminists werent wrong in that case
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by Djgilmour »

J Ed wrote:
libby wrote:the album can be pretty creepy at points for me as a woman
I dont doubt this, Roger reveals quite a bit of ugly misogyny on this albuma as well as side 2 of The Wall
the advertising campaign for this album featured the album cover art reproduced as a giant billboard and was protested by feminist groups as objectifying women
the model (Linzi Drew) Roger hired for the cover, the video and Nicholas Roeg's concert films was a porn actress so the feminists werent wrong in that case
Doesn't every woman want to go out in the country to feel the power of His engine :lol: ?
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by Idisaffect »

J Ed wrote:
libby wrote:the album can be pretty creepy at points for me as a woman
I dont doubt this, Roger reveals quite a bit of ugly misogyny on this albuma as well as side 2 of The Wall
the advertising campaign for this album featured the album cover art reproduced as a giant billboard and was protested by feminist groups as objectifying women
And then there is the whole verse where he refers to Yoko Ono as a bitch and questions if she understood the music. He references "Shane"- and say's something about "selling tickets while the buzzards circled over the body on the plain". She suggests that he should jump into the sea. Pretty funny, actually.
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Re: Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

Post by princessDungan74D »

I think this was his mid-life crisis album but not that I don't like the album its pretty creepy. Not as creepy as most rap music though when they rap about women.
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Re: Pros and Cons

Post by F41NXS »

Stephen wrote:Was this album cover sold anywhere in the US without the black rectangle obscuring the girls arse? If not then how sad.

you mean Linzi Drew!

Bought this album in 1984 and also have it in cd form as it is played so much, best thing Roger Waters has done apart from "In the Flesh" which was a combination of everything and of course In the Flesh had the stunning 3 backing singers, such an amazing concert as is the DVD