Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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

Rate this album

5 - Best
57
50%
4
29
26%
3
16
14%
2
5
4%
1 - Worst
6
5%
 
Total votes: 113

ZiggyZipgun
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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space triangle wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 12:17 pm Roger once promised that he would go at the tour and play ATD once it sells over 1 million copies. Does anyone know how many copies ATD sold so far? It is quite possible the album exceeded the one million sales long time ago. 8)
According to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), Pros and Cons has sold 0.5 million copies...Amused to Death isn't even listed. I don't know if they're only counting copies sold in the States, but...I think that means it sold less than 100,000 copies there, so it makes me doubt there are 900,000 copies floating around elsewhere.
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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space triangle wrote: Sat Apr 11, 2020 6:15 pm
Keith Jordan wrote: Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:44 pm The recording sounds fantastic! In which studio was it recorded?
Can I answer this 11 years old question. Keith? :)

ATD was recorded at The Billiard Room studios, Olympic Studios, CTS Studios, Angel Recording Studios and Abbey Road Studios.
"The Billiard Room" is actually Roger's home studio, where most of The Final Cut was recorded; he usually sat on the end of the pool table while recording the vocals.

I read that while a lot of The Wall was recorded at Super Bear Studios in the South of France, it being high in the mountains made it notoriously difficult to sing well there, so Roger recorded his parts at Studio Miraval which is not far from there but at a lower altitude (the flag unfurled...). Interesting that both Wet Dream and David Gilmour were recorded there, back to back, and while neither one is on par with Amused to Death in terms of quality or scope...I sure do listen to both of them a hell of a lot more - combined, actually - which to me is more like a late '70s Obscured By Clouds.

:roll: https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/stud ... ch-408305/
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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I believe it more accurate to describe "The Billiard Room" as the Roger Waters 'private' studio ... not to be confused with a commercial studio in Leeds that uses the same name.

ATD, KOAS, Pro's & Con's and The Final Cut all used The Billiard Room.
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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twcc wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 5:24 pm I believe it more accurate to describe "The Billiard Room" as the Roger Waters 'private' studio ... not to be confused with a commercial studio in Leeds that uses the same name.

ATD, KOAS, Pro's & Con's and The Final Cut all used The Billiard Room.
At least there was no chance that The Billiard Room would start sinking halfway through a take.
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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Annoying Twit wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 5:29 pm ...
At least there was no chance that The Billiard Room would start sinking halfway through a take.
I'm not so sure, my belief is the location was geographically fairly close to Olympic Studios in Barnes and that part of London has the Wetland Centre for a neighbour and the Thames on 'three' sides !!
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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twcc wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 5:59 pm
Annoying Twit wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 5:29 pm ...
At least there was no chance that The Billiard Room would start sinking halfway through a take.
I'm not so sure, my belief is the location was geographically fairly close to Olympic Studios in Barnes and that part of London has the Wetland Centre for a neighbour and the Thames on 'three' sides !!
Oh yes, and people are saying that the Thames Barrier may be insufficient in the near future. :D :D :D
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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ZiggyZipgun wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 9:53 am According to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), Pros and Cons has sold 0.5 million copies...Amused to Death isn't even listed. I don't know if they're only counting copies sold in the States, but...I think that means it sold less than 100,000 copies there, so it makes me doubt there are 900,000 copies floating around elsewhere.
Wikipedia: Sales of Amused to Death topped out at around one million and there was no tour in support of this album. Amused to Death was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry.
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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space triangle wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 5:14 am
ZiggyZipgun wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 9:53 am According to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), Pros and Cons has sold 0.5 million copies...Amused to Death isn't even listed. I don't know if they're only counting copies sold in the States, but...I think that means it sold less than 100,000 copies there, so it makes me doubt there are 900,000 copies floating around elsewhere.
Wikipedia: Sales of Amused to Death topped out at around one million and there was no tour in support of this album. Amused to Death was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry.
I don't know where they got that figure from, but it sounds like a guess, and they cited no sources. In comparison, On An Island was certified Platinum (300,000 copies) by the BPI the year it was released - and it sold three times more in the UK than in the US, for a grand total of worldwide sales of about 711,000 (also from Wikipedia, where is gives the figures for various countries). Again, I find it hard to believe that Amused to Death sold 60,000 copies the year it came out, and has somehow sold another 60,000 copies every year since then. Roger should take a cue from David, and include two copies with every concert ticket sold - I gave away three copies of Rattle That Lock, but their recipients were very grateful (the tickets were for a show in Canada).
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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twcc wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 5:24 pm I believe it more accurate to describe "The Billiard Room" as the Roger Waters 'private' studio...
Roger's studio inside his home. I have a home office, but that doesn't mean there's a sign out front.
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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ZiggyZipgun wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:51 amI don't know where they got that figure from, but it sounds like a guess, and they cited no sources. In comparison, On An Island was certified Platinum (300,000 copies) by the BPI the year it was released - and it sold three times more in the UK than in the US, for a grand total of worldwide sales of about 711,000 (also from Wikipedia, where is gives the figures for various countries). Again, I find it hard to believe that Amused to Death sold 60,000 copies the year it came out, and has somehow sold another 60,000 copies every year since then. Roger should take a cue from David, and include two copies with every concert ticket sold - I gave away three copies of Rattle That Lock, but their recipients were very grateful (the tickets were for a show in Canada).
It is painfully difficult to find accurate sales data for the ATD album.

I just came across this article: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/roger-w ... ath-album/

''Nevertheless, Amused to Death rose to a very respectable platinum status, and finished at No. 8 in the U.K., becoming his highest-charting album''.

So, ATD achieved at least platinun status in the U.K as well,
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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space triangle wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:15 pmSo, ATD achieved at least platinum status in the U.K as well.
Not according to the BPI's own website. Now, CenturyMusicAwards.com does sell an "authentic replica" framed platinum record in recognition of Amused to Death's worldwide sales, but they also sell them for Pros and Cons, Radio KAOS, David Gilmour, About Face...

Again, UltimateClassicRock typically doesn't cite any sources, and will write an entire article every time some asks one of the Floyd when they're getting back together.
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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While trying to find those sales figures, I came across an interesting passage by Neil Postman, from The End of Education:

“There are, as we know, different levels of sensibility. In the case of music, for example, most American students are well tuned to respond with feeling, critical intelligence, and considerable attention to forms of popular music, but are not prepared to feel or even experience the music of Haydn, Bach, or Mozart; that is to say, their hearts are closed, or partially closed, to the canon of Western music. I am not about to launch into a screed against rock, metal, rap, and other forms of teenage music. In fact, readers should know that Roger Waters, once the lead singer of Pink Floyd, was sufficiently inspired by a book of mine to produce a CD called Amused to Death. This fact so elevated my prestige among undergraduates that I am hardly in a position to repudiate him or his kind of music. Nor do I have the inclination for any other reason. Nonetheless, the level of sensibility required to appreciate the music of Roger Waters is both different and lower than what is required to appreciate, let us say, a Chopin étude.”
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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^^^
For avoidance of doubt (and I have posted before) the Neil Postman book that is closely linked to the 'Amused To Death' album is -

Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse In The Age Of Show Business
ISBN 0-670-80454-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Postman

:-;
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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I do think it's interesting that the highlight of the title track was mentioned by Roger in his obnoxious exposé for Penthouse in 1988, where he says he'd just written a few lines about the then-ongoing Momentary Lapse of Reason tour:

"Naturally," he chuckles, showing a handsome, seldom seen grin that merits more exposure, "all of this solemn contemplation is showing up in my music. Radio KAOS was hopefully universal in its pained concern, but my new album's themes involve anguish in my very own backyard."

Indeed, one day last winter, as the personnel calling themselves Pink Floyd were moving across the map from San Diego to Sydney in fierce pursuit of ticket sales, a pensive Roger Waters went to the Billiard Room and began writing stanzas for what became a song for his new album:

We watched the tragedy unfold
We did as we were told / We bought and sold
It was the greatest show on Earth
But then it was over
We oohed and aahed / We drove our racing cars
We ate our last jars of caviar
And somewhere out there in the stars
A keen-eyed lookout spied a flickering light
Our last hurrah


Waters gradually realized the two verses were a requiem for the fragile integrity of the Pink Floyd reign. And yes, tens of thousands of spectators were at that moment crowding arenas to hear a band calling itself Pink Floyd. Yet the most devout fans surely were aware that the whole presentation could not be further in fact or intent from the aims of the idealistic school chums who forged the Pink Floyd Sound.

When a title for his bittersweet new song eventually occurred to Roger Waters, it also seemed an apt name for both his latest solo album and the tragic creative destiny that it summarized. "I didn't know what else to call it," he shrugs, "but Amused to Death."
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Re: Roger Waters - Amused To Death

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You're a sack of shit, Stanley!

https://youtu.be/e76nRXD9Gl8