Amused to Death
Amused to Death | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 7 September 1992 | |||
Recorded | 1987–1992 | |||
Studio | The Billiard Room (London) Olympic Studios (London) CTS Studios (London) Angel Recording Studios (London) Abbey Road Studios (London) Compass Point Studios (Nassau) Ameraycan Studios (Los Angeles) Johnny Yuma Recording (Burbank) Devonshire Sound Studios (Los Angeles) | |||
Genre | Progressive rock | |||
Length | 72:36 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer |
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Roger Waters chronology | ||||
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Roger Waters studio chronology | ||||
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Singles from Amused to Death | ||||
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Amused to Death is the third studio album by English musician Roger Waters, released 7 September 1992 on Columbia. Produced by Waters and Patrick Leonard, it was mixed in QSound to enhance its spatial feel. The album features Jeff Beck on lead guitar on several tracks. The album's title was inspired by Neil Postman's 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death.
In 2015, the album was remastered and re-released with new artwork and in different formats, including a new 5.1 surround sound mix by original engineer James Guthrie, assisted by Joel Plante.
Background and production
Roger Waters started working on Amused to Death in 1987 when he first wrote "Perfect Sense."[1] It was several years before the album was released.
Amused to Death was produced by Patrick Leonard, Waters, and was co-produced with Nick Griffiths in London at The Billiard Room, Olympic Studios, CTS Studios, Angel Recording Studios and Abbey Road Studios. The album was engineered by Hayden Bendall, Jerry Jordan, and Stephen McLaughlan and mixed by James Guthrie.[2] The album is mixed in QSound to enhance the spatial feel of the audio, and the many sound effects on the album – rifle range ambience, sleigh-bells, cars, planes, distant horses, chirping crickets, and dogs – all make use of the 3-D facility.
Amused to Death is the only studio album by Waters to not have a tour supporting it, though some songs were performed during the In The Flesh[3] and Us + Them tours,[4] and "The Bravery of Being Out of Range" was performed on the This Is Not A Drill tour.[5]
Themes
The album is loosely organized around the idea of an ape randomly switching channels on a television,[6] but explores numerous political and social themes, including critiques of the First Gulf War in "The Bravery of Being Out of Range" and "Perfect Sense".
The first track, "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard", features the voice of
The second song, "
"
"The Bravery of Being Out of Range" includes a reference to a song written by Waters on Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals, "Sheep", and to "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".[12] In "Sheep" Waters sings, "I've looked over Jordan and I have seen, things are not what they seem"; in "The Bravery of Being Out of Range" he sings "I looked over Jordan and what did I see? I saw a U.S. Marine in a pile of debris."
"Late Home Tonight, Part I", which opens with the song of a
At the beginning of "What God Wants, Part II"
"Too Much Rope" includes the line, "Each man has his price, Bob, and yours was pretty low." "I would sometimes rehearse vocal takes by impersonating Bob Dylan," Waters explained. "That line originally read, 'Each man has his price, my friends…' – so make of that what you will. As a joke, I sang 'Bob' instead, and Pat (Leonard, producer) insisted that we leave it in. So, although it was unintentional, I'm happy that it's there for (Pink Floyd producer) Bob Ezrin. I hope he appreciates it."[14]
The song "Watching TV" (a duet with
In "It's a Miracle" Waters makes a scathing reference to
HAL samples
Waters stated in a Rockline interview on February 8, 1993, that he had wanted to use dialogue samples from
Title
The album's title was inspired by Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death. In Postman's later book The End of Education, he remarks on the album:[19][20]
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.
Packaging
The album's original artwork features a
Reception
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [21] |
Chicago Tribune | [22] |
Drowned in Sound | 8/10[23] |
Entertainment Weekly | A–[24] |
Los Angeles Times | [25] |
Paste | 8.0/10[26] |
PopMatters | 8/10[27] |
Record Collector | [28] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [29] |
Spectrum Culture | [30] |
Legacy
Waters told Classic Rock: "My view is that I've been involved in two absolutely classic albums – The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall [...] And if you haven't got Amused to Death, you haven't got the full set. So this album – the live one, which pulls together songs from all three albums – hopefully redresses the balance."[citation needed] On 19 September 2013, Waters told BBC HardTalk that Amused to Death has been completely underrated.[32][33]
On 15 April 2015, Waters announced that the album would be remastered and reissued on 24 July 2015 featuring a new 5.1 multichannel audio mix, as well as a new stereo mix. It was made available in a number of formats, including CD, SACD, Blu-ray and high-resolution downloads.[34] In a review of the 2015 remastering of the album, journalist J.C. Maçek III of Spectrum Culture wrote that "Not every album can be a masterpiece, but Waters has stated that Amused to Death is an underrated effort that serves as a third part to Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. But it's nowhere near those other albums. The 2015 remastering makes it a good sounding album, but it's just not the kind of infinitely listenable album that Waters is capable of creating."[30] In its review of the 2015 reissue, PopMatters wrote: "not only has Amused to Death aged well musically, it has unfortunately aged well thematically too. [...] Amused to Death was and still is a powerful statement from one of rock music's most literate misanthropes. As time goes on, it gets harder and harder to believe that it slipped under everyone's radar so thoroughly."[27] Drowned in Sound wrote: "Amused to Death stands up on its own as one of the better, more intriguing post-Floyd records".[23]
In 2016 Amused to Death won the
Commercial performance
Amused to Death reached No. 8 on the
Track listing
All songs written by Roger Waters.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard" | 4:20 |
2. | " Perfect Sense, Part II" | 2:51 |
5. | "The Bravery of Being Out of Range" | 4:44 |
6. | "Late Home Tonight, Part I" | 4:01 |
7. | "Late Home Tonight, Part II" | 2:12 |
8. | "Too Much Rope" | 5:47 |
9. | "What God Wants, Part II" | 3:39 |
10. | "What God Wants, Part III" | 4:08 |
11. | "Watching TV" | 6:06 |
12. | "Three Wishes" | 6:52 |
13. | "It's a Miracle" | 8:30 |
14. | "Amused to Death" | 9:06 |
Total length: | 72:36 |
Personnel
- synthesiser (2, 4), acoustic guitar (11, 14), twelve-string guitar(5)
- Patrick Leonard – keyboards (1–5, 8–14), percussion programming (1), choir arrangement (2, 9–11, 13), 2nd sportscaster voice (4), Hammond organ (5, not on 2015 reissue), synthesisers (5, 13), acoustic piano (11, 13)
- Jeff Beck – guitar (1, 11, 13) solo guitar (2, 5 (2015 reissue only), 10, 12, 14)
- Andy Fairweather Low – electric rhythm guitar (2, 9, 12) acoustic rhythm guitar (2, 9), guitars (6, 7), Rickenbacker 12-string guitar (8, 12),[37] acoustic guitar (11)
- Tim Pierce – guitar (2, 5, 9, 12)
- Geoff Whitehorn – guitar (2, 8, 10, 14)
- B.J. Cole– pedal steel guitar (3, 4)
- Rick DiFonzo – guitar (3, 4)
- Steve Lukather – guitar (3, 4, 8)
- Bruce Gaitsch – acoustic guitar (3, 4)
- David Paich – Hammond organ (5, 2015 reissue only)
- John "Rabbit" Bundrick – Hammond organ (12)
- Steve Sidwell – cornet (6, 7)
- Randy Jackson – bass (2, 9)
- Jimmy Johnson – bass (3–4, 6–8, 10, 12–14)
- John Pierce – bass guitar (5)[38]
- John Patitucci – upright bass, electric bass (11)
- Guo Yi & the Peking Brothers – dulcimer, lute, zhen, oboe, bass (11)
- Graham Broad – drums (2–4, 6–10, 12, 14), percussion (6, 7)
- Denny Fongheiser – drums (5)
- Jeff Porcaro – drums (13)
- hi-hat(3, 4)
- Luis Conte – percussion (1, 3–4, 6–8, 10, 12)
- John Dupree – strings arranger and conductor (3, 4)
- National Philharmonic Orchestra Limited – orchestra (7, 8)
- Michael Kamen – orchestral arranger and conductor (7, 8)[39]
- Alf Razzell – speech (1, 14)
- London Welsh Chorale – choir (2, 10, 11, 13)
- Kenneth Bowen – choir conductor (2, 10, 11, 13)
- Katie Kissoon– backing vocals (2, 8, 9, 12, 14)
- Doreen Chanter – backing vocals (2, 8, 9, 12, 14)
- N'Dea Davenport – backing vocals (2)
- Natalie Jackson – backing vocals (2, 5)
- P.P. Arnold– vocals (3, 4)
- Marv Albert – sportscaster voice (4)
- Lynn Fiddmont-Linsey – backing vocals (5)
- Jessica Leonard, Jordan Leonard – screaming kids (8)[36]
- Charles Fleischer – TV evangelist speech (9)
- Don Henley – vocals (11)
- Jon Joyce – backing vocals (13)
- Stan Farber (credited as Stan Laurel) – backing vocals (13)
- Jim Haas – backing vocals (13)
- Rita Coolidge – vocals (14)
Production
- Roger Waters – production
- Patrick Leonard – production
- Nick Griffiths – co-producer
- Hayden Bendall – engineering
- Jerry Jordan – engineering
- Stephen McLaughlin – engineering
- James Guthrie – mixing
Charts
Original release
|
2015 reissue
|
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA)[55] | Gold | 35,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI)[56] | Silver | 60,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
References
- ^ a b c White 1992, p. 5
- ^ Rose 2015, p. 254
- ^ Roger Waters - In The Flesh, retrieved 16 June 2022
- ^ roger waters us+them - the bravery of being out of range 2018. live in moscow, retrieved 16 June 2022
- ^ "Roger Waters Setlist at MVP Arena, Albany". setlist.fm. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
- ^ a b Rose 2015, p. 200
- ISBN 9780748633906.
- ISSN 0033-8060. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
- ^ a b "A Game of Ghosts". Everyman. 1 July 1991. BBC Television.
- ^ Blake, Mark (1992). "Still Waters". RCD. Vol. 1, no. 3. p. 56.
- ^ Blake, Mark (1992). "Still Waters". RCD. Vol. 1, no. 3. p. 56.
- ^ "ATD Analysis". www.rogerwaters.org. Archived from the original on 21 February 2007. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
- ^ "(Refrigerator) (1988)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
- ^ Blake, Mark (1992). "Still Waters". RCD. Vol. 1, no. 3. p. 56.
- ^ Q magazine, November 1992,"Who the hell does Roger Waters think he is?". Archived from the original on 17 November 2013. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
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- ^ Rock.co.za Archived 4 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Kubrick FAQ Part 4". Archived from the original on 24 May 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
- ^ "ATD - Neil Postman's Response". Archived from the original on 2 November 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- ^ a b c Rose 2015, p. 191
- ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Amused to Death – Roger Waters | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- ^ a b Caro, Mark (3 September 1992). "Amused to Death". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
- ^ a b Miller, Gavin (5 August 2015). "Album Review: Roger Waters – Amused to Death (Reissue) / Reviews / Reviews // Drowned in Sound". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 4 March 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- ^ Sandow, Greg (11 September 1992). "Amused to Death Music Review". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- ^ a b Boehm, Mike (13 September 1992). "Amused to Death". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
- ^ Gaar, Gillian G. (28 July 2015). "Waters: Amused to Death Reissue Review :: Music :: Reviews :: Roger Waters :: Paste". Paste. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
- ^ a b Garratt, John (23 July 2015). "Roger Waters: Amused to Death (Take 1) | PopMatters". PopMatters. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- ^ a b Rathbone, Oregano. "Amused to Death – Record Collector Magazine". Record Collector. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- ^ a b Maçek III, J.C. (11 August 2015). "Amused to Death". Spectrum Culture. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
- ^ "Top 100 '90s Rock Albums". 25 March 2015.
- ^ "BBC News Channel - HARDtalk, Roger Waters - Musician". BBC. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- ^ BBC HARDtalk - Roger Waters - Musician (19/9/13). YouTube. 20 September 2013. Archived from the original on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- ^ "Roger Waters announces newly remixed version of Amused to Death". Consequence of Sound. 15 April 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- ^ BPI Certifications, British Phonographic Industry, archived from the original on 15 January 2013, retrieved 5 May 2010
- ^ a b Roger Waters - Amused To Death, retrieved 16 June 2022
- ^ Too Much Rope, archived from the original on 12 December 2021, retrieved 25 July 2021
- ^ The Bravery of Being Out of Range, archived from the original on 12 December 2021, retrieved 25 July 2021
- ^ Late Home Tonight, Pt. II, archived from the original on 12 December 2021, retrieved 25 July 2021
- ^ "Australiancharts.com – Roger Waters – Amused to Death". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Charts.nz – Roger Waters – Amused to Death". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Roger Waters – Amused to Death". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Roger Waters – Amused to Death". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ a b "ROGER WATERS". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- ^ "Roger Waters". billboard.com. Archived from the original on 15 May 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
- ^ "Austriancharts.at – Roger Waters – Amused to Death" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Roger Waters – Amused to Death" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Ultratop.be – Roger Waters – Amused to Death" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Danishcharts.dk – Roger Waters – Amused to Death". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Roger Waters". Dutch Charts. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
- ^ "Lescharts.com – Roger Waters – Amused to Death". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Roger Waters". German Charts. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
- ^ "Irish-charts.com – Discography Roger Waters". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "Italiancharts.com – Roger Waters – Amused to Death". Hung Medien. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2015 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
- ^ "British album certifications – Roger Waters – Amused to Death". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
Sources
- Rose, Phil (2015). Roger Waters and Pink Floyd: The Concept Albums. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781611477610.
- White, Timothy (1 August 1992). "Roger Waters' 'Death' & Rebirth". Billboard. Vol. 104, no. 31. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. ISSN 0006-2510.
Further reading
- Bargrizan, Navid (2017). "The Monkey is Amused to Death: Roger Waters' Masterpiece and its Commercial Failure". Popular Music Studies Today: Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music 2017. Springer Fachmedien. pp. 25–33. ISBN 978-3-658-17740-9.
External links
- Syndicated 1-hour radio special and transcript devoted to the album
- Alf Razzell interview on which the album draws, at the Imperial War Museum