Roger Waters - The Collection (2011) {7CD Box Set}

×

Roger Waters - The Collection (2011) {7CD Box Set}

Close

×

Roger Waters - The Collection (2011) {7CD Box Set}

Close

EU-only eight disc (seven CDs+DVD) box set from the former Pink Floydian. Contains all of his solo studio work to date plus his live album In The Flesh. Features: The Pros And Cons Of Hitch-Hiking (1984), Radio Kaos (1987) Amused To Death (1992), In The Flesh (two CDs/2000) and Ca Ira (two CDs/2005). Also includes the live In The Flesh DVD recorded June 27th, 2000 at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon.

Biography
Roger Waters was a primary creative force in Pink Floyd from 1965 to 1983. He first met Syd Barrett, who would become the band's lead singer and guitarist, during his school days when both attended a Saturday art class. He moved to London to study architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic and there formed a band with drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright; he played bass and sang. Barrett joined them, forming Pink Floyd. Though Barrett was the band's main songwriter at first, Waters wrote or co-wrote three songs on the first LP, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (August 1967), including the solo composition "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk." By the time of the group's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets (June 1968), Barrett had been replaced by David Gilmour and Waters had begun to take a more prominent role, contributing three songs and one co-composition to the LP. He also wrote or co-wrote all but one of the tunes for the band's soundtrack to the film More (July 1969), while his first solo work came on Ummagumma (November 1969), a two-LP set that consisted of one disc of live recordings and a second disc on which each bandmember contributed his own tracks. As of Atom Heart Mother (October 1970), Pink Floyd began to work up its material as a group, though Waters still contributed the sole composition "If." Working with Ron Geesin, he wrote the soundtrack for The Body (December 1970), his first work outside Pink Floyd. The band's next album, Meddle (November 1971), was entirely group written. But Waters wrote or co-wrote eight of the ten selections on Obscured by Clouds (June 1972), Pink Floyd's soundtrack for the film The Valley.

Pink Floyd's recordings were moderately successful through 1972. But The Dark Side of the Moon (March 1973), for which Waters wrote all the lyrics and some of the music, was a commercial breakthrough that became one of the most successful albums in rock history. (He was the sole author of the album's Top Ten hit, "Money.") He took an increasingly dominant role in the writing of subsequent Pink Floyd albums, writing all the lyrics and collaborating on the music for Wish You Were Here (September 1975), writing most of Animals (February 1977) and The Wall (November 1979), and writing all of The Final Cut (March 1983). All were million sellers, with The Wall in particular rivaling the sales of The Dark Side of the Moon. (Waters was the sole author of "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2," a gold, number one single drawn from The Wall.)

Following the release of The Final Cut, Pink Floyd broke up and its members launched solo careers. Waters re-emerged with The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking (April 1984), which went gold. He followed with Radio K.A.O.S. (June 1987) and went on tour to promote the release. Meanwhile, David Gilmour's solo album About Face (February 1984) was also a gold seller, but he was discouraged by that showing and recruited Mason and Wright to re-form Pink Floyd. Waters sued, seeking an injunction to prevent the trio from touring as Pink Floyd without him, but he lost the case, and the Gilmour-led Pink Floyd went on to tour and recorded successfully without him.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Waters organized an all-star performance of The Wall in Berlin on July 21, 1990. It was filmed and recorded, resulting in the album The Wall: Live in Berlin (September 1990). He released a third solo album, Amused to Death (September 1992), but did not tour, though he made an appearance at a benefit concert in 1993. He spent much of the 1990s working on an opera, Ça Ira, set during the French Revolution. But in July and August 1999, he mounted his first U.S. tour in 12 years. It was so successful that he returned for a second leg in June and July 2000, and the concerts served as the basis for the two-CD set In the Flesh Live. Waters was not heard from for several years after that, although a collection of singles and album tracks, Flickering Flame: The Solo Years, Vol. 1, appeared internationally (but not in the U.S.) in May 2002. In July 2005, Waters reunited with Gilmour, Mason, and Wright for a one-off Pink Floyd performance at the Live 8 benefit concert in London's Hyde Park. Ça Ira finally emerged on disc in October 2005 and topped the Billboard magazine classical chart.

~ William Ruhlmann, All Music

×

Roger Waters - The Collection (2011) {7CD Box Set}

Close

The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking is the first solo album by Roger Waters released in 1984. The following year Waters announced his departure from Pink Floyd. The album was certified gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 1995.

***************

When dissected carefully, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking becomes a fascinating conceptual voyage into the workings of the human psyche. As an abstract peering into the intricate functions of the subconscious, Waters' first solo album involves numerous dream sequences that both figuratively and symbolically unravel his struggle with marriage, fidelity, commitment, and age at the height of a midlife crisis. While the songs (titled by the times in which Waters experiences each dream) seem to lack in musical fluidity at certain points, they make up for it with ingenious symbolism and his brilliant use of stream of consciousness within a subconscious realm. Outside from the deep but sometimes patchy narrative framework, the music slightly lacks in rhythm or hooks, except for the title track that includes some attractive guitar playing via Eric Clapton. David Sanborn's saxophone is another attribute, adding some life to "Go Fishing" and "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking." But it's truly the imagery and the visual design of the album that is front and center, since the importance lies in what Waters is trying to get across to the audience, decorated somewhat casually by his singing and the music. With Pink Floyd, the marriage of Waters' concepts and ideas with the talented musicianship of the rest of the band presented a complete masterpiece in both thought and music, while his solo efforts lean more toward the conceptual aspects of his work. With this in mind, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking continues to showcase Waters' unprecedented knack of addressing his darkest thoughts and conceptions in a most extraordinary fashion.

~ Mike DeGagne, All Music

×

Roger Waters - The Collection (2011) {7CD Box Set}

Close

Radio K.A.O.S. is the second studio album by British rock musician and former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters. Released on 15 June 1987 in the United Kingdom, it was Waters' first album after his split from Pink Floyd in 1985.

Like his previous and future studio albums and many works of his during his time with Pink Floyd, this is a concept album. The album is based around a number of key factors of politics in the late 1980s – monetarism, and its effect on citizens. It also makes criticisms of Margaret Thatcher's government, much like Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, another album conceived by Waters. Other influences include popular culture of the 1980s, and the choices and consequences of the Cold War and its effect on world politics and society.

The album follows Billy, a mentally and physically disabled man from Wales, who is forced to live with his uncle David in Los Angeles after his brother Benny was sent to prison after protesting against the government, following his dismissal from his job in mining due to "market forces". The album explores Billy's mind and view on the world through an on-air conversation between him and Jim, a DJ at a local fictitious radio station named Radio K.A.O.S.

Internationally, the album only charted in two countries, peaking at number 25 in the United Kingdom and number 50 in the United States. The album spawned four singles in 1987. "Radio Waves" was released as the lead single from the album, charting at number 74 in the UK. "Sunset Strip" charted at number 15 on the United States mainstream chart, "The Tide Is Turning" charted at number 54 in the UK, and "Who Needs Information", which failed to chart. Waters also made a Video EP for this album featuring the songs "Radio Waves," "Sunset Strip," "Fish Report," "Four Minutes," and "The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid).

×

Roger Waters - The Collection (2011) {7CD Box Set}

Close

Amused to Death is a concept album, and the third studio album by former Pink Floyd bassist and songwriter Roger Waters. It was released in 1992.

The album title was attached to material that Waters began working on during the Radio K.A.O.S. tour. It was several years before the album was released and it is unknown how much the material was changed in the interim.

The album's title, and much of its thematic material, 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: "(…) 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."

Waters stated in an interview with Rockline on 8 February 1993 that he wanted to use samples of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey on the album. Stanley Kubrick, the director, turned him down on the basis that it would open the door to many other people using the sound sample. Others think that Kubrick refused because Pink Floyd had not allowed him to use music from Atom Heart Mother in his film A Clockwork Orange. Waters has since then used audio of HAL describing his mind being taken away when performing the song live (as an intro, specifically during his "In the Flesh" concert tour, after Kubrick's death).

"My view is that I've been involved in two absolutely classic albums – The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall," Waters told Classic Rock. "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." On 19 September 2013, Waters told BBC HardTalk that Amused to Death has been completely underrated.

×

Roger Waters - The Collection (2011) {7CD Box Set}

Close

Ça Ira is an opera in three acts by Roger Waters based on the French libretto co-written by Étienne and Nadine Roda-Gil on the historical subject of the early French Revolution. Ça Ira was released 26 September 2005, as a double CD album featuring baritone Bryn Terfel, soprano Ying Huang, and tenor Paul Groves.

Ça Ira has received mixed reviews. The biggest criticisms were that the opera is too narrative, which makes staging very difficult – and, as a result, disrupts the flow of the piece. Others have complained that the score is too conventional and that Waters should have taken more risks with it.

The first time any part of Ça Ira was heard in public was on 16 October 2002 when the Overture was performed live at the Royal Albert Hall in London by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, during a benefit gala for the Countryside Alliance.

The next public airing (not a live performance, but a recording played through a sound system) took place in Malta on 1 May 2004, the night that Malta entered the European Union. An approximately 15-minute long excerpt was heard by 80,000 people present at the waterfront of the Grand Harbour. The music was accompanied by a light show by Gert Hoff.

The official premiere took place in Rome on 17 November 2005, in front of a sold-out crowd, and was followed the next evening by another performance. Both shows were praised for the high quality of music, vocal performances, and sound. The choir, orchestra, and soloists were complemented by a projection screen backdrop which displayed images (some photographed by Mark Holthusen) helping to tell the story.

A full operatic performance took place on 25 August 2006 in Poznań, Poland, and was televised live on Poland's TVP. The project involved the same number of musicians from the concert performances in addition to more than 200 dancers from the Great Theatre in Poznań. There were also period elements of stage design (such as horses, carriages and war scenes with soldiers and stunt performers) and full costumes. Over 500 artists were involved, and the production reportedly cost in excess of €2 million. Performances were held in Kiev on 16 December, and at the Poznań Opera House on 30 and 31 December 2006.

In April 2008, the opera was performed, with the libretto in English, as part of the Festival Amazonas de Ópera in Manaus, Brazil by the Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra and choir.

×

Roger Waters - The Collection (2011) {7CD Box Set}

Close

In the Flesh – Live is a two-disc live album that captures performances from Roger Waters' three-year In the Flesh tour. A DVD of the same title was also produced. The material for the DVD was taken from a 27 June 2000 performance at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon, while the double CD contains various recordings drawn from four performances in Phoenix, Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada, Irvine, California, and Portland, Oregon.

***************

Roger Waters' tours of the U.S. during the summers of 1999 and 2000 were a pleasant surprise, since the reclusive rocker had not toured since 1987. In his liner notes to this two-CD set drawn from those performances, Waters does not shy away from discussing his antipathy to big concert venues. But he makes a distinction between stadiums and arenas, and he also notes that he found himself becoming more comfortable in the role of a frontman. This more personable Roger Waters isn't what comes across on the album, but the closer relationship he perceives to his audience is nevertheless palpable. As the man who wrote Pink Floyd's lyrics, he is far more concerned with their meaning than his old bandmates, and his singing is emphasized without robbing the music of its magisterial power. In fact, with a band boasting several guitarists to make up for the lack of David Gilmour, Waters effectively re-creates the sound of his Pink Floyd work, which dominates the set list. The album contains only five selections out of 24 from Waters' solo albums: one track from The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking and four from Amused to Death, with Radio K.A.O.S. left out completely. He does not choose the most obvious solo material, but he makes his selections work, especially "Perfect Sense (Pts. I & 2)" and "It's a Miracle," from Amused to Death. A new song, "Each Small Candle," finds him still obsessed with world problems, but seemingly more optimistic. Waters had seemed to allow his anger about Pink Floyd's continuance without him to keep him from claiming his own part of their legacy. His 1999-2000 touring changed that, and In the Flesh Live makes the point for those who couldn't get to the shows.

~ William Ruhlmann, All Music

×

Roger Waters - The Collection (2011) {7CD Box Set}

Close