Pink Floyd "The Final Cut"

The Final Cut is the twelfth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 21 March 1983 by Harvest Records in the United Kingdom and on 2 April by Columbia Records in the United States. It was Pink Floyd's last studio album to include founding member, bass guitarist and songwriter Roger Waters, and their only album on which he alone is credited for writing and composition. It was also the only Pink Floyd album that does not feature keyboardist Richard Wright. Waters originally planned The Final Cut as a soundtrack album for the 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall. With the onset of the Falklands War, he rewrote it as a concept album, exploring what he considered the betrayal of his father, who died serving in the Second World War. Waters sings most of the lyrics; lead guitarist David Gilmour provides lead vocals on only one track. The packaging, also designed by Waters, reflects the album's war theme.

Recorded in eight British studios from July to December 1982, with an accompanying short film released in the same year, production of The Final Cut was dominated by interpersonal conflict. Although it reached the top of the UK Albums Chart, the album received mixed reviews. Waters left the band in 1985, and The Final Cut thus remains the last Pink Floyd studio album he worked on.

The Final Cut was originally planned as a soundtrack album for the 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall. Under its working title Spare Bricks, it would have featured new music or songs re-recorded for the film, such as "When the Tigers Broke Free" and "Bring the Boys Back Home", respectively. Bass guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter Roger Waters also planned to record a small amount of new material for the album, further expanding The Wall's narrative.

As a result of the Falklands War, Waters changed direction and wrote new material. He saw British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's response to Argentina's invasion of the islands as jingoistic and unnecessary, and dedicated the new album—provisionally titled Requiem for a Post-War Dream—to his father, Eric Fletcher Waters. A second lieutenant of the 8th Royal Fusiliers, Eric Waters died during the Second World War at Aprilia in Italy, on 18 February 1944. Gilmour was unimpressed by Waters' apparent politicising and the new creative direction prompted arguments between the two. Several pieces of music considered for but not used on The Wall, including "Your Possible Pasts", "One of the Few", "The Final Cut" and "The Hero's Return", had initially been set aside for Spare Bricks, and although Pink Floyd had often re-used older material in their work, Gilmour felt the songs were not good enough for a new album. He wanted to write new material, but Waters remained doubtful as Gilmour had lately contributed little to the band's repertoire.

Waters declared:

The Final Cut was about how, with the introduction of the Welfare State, we felt we were moving forward into something resembling a liberal country where we would all look after one another ... but I'd seen all that chiselled away, and I'd seen a return to an almost Dickensian society under Margaret Thatcher. I felt then, as now, that the British government should have pursued diplomatic avenues, rather than steaming in the moment that task force arrived in the South Atlantic.

Gilmour said:

I'm certainly guilty at times of being lazy, and moments have arrived when Roger might say, "Well, what have you got?" And I'd be like, "Well, I haven't got anything right now. I need a bit of time to put some ideas on tape." There are elements of all this stuff that, years later, you can look back on and say, "Well, he had a point there." But he wasn't right about wanting to put some duff tracks on The Final Cut. I said to Roger, "If these songs weren't good enough for The Wall, why are they good enough now?" 


The album's working title was changed to The Final Cut, a reference to William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "This was the most unkindest cut of all". "When the Tigers Broke Free" was issued as a single on 26 July 1982, with "Bring the Boys Back Home" on the B-side. The single was labelled "Taken from the album The Final Cut" but was not included on that album until the 2004 CD reissue.

Storm Thorgerson, a founder member of Hipgnosis (designers of most of Pink Floyd's previous artwork), was passed over for the cover design. Instead, Waters created the cover himself, using photographs taken by his brother-in-law, Willie Christie. The front cover shows a Remembrance poppy and four Second World War medal ribbons against the black fabric of the jacket or blazer on which they are worn. From left to right the medals are the 1939–45 Star, the Africa Star, the Defence Medal, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.


The poppy is a recurring design theme. The interior gatefold featured three photographs, the first depicting an outdoor scene with an outstretched hand holding three poppies and in the distance, a soldier with his back to the camera. Two more photographs show a welder at work, his mask emblazoned with the Japanese Rising Sun Flag, and a nuclear explosion; a clear reference to "Two Suns in the Sunset". The album's lyrics are printed on the gatefold. Side one of the vinyl disc carries an image of a poppy field and on side two, a soldier with a knife in his back lies face down amongst the poppies, a dog beside him. The back cover features a photograph of a soldier standing upright and holding a film canister, with a knife protruding from his back (the film canister and knife may reflect Waters' tumultuous relationship with The Wall film director Alan Parker).