Random Question Game redux

So, I've been taken to task for going too far off topic in my answer to Brandi's question. Also, it has been suggested that I've been rude to Brandi with my use of the word adolescent. OK, I can see that. I'm a pretty matter of fact guy. Brandi is what, 20? She is an adolescent. That's not a bad thing, just a thing. And before you start wailin' on me for saying a twenty year old is adolescent, understand that I believe adolescence extends well into the twenties, and for some, right up to thirty. Anyway, the statement was intended not to insult Brandi, but the avalanche of Top 40 pop drivel responses I felt certain she would receive. Maybe I was wrong. All the Britney and Christina fans are too busy in the Teen Issues chatroom to bother with journals.

Anyhooo, to borrow an adolescent phrase, upon further reflection, I have decided to pick a new song as my response to Brandi's question. A song that is more indicative of who I am.

In 1983, an album was released that marked the end of an era in progressive rock music. Prophetically titled The Final Cut, it was the last album to be released by the band Pink Floyd that combined the talents of David Gilmour and Roger Waters. Gilmour would go on to record several more albums using the name, but something essential was lost when Waters departed to engage in a solo career. The band insisted that the title of the album signified nothing more than the fact it was a collection of music that had been written for The Wall, and never made it into that project. Fans immediately knew differently. Although the music was obviously thematically related to The Wall, and much of it may have originated there, it had quite clearly been reworked, and updated for the times. Several songs made reference to political situations that didn't even exist prior to the release of The Wall.

While The Wall had been an admonition to society to let World War II truly be the war to end all wars, The Final Cut addressed the growing fear in the early eighties that it wouldn't be. Ronald Reagan, in hindsight, will be looked upon as one of the great US presidents. At the time, however, many feared him. A teacher at the university I attended once confided in me that she and her husband had decided not to have children because they felt it was irresponsible to bring a child into a world in which World War III was imminent. She was of the opinion that Reagan honestly believed he was an Agent Of God whose mission was bring about The Apocalypse. The Final Cut was born in that intellectual climate. It warned us that we hadn't learned from WWII, and that if we weren't careful, the warmongers, the "overgrown infants," the "incurable tyrants and kings" would plunge us once again into war. And, in what Sting called the "new clear" age that war really would end all wars. It would end everything. The current administration would do well to look back on that time and learn something. As Sting, again, once told us, "there's no such thing as a winnable war, it's lie we don't believe anymore." The only way WWII was "won" was the overwhelming destruction of two cities by the Atomic Bomb. Since that time, the universal proliferation of nuclear weapons has created a concept called "mutual assured destruction." Without The Bomb, no war is winnable. With The Bomb, any war kills every living thing on the planet.

It is the final song of the album which touched me the most deeply. Roger Waters seems to have a real talent for catharsis. His final songs bring the entirety of each album into a sharp focus, whether it is the last little ditty of The Wall, which chastises us for our foolishness, and leaves us with hope for the future, or the closing anthem on Radio K.A.O.S. which brings us full circle through the depths of Waters' depression and back to hope again. The final cut of The Final Cut is Two Suns In The Sunset. I'll say no more about it, but simply leave you with the words. Pay close attention to the last three lines.

In my rear view mirror
The sun is going down
Sinking behind bridges in the road
I think of all the good things
That we have left undone
And I suffer premonitions
Confirm suspicions
Of the holocaust to come

The rusty wire that holds the cork
That keeps the anger in
Gives way
And suddenly, it's day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset
Could be the human race is run

Like the moment when your brakes lock
And you slide toward the big truck 
You stretch the frozen moments with your fear
And you'll never hear their voices
And you'll never see their faces
You have no recourse to the law anymore

As the windshield melts
And my tears evaporate
Leaving only charcoal to defend
Finally, I understand
The feelings of the few
Ashes and diamonds
Foe and friend
We were all equal in the end