The Final Cut from the album by the same name is the last one that
Pink Floyd released with Waters still in the band. It is an anti war
concept album The back cover reads: “A Requiem for the Post-War Dream.”
This particular song is about a painful separation both figuratively
and literally. Throughout the video there are images of women pioneers
whom he admires, but he is dismayed by the direction and eventual
‘undesired’ outcome of their struggles for Liberation, namely “sexual
revolution” and objectification of women.
Roger Waters wrote both the Music and Lyrics and sang all the songs.
Gilmour’s guitar is somewhat subdued throughout the album, but it has
its ‘moments’ on this track.
Through the fish-eyed lens of tear stained eyes
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time
And far from flying high in clear blue skies
I’m spiraling down to the hole in the ground where I hide.
If you negotiate the minefield in the drive
And beat the dogs and cheat the cold electronic eyes
And if you make it past the shotgun in the hall,
Dial the combination, open the priesthole
And if I’m in I’ll tell you what’s behind the wall.
There’s a kid who had a big hallucination
Making love to girls in magazines.
He wonders if you’re sleeping with your new found faith.
Could anybody love him
Or is it just a crazy dream?
And if I show you my dark side
Will you still hold me tonight?
And if I open my heart to you
And show you my weak side
What would you do?
Would you sell your story to Rolling Stone?
Would you take the children away
And leave me alone?
And smile in reassurance
As you whisper down the phone?
Would you send me packing?
Or would you take me home?
Thought I oughta bare my naked feelings,
Thought I oughta tear the curtain down.
I held the blade in trembling hands
Prepared to make it but just then the phone rang
I never had the nerve to make the final cut.
