Roger Waters - The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking

With Eric Clapton's valuable assistance, Waters takes the concept album to new heights on this 1984 masterpiece, his first LP after leaving Pink Floyd. Each of the 12 songs represents a scene of a surreal dream (nightmare?), and Waters brilliantly captures the pendulum of emotions. Periods of serenity and clarity accompany frenzied and distorted passages of chaos and moments of great irony and humor. Along the journey, Waters confronts murderous Arabs in Germany, a steamy sexual liaison, mundane family life, bikers, truckers, housewives, and strangers. He sucks you into his vision by blurring the lines between what's real and what's part of the dream. Meanwhile, his use of recurring themes gives the work cohesion. As the mood shifts, Clapton's guitar perfectly accents Waters's story, whether with fiery electric explosions or delicate acoustic touches. -- Marc Greilsamer Amazon.com

This Nightmare Proves Sum Much Greater Than Parts

This first solo album by Waters is largely unlistenable. The concept is a nightmare but the real nightmare is if you are a huge Floyd fan like myself who believes Waters was the mastermind behind it all and you loved the Final Cut and then you have your high expectations crushed by this dismal effort. Roger simply talks for 40 minutes with a cacophony of miscellaneous sounds in the background that I guess is called music. Rock legend Eric Clapton is totally wasted here. There are no melodies, rhythm or beat, just nothing. The title song is funny but really just a novelty song like Frank Zappa. From there it is all down hill. I am a huge Waters fan, but I am not obsessed with him like the other 100 reviewers here who to quote Waters himself would rave about the sound of a dripping faucet if it had his name on it and was put out for sale. Keep that in mind as you read the 100 positive reviews here. Radio Kaos is the best of his 3 solo efforts, but even it has weakened over time. Floyd is nothing without Waters and Waters is nothing without Gilmour, the sum was much greater than the parts. July 5, 2008

Some great stuff, but Roger will make you work for it

This album is very tough to evaluate without knowing exactly who is reading the review: does one review it for the general music-buying public or fans of Pink Floyd/Roger Waters? For the general public who just know Waters from Pink Floyd and only like the radio hits like "Money," "Wish You Were Here," and "Another Brick In The Wall," I can honestly say there is next to nothing here for you. Much as it pains me to admit it (because I am a big fan of Roger Waters), David Gilmour was right when he has stated that one of Roger's flaws is his willingness to simply repeat ideas over and over if that's what it takes to find room for all the lyrics he's written. He's done that successfully on Pink Floyd's "Animals" with two versions of "Pigs On The Wing" and on "The Wall" with multiple takes on the "Another Brick In The Wall" theme, but on Animals the repeated tracks were very short (under 2:00) and on The Wall, each reprise of the lyrical "Brick" theme featured different music. He would do it again later on his 1992 solo album "Amused To Death" with three takes on the "What God Wants" lyrical theme, but again varied the music at least some on one of the reprises.

On Pros and Cons, this flaw of Roger's is on full display as much of the music is so repetitive and non-melodic as to make this album a pretty tough listen (Waters himself considers it flawed, calling it "a bit spotty"). On first listen, the only tracks with any potential to grab a casual listener would likely be "Sexual Revolution" (the most Pink Floyd sounding track...), the ballad "Every Stranger's Eyes" and perhaps the title track, which is burdened with nonsensical lyrics that make absolute no sense outside of the general concept of the album (and still don't make total sense within the framework of the concept).

The music here is expertly played by a backup band anchored by the legendary Eric Clapton on guitar and session-pro Andy Newmark on drums, but their skills are under-utilized. Apart from the 3 songs mentioned previously, much of the rest of the music here is simply repetitive background music to the story Roger aims to tell.

Another flaw is that the concept of this album is far from immediately evident. It centers on the dreams of our protaganist, with the time before each song representing the actual time of morning the dream occurs. Throughout the story, "hitchhiking" is used as a metaphor for sexual freedom as the character in the story dreams of a carefree relationship, only to settle down and have the burden of familiarity and routine intrude on his new relationship until his newfound love eventually leaves him for another. In the end, in the "Moment of Clarity", our character awakens to find it was all a dream and that his original love is asleep next to him after all.

The themes in this are not quite diverse or universal enough to have a wide appeal which is why when given the choice, the other Pink Floyd members chose to develop and record The Wall instead of The Pros and Cons (Waters had written and done demos for both projects in 1978-79 and then gave the band the choice of which to make a Pink Floyd project). Between the weaker concept and the repetitive music, this is Waters' least appealing album with or without Pink Floyd excluding some of the pre-Dark Side of the Moon work he did with Pink Floyd, and it's a pretty safe bet that only hardcore fans will grow to like much (if any) of it.

That said, if you're willing to give this several listens, it does grow on you, particularly when the concept of the record is clear. Waters has never been a great vocalist in the traditional sense, but here he does deliver some of his most heartfelt and angst-filled vocals with all the soul and passion anyone could possibly muster. On Side 2 in particular as he sings of the deterioration of his relationship, one gets the sense that he's exorcising more than a few demons from the breakup of his own marriage a few years before.

In one moment he sounds genuinely sad, as in "For the First Time Today, Pt 1":

For the first time today
I feel it's really over
You were my everyday excuse
For playing deaf, dumb and blind
And who'd have ever thought
This was how it would end for you and me...


In the very next song, he's near physically ill as he ponders the man that stole his love:

With his neat feet
And his clean fingernails
With his wise but twinkling eyes
He's a rock standing out in an ocean of doubt
And compromise
I'd like to go on with this bit of a song
Describing this schmuck
I'd like to go on, but I'm gonna throw up


All told, the Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking is not for casual fans and I seriously considered giving it just 2 stars. I gave it 3 because I'm one of the few that gave this chance after chance after chance until I grew to like it a fair amount, but it's still nowhere near the best effort musically from Roger Waters and is in fact possibly his worst.

For fans of Pink Floyd looking to explore Waters as a solo artist, I would recommend 1992's "Amused To Death" or 1987's "Radio KAOS" before this as both are nearly twice as good. Both of those have better defined concepts and are more interesting and varied musically. Amused To Death in particular is a strong effort on par with the best work he did with Pink Floyd. Waters considers it one of his 3 masterworks along with Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, and I'm inclined to agree. July 1, 2008

his best solo effort!

my fav out of his 3.

radio kaos is great pop. amused is decent but boring.

fav tracks are apparantly they were traveling aboard,running shoes, sexual revolution, and pros and cons.

nice album cover

the final cut is slightly better if you consider that a waters solo album. hehe June 8, 2008

The Boot

This WALL rehash is the very reason they had to kick Waters out of Pink Floyd. He makes music that only he himself and a handfull of acid heads could like. Weird nonmusical and just plain dull. Waters used to actually be able to write good music and even sing fairly well, but this is a shell of his former self. Maybe he can go make a duet album with Syd Barrett. After ANIMALS Waters career was over, meanwhile the rest of the band actually got better without him. April 30, 2008

The needed lost step between PF-RW

Arguably the darkest album of RW's, you can only understand it if you hear it as a whole, however, a really must have, if no, olnly just to hear slow-hand-Clapton at one of his best preformances until 24 Nights.

If you have TW at hand you will hear similar passages and tunes, mostly due to the fact that it's something of what was left behind...at least, so it was in RW's believe...

A must have, a must enjoy. April 24, 2008

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