Michael Smerconish - Roger Waters: The Pink in Floyd

[meegbear]

For the second time in my life, I'm writing a column about Pink Floyd. More specifically, the man I have always considered to be the brains of the band: Roger Waters. The first time I wrote about him was 26-years ago when I was a high school senior at C.B. West, in Doylestown, and editor of the school newspaper, the Chatterbux.

Back then, I was one of the lucky few to see Pink Floyd perform The Wall, live at the Nassau County Coliseum. I wrote about my experience. My glowing review earned me an invitation to the principal's office. There I was encouraged to write a retraction on the grounds that I had promoted a band whose lyrics the principal believed to be associated with drug usage.

It was a moment straight out of Another Brick in the Wall, part 2. "We don't need no education", indeed. I told the principal to pound sand. I may have even called it a matter of 'free speech'.

For three decades, the Floyd has never left my play list. In fact, I have done what I call 'the cycle' for every Floyd and Roger Waters recording. That means I bought it in all forms in which it was released - album, 8-track, cassette, and CD. I once made a London taxi driver take me to the Battersea Power Station just so I could photograph the image that appears on the cover of my favorite album, Animals. No one was more pleased than I when the band re-united to headliner at Live 8. And in the never ending debate amongst fans of the Floyd as to David Gilmore vs. Waters, I have always sided with Roger Waters.

My affinity for Waters has always been in spite of his politics, which are well known to me. Chalk that up to spending too much time in my bedroom studying song lyrics back in the day when they printed such things. Then, I thought rock stars had all the answers.

Fast forward a quarter-century from high school.

<snip>

I was expecting the line about "incurable tyrants and kings" when he sang Fletcher Memorial Home, and I knew there'd be reference to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, among others. What I was not prepared for was a photo montage that featured Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush. Especially not two days removed from the anniversary of September 11th in the city where the most death and destruction occurred.

I'm sick and tired of entertainment types arguing a moral equivalency between our President and the Butcher of Baghdad and Architect of 9/11. It's not that I object to the criticism of the president or his war policy. But Waters and others lose all credibility when they treat Bush and Bin Laden the same. And that was before Waters announced that he was beginning the "controversial" part of the show.

<snip>

Then the pig came out.

I refer to a giant, inflatable pig, a hallmark of many Floyd shows, and the symbol of my aforementioned favorite album. Only this time the pig was a billboard for Waters' twisted priorities. "Habeus Corpus Matters", it said, among other things. How appalling. I wondered how many in the New York City audience had lost relatives or friends in the attack of 5 years ago and now were witness to his call for more rights for their murderers?

<snip>

This guy is total fucking prick. Roger is the MAN!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-smerconish/roger-waters-the-pink-i_b_29838.html

[DemInDistress]

1. Their the greatest band that ever played.. Their music and lyrics

overwhelm me. While I never seen them live I have seen them on videotape. My favorite album is "Dark Side of the Moon"..
The lunatic is on the grass.

Your post brings back memories.. thanks.

[me b zola]

4. Looks like the lunatic on the grass wrote that piece of drivel

My favorite is Wish You Were Here.

[DemInDistress]

9. now I have "wish you were here" reverberating in my brain...

thanks for the memories.. how I wish how I wish you were here,,were just 2 lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year, running over the same on ground have we found the same old fears wish you were here..

I love it.

[Swamp Rat]

2. !

[me b zola]

3. Michael Smerconish is an idiot pig

His response to "Habeus Corpus Matters" is "how appalling"? :wtf:

I don't know who this Michael Smerconish fascist is, but after reading his piece on Waters I don't want to know. Yeah, the pig believes that Habeus Corpus is appalling...until he or a member of his family is unjustly accused of something and bush*inc pulls out the terror card denying him of his Constitutional rights. Did I mention Smerconish is a pig?!

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. From his Huffington Post bio:

Michael Smerconish is the Philadelphia radio market's premier talk host who is heard daily on Infinity Radio's 50,000-watt WPHT, found at 1210 AM. The program reaches Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Smerconish is also a frequent guest host for Bill O'Reilly on the nationally syndicated Radio Factor. For several years, Smerconish has been a popular columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. In 2003, author Bernard Goldberg re-published one of Smerconish's Daily News columns in his book Arrogance, a follow-up to his bestseller Bias. Smerconish is a familiar face on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN where he provides commentary on current events.

Michael Smerconish graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Lehigh University and then attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Thereafter, at the age of 29, he became the youngest sub-cabinet level appointee to the Administration of George Herbert Walker Bush when he was named Regional Administrator of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He maintains an of-counsel relationship with The Beasley Law Firm in Philadelphia.

Smerconish is the author of: Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11. About that book, Publisher's Weekly wrote: "Flying with his family, Smerconish, a radio talk-show host and newspaper columnist based in Philadelphia, twice had his eight-year-old son chosen for 'secondary screening' -- and was twice able to substitute himself without incident despite his carrying odd-looking electronic broadcast gear. Mulling the ease with which he made it though the process, he then learned of a federal policy to fine airlines 'if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning.' (The actual testimony from an airline industry rep was that the Justice Department said a screening system would be discriminatory if it flagged more than three people of the same ethnic origin.) Contacting the Department of Transportation, Smerconish was told secondary screening is random or behavior-based. Tracking down the decisions that led to these policies in detail -- and decrying the policies themselves -- Smerconish argues that the U.S. should give some weight to stereotypes. His hero is an immigration inspector in Orlando who, in 2001, stopped a Saudi national (likely the 20th hijacker) who became visibly upset when asked why he lacked a return ticket. Designed to provoke Congress to address the tension between nondiscrimination and airlines' capacity to refuse passengers, this book, with its senatorial foreword, may do just that."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/contributors/bio.php?nick=michael-smerconish&name=Michael%20Smerconish

Who knows why the Huffington Post wastes its time (and ours) with him?

[unpossibles]

5. what the hell is he smoking?

How could he possibly think that Waters would not be against "incurable tyrants and Kings" - and how could he be shocked that Bush would qualify for that title? I hate when people do not understand basic analogy - that something can be analogous without necessarily being the same. Waters has been anti-war for most of his career. If anything I would be more shocked if he came out pro war.

idiot.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. How many hits has that Smerconish guy had?

[Parche]

7. smerkonish

I think we need to send this guy on a one way ticket TO the Dark Side of the Moon

[walldude]

10. I almost signed up on HP just to take this guy apart but

other posters have already done a fine job. My main question for this asshole would have been, why did you go to the show? If he was as serious a Waters fan as he claims, then he would have known Rog was going to use his tour to promote peace, unity and humanity, and to take shots at the people bringing us down. If the guy had listened to Amused to Death as he claimed he did, he would have known that Waters ripped Poppy a new one on that album why did he expect anything different.
Out of all the comments posted there were a couple agreeing with him, one in particular really struck me. The poster said something to the effect of: "The chemically impared in the audience went nuts for it". Chemically "impared". I see, so the chemically "impared" cheered for peace while the drunken ex frat-boy assholes booed. Typical, no understanding of Waters whatsoever. When Roger wrote "The Wall" it was born out of fustration with the growth of Floyd. Roger realized that he wasn't speaking to people "one on one" anymore(which is the way he writes, like he's speaking directly to you), he was in a stadium with drunken frat boys screaming "Free Bird" and spilling their beer on the shoes of people who actually came to the show to listen, learn and grow from the experience. This culminated in the infamous spitting incident. Since breaking with the band Rog started playing smaller venues to much more intimate crowds. I was fortunate to see him a couple times during this period and they were the best shows I ever saw. On his last tour, the band was so awesome, and the music so good that word of mouth started to get out and Rog had to start playing bigger venues again. I saw him on that tour in Colorado and was blessed with one of the best shows on that tour. Rog even commented about his problems with alienation from his audience and told us that he truly felt the intimacy of old at that show. So I guess what my point here is, is that if you are one of those drunken frat boys, or are going to the show not expecting to hear Rog's politics, please save your money for Toby Keith and stay away. Leave the master alone with his chemically impared audience, thats they way he wants it, that's the way we want it and thats the way it should be.
I'm in the entertainment business so I am in close proximity with "stars" all the time. I have never been one to worship entertainers and I have never been much for "heroes". But for Rog I make an exception, he is my hero.