The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking

This is a album request I got from my friend Chris!

"The pros and cons of hitch hiking" is Roger Waters first solo album. It is a concept album from 1984 and it is filled with 12 great songs! About ten years earlier, Roger had two ideas for a new concept album. The ideas was "The Wall" and the other was "The pros and cons of hitc hiking". The band perfered "The Wall" because of the story and the lyrics, so "The pros..." was forgotten for a while. I must confess that this is not the album that I am listening the most to, but I still think it's great! It is an album that my parents bought many years ago, so I've seen it and listen to it many times. Last time I was listening to it, was actually when I was visiting my parents. So it is an album that reminds me about my wonderful parents. They bought the cd many years ago and there are two different kinds of the album cover. You have the originale and then you have the cencored album cover. It is quite silly I reckon, since it is a drawn picture of a naked women who is hitch hiking, and her butt is cencored.

The original cover

The censored cover

When the album was released, Roger Waters went on a tour where he brought along Eric Clapton as a lead guitar player. -I'm thinking of all the lucky people who got to see two legends at one and the same concert! I am a fan of Clapton as well, but no one tops Waters, so it must be great see those legends performe Roger Waters music!! On his secound tour after the album was released, he had to bring another guitar palyer named Jay Stapley.

Roger Waters and Eric Clapton 

Gerald Scarfe and Roger Waters are good friends, so Roger wanted Geraly to do the animation and drawings for this album as well, and so he did. Gerald did create charicatures of all the members in the tour. He draw Roger and called him Rog, and he had a long nose, like a dog. Later Gerald created a charicatur og Rog, making him look like a dog and called him Reg. Reg was the mascot on the tour, and was in the animations on the shows. He became the main characer of the show.

Reg

Back to the songs on this album! As I said, there are 12 songs on this album. The songs are named after what thime the story is 'happening' so the songs go from 4:30 AM to 5:11 AM. The titles of the songs are called by the time and then the title comes up, like most people knows it.
4:30 AM (Apparently they were travelling abroad)
4:33 AM (Running shoes)
So this is an example of how the titles are. I think it is brilliant! Though I never use to calle the songs by the 'time' but I use the names. But this is an album that I rarely discuss with other fans, so I am not sure if it's normal to call the song by the whole name, just the 'time or just the title behind the time.

The pros and cons of hitch hiking

The story of the songs I am not too confident about, but I'll try to explain how I think it might be, and how I read that other people may see it!
It starts with a couple, lying in bed at night, and they wakes up because the man had a nightmare. In the second song, they are falling back to sleep and the man is dreaming that he and his wife are driving through Europe somewhere and then they pick up two hitch-hikers. One of them is a beautiful girl and the other is a terrorist. Then I think both the wife and the terrorist are gone, and he takes the girl for a ride and is about to seduce her when his fear conqures his lust.
Then suddenly he is back in suburbia and is attaced bu some terrorists. The next songs is about this man having certain need that his wife wont fulfill, and later she is falling in love with another guy, and they are going in different ways. Later the man is the hitcher, and is asked if he want a lift in a truck, but he is later thrown out.
Than things are only getting worse. He is now at a truckstop, getting sympathy from someone who works there. Then he woke up. He suddenly feels at one with the world. He turn around in his bed, touches his wife's hair and thinks that he love her.

Roger Waters

Compicated? Yes! At least, that is what I reckon is a ok explination on what is happening in the album. There is a man who is sleeping and dreaming loads of scary, unpleasant and weird stuff, before he wakes up in the middle of the night to see if his wife still are there.

Gerald Scarfe and Roger Waters having a laugh

Well, that's all I got to say about this album for now. It's getting late, so I will be listening to this album until I'm falling asleep. Wishing you all a wonderful night, and a great week to come.

Shine on

Here you go! The full album. 

Enjoy