This song is AMAZING! I've loved this sng since the first time I heard it, and that's a few years ago, and I can't remember when and where, but I know that this song was the first I heard from the album 'Obscured by clouds' from 1972 (MAN, I was born way too late!)
Me as a baby (born in 1989.. when the good music started to fade)
'Free four' is the song number 8 in this album, and if you know the lyrics, you know that this is one of Roger Waters' songs. The title of the song is a phonetic pun on the standard drummers count "one, two, free, four" (it's the same in 'Not now John' from the album 'The final cut').
Tommy Vance, the writer of the brilliant book "Pink Floyd Reflections and echoes" write this about this song:
"This is Roger Waters in uncharacteristically good time, feel good mode with a number from the mould of the Betales or at least what the Beatles might have sounded like with a VCS3".
Well said!
The album 'Obscured by clouds' is based on the soundtracks from the french movie 'La Vallè' - 'The Valley'. I actually never seen the movie, but I sure want to. But it was far away from a best selling movie, and I reckon that it's therefor hard to find. But one day I will find and watch the movie, and then after, of course, write my opinion on my blog. That's gonna be exiting!
As you may know, this is the second song by Roger, that is about his father Eric Fletcher Waters, who died in WW2. The first one was 'Corporal Clegg' from the album ' saucerful of secrets'. Roger Waters has always been a man with strong opinions, and he is not afraid to make songs about war and the evil of the record industry and so on! And that is something that I miss in the music these days. People don't make their own lyrics, but they buy them from song producers and make it 'their own'. And that is bullshit! But I wont go into that subject today. Today is a happy day, and I will not ruin it by thinking about today's music.
Very true! But they were all cute young men
Well, that is all I have to write today, and as usual you'll find a youtube video of 'Free four' below and I will deeply recomand you to read the lyrics. I think that the lyrics are amzing!
Enjoy, and have a woonderful weekend
The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime.
You suffle in gloom in the sickroom
And talk to yourself till you die.
Life is a short, warm moment
And death is a long cold rest.
You get your chance to try
In the twinkling of an eye:
Eighty years, with luck, or even less.
So all aboard for the American tour,
And maybe you'll make it to the top.
And mind how you go.
I can tell you, because I know.
You may find it hard to get off.
You are the angel of death
And I am the dead man's son.
And he died like a mole in a fox hole.
And everyone is still in the run.
And who is the master of fox hounds?
And who says the hunt has begun?
And who calls the tune in the courtroom?
And who beats the funeral drum?
The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime.
You suffle in gloom in the sickroom
And talk to yourself till you die.
Are the deeds of a man in his prime.
You suffle in gloom in the sickroom
And talk to yourself till you die.
Life is a short, warm moment
And death is a long cold rest.
You get your chance to try
In the twinkling of an eye:
Eighty years, with luck, or even less.
So all aboard for the American tour,
And maybe you'll make it to the top.
And mind how you go.
I can tell you, because I know.
You may find it hard to get off.
You are the angel of death
And I am the dead man's son.
And he died like a mole in a fox hole.
And everyone is still in the run.
And who is the master of fox hounds?
And who says the hunt has begun?
And who calls the tune in the courtroom?
And who beats the funeral drum?
The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime.
You suffle in gloom in the sickroom
And talk to yourself till you die.
