Roger Waters ?– Amused To Death

Tracklist

Companies, etc.

• Recorded At – The Billiard Room
• Recorded At – Olympic Studios
• Recorded At – CTS Studios
• Recorded At – Angel Studios
• Recorded At – Abbey Road Studios
• Recorded At – Compass Point Studios
• Recorded At – Devonshire Studios
• Recorded At – Ameraycan Studios
• Recorded At – Evergreen Recording
• Recorded At – Johnny Yuma Recording
• Mixed At – Devonshire Studios
• Mixed At – Visual Studios
• Mastered At – The Mastering Lab
• Published By – Pink Floyd Music Publishing Ltd.
• Phonographic Copyright (p) – Columbia Records
• Copyright (c) – Columbia Records
• Distributed By – Sony Music Entertainment
• Pressed By – GZ Media – 129923E

Credits

• Artwork – Sean Evans (4)
• Co-producer, Recorded By – Nick Griffiths
• Cover – Sean Evans (4)
• Engineer – Hayden Bendall*, Jerry Jordan, Stephen McLaughlan*
• Engineer [Assistant Mix] – Sean O'Dwyer
• Engineer [Assistant] – Andy Bradfield, Brian Burrows, Chris Brown (8), Dary Sulich, Jeremy Wheatley,John Lowson, Marc Moreau, Mike Bosley, Ross Donaldson, Roy Sweeting, Steve Heinke
• Mastered By – Doug Sax, Ron Lewter
• Mixed By – James Guthrie
• Producer – Patrick Leonard
• Remastered By – James Guthrie
• Written-By, Producer – Roger Waters

Notes

Barcode and Other Identifiers

• Barcode: 888750658012

Amused to Death is a concept album, and the third studio album by British musician and singer-songwriter Roger Waters, released in September 1992 via Columbia Records.

Roger Waters regards this album as the third in a trilogy of concept albums - The Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wall and Amused to Death.

The original album's artwork featured a monkey watching television in reference to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The album is organised loosely around the idea of a monkey randomly switching channels on a television, but explores numerous political and social themes, including critiques of the First Gulf War in "The Bravery of Being Out of Range" and "Perfect Sense".

The first song, "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard", features a sample of World War I veteran Alfred "Raz" Razzell, a member of the Royal Fusiliers who describes his account of finding fellow soldier William "Bill" Hubbard, severely wounded on the battlefield. After failed attempts to take him to safety, Razzell is forced to abandon him in no-man's land.  This sample is continued at the end of the title track, at the very end of the album, providing a more upbeat coda to the tragic story.

The second song, "What God Wants, Part I", follows and contrasts the moving words of Razzell by opening with the TV being tuned instead into an excerpt that sounds like it's taken from a vox pop of a child who says, "I don't mind about the war. That's one of the things I like to watch – if it's a war going on. 'Cos then I know if, um, our side's winning, if our side's losing..." he is then interrupted by the channel change and a burst of ape-chatter.

"Perfect Sense" is a two-part song about a world where live transmissions of wars are the main form of entertainment. The first part of the song begins with a loud, unintelligible rant, and then a backwards message voiced by Waters: "Julia, however, in the light and visions of the issues of Stanley, we changed our minds. We have decided to include a backward message. Stanley, for you, and for all the other book burners." The message climaxes with Waters yelling in the aggressive Scottish voice he used to depict the character of the teacher in The Wall. In the second part, famed sportscaster Marv Albert narrates a war as if it were a basketball game.

"The Bravery of Being Out of Range" includes a reference to a song written by Waters on Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals, "Sheep".  In "Sheep", Waters sings "I've looked over Jordan and I have seen..." Waters references and expands on this line in "The Bravery of Being Out of Range" when he sings "I looked over Jordan and what did I see/Saw a U.S. Marine in a pile of debris".

"Late Home Tonight, Part I" recalls the 1986 US air strike against Libya from the perspective of two "ordinary wives" and a young American F-111 pilot. At the beginning of "What God Wants, Part II", Charles Fleischer (better known as the voice of Roger Rabbit) performs the greedy evangelist's sermon. The song "Watching TV" (a duet with Don Henley) explores the influence of mass media on the Chinese protests for democracy in Tiananmen Square. Waters makes reference to Andrew Lloyd Webber in the song "It's a Miracle".

The concluding, title track "Amused to Death" features a sample from the 1977 low-budget zombie film Shock Waves in which the film's characters wrestle over a flashlight, and begins with the lyric, "Doctor, Doctor".

Amused to Death was produced by Patrick Leonard, Waters, and was co-produced with Nick Griffiths. The album was recorded in London at The Billiard room, Olympic Studios, CTS Studios, Angel Studios and Abbey Road Studios. The album was engineered by Hayden Bendall, Jerry Jordan, and Stephen McLaughlan. It was mixed by James Guthrie.

The album is mixed in QSound to enhance the spatial feel of the audio, and the many sound effects on the album – rifle range ambience, sleigh-bells, cars, planes, distant horses, chirping crickets, and dogs – all make use of the 3-D facility.

Amused to Death reached No. 8 on the UK Albums Chart, Waters' first Top 10 in his homeland, and a career high of No. 21 on the Billboard 200, aided by "What God Wants, Part I", which hit No. 4 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1992. It was also certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry for sales of over 60,000 in the UK.

On 15 April 2015, Waters announced that the album would be remastered and reissued on 24 July 2015 featuring a new 5.1 multichannel audio mix, as well as a new stereo mix. It was made available in a number of formats, including Vinyl, CD, SACD, Blu-Ray and high-resolution downloads.

In 2016 Amused to Death won the Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.

This is a Limited Edition Double Album 2LP Picture Disc Record, Individually Numbered, Remastered Audio by James Guthrie, housed in Plastic Sleeves, pressed in Europe.