"Pros and Cons of Hitchiking" was a wildly under appreciated record.

[Bonobo]

Shit, just listen to it. Roger's angst-ridden wailing, Eric Clapton's twangy blues guitar crying. It is a great record.

[Seneca]

1. I have the original on vinyl

I bought it the day it came out. There was no black rectangle over Cherry Vanilla's naked ass, as was added on vinyl and CD copies very soon afterwards. :-) It's one of my prized vinyl recordings, because of its rarity.

Eric Clapton hated the album. He didn't want to tour for it (he relented and did, since it was only a small handful of shows, and of course, it would keep the $$ coming in for his various addictions). Meanwhile, Waters tried recruiting Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top to play guitar on the tour instead. Gibbons listened to the tracks, and said it sounded like "Pink Floyd on Mars", lol. He didn't do the tour because Top was enjoying so much success with 'Eliminator', that they extended their tour, making Gibbons unavailable.

If you pay attention to the scene just before 'The Trial' in the 'Pink Floyd: The Wall' movie where Pink is in the toilet stall, Bob Geldof is singing various lyrics. Some of them are from 'Hitchhiking', which Waters wrote at the same time as 'The Wall'. The release was still 2 years away, so no one noticed at the time.

When Waters wrote both of those albums at once, he asked the band which one they wanted to do. They chose 'The Wall'. Since 'Hitchhiking' was based on dreams Waters experienced, they felt it was more personal for him. However, the Yoko Ono mention in '5.01 AM' is from a dream by Andy Newmark, the drummer. He played on Lennon and Ono's final sessions.

Okay, enough trivia. It has been a year or so since I played it. Better fire up the turntable!

[Bonobo]

3. Awesome info, man! Thanks!!! nt

[jobycom]

4. Thanks for the history lesson.

:) So you and I are agreeing on two threads tonight. :thumbsup:

[Seneca]

6. I read way too much Rolling Stone and Creem back in the day

:D

[jobycom]

2. It's a very good record. I guess I can see it as great.

I did like Waters's voice on it, and a lot of the lyrics were great. I think people wanted more Pink Floyd, and when Waters left and we wound up with two musical entities that weren't quite Floyd, we all heard what was missing instead of what was there. IMHO, Waters brought the tortured, introspective soul with him, and the remainder of Floyd retained the musical precision they were famous for. Both were great, but neither was the whole thing.

The same thing happened to "Momentary Lapse of Reason." Musically, a very good rock album, but it lacked the meaningful lyrics of Waters's Floyd, and so, while it was successful IIRC, it didn't really get the praise it might have otherwise gotten.

I liked both when they came out. I liked Hitchhiking more than Reason. I didn't like either one as much as "The Wall" or any of the other top Floyd albums. I haven't listened to Hitchhiking in years, now you've got me craving it. :) The one line I've never forgotten was a minor soundbite in the title song. "Oh Yoko, did you really understand?" I thought it was unfair, but at the same time it was a pretty powerful bite.

[Seneca]

5. That line

"Did you understand the music, Yoko, or was it all in vain?"

The part where she tells the narrator to jump off of the plane over the eastern seaboard - that was from Newmark's dream. I think the line I quoted above was pure Waters though.

That album was also Jack Palance's best cameo appearance on a rock album ever. It was probably his *only* cameo, lol.

By the way, I preferred "Reason" if only because David Gilmour's guitar and Richard Wright's keyboards are two of my favorite aspects of the Floyd sound. But that is strictly a preferential matter, as I don't think that is the be-all or definitive judgment on either 'Reason' or 'Hitchhiking'.

[jobycom]

7. Reason sounded musically more like the old Floyd.

But I've always been a lyrics guy, and that's what kicks Hitchhiking higher for me.

Then again, I have "Learning to Fly" on my Zune jogging playlist, and nothing from Hitchhiking. :) I may correct that now that this thread has kicked my interest, though.

[Seneca]

8. My vote for most underrated Floyd album

"Animals". I still have that on vinyl, just because.

I always felt bad it was overlooked because it had the misfortune of being sandwiched between 'Wish You Were Here' and 'The Wall', two monstrously huge Floyd albums. It took me years to nail down what I liked about it that separated it from the others: It's just the four of them. No guest saxophone, no guest vocalists cooing and oohing. Sure, a few animal sounds were sampled, but that was low-key compared to the scope of the previous two efforts. "Animals" was stripped-down, basic Floyd. Waters was also getting blatantly political for the first time, as Thatcherism was rearing its head and Mary Whitehouse was doing her best Anita Bryant-style social crusading.

Yeah, I love that album.

[Dr Morbius]

14. Animals is underrated, I agree.

Not one weak track. Only four songs, really, and that means each theme is fully explored. It's a brilliant work.

But how about Obscured by Clouds? It seems like the forgotten Floyd album, and while it doesn't compare to Piper at the Gates of Dawn or A Saucerful of Secrets, it's still quite good.

[Seneca]

15. I like "Obscured By Clouds"

I recall an interview on the radio where David Gilmour considered it one of his very favorites. It does deserve more recognition, but coming out just months before 'Dark Side of the Moon' hit the shelves, it never did get much attention.

[Seneca]

9. I like "4.50 AM (Go Fishing)"

Waters makes good use of Clapton's acoustic blues chops, which EC wasn't doing much of at the time on his solo efforts. As for the lyrics, they tell a darkly funny ravaged tale of survivalist utopia gone awry. :-)


As cars go by I cast my mind's eye
Over back packs on roof racks
Beyond the horizon
Where dream makers
Working white plastic processors
Invite the unwary
To reach for the pie in the sky
Go fishing my boy!

We set out in the spring
With a trunk full of books about everything
About solar devices
And how nice natural childbirth is
We cut down some trees
And we trailed our ideals
Through the forest glade
We dammed up the stream
And the kids cooled their heels
In the fishing pool we'd made

We held hands and we exchanged bands
And we practically lived off the land
You adopted a fox cub
Whose mother was somebody's coat
You fed him by hand
And then snuggled snuggled him down
By the grandfather bed while I wrote
And we grew our own maize
And I only occasionally went into town
To stock up on antibiotics
And shells for the shotgun that I kept around
I told the kids stories while you worked your loom
And the sun went down sooner each day

"Chapter six in which Eeyore has a birthday
And gets two presents."
"Daddy...come on dad."
"Eeyore the old grey donkey stood by the side
Of the stream and he looked at himself in the water
'Pathetic' he said, 'That's what it is'
'Good morning Eeyore' said Pooh
'Oh' said Pooh, He thought for a long time

The leaves all fell down
Our crops all turned brown
It was over
As the first snowflakes fell
I realized all was not well in the camp
The kids caught bronchitis
The space heater ran out of diesel
One weekend a friend from the East
Rot his soul
Stole your heart
I said, fuck it then
Take the kids back to town
Maybe I'll see you around

I said, go then
She said, OK
And so...leaving all our hopes and dreams
To the wind and the rain
Taking only our stash
Left our litter and trash
And set out on the road again
On the road again
On the road again
"Bye Bye Daddy, Bye Daddy
You can bring Pearl she's a darn nice girl
But don't bring Liza."

[Bonobo]

10. That's one of the best. Also Dunroamin'...

[skygazer]

16. Very good analysis - I agree

I lean toward lyrics myself so I ended up more in the Waters camp though I love some of the musical work in the Gilmour-era Floyd. "Sorrow" is a great guitar song and I do like "Learning To Fly." I love Gilmour's voice anyway but his lyrics tend to be pretty simplistic.

But Hitchhiking is a great album. Haven't listened to it in a while and I think it's time to do so.

[JCMach1]

11. Don't forget Sanborn on Sax... a hugely underrated album

I still have the vinyl SUPERDISC.

[Bonobo]

12. I forgot! You're right, so right! nt

[Seneca]

13. When I think of Sanborn

I think of all those glossy 80's action films and cop dramas, where his sax was EVERYWHERE on the soundtrack (Lethal Weapon, Tequila Sunrise, et al). At least the Waters project was an actual challenge for him.