Ηχογραφημένο αρχικά για το The Wall, θα ακουγόταν μόνο στην ταινία του Alan Parker, για να εμφανιστεί εν τέλει στο The Final Cut, άλμπουμ – τέλος εποχής για τους Floyd. Το track αποτελεί αυστηρά προσωπική (και σπαραξικάρδια) υπόθεση του Roger Waters, στην τελευταία κυκλοφορία του με το γκρουπ… 🟡 🟡 Recorded initially for The Wall, it would only be heard in Alan Parker’s film, before eventually appearing on The Final Cut, the album that marked the end of an era for Pink Floyd. The track is strictly a personal (and heart-wrenching) affair of Roger Waters, on his last release with the band…
Written by Roger Waters Album The Final Cut Produced by Roger Waters, James Guthrie, Michael Kamen
It was just before dawn
One miserable morning in black ‘forty four
When the forward commander
Was told to sit tight
When he asked that his men be withdrawn
And the Generals gave thanks
As the other ranks held back
The enemy tanks for a while
And the Anzio bridgehead
Was held for the price
Of a few hundred ordinary lives
And kind old King George
Sent mother a note
When he heard that father was gone
It was, I recall
In the form of a scroll
With gold leaf adorned
And I found it one day
In a drawer of old photographs, hidden away
And my eyes still grow damp to remember
His Majesty signed
With his own rubber stamp
It was dark all around
There was frost in the ground
When the tigers broke free
And no one survived
From the Royal Fusiliers Company C
They were all left behind
Most of them dead
The rest of them dying
And that’s how the High Command
Took my daddy from me
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I hadn’t heard this Pink Floyd song before. It’s absolutely gut-wrenching.
Ah this is a song that brings me to tears every time I hear it (or better still, see it – in the film). Your details are not ‘quite’ accurate… You led me down a very happy but long rabbit hole of checking to make sure I wasn’t going mad! I have The Final Cut album on vinyl and When the Tigers Broke Free is definitely not on it. For a long time you could only hear it at all by watching The Wall movie. It was released as a single in 1990 (I have that somewhere too!) and then was part of the compilation album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd. Finally – and this is where your info comes in – it was inserted into the re-released version of The Final Cut but that was in2004, long long after the original release of the album. It is a hill I will die on that it has no place in The Final Cut and should be on The Wall (along with the FULL version of Empty Spaces). I know the band felt it too personal for Waters to include in The Wall but it is clearly and obviously a match for the story and in line with Brick in the Wall part I. It’s perfect in the movie. I know The Final Cut is often considered the outtakes of The Wall, but it really isn’t. The feel and themes are very different. Anyway, rant over! 😀
You’re right of course about the song being exclusively on the reissues of The Final Cut.
I stand accused : I never bought the album on vinyl, having cut ties with Pink Floyd all over during that period. Even more chilling 😇 is the reason why I cut these ties: I didn’t like The Wall at all (I still don’t like it that much…) being absorbed into punk/new wave at the time of its release. I was lucky (?) to be a huge Floyd fun almost since childhood (albums like ‘Piper At The Gates Of Down’, ‘A Saucerful OF Secrets’, ‘Ummagumma’, ‘Atom Heart Mother’ and so on)
That said, I agree the track should be on The Wall, after all it was recorded in this context.
Thanks for the correction!
Ah, Pink Floyd definitely bring out the polarised groups! Many, like you, are in the Syd Barrett group, I openly confess to being a Gilmour/waters era guy. A much smaller group is the post-Waters fans. I don’t know any of them and the thought makes me shudder! 😀
I’m not a huge Barrett-era Floyd fan, but I am a huge solo Barrett fan
(check https://oannes.gr/syd-barrett-late-night-1970/ …and two others).
My Floyd favorites are A Saucerful Of Secrets (1 Barrett song included), Atom Heart Mother and Wish You Were Here.
Strangely, their most celebrated albums : The Wall …and The Dark Side of The Moon, are the ones I never liked much.