Editing Amused to Death (section)

==Themes==
[[File:Family watching television 1958.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|The album centers around the effects of televised mass media.]]
The album is loosely organized around the idea of an ape randomly switching channels on a television,<ref name=Rose200/> but explores numerous political and social themes, including critiques of the [[Gulf War|First Gulf War]] in "[[The Bravery of Being Out of Range]]" and "[[Perfect Sense (song)|Perfect Sense]]".

The first track, "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard", features the voice of [[World War I]] veteran {{ill|Alfred Razzell|de|Alf Razzell}}. A member of the [[Royal Fusiliers]], he describes finding fellow soldier William "Bill" Hubbard – to whom the album is dedicated – severely wounded on the battlefield. After failed attempts to take him to safety, Razzell is forced to abandon him in [[no man's land]]. The tale is continued at the end of the title track, at the very end of the album, providing a coda to the tragic story, with Razzell describing how he finally found peace. The excerpts are from [[BBC Television]]'s 1991 ''[[Everyman (TV series)|Everyman]]'' documentary, "A Game of Ghosts", marking the 75th anniversary of the start of the [[Battle of the Somme]].<ref>{{Cite book |first1=Emma |last1=Hanna |title=The Great War on the Small Screen: Representing the First World War in Contemporary Britain |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |year=2009 |isbn=9780748633906}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news| issn = 0033-8060| issue = 3523| pages = 50| title = A Game of Ghosts| work = The Radio Times| access-date = 2018-04-13| date = 1991-06-20| url = http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5a8fb425cf85478b9881529bbb3c6ad3}}</ref><ref name="GoG">{{Cite episode |title=A Game of Ghosts |series=Everyman |series-link=Everyman (TV series) |network=[[BBC Television]] |date=1 July 1991 }}</ref> "I found it very moving," Waters remarked. "That original programme confronted the horrors of war and told the real story. It was an example of television taking its responsibilities seriously."<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Mark|last=[[Mark Blake (writer)|Blake]]|title=Still Waters|magazine=RCD|issue= 3 |date= 1992 |volume=1 |page= 56}}</ref> The opening track also features the sound of several animals.<ref name=Rose200>Rose 2015, p. 200</ref>

The second song, "[[What God Wants|What God Wants, Part I]]", follows and contrasts the moving words of Razzell by opening with the TV being tuned instead into an excerpt 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 being changed and a burst of ape-chatter.

"[[Perfect Sense (song)|Perfect Sense]]" is a two-part song about a world where live transmissions of wars are the main form of entertainment.<ref name=White5/> The first part begins with a loud, unintelligible rant, then a backwards message from Waters: "Julia, however, in the light and visions of the issues of [[Stanley Kubrick|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 teacher in ''[[The Wall]]''. In the second part, [[sportscaster]] [[Marv Albert]] narrates a war as if it were a basketball game. "My main inspiration behind the song 'Perfect Sense'," Waters explained, "came from thinking about the days of the [[Roman Empire]], when they would flood the [[Colosseum]] and have fights between rival [[Galley|galleys]]. I've always been intrigued by this notion of war as an entertainment to mollify the folks back home, and the [[Gulf War|Gulf conflict]] fuelled that idea."<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Mark|last=[[Mark Blake (writer)|Blake]]|title=Still Waters|magazine=RCD|issue= 3 |date= 1992 |volume=1 |page= 56}}</ref> 

[[File:USAF F-16A F-15C F-15E Desert Storm edit2.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.1|alt=USAF aircraft of the 4th Fighter Wing fly over Kuwaiti oil fires, set by the retreating Iraqi army during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.|Several tracks on the album comment on and criticize the [[Gulf War]].]]
"The Bravery of Being Out of Range" includes a reference to a song written by Waters on [[Pink Floyd]]'s 1977 album ''[[Animals (Pink Floyd album)|Animals]]'', "[[Sheep (Pink Floyd song)|Sheep]]", and to "[[Swing Low, Sweet Chariot]]".<ref>{{Cite web|title = ATD Analysis|url = http://www.rogerwaters.org/atdanalysis.html|website = www.rogerwaters.org|access-date = 2015-09-02|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070221205102/http://www.rogerwaters.org/atdanalysis.html|archive-date = 21 February 2007|url-status = dead|df = dmy-all}}</ref> In "[[Sheep (Pink Floyd song)|Sheep]]" Waters sings, "I've looked over Jordan and I have seen, things are not what they seem"; in "The Bravery of Being Out of Range" he sings "I looked over Jordan and what did I see? I saw a U.S. Marine in a pile of debris."

"Late Home Tonight, Part I", which opens with the song of a [[Eurasian skylark]], recalls the [[1986 United States bombing of Libya|1986 US air strike against Libya]] from the perspective of two "ordinary wives" and a young American [[General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark|F-111]] pilot. The lyrics about "when you take the jeans from the refrigerator" reference a 1985 [[Nick Kamen#Career|Levi's 501 commercial]].<ref name="Levis">{{cite web|title=(Refrigerator) (1988)|website = [[YouTube]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RKp1P2S2qs |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/2RKp1P2S2qs| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|access-date=6 September 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=August 2020}}

At the beginning of "What God Wants, Part II" [[Charles Fleischer]] (better known as the voice of [[Roger Rabbit]]) performs the greedy [[teleevangelist]]'s sermon. The lyrics about God wanting silver, gold and "his secret never to be told" reference the [[nursery rhyme]], ''[[One for Sorrow (nursery rhyme)|One for Sorrow]]''. "What God Wants, Part III" musically references the Pink Floyd songs "[[Shine On You Crazy Diamond#Parts I.E2.80.93V|Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part I)]]", "[[Echoes (Pink Floyd song)|Echoes]]" and "[[Breathe (Pink Floyd song)|Breathe (In the Air)]]". It ends with an audio clip of Tom Bromley, an elderly WWI veteran, singing "[[Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie]]" ''a capella''. The clip is also from "A Game of Ghosts".<ref name="GoG" />

"Too Much Rope" includes the line, "Each man has his price, Bob, and yours was pretty low." "I would sometimes rehearse vocal takes by impersonating [[Bob Dylan]]," Waters explained. "That line originally read, 'Each man has his price, my friends…' – so make of that what you will. As a joke, I sang 'Bob' instead, and [[Patrick Leonard|Pat ''(Leonard, producer)'']] insisted that we leave it in. So, although it was unintentional, I'm happy that it's there for ''(Pink Floyd producer)'' [[Bob Ezrin]]. I hope he appreciates it."<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Mark|last=[[Mark Blake (writer)|Blake]]|title=Still Waters|magazine=RCD|issue= 3 |date= 1992 |volume=1 |page= 56}}</ref>

The song "Watching TV" (a duet with [[Don Henley]]) explores the [[influence of mass media]] on the Chinese [[Tiananmen Square protests of 1989|protests for democracy in Tiananmen Square]].

In "It's a Miracle" Waters makes a scathing reference to [[Andrew Lloyd Webber]] (whom he would accuse elsewhere of having plagiarised music from Pink Floyd's "Echoes" for sections of the musical ''[[The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)|The Phantom of the Opera]]''):<ref>Q magazine, November 1992,{{cite web|url=http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/ptr/pfloyd/interview/roger2.html |title=Who the hell does Roger Waters think he is? |access-date=2009-11-20 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131117011931/http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/ptr/pfloyd/interview/roger2.html |archive-date=17 November 2013 |df=dmy }}</ref> The same song features a sample from the 1977 low-budget zombie film ''[[Shock Waves (film)|Shock Waves]]'' in which the film's characters wrestle over a flashlight.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Shock-Waves-Peter-Cushing/product-reviews/B000096I9X?pageNumber=3|title=Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Shock Waves|website=Amazon|access-date=2 August 2015}}</ref> The title track begins with the lyric, "Doctor, Doctor". "[[Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk]]" on ''[[The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]]'', the first song written by Waters, opens with the same line.

===HAL samples===
Waters stated in a ''Rockline'' interview on February 8, 1993, that he had wanted to use dialogue samples from ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' on the album, specifically [[HAL 9000]]'s 'dying' monologue. [[Stanley Kubrick]], the film's director, turned him down on the basis that it would open the door to many other people using the sound sample.<ref>[http://www.rock.co.za/rogerwaters/ Rock.co.za] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120404131546/http://www.rock.co.za/rogerwaters/ |date=4 April 2012 }}</ref> Others think that Kubrick refused because Pink Floyd had not allowed him to use music from ''[[Atom Heart Mother]]'' in his film ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Kubrick FAQ Part 4|url=http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/faq/index4.html|access-date=6 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524201007/http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/faq/index4.html|archive-date=24 May 2013}}</ref> Waters did use the samples of HAL describing his mind being taken away when performing live – specifically at the beginning of "Perfect Sense, Part I" during his [[In the Flesh (1999-2002 concert tour by Roger Waters)|In the Flesh tour]], after Kubrick's death, and it was finally incorporated into the ''Amused to Death'' album for the 2015 remaster / remix release.