Getting the chance to
write about Roger Daltrey last fall and falling in love with
Tommy, whet my appetite for classic rock Rogers. I was thrilled to get to write both a
preview and
review of Roger Waters' performance of
The Wall at the Rose Garden for
The Oregonian.
The preview presented a challenge. Unlike most people in my generation, my parents did not listen to classic rock. So I never heard
The Wall until I was a teenager, and by then I was too into punk and not enough into pot to care.
So when it came time to write this piece, I listened to
The Wall over and over again and discovered, that unlike
Tommy, I didn't love it. I watched the movie, but still felt like I didn't get it. Why was it so long? Why all the funny voices?
Finally, after talking to a couple of writer friends who are big Pink Floyd buffs, I realized the history of the album was the most interesting thing to me. So I researched and wrote an essay that kind of felt like a college paper. It was fun!
The day of the show, I was wondering which Roger would win out--Daltrey or Waters.
Poor Daltrey never stood a chance. Waters put on the best show I've ever seen.
I think
The Wall wasn't meant to be a movie or an album. It was meant to be a massive live production. I felt it. I felt it so much that afterward, another journalist I ran into and our friends didn't want to leave the building. We dreaded going out into the world where people didn't see what we just saw.
As I walked back downtown, I ran into someone I knew. I told her I'd just seen the best show ever.
"Oh cool. Did you get new glasses?" she asked.
Image: Waters performs "Mother" in front of footage of himself performing it 30 years ago.