Roger Waters has shared a new video for a revamped version of The Bravery of Being Out of Range… and delivered a typically uncompromising explanation of the ideas which informed the updated song and its video.
Given a world premiere during the Live For Gaza fundraiser on April 10, the video for the hard-hitting track, from Waters’ 1992 album Amused To Death, features a specially written new verse and is part of the former Pink Floyd man’s Encore Series recorded with his band during the continuing lockdown.
“This is a new recording and video of ‘The Bravery of Being Out of Range’ from my 1992 album, Amused To Death,’ Waters states. “It features part of [former US President] Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech to the nation when he left office. I include the speech because the first verse of the song is about Reagan, he is the old man I am addressing.”
“Reagan is still revered by many, even though he is a mass war criminal who, among his many other crimes, knowingly supported the genocide of the Mayan people of Guatemala when he was president of the United States,” Waters continues. “His Assistant Secretary of State at the time of the genocide, the equally homicidal Elliot Abrams, still works for unsavory elements in current US Government circles. Try to watch the Journeyman film about the Guatemala genocide and the US government involvement linked.
“The second verse is about "Desert Storm" so the second old man is [former US President, George] Bush Senior who slaughtered all those disarmed Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait on Bush’s orders on the road to Basra.”
“The third verse was something I wrote when, disgusted as I was that ‘thirty years later’ the US is still dealing death to innocents in the name of freedom, we decided to do this song as an encore in Latvia,” Waters’ statement continues. “Trump? Biden? Still dropping bombs, still killing innocent people. Same disgusting war hawk puppets. Come on AMERICA, it’s time to MAN UP and say NO MORE KILLING THE CHILDREN TO GET OUR OWN WAY, NO MORE IMPERIAL WARS. LETS GO HOME AND PUT OUR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER! BECAUSE IT'S FUCKED UP.”
Waters recently rescheduled a 36 date North American arena tour for 2022.
