The Final Cut (album) - Background

Background

The Final Cut was originally planned as a soundtrack album for the 1982 film, Pink Floyd The Wall. Under its working title Spare Bricks, it would have featured new music or songs re-recorded for the film, such as "When the Tigers Broke Free" and "Bring the Boys Back Home", respectively. Bass guitarist, vocalist, and primary lyricist Roger Waters also planned to record a small amount of new material for the album, further expanding The Wall's narrative.

As a result of the Falklands War, Waters changed direction, and began writing new material. He saw British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's response to Argentina's invasion of the islands as jingoistic and unnecessary, and dedicated the new album — provisionally titled Requiem for a Post-War Dream — to his father, Eric Fletcher Waters (who had died in World War II). Gilmour was unimpressed by Waters's apparent politicising, and the new creative direction prompted arguments between the two. Several pieces of music considered for but not used on The Wall, including "Your Possible Pasts", "One of the Few", "The Final Cut", and "The Hero's Return", had initially been set aside for Spare Bricks, and although Pink Floyd had often re-used older material in their work, Gilmour felt that these songs were not good enough for a new album. He wanted to write new material, but Waters remained doubtful as Gilmour had lately contributed little to the band's lyrical repertoire.

The Final Cut was about how, with the introduction of the Welfare State, we felt we were moving forward into something resembling a liberal country where we would all look after one another ... but I'd seen all that chiselled away, and I'd seen a return to an almost Dickensian society under Margaret Thatcher. I felt then, as now, that the British government should have pursued diplomatic avenues, rather than steaming in the moment that task force arrived in the South Atlantic. —Roger Waters I'm certainly guilty at times of being lazy, and moments have arrived when Roger might say, "Well, what have you got?" And I'd be like, "Well, I haven't got anything right now. I need a bit of time to put some ideas on tape." There are elements of all this stuff that, years later, you can look back on and say, "Well, he had a point there." But he wasn't right about wanting to put some duff tracks on The Final Cut. I said to Roger, "If these songs weren't good enough for The Wall, why are they good enough now?" —David Gilmour

The album's working title was changed to The Final Cut, a reference to William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "This was the most unkindest cut of all". "When the Tigers Broke Free" was issued as a single on 26 July 1982, with "Bring the Boys Back Home" on the B-side.