The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking - Concept History

Concept History

The concept, as envisioned by Waters in 1977, rotated around a man's scattered thoughts during a road trip through somewhere in Central Europe, focusing on his midlife crisis, and how he dreams of committing adultery with a hitchhiker he picks up along the way. Along the way he also faces other fears and paranoia, with all of these things taking place in real time in the early morning hours of 04:30:18 AM to 05:12 AM on an unspecified day.

In July 1977, Waters played some of the music demos of what he had pieced together, but he also played parts of another album he was preparing titled Bricks in the Wall to the rest of his bandmates in the group Pink Floyd. After a long debate, they decided that they preferred the concept of Bricks in the Wall instead, even though their manager at the time, Steve O'Rourke, thought that The Pros and Cons... was a better-sounding concept, and David Gilmour calling Pros and Cons stronger musically.

'Well, the idea for the album came concurrently with the idea for The Wall – the basis of the idea. I wrote both pieces at roughly the same time. And in fact, I made demo tapes of them both, and in fact presented both demo tapes to the rest of the Floyd, and said "Look, I'm going to do one of these as a solo project and we'll do one as a band album, and you can choose." So, this was the one that was left over. Um...I mean, it's developed an awful lot since then, I think.' — Roger Waters,

Retitled The Wall, it became the next Pink Floyd album in 1979, and Waters shelved The Pros and Cons.... In early 1983, following his split from the band, Waters undertook the shelved project himself. The album was recorded in three different studios between February and December 1983 in London, the Olympic Studios, Eel Pie Studios and in Waters' own Billiard Room, the studio where his demos were constructed. Several people appeared on the album, including musical conductor Michael Kamen, the vocal talents of actor Jack Palance, saxophonist David Sanborn and rock and blues guitarist Eric Clapton.

Track 7, 4.50 AM (Go Fishing) starts with the same refrain as "The Fletcher Memorial Home" from Pink Floyd's The Final Cut uses for the line: "The Fletcher Memorial Home for Incurable Tyrants and Kings"