Tag Archives: The Gunner’s Dream

I was puttering around the studio yesterday and put on an old cassette of Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut.

I hadn’t listened to this album for decades and as the lyrics came back to me, I began to think about world events at the time it came out in 1983 (the album was released on my 19th birthday). I don’t weep often, but was moved to tears by Roger Waters’ lyric to The Gunner’s Dream when I realized that nothing has changed in 25 years. #TakeHeedOfTheDream

A place to stay
Enough to eat
Somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street
Where you can speak out loud
About your doubts and fears
And what’s more no-one ever disappears
You never hear their standard issue kicking in your door
You can relax on both sides of the tracks
And maniacs don’t blow holes in bandsmen by remote control
And everyone has recourse to the law
And no-one kills the children anymore
And no-one kills the children anymore
Night after night
Going round and round my brain
His dream is driving me insane
In the corner of some foreign field
The gunner sleeps tonight
What’s done is done
We cannot just write off his final scene
Take heed of his dream
Take heed