Composers From England

"My mother told me I said to her, at age three, 'I'm going to go to Italy and get my father in a tractor.' 'You've never seen quite so fierce a little boy as you were,' she told me. She tried to explain that I couldn't get my father in a tractor. Apparently I looked at her and narrowed my eyes and said 'In that case, I'm going in a double-decker bus,' and stomped off. Which is kind of funny, but it's very sad, as well.""

"Who's got my pig?"

"Are there any paranoids in the audience tonight? (the crowd cheers) Is there anyone who worries about things? (the crowd cheers again) Pathetic. This is for all the weak people in the audience! Is there anyone here who's weak? (the crowd cheers once more) This is for you, it's called Run Like Hell! (the song starts)""

"I like to think oysters transcend national barriers, Adrian. - Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii video, in an interview with director Adrian Maben."

"[Regarding the spate of High School shootings of 1999] in the Colorado shootings, the media seemed to change their tack a bit. Though they attached ghoulishly to it, covered it 24 hours a day and even gave it a logo like 'Horror in the Rockies', they did address issues of alienation and pain rather than just saying, 'oh, these aberrant teen-agers have to be stamped out.' After denigrating self-help ideas for the last 20 years, the media are beginning to look at the psychology and not just the police work."

"You [Christian Wakeford] were making s*** up because you were told to by your masters in the Foreign Office in Tel Aviv because of this hate. This hate is being organised from Israel. And I’m not afraid to say it because I know Christian Wakeford, that what I'm saying is not a lie."

"The depiction of an unhinged fascist demagogue has been a feature of my shows since Pink Floyd's The Wall in 1980. My parents fought the Nazis in World War II, with my father paying the ultimate price."

"The elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms [...] [A]ttempts to portray those elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated."

"It's about a bunch of Europeans back in the middle of the 19th century deciding that they were going to take over this piece of land, and kick out anybody that lived there and take it over for themselves and their own little cabal."

"The antisemitism smear sword that was wielded at the behest of the Israeli government, specifically aimed at Jeremy Corbyn because he was left wing and he might turn into a political leader on the left in the United Kingdom who would actually stand up for human rights in general but specifically the rights of working people to represent themselves and have unions."

"I would not have played for the Vichy government in occupied France in WWII, would not have played in Berlin either during this time. Many people did, back in the day. There were many people that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on. From 1933 until 1946. So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it’s the Palestinians being murdered."

"[The Israeli Rabbinate believes non-Jews exist] to serve them ... they believe that the Indigenous people of the region that they kicked off the land in 1948 and have continued to kick off the land ever since are sub-human."

"The Jewish lobby is extraordinary powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry and in rock’n roll as they say."

"The ghosts are walking by my side I feel their love I feel their pride For I have built a bridge or two Bridges between me and you. Hello I love you."

"Life is long but it goes fast. The kids will have to separate Their future from our past."

"Have you heard It was on the news Your child can read you like a bedtime story Like a magazine Like a has-been out to grass Like afternoon T.V. Why is my life going by so fast?"

"America, America, please hear us when we call You got hip-hop, be-bop, hustle and bustle You got Atticus Finch You got Jane Russell You got freedom of speech You got great beaches, wildernesses and malls Don't let the might, the Christian right, fuck it all up For you and the rest of the world"

"Oh George! Oh George! That Texas education must have fucked you up when you were very small"

"The monkey sat on a pile of stone And he stared at the broken bone in his hand Strains of a Viennese quartet rang out across the land The monkey looked up at the stars And he thought to himself Memory is a stranger History is for fools And he cleaned his hands in a pool of holy writing Turned his back on the garden and set out for the nearest town""

"Can't you see It all makes perfect sense Expressed in dollars and cents, Pounds, shillings and pence Can't you see It all makes perfect sense""

"And the Germans killed the Jews And the Jews killed the Arabs And the Arabs killed the hostages And that is the news And is it any wonder That the monkey's confused He said Mama Mama The President's a fool Why do I have to keep reading These technical manuals?""

"And when they found our shadows Grouped around the TV sets They ran down every lead They repeated every test They checked out all the data on their lists And then the alien anthropologists Admitted they were still perplexed But on eliminating every other reason For our sad demise They logged the only explanation left This species has amused itself to death.""

"I'm not saying the battle is won But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun Wrested technology's sword from the hands of the warlords Ooh, the tide is turning Ooh, the tide is turning."

"Who is the strongest, who is the best Who holds the aces, the East or the West This is the crap that our children are learningBut ooh, the tide is turning."

"I used to think the world was flat Rarely threw my hat into the crowd I felt I had used up my quota of yearning Used to look in on the children at night In the glow of their Donald Duck light And frighten myself with the thought of my little ones burning But ooh, the tide is turning The tide is turning."

"You wake up in the morning Find some things for the pot Wonder why the sun makes the rocks feel hot Draw on the walls, eat, get laid Back in the good old days Then some damn fool invents the wheel Listen to the white-walls squeal You spend all day looking for a parking spot Nothing for the heart, nothing for the pot"

"They like a bomb-proof Cadillac Air-conditioned, gold taps Back-seat gun rack, Platinum hub caps They pick horses for courses They're the market forces They like order, make-up, limelight, power Game shows, rodeos, Star Wars, TV They're The Powers That Be If you see them come, you better run"

"And now from where I stand Upon this hill I plundered from the pool I look around, I search the skies I shade my eyes, so nearly blind And I see signs of half remembered days I hear bells that chime in strange familiar ways I recognise........ The hope you kindle in your eyes"

"Through the fish-eyed lens of tear-stained eyes I can barely define the shape of this moment in time and far from flying high in clear blue skies I'm spiralling down to the hole in the ground where I hide."

"You are only coming through in waves, Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying, When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse, out of the corner of my eye, I turned to look but it was gone, I cannot put my finger on it now, The child is grown, The dream has gone, And I have become Comfortably Numb"

"We don't need no education We don't need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teachers leave them kids alone Hey! Teacher! Leave them Kids alone!""

"When we grew up and went to school There were certain teachers who Would hurt the children in any way they could. By pouring their derision upon anything we did Exposing every weakness However carefully hidden by the kid. But in the town it was well known When they got home at night Their fat and psychopathic wives Would thrash them within inches of their lives!"

"Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream"

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want He makes me down to lie Through pastures green He leadeth me the silent waters by. With bright knives He releaseth my soul. He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places. He converteth me to lamb cutlets, For lo, He hath great power, and great hunger. When cometh the day we lowly ones, Through quiet reflection, and great dedication Master the art of karate, Lo, we shall rise up, And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water.""

"How I wish you were here, We're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl year after year. Running over the same old ground, What have we found? The same old fears, Wish you were here."

"All that is now All that is gone All that's to come and everything under the sun is in tune but the sun is eclipsed by the moon."

"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way."

"And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking And racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death."

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way. Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown, Waiting for someone or something to show you the way. Tired of lying in the sunshine, Staying home to watch the rain, You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find, ten years have gone behind you No one told you when to run, You missed the starting gun."

"All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be."

"The memories of a man in his old age Are the deeds of a man in his prime. You shuffle in gloom of the sickroom And talk to yourself as you die. Life is a short, warm moment And death is a long cold rest. You get your chance to try in the twinkling of an eye: Eighty years, with luck, or even less.""

"Strangers passing in the street By chance two separate glances meet And I am you and what I see is me."

"And through the window in the wall Comes streaming in on sunlight wings A million bright ambassadors of morning."

"Music seems to help the pain, seems to motivate the brain"

"Witness the man who raves at the wall Making the shape of his question to Heaven Whether the sun will fall in the evening Will he remember the lesson of giving Set the controls for the heart of the sun"

"I could never aspire to Syd's crazed insights and perceptions. In fact for a long time I wouldn't have dreamt of claiming any insights whatsoever. I'll always credit Syd with the connection he made between his personal unconscious and the collective group unconscious. It's taken me 15 years to get anywhere near there. Even though he was clearly out of control when making his two solo albums, some of the work is staggeringly evocative. It's the humanity of it all that's so impressive. It's about deeply felt values and beliefs. Maybe that's what 'Dark Side of the Moon' was aspiring to. A similar feeling.""

"Oh, they [the media] definitely don't want to know the real Barrett story... there are no facts involved in the Barrett story so they can make up any story they like, and they do. There's a vague basis in fact: Syd was in the band and he did write the material on the first album, 80% of it, but that's all. It is only that one album, and that's what people don't realise. That first album, and one track on the second. That's all; nothing else."

"Syd was a genius. But I wouldn't want to go back to playing Interstellar Overdrive for hours and hours."

"Well, he's schizophrenic. And has been since 1968."

"On the club scene we rate about two out of ten and 'Must try harder.' "We've had problems with our equipment and we can't get the P.A. to work because we play extremely loudly. It's a pity because Syd (singer Syd Barrett) writes great lyrics and nobody ever hears them."