This is a new recording and video of “The Bravery of Being Out of Range” from my 1992 album, 'Amused To Death'. It features part of 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. 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 here, it is grueling but…. well look at the Guatemalan girls, their mothers and grandmothers and fathers were slaughtered with Regan’s blessing.
The second verse is about "Desert Storm" so the second old man is 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.
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.
This new version features:
Roger Waters: Piano and Vocal
Dave Kilminster: Guitar
Joey Waronker: Drums
Lucius- Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig: Vocals
Gus Seyffert: Bass
Jonathan Wilson: Guitar
Jon Carin: Piano and Keys
Bo Koster: Hammond
Wrangled together by Sean Evans & Roger Waters
Mixed by Gus Seyffert
Mastered by Dave Gardner
Edited by Andy Jennison
This is the fifth in our lockdown series of videos, it is a gift from all of us to all of you. I love you all, thank you for everything.
R.
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"The Bravery of Being Out of Range"
Ronald Reagan.
“Back in 1980
When I was running for President
It was all so different
Some pundits said our programs
Would result in catastrophe
Our views on foreign affairs would cause wars
Once you begin a great movement
There’s no telling where it will end
We meant to change a nation
And instead we changed the world”
You have a natural tendency to squeeze off a shot
You’re good fun at parties you where the right masks
You’re old but you still like a laugh in the locker room
You can’t abide change you’re at home on the range
You opened the suitcase behind the old workings
To show off the magnum you deafened the canyon
A comfort a friend only upstaged
In the end by the Uzi machine gun
Does the recoil remind you
Remind you of sex
Old man what the hell you gonna kill next
Hey Old timer who you gonna kill next
I looked over Jordan and what did I see
Saw a US marine in a pile of debris
I swum in your pools and lay under your palm trees
looked in the eyes of the Indian
Who lay on the federal building steps
And through the rangefinder over the hill
Saw the front line boys popping their pills
Sick of the mess they find of that desert stage
And the bravery of being out of range
Yeah the question is vexed
Old man what the hell you gonna kill next
Hey old timer who you gonna kill next
Thirty years later it’s the same old tune
No closer to peace than the man in the moon
The president’s still just as crazy as a loon
Still picking fights in some foreign saloon
Bombs still falling out of the sky
The band’s still playing Miss American Pie
The Gunner still sleeps in some foreign field
And the boys are still coming home on a shield
But nothing is real
We’re still playing the game
With the bravery of being out of range
We still zap and maim
With the bravery of being out of range
Still strafing the train
With the bravery of being out of range
We still gain terrain
With the bravery of being out of range
Still fucking insane
With the bravery of being out of range
Still channeling John Wayne
With the bravery of being out of range
Still blowing out our own damn brains
Yeah with the bravery of being out of range
Ronald Regan.
“At the big opening meeting
All of a sudden just for a moment
I saw that everyone
Was sitting and looking at me.
And then one of them
Broke the silence
Tell us about the
American miracle
He said.”
Hey bartender over here
Two more shots and two more beers
Sir, turn up the TV sound
The war has started on the ground
Just love those laser guided bombs
They‘re really great for righting wrongs
You hit the target and win the game
From bars three thousand miles away
Three thousand miles away
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range.