Roger Waters - "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking"

Roger Waters
"The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking"
Columbia Records
Released 1984

I first encountered "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking" when I was in high school - a devoted Pink Floyd fan, I eagerly picked up bassist Roger Waters first solo album (second if you count his experimental soundtrack to "The Body" - third if you count Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut").

And I hated it. Formless, nearly incomprehensible, it sounded kind of like Pink Floyd, but there was nothing that immediately appealed to the 14-year-old whose knowledge of Floyd didn't extend much beyond "The Wall" and "Dark Side of the Moon." The tour was pretty freakin' awesome though.

I revisited the album a few years ago, and was pleasantly surprised.

Now I see the genius in this semi-autobiographical concept album, which acts as the dream diary of a man going through a midlife crisis. The songs are little more than vignettes documenting the various dreams - travelling across Europe, sexual encounters, escape, divorce and death.

The music is a hodgepodge of motifs from "The Wall" and "The Final Cut" (the three albums were concieved simultaneously in the late '70s) held together by a recurring melody. David Sanborn adds stunning saxophone throughout the disc - the finest playing I've heard from the veteran smooth jazz sessioneer.

But the musical star of "Pros and Cons" is Eric Clapton, who fills the spacey recording with tasty riffs and solos. It's refreshing to hear his fluid, bluesy playing outside of his subpar solo work, from countrified dobro work on "Go Fishing" to a showcase solo on "Sexual Revolution."

The only misstep is the title track, - the most radio-friendly song on the album and the only one that doesn't fit musically or lyrically with the rest. But it also contains one of Waters' finest lyrical moments - the climactic "Every Stranger's Eyes."

What a difference 25 years makes.