
Roger Waters has released a performance video of “Two Suns in the Sunset” alongside his backing band. The song comes from the final Pink Floyd album Waters appeared on, 1983’s The Final Cut.
The video follows “Mother” as the second installment in what will prove to be an album of previously-recorded material from Waters and his ensemble. The former Floyd bassist stated that he plans to record an album of all the songs him and his band performed as encores while on his 2017—2018 Us + Them Tour.
The performance opens with the typing of brief messages onto a plain black screen, while the sound of cars whiz by the listener. The messages pertain to the end of the world by way of nuclear apocalypse, with such inspiring maxims as “We’re at one hundred seconds to midnight/On the doomsday clock” and “This is the closest the Human Race/Has ever been to nuclear catastrophe.” Given his age, one would think Waters would remember the Cold War, yet his hatred for Donald Trump could be clouding his memory ever so slightly.
Then comes the actual song as Waters attempts to revive this long-overlooked tune that emerged from the final breath that was the classic (but not original) Pink Floyd line up. That is not to say that “Two Suns in the Sunset” is a bad song by any means, but if the band came out and Roger started playing that tired D-A-G chord movement, you might consider leaving early to beat traffic. The song’s message of nuclear annihilation, however, remains as relevant today as it was when it was written, but the threat has become so longstanding that it is almost ingrained into American culture by this point. As Waters’s bandmates turn off their cameras one-by-one at the end of the clip, we are left with just Roger who says to us, “how f*cking good is that?”.
I had an idea to make an album of all the songs we did as encores on the “US and Them” tour. We did “Mother” first. Had to do it remotely because of Covid 19. “Two Suns in The Sunset” is #2. Hope you like it. I love it. What a beautiful band they are. Love R.
The Band:
Roger Waters: Guitar 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 Ian Ritchie: Saxophone
