The Final Cut vs. The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking: Two Sides of Roger Waters’ Post-War Obsession

Released nine months apart, The Final Cut and The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking are basically the same record with different branding. The Final Cut (1983) was credited to Pink Floyd but was a Roger Waters solo project in everything but name—David Gilmour and Nick Mason were reduced to session musicians, and Richard Wright had already been fired. Then Waters followed it with his actual solo debut, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984), which continues the same lyrical obsession: World War II trauma, alienation, and the failure of the post