After Pink Floyd disbanded in 1983, Roger went back into the studios and back to work on what was to be his first solo album, "The Pros and Cons of HitchHiking." The album was released in 1984, and followed by two tours, with many concerts across the US and in Europe. The first tour in 1984 began in Stockholm Sweeden. Then progressed to The Netherlands, and then to England and Switzerland. The main part of the tour however, spanned mostly the eastern half of the US, as well as Canada. This tour was with Eric Clapton playing lead guitar. The second tour in 1985, went from the Eastern US, to Canada, and then back. After a thourough saturation of East and middle America, the tour progressed finally to the Western US and then to the South. For this second half of the Pros and Cons tour however, Eric Clapton was replaced by Jay Stapley, and Chris Stainton was replaced by Andy FairWeather Low. The Pros and Cons album was released first in England and then in the US. There were trivial differences in the lyrics of these versions reported as well as extra lyrics sung in concert.
As with The Wall, Gerald Scarfe created all the graphics and animation, for the album, and tour, and Fisher/Park created the stage and props again as well. Mr. Scarfe had drawn charicatures of all the band members for the tour program, and the charicature of Roger which he named Rog, seemed to have a long snout like a dog. So Gerald created a character of a Dog in the image of Rog and named him Reg. Reg became the main character of the story and stage animation of the Pros and Cons of HitchHiking tour.
The Following story is what Pros and Cons of HitchHiking is all about song by song, scene by scene in Roger Waters own words.
4:30 AM SCENE I
(A suburban bedroom somewhere near
London)
"Shane" plays on the TV.
An Englishman,
struggling with a nightmare wakes
his American wife.
She
speaks.
Wife: "Wake up, you're dreaming"
Man:
"What?"
Wife: "You're dreaming"
The man
mumbles disjointedly about his dream.
His wife soothes him back to
sleep.
4:31 AM SCENE II
The man returns to his dream.
He
and his wife are driving through continental
Europe. There is a vague
feeling of threat.
The European psyche still shrinks from
memories
of The Jackboot. Borders are dangerous places.
The law
is a fickle friend.
They pick up two hitch-hikers, a beautiful
girl
and a hooded terrorist...
Lust conquers fear, the man
courts the girl. His
sensible family sedan metamorphosis into a
mettalic
green Lamborghini.
The girl is impressed.
They go for a drive.
He is about
to seduce her when... Fear conquers lust.
4:37 AM SCENE III
Paralysed by fear, he is whisked back to
suburbia
and attacked in his own home by a gang of
Arab
Terrorists.
He rages in his impotence.
4:38 AM SCENE IV
(A small Hotel overlooking the
Rhine)
The man and the girl eat dinner.
He takes her upstairs
and orders breakfast.
He locks the door.
He reaches out for
her...
4:40 AM SCENE V
Reaching out in his dream he wakes his wife
again.
She is not a pleased woman.
He is horny.
She
rejects him and goes back to sleep.
He lies in bed, brittle and
angry.
"Bloody toast crumbs"
He silently
rants.
"Hey girl, take out the dagger and let's have
a
stab at the sexual revolution."
He falls asleep again
and dreams of a geographical
solution to his marital problems - They
will return
to his wife's native land a
nd live off
it.
She will be fulfilled.
They will be happy.
4:50 AM SCENE VI
(A cabin in Wyoming)
The
experiment fails. Through the trials and
tribulations of self-reliance
the couple polarise.
She falls in love with a "friend from the
East".
They part.
4:56 AM SCENE VII
(The edge of a highway - somewhere in the
States)
The man is now alone.
He is the hitch-hiker.
A
truck pulls up.
"Hey kid, you looking for a lift?... Get on up
here."
He climbs in and whines to the truck driver.
The
truck driver, happy to join in the battle of the
sexes,
commiserates for a while.
Then, realising that our hero
is about to vomit all over
his highly polished cowboy boots, he throws
him out
of the rig.
5:01 AM SCENE VIII
(The Gutter)
Things go from bad
to worse.
5:06 AM SCENE IX
(A truckstop)
A waitress with a
heart of gold sympathizes with our
hero reaffirming his
basic
belief in life and love.
He wakes.
5:10 AM SCENE X
(Back in Suburbia)
As he awakes
our hero experiences a moment of clarity.
He feels at one with the
world.
He has the answer?
5:11 AM SCENE XI
(The bedroom - One minute
later.)
The moment fades.
The man is afraid.
He
reaches out and touches his wife's hair.
She is awake.
He loves
her..."