Perfect Sense, Part I

Perfect Sense, Part I is the third track from the concept album Amused to Death by ex-Pink Floyd member Roger Waters. The song is sung partially by Roger Waters but mainly by PP Arnold on both the original album and live shows.

Overview

The song begins with a loud and unintelligible rant cutting out the noise of the previous track, "What God Wants, Part 1". Following this inaudible opening is words uttered by Roger Waters, played backwards. This hidden message tells that Roger has decided to record a backwards message. "Julia, however, in the light and visions of the issues of Stanley, we changed our minds. We have decided to include a backward message. Stanley, for you, and for all the other book burners..." This is not the first example of Roger Waters using reversed messages in his musical work.

In an interview with Rockline on 8 February 1993 Roger Waters stated that he had wanted to use samples of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey on the album. Stanley Kubrick, the director, turned him down on the basis that it would open the door to too many other people using the sound sample.^[1] Since this incident Waters has used the audio of HAL describing his mind being taken away during the introduction of "Perfect Sense Part 1" in live performances, such as the In the Flesh tour in 2002.

The opening lines of the song begin with a reference from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey in which "The monkey sat on a pile of stones and stared at the broken bone in his hand". This monkey – the human being – is referred to continuously throughout the album.

In the 2015 re-released and remastered edition of the album, the samples of HAL 9000 were finally included, but the backwards message was left out.

References