Roger Waters can be a divisive figure. The former Pink Floyd frontman and his former band decided not to work together anymore, and they couldn't really get along well. The move was likely for the best for all involved.
The singer has also offered some views on specific people, such as Ozzy Osbourne, soon after the metal icon's death last year, that upset many. Waters has a right to his opinions, of course, but the way he structures his thoughts sometimes lacks decorum.
What isn't lacking in decorum, however, is his revamped version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." Waters recorded the revised track with Palestinian singer Mona Miari, and the song features lyrics in both English and Arabic. The video for the tune was filmed in New York City and Gaza.
Roger Waters and Mona Miari deliver meaningful revision of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb"
The Gaza portion, according to Louder, saw the crew being bombed while trying to create scenes for the video. Communication with the production team was lost at times, too.
The new version is different enough that Pink Floyd's David Gilmour isn't listed in the opening credits of the nine-minute-plus video. Instead, only Waters and Miari are.
The track is lush with strings, fittingly so, and Waters' vocals follow the same melody as the original version. One must assume that if Gilmour pressed the case, he would get a songwriting credit, though the track wasn't made to make money directly for either artist involved in the vocals on the new track, but Miari's vocal track is quite different.
Arabic lyrics overlay Waters' part of the video, and English when Miari. The words are quite different from the 1979 Pink Floyd version, too. This is especially true of Miari's part, which is nearly completely new.
The track was released to help raise money for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, an organization that is run as a non-profit that gives free medical care to Palestinian children.
The video is presented in black-and-white, and the destruction of Palestine, but the overall point is one of hope. Mona Miari's lyrics are about exactly that, and some of the video shows children smiling. Instead of being about anger and revenge, the new "Comfortably Numb" is about the possibility of a better future. Make no mistake, however, there is a harsh reality to the words, too.
At the very end of the video, as the credits roll, Roger Waters and Mona Miari are shown in conversation while eating. The intent is to show togetherness and to try to understand someone with a different background. That part of the video is short, but meaningful.
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