The quesiton was:
In the song 'Wish You Were Here' on the album of the same title, Roger Waters wrote the lyrics: "Did they get you to trade a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?"
What do you think he was trying to say?
And here are some of the responses:
Name: Adam Wiemers
Email: ********@yahoo.com
"I think a war represents a vast conflict in which one individual makes little difference. And so that 'war' could easily signify the conflicts of every day life, as one goes unnoticed amidst the masses of humanity. I think this verse is speaking about the loss of anonymity, as Pink Floyd could well sympathize with that plight. As they labored in the studio with the whitewashed walls looming ominously all around them, almost prison like, and as they gave up night after night to spend with large audiences in various stadiums, it was easy to see the price fame had brought them. Therefore they could say they had exchanged a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage."
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Name: Saurabh Nanda
Email: nandas_99@yahoo.com
"I feel he was asking if a man can exchange a hard duty, which satisfies his conscience, with one which is of no importance."
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Name: Jon Friedl
"stay in your house and hide, or join the army."
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Name: lennonymccartney
Email: molilobo@hotmail.com
"I believe that what he is trying to say is that did you exchange a peaceful place to be for a place where you would be rather sad or defenetly not free."
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Name: Riddler
Email: Riddlerdx@hotmail.com
"He's talking about all the draft dodgers. Saying that it was easy to go to war. So he could just "walk" onto the part. Or if you didn't want to go then you can get the main role in a cage or jail cell. broken down, he's saying... Do you want to go to war or jail? "
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Name: Sergei Klimenko
Email: klimenko_sergei@hotmail.com
"I think this song after all represents an idea that there's no one in the world who can describe our life, nature and feelings as perfectly as they appear in reality and this song is a hymn to Barret's honour as the poet who tried to. No matter where you've been - silent puppet in the war fire or sitting in the cell - you won't manage to do that thing. And that's tragic."
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Name: Kristen Averett
Email: kla28@hotmail.com
"Did they capture you and put you in a cage insead of letting you do nothing in the war?"
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Name: John Dyer
"Obviously, he was not only talking about his father getting killed during World War II. But, he was also talking about Syd Barrett's condition. Roger wished Syd would come back to Pink Floyd, that's why he wrote "Wish You Were Here". War is bad and a lead role in a cage is bad too. Both are contributing to Roger's life (in which his father's death was the concern) and Syd Barrett's condition (in which he intakes to much LSD, goes insane, ends up in a mental hospital with serious conditions i.e. - diabetes and going blind). I think Roger also "wished" when he wrote and sung this song for the first time, that his father was there to listen to him sing it, but he couldn't because he was at war. And Syd couldn't listen to Roger sing it, either, because of his insane condition. If Roger had Syd and his father there when he sang this song for the first time, the song would have never been writen."