What does The Final Cut mean?

Pink Floyd: The Final Cut Meaning

Tagged: Suicide [suggest]
Album cover for The Final Cut album cover

The Final Cut Lyrics


The Final Cut (Waters)

Through the fish-eyed lens of tear stained eyes
I can barely define the shape of this moment in time
And far from flying high in clear blue skies
I'm spiraling down to the hole in the ground where I hide....

  1. anonymous
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    Mar 11th 2020 !⃝

    I think its about a suicide

  2. anonymous
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    Oct 23rd 2018 !⃝

    The Final Cut song lyrics are about the astronaughts who had to lie about faking the moon landings and the Earth being flat. A “fish-eyed” lens is whats needed to create the “curvature” of the Earth. He can barely define the SHAPE of that moment in time. And far from flying high he’s spiralling down to the hole were he had to hide. Rockets never go straight up, they go up then sideways out to sea. Then he has to hide for the length of the mission. When he was a kid he dreamed of fame and making love to stars but now he has to live with the lie. The “new found faith” is science. “Showed you my dark side” refers to the moon. And he is asking if he told the truth how would people take it. Would they go to the papers and sell the story. He cant live with the deceit and is thinking of suicide.

  3. anonymous
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    Mar 25th 2018 !⃝

    Death by a thousand cuts...death doesn't come until the Final Cut.

  4. anonymous
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    Feb 26th 2013 !⃝

    To understand the meaning of any pink floyd song you need to take it into context with the rest of the album. I believe this album describes the feelings of the UK after WW2, The feeling of anger felt towards the government or "high command" Then the feeling of betrayal at the start of the falkland conflicts, in the song southampton dock explains the feelings of the women who had to watch their husbands come back (or not come back in this case) and then watch their children leave to fight another war. The album then goes to explain the feeling of impotence that the population felt and the trauma suffered by the population during this time, which coinciding with the recession at the time, a lot of people considered suicide. The final song of the album works to explain that in the inevitible end, we are all the same, and that we need to realise this in order to prevent the same cycle happening again.

  5. anonymous
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    Jul 25th 2012 !⃝

    It's about PTSD, or at least that's what we would call it now.

    The first two verses are about the mental state of the survivor, as seen through his eyes. He's is not 'flying', he is hiding behind The Wall of his own paranoia.

    And yet he can still remember when he was young and had dreams.

    The reference to Dark Side is obvious (DSOTM) but it here has a double meaning, and the guy is wondering what his wife or partner would do if he was completely honest with her. Would she freak or flee or cash in?

    He chooses suicide but back out at the last moment, saved by the bell of the phone= ringing.

  6. RRobert
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    Feb 11th 2012 !⃝

    His father yes is killed in the war. Does he think about what his life with his father would be if he had survived? Many things to think about.

  7. RRobert
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    Feb 11th 2012 !⃝

    Experianced in terms of PTSD and survivor's guilt. The terms he uses does describe war. Our character speaks of surviving several obstacles one would encounter on a battle field; The cold steal of a bayonet, mine fields, gun blasts or the combination of all mentioned. But the song tells me he got to apoint where he continued no more. He states he hid in a hole (trenches) soldiers would storm from these trenches in an advance toward the enemy lines. Did our character finally succum to his fears as his mates advanced to be cut down? Did the war end before his turn came up charge the enemy? Whatever it is he lives with guilt he hasn't shared shared, if they knew the truth, what would his own wife think of him. He does ask who I take as his wife, if she found out his torment, would she expose him, leave him or embrace him.

  8. RRobert
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    Feb 11th 2012 !⃝

    Again by 1945 the war is over, and I reiterate, the lady on the dock maybe England. I wonder if Roger Waters feels he lost his. Father in a sense to the war. I am interested in their relationship. Listening to The Wall and The Final Cut, is Mr. Waters not only explaing his childhood with his father, living in the shadows of the horrors of the great war, but is he describing what his father may have

  9. RRobert
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    Feb 11th 2012 !⃝

    Okay, The Final Cut is not about the Falkland conflict. Roger Waters lyrics center around his ather in world war 2. Which has been shared with us in The Wall. If you listen, track 9 I believe, South Hampton Dock speaks of 1945, which kinda throws me because the speak of the soldiers leaving, but they are sheathing their knives which I take as sheathing they're bayonets. Roger states this lady which may signify England see them off again in the rain, In quiet desperation, which is a significant phrase having to do with England as she was bombarded by the Germans during the war. This time the phrase could be used describing the soldiers as they dealt with the after affects of combat. England is now losing her sons to PTSD. The Final Cut to me is a last charge, where waves of sodiers in the litteral are cut down I think Rogers character avoided that last charge He didn't make that last charge.

  10. anonymous
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    Nov 29th 2011 !⃝

    combination of music

  11. anonymous
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    Jun 7th 2011 !⃝

    the final cut is a blade.....suicide.....ill never have the nerve to make the final cut

  12. anonymous
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    Nov 9th 2010 !⃝

    Possibly the description of the "wall" that veterans returning from war surround themselves with as they try to re-integrate into society ?

  13. anonymous
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    Nov 9th 2010 !⃝

    Human contact, no mater how etheral can stop a person from ending what they consider to be a pointless life


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