Political commentaries are made clear on Roger Waters‘ deep cut track, Leaving Beirut.
While performing the song, the Pink Floyd bassist would note a mixed response from crowds, but says the origin of the song is far more important than their reaction. Waters would pull from his experience of being in Beirut when he was just nineteen, hitchhiking his way home. Further on from those experiences was the “sad, sick and incensed” feelings of the Iraq War. Waters would attempt to adapt some of his songs to reference the war in the Middle East and those responsible for it, but did write Leaving Beirut as a response to the war. The veteran songwriter says he is “still confused” after writing the song, but seems to have gotten quite a response from the release of the track and subsequent performances.
He told Uncut Magazine in 2007: “It’s the story of me leaving Beirut when I was 19 years old. I was travelling in the Middle East with some friends, and the car broke down. I had to hitchhike home. It was an extraordinary experience and a great adventure. Anyway, the first night of that journey, I was taken in by a Lebanese/Arab family.
“They went and slept on the floor behind the curtain, insisting I slept in the only bed in the place. It was deeply moving, so when Bush and Blair invaded Iraq in ’03, I was so sad, sick and incensed by that weird, obvious, extraordinary, stupid, inhuman mistake that I was moved to write some verses expressing my disapproval.
“I recorded the short story and fitted the verses into it. Then I put it out on the web with another song I wrote at the same time, To Kill a Child. It’s about the invasion of Iraq – about which I’m still confused. We know it was nothing to do with WMD or 9/11. We know it was nothing to do with terrorism. Was it just a business move? Was it to create a US military base in that part of the Middle East? I still have no idea.”
Despite the negative response in the United States, Waters says the song was much more warmly received in the UK. He added: “Of course. There was nothing negative about the response to the song in England, because even when we invaded Iraq in 2003, 75% of the British population was against the invasion. Two million people demonstrated on the streets of London. How Blair is still in power, I’ll never know.
“The first gig I did in the States was in Holmdel, New Jersey and there were a few boos when we got to the end of it. Somebody late told me that there are several US army bases close to Holmdel and maybe there were some military in the audience. A lot of people have made the mistake of thinking that song attacks the US servicemen.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. My heart goes out to those guys, who are out there doing their duty as best they can under very difficult circumstances. And my heart goes out to their families. The fact I think it’s a useless, senseless war is neither here nor there. I wouldn’t dream of criticising the foreign police of the Administration.”
