Roger Waters - "The Ballad Of Bill Hubbard"

Ainda "Amused To Death" - o álbum mais essencial da discografia a solo de Roger Waters. Dizia ontem que apesar da falta de melodias, isso não significa que este álbum não seja capaz de nos tocar.

A história de Bill Hubbard, que abre e fecha o "Amused To Death", consegue sempre deixar-me arrepiado. A história passa-se num campo de batalha durante a 1ª Guerra Mundial e é contada por Alf Razzell - um antigo soldado dos Royal Fusiliers (exército britânico).
Alf tinha a missão de ir à terra de ninguém depois de um combate e retirar a carteira aos cadáveres do seu exército que ia encontrando, de modo a serem identificadas as baixas. Com um trabalho destes, era normal Alf encontrar corpos desmembrados, decapitados e sabe-se lá mais o quê. O cúmulo dos horrores.
Um dia, na Batalha do Somme, os alemães levaram Alf à terra de ninguém e este encontrou um soldado com feridas profundas e em grande sofrimento, mas ainda com vida. Esse soldado era Bill Hubbard.

"Two things that have haunted me most are the days when I had to collect the paybooks; and when I left Bill Hubbard in no-man's-land.
I was picked up and taken into their trench. And I'd no sooner taken two or three steps down the trench when I heard a call, 'Hello Razz, I'm glad to see you. This is my second night here,' and he said 'I'm feeling bad' and it was Bill Hubbard, one of the men we'd trained in England, one of the original battalion.
I had a look at his wound; rolled him over. I could see it was probably a fatal wound.
You could imagine what pain he was in, he was dripping with sweat; and after I'd gone about three shellholes, traversed that, had it been...had there been a path or a road I could have done better.
He pummelled me, 'Put me down, put me down, I'd rather die, I'd rather die, put me down.' I was hoping he would faint.
He said 'I can't go any further, let me die.' I said 'If I leave you here Bill you won't be found, let's have another go.' He said 'All right then.'
And the same thing happened. he couldn't stand it any more, and I had to leave him there, in no-man's-land."

Alf Razzell em "The Ballad Of Bill Hubbard" - "Amused To Death"

Para quem não percebe inglês, Alf Razzell encontrou Bill Hubbard com feridas mortais e tentou levá-lo às suas costas ao longo das trincheiras, com a esperança do salvar. Mas as dores por que Bill passava eram insuportáveis e este obrigou Alf a deixá-lo ali, a morrer, em terra de ninguém.

"[Alf:] Years later, I saw Bill Hubbard's name on the memorial to the missing at Aras.
And I...when I saw his name I was absolutely transfixed; it was as though he...he was now a human being instead of some sort of nightmarish memory of how I had to leave him, all those years ago.
And I felt relieved, and ever since then I've felt happier about it, because always before, whenever I thought of him, I said to myself, 'Was there something else that I could have done?'
And that always sort of worried me. And having seen him, and his name in the register - as you know in the memorials there's a little safe, there's a register in there with every name - and seeing his name and his name on the memorial; it sort of lightened my...heart, if you like."
[woman:] "When was it that you saw his name on the memorial?"
[Alf:] "Ah, when I was eighty-seven, that would be the year, ninete...eighty-four, nineteen eighty-four."

Alf Razzell em "Amused To Death" - "Amused To Death"

Ainda estou para perceber qual é, afinal, o fundamento de mandar os homens de um país para a morte num campo de batalha.

Se no fim de qualquer guerra os generais se sentam à mesa e chegam a um acordo, porque é que não fazem isso antes da guerra?