‘They Flutter Behind You, Your Possible Pasts’: Haunting Memories in the Works of Roger Waters

Pink Floyd lyricist and bassist Roger Waters’ artistic endeavours are haunted by the death of his father, Eric Waters, who died during the Battle of Anzio in February 1944. Lyrical references in Pink Floyd’s A Saucerful of Secrets [1968], Obscured by Clouds [1972], The Wall [1979], The Final Cut [1983] and Waters’ solo album Amused to Death [1992] attest to this haunting. Throughout his career, most notably through performances of The Wall, Waters has turned this haunting into a site of creative exploration, using it as a catalyst to delve into his generation’s complicated relationship with the British postwar dream (and the failures of that dream), as well as engaging with it as a point of connection with audience members to facilitate an act of remembrance and memorialisation of loved ones who have died in war. By incorporating theories from comparative literature, psychology and musicology, this article examines the works of Roger Waters through the lens of hauntology as a departure point for critical and constructive musical engagement with the past.