Not Now John

"Not Now John" is a song from Pink Floyd's 1983 album, The Final Cut. It is the only song on the album that features David Gilmour on vocals. It was released, overdubbed for language, as a single for the album. The video depicts a Japanese kid walking through a factory being confronted by a call-girl plus factory workers playing cards, geisha girls while trying to metaphorically search for a soldier before he falls to his death from a scaffold and the World War II veteran (played by Alex McAvoy whom played the teacher in the film version of Pink Floyd The Wall) discovered the fallen kid.

1 Meaning
2 Composition
3 Single
4 Personnel
5 Trivia

[edit] Meaning

The lyrics, written by Roger Waters, deal with many of the themes he explored in other songs from the album, including war (particularly the Falklands War and British involvement therein) and criticism of UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher, as well as general criticisms of the greed and corruption that Waters saw as dangers to society.

[edit] Composition

The song is 5 minutes and 2 seconds long, making it the third longest song on the album. It consists of an upbeat tempo with heavy use of guitar. Unlike the majority of other tracks on The Final Cut, "Not Now John" remains rather intense throughout its duration, instead of switching back and forth between heavy/soft segments (although there are some "down" tempo periods in the song). Gilmour and Waters split vocals duties, similar to the song "Comfortably Numb" from The Wall, and they represent different "characters" or points of view - Gilmour is the self-serving ignorant layperson while Waters is the intellectual, responsible observer of the world's woes. [1] However, Waters sings verses associated with Gilmour's character near the end of the song. When the album was in demo stages the song was actually sung by Roger Waters only.

[edit] Single

Not Now John was released as a single on May 3, 1983. The chorus line "fuck all that" was overdubbed "stuff all that" by Gilmour and the female backing singers. The Hero's Return was released as the B-side featuring an additional verse. The single hit #7 on the Mainstream Rock Charts.

1. Not Now John - 4:56
2. The Hero's Return Part Two - 2:32

[edit] Personnel

Roger Waters - Bass guitar, vocals
David Gilmour - Guitar, lead vocals
Nick Mason - Drums, holophonic sound recordings
Andy Brown - Synthesiser

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

During the fadeout of the song, Waters shouts "Rule Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!" and "Hammer! Hammer! Hammer! Hammer! Now!"^{[citation needed]}. In The Wall's song Waiting for the Worms, it asks "Would you like to see Britannia rule again?" and repeats "Hammer!" during the outro. Many of the other songs on The Final Cut have connections to The Wall similar to this one.
About four minutes into the song, Waters shouts the line "One Two FREE FOUR!",a throwback to the song "Free Four" on Obscured by Clouds.
The conflict between Waters and the film production of the Pink Floyd The Wall movie inspired^{[citation needed]} the provocative verses:

“

Not now John we've got to get on with the film show

Hollywood waits at the end of the rainbow
Who cares what it's about as long as the kids go?
So not now John we've got to get on with the show!

”

Waters' disaffection with big arena-concert crowds screaming and hindering the performance of the songs (one of the themes that inspired The Wall) is spoofed in this track^{[citation needed]}: Waters plays an "audience member" screaming madly in the background of the last verse. Among other things, such as repeating the immediately previous sung lines by "the band", Waters screams "Why don't you say that in brit, faerie?" following the French and Italian lines of the actual song.^{[citation needed]}
This song was covered by the Los Angeles band North Green on the Pink Floyd tribute album A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd