The Fletcher Memorial Home Lyrics
Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
And build them a home, a little place of their own
The Fletcher Memorial
Home for Incurable
Tyrants and Kings
[Verse 2]
And they can appear to themselves everyday
On closed circuit TV
To make sure they're still real
It’s the only connection they feel
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
Reagan and Haig
Mr. Begin and friend
Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisley (Hello Maggie!)
Mr. Brezhnev and party
(Scusi dov'è il bar?)
The ghost of McCarthy,
And the memories of Nixon
And now, adding colour (Da questa parte)
A group of anonymous Latin-American meat packing glitterati
Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?
[Bridge]
They can polish their medals and sharpen their smiles,
And abuse themselves playing games for a while
Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you're dead
[Verse 3]
Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
Their favourite toy
They’ll be good girls and boys
In the Fletcher Memorial
Home for Colonial
Wasters of Life and Limb
Is everyone in?
Are you having a nice time?
(Goodbye!)
Now the final solution can be applied
About
Released in 1983 during the Thatcher-Reagan era, the song, as the whole album, was a jab at leaders playing power politics during the climax of the cold war.
Dissing Thatcher, Reagan, Brejnev, Begin and world leaders in general, the song suggests that world politics are actually more about selfishness, ego and narcissism than peace or happiness among the masses. It contains a lot of the underlying anger and bitterness left over from the Wall album, basically a rage against the havoc wrought by politicians playing games with peoples lives in wars. Narrative wise, the song is about taking all the vicious dictators and dinosaurs of world leadership and putting them in a retirement home where they can’t wreak any more damage upon society. The final line gets very dark, suggesting that the “Final Solution” (a reference to the NAZI “Final Solution” being the industrialization of death that was the Holocaust) should be applied to those leaders.
Fletcher was Roger Water’s father’s middle name. Eric Fletcher Waters died during WWII as his son still was an infant, a topic that Waters has revisited many times throughout his career.
The song is AABA format with a partial reprise. There’s two verses, a bridge, another verse, and then a guitar solo followed by a verse.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 9.The Fletcher Memorial Home
- 10.Southampton Dock
- 11.The Final Cut
- 12.Not Now John