Bring The Boys Back Home (single)

Bring The Boys Back Home  1:49
Studio recording January-June 1982 
* Released on single B-side 26 July 1982

Production
Written by Roger Waters
Produced by Roger Waters, David Gilmour, James Guthrie, and Michael Kamen

Releases
UK: Harvest HAR 5222
US: Columbia X18-03142

Lyrics:
Bring the boys back home (2x)
Don't leave the children on their own, own, own

Bring the boys back home (2x)
Don't leave the children on their own, no, no
Bring the boys back home

Vocals: Pontardulais Male Voice Choir, led by Noel Davis

This song was specially rearranged and re recorded for the Wall film. Roger Waters traveled to Wales where he recorded the Pontardulais Male Voice Choir, a group which impressed him enormously, and would later provide an inspiration for his solo album Radio KAOS. The version that appears on the single is significantly longer than the film's remix, with an extended instrumental section. The single version does not include the dialogue sound bites or the 'Is there anybody out there?' lyrical reprise which leads into Comfortably Numb on the album and film (this explains why the total time for both mixes comes out about the same).

It should be noted that this single came out scarcely 40 days after the end of the Falkland War, which certainly gave it a highly current political relevance it otherwise might not have had. The Falkland War is highly comparable to the more recent Persian Gulf War both in its utter lack of moral justification and in the incredible fervour of patriotism among Britain's citizenry, whipped into an hostile frenzy by the tabloid media.

Roger Waters: "Yeah, bring the boys back home. Not a bad idea. Still not a bad idea. What are they doing out there? If we didn't all sell Saddam Hussein arms, he couldn't invade Kuwait anyway. What's he going to do it with? Scimitars and camels?" [TAP 60]