Roger Waters / 4:50
Musicians: David Gilmour: electric rhythm and lead guitar / Rick Wright: organ, Minimoog (?) / Roger Waters: vocals, bass / Nick Mason: drums / Recorded: Britannia Row, Islington, London: September 1978–March 1979 / Technical Team: Producers: Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, Roger Waters / Co-producer: James Guthrie / Sound Engineers: James Guthrie, Nick Griffiths
Like “Teacher Teacher” (which would be resurrected on The Final Cut under the title “The Hero’s Return”), “Sexual Revolution” did not get past the initial rehearsal stage for The Wall. Hey girl, as I’ve always said, I prefer your lips red, not […], Hey girl, look in the mirror, can you see what you are? The message was perhaps thought to be too cliché… And perhaps the music owed a little too much to “Corporal Clegg” on A Saucerful of Secrets.
Although not used in his conceptual work, this song in the form of a manifesto for sexual liberation was by no means abandoned by Roger Waters. Renamed “4.41 AM. (Sexual Revolution),” it reappears as the fifth track on his solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, a project Waters had developed in parallel with The Wall.
It is David Gilmour who opens “Sexual Revolution” with an excellent, Hendrix-like riff played on a clear-toned “Black Strat” and supported by Rick Wright on Hammond organ. Initially bringing to mind “Corporal Clegg,” the song’s development makes it clear that only the intro retains traces of that earlier work. Nick Mason works his Ludwig with some power, Roger Waters supporting him on his Precision, the strange sonority of the bass suggesting that wah-wah is being used. It is also Waters who sings the lead vocal, in a very high voice at the limit of his range. After two verses, he can be heard counting in an instrumental section in a novel way: 4, 1, 2, 3! This is followed by a playback consisting of group accompaniment but no lead vocal, Waters simply giving a regular count in order to help the musicians get their bearings. The plan for this section was probably to overdub a Strat or B-3 solo. After the reprise of the verse (around 3:26), Waters can be heard singing la la las instead of words, which he had clearly either forgotten or not yet written! Finally, the song ends with an instrumental coda in which Gilmour and Wright play the same melodic motif in unison, the former on his Strat and the second almost certainly on the Minimoog. The later “cover” by Roger Waters is very good, slower but also more “soul.” Nevertheless, the Floyd demo of “Sexual Revolution” possesses a certain charm that gives a hint of what the group could have done with the song for The Wall.