The Fletcher Memorial Home

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.
And they can appear to themselves every day
On closed circuit T.V.
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 friends
Mrs. Thatcher and Paisley
Mr. Brezhnev and party
The ghost of Mccarthy
The memories of Nixon
And now adding color a group of anonymous Latin
American meat packing glitterati"

Did they expect us to treat them with any respect
They can polish their medals and sharpen their
Smiles, and amuse themselves playing games for a while
Boom boom, bang bang, lie down you're dead.
Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
With their favorite toys
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?
Now the final solution can be applied



- Released April 2, 1983

- The title of the song takes its' name from Roger Water's father, Eric Fletcher Waters.

- This song is a bitter and unforgiving rant against the post-war figures Roger Waters felt was indirectly responsible for his father's death. These are the people he felt sent his father to die, people who had nothing to do with the conflict, and people who really wanted no part of fighting. These were the people Roger Waters felt treated life as something that can be replaced as though it was meaningless and trivial.

- "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome (Ronald) Reagan and (Alexander) Haig." Represents the conservative United States government.

- "Mr. (Menachem) Begin and friends" Represents the State of Israel.

- "Mrs. Thatcher and Paisley" Represents campaigns for a conservative Great Britain.

- "Mr. Breshnev and party" Represents the Communist Party.

- "The ghost of McCarthy" Represents "McCartyism," hatred, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

- "The memories of Nixon" Represents corruption of power.

- It is interesting how the song ends with this very sentence, "Now the final solution can be applied" The last stanza asks if all of the above representatives are in the Fletcher Memorial Home and that the "final solution" could then be applied to them. Does Waters mean "exterminate" them, as Hitler did in the same war that was responsible for the death of his father?