[Verse 1]
Us, and them
And after all, we're only ordinary men
Me, and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do
[Chorus]
"Forward!" he cried from the rear
And the front rank died
The general sat, and the lines on the map
Moved from side to side
[Verse 2]
Black and blue
And who knows which is which, and who is who?
Up and down
And in the end, it's only round and round, and round
[Chorus]
"Haven't you heard it's a battle of words?"
The poster bearer cried
"Listen, son," said the man with the gun
"There's room for you inside"
"I mean, they're gonna kill ya
So like, if you give 'em a quick sh… short, sharp, shock
They don't do it again
Dig it? I mean, he got off light
'Cause I could've given him a thrashin'
I only hit him once!
It's only a difference in right and wrong, innit?
I mean good manners don't cost nothin', do they, eh?"
[Saxophone Solo]
[Verse 3]
Down and out
It can't be helped, but there's a lot of it about
With, without
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?
[Chorus]
Out of the way, it's a busy day
I've got things on my mind
For want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died
About
In the context of the Dark Side of the Moon album, as a catalog of the pressures on life, this song is about the senselessness of war. It began as a piano piece Rick Wright came up with while working on the soundtrack to the 1970 movie Zabriskie Point. It didn’t make the soundtrack, but they worked with it at the Dark Side Of The Moon sessions and it eventually became this song.
The director of Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni, rejected the song for being “beautiful, but too sad… it makes me think of church.”
This song is about binaries. Black and white.
Us and them. Cats and dogs. It criticizes the cut and dry narrative that is given in a time of war.
This song reveals that we’re all just ordinary people, and when one takes a deeper look, war is senseless death.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Roger Waters, who plays the bass and wrote the lyrics to the song, stated that the combination of Gilmour’s and Wright’s voices in the chorus is a beautiful thing.
He also stated that, ever since this song was created, he has found himself, in the role of a producer, advising artists to leave homes in songs to let lyrics breathe, as happens in the verses, where Gilmour will sing on half a bar, then leave a bar and a half empty.
In an interview with Louder Sound, Roger Waters explained:
The first verse is about going to war, how on the front line we don’t get much chance to communicate with one another, because someone else has decided that we shouldn’t. The second verse is about civil liberties, racism and colour prejudice. The last verse is about passing a tramp in the street and not helping.
- 2.Lucifer Sam
- 4.Flaming
- 8.The Gnome
- 9.Chapter 24
- 10.The Scarecrow
- 11.Bike
- 13.Remember a Day
- 15.Corporal Clegg
- 17.See-Saw
- 18.Jugband Blues
- 19.Cirrus Minor
- 20.The Nile Song
- 21.Crying Song
- 22.Up The Khyber
- 24.Cymbaline
- 25.Party Sequence
- 26.Main Theme
- 27.Ibiza Bar
- 28.More Blues
- 29.Quicksilver
- 30.A Spanish Piece
- 31.Dramatic Theme
- 36.Sysyphus
- 39.The Narrow Way
- 42.If
- 43.Summer ’68
- 44.Fat Old Sun
- 48.Fearless
- 49.San Tropez
- 50.Seamus
- 51.Echoes
- 53.When You’re In
- 54.Burning Bridges
- 57.Mudmen
- 58.Childhood’s End
- 59.Free Four
- 60.Stay
- 62.Speak to Me
- 64.On the Run
- 65.Time
- 67.Money
- 68.Us and Them
- 70.Brain Damage
- 71.Eclipse
- 74.Have a Cigar
- 78.Dogs
- 80.Sheep
- 82.In the Flesh?
- 83.The Thin Ice
- 87.Mother
- 88.Goodbye Blue Sky
- 89.Empty Spaces
- 90.Young Lust
- 91.One of My Turns
- 95.Hey You
- 97.Nobody Home
- 98.Vera
- 100.Comfortably Numb
- 101.The Show Must Go On
- 103.Run Like Hell
- 105.Stop
- 106.The Trial
- 107.Outside the Wall
- 108.The Post War Dream
- 109.Your Possible Pasts
- 110.One of the Few
- 112.The Hero’s Return
- 113.The Gunner’s Dream
- 114.Paranoid Eyes
- 117.Southampton Dock
- 118.The Final Cut
- 119.Not Now John
- 121.Signs of Life
- 122.Learning to Fly
- 123.The Dogs of War
- 124.One Slip
- 125.On the Turning Away
- 126.Yet Another Movie
- 127.Round and Around
- 129.Terminal Frost
- 131.Sorrow
- 132.Cluster One
- 134.Poles Apart
- 135.Marooned
- 138.Take It Back
- 139.Coming Back to Life
- 140.Keep Talking
- 141.Lost for Words
- 142.High Hopes