Roger Waters’ “The Child Will Fly,” recorded some six years ago for the Fundacion Alas to aid Latin American children, now has an accompanying video uploaded via YouTube.
The clip, directed by Diego Kaplan, finds the ex-Pink Floyd frontman in Buenos Aires during a stop on one of his massive solo tours of The Wall, and it adds a new sense of urgency to these youth efforts. Working with city officials and the Spanish International Cooperation Agency, Alas has funded more than 20 early childhood centers aimed at helping thousands in high-poverty neighborhoods.
Waters was clearly touched both by the people of Buenos Aires, and by these charitable efforts. “The Child Will Fly” combines the unvarnished optimist of his anthem “The Tide is Turning” from 1987’s Radio K.A.O.S., with interpretive doubled vocals courtesy of Gustavo Cerati and Shakira. The song also reunites Waters with his Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking-era guitar collaborator Eric Clapton, who adds a molten — if very brief — solo aside.
This is the second new song to emerge from these tours for Waters, who hasn’t issued a solo album since 1992’s Amused the Death. He also wrote “The Ballad of Jean Charles de Menezes” in honor of a wrongly accused Brazilian martyr, and worked that piece into the larger Wall song cycle.
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