Me Or Him by Roger Waters

Album: Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)

License This Song

lyrics

Songfacts®:

This album is based on the 1985 Miners strike in Wales, which was a very hard and bitter time. The album has a pull out map of the area of Wales (UK) that paid a heavy price for losing the strike. This track is based on a sad event that took place when an innocent Taxi driver (Mr. Wilkie) was taking a working miner (called scabs by the strikers) in to the pit. Two striking miners dropped a 46lb concrete block and a concrete post weighing 65lbs from a bridge over the head of the Valleys Road at Rhymner. It fell on the taxi and the driver was killed within seconds from head and chest injuries. The passenger, Mr. Williams, was unhurt but deeply traumatized. The miners were jailed for life.
The story of the album is told from the point of an handicapped boy Billy who stays with his uncle in the USA while the strike was going on, but he is soon homesick. >>
Suggestion credit:
Graham - Port Talbot, Wales, for above 2

Comments: 3

Kean Williams from Rhymney South WalesI have been trying to find this story for a while as I knew what the lyrics were about. One of the striking miners is my father, Dean. Their sentence was later reduced to manslaughter as evidence deemed the killing of the cab driver was an act of god. This is such a good record, my dad plays it all the time. I'd love to hear more about this story.
Slydog43 from Nj UsaThis does not make sense. I love this song so much, its changed my life. Its similar to situations surrounding "The Library At Alixandra". Great stuff. I just love the lyric "them some damn fool invents the wheel", best lyric of all time, seriously its the best. I grew up loving PF, then 40 years later I know I was right!!, thanks PF (the band that invented the light show, among many other 1sts, along with not cutting out SB (syd barret), great stuff
Chris from Boston MaRoger said in the voice over of the Wall DVD that his brother was a cab driver.... Perhaps that's why he related to the man who died.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

We Didn't Start The FireBilly Joel

Billy Joel wrote "We Didn't Start The Fire" after a 21-year-old told him, "everyone knows that nothing happened in the '50s."

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)Sly & the Family Stone

Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" was a huge hit in 1970 and found new life when Janet Jackson sampled the bass riff on her 1989 hit "Rhythm Nation."

JetPaul McCartney & Wings

The Australian band Jet took their name from the 1973 song of the same by Paul McCartney and Wings.

Brand New BookTrain

Train wrote the 2011 song "Brand New Book" for the TV show The Biggest Loser - part of the song was used in the opening credits.

We Belong TogetherMariah Carey

Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together" was the best-selling song of the 2000s in the US.

Amarillo By MorningGeorge Strait

"Amarillo By Morning" got its title from a Fed Ex commercial that promised to deliver packages the next day to places like Amarillo. It's George Strait's most famous song, but was written and originally released by Terry Stafford nine years earlier.