It’s almost impossible to talk about 1973 without talking about a prism, a heartbeat, and that slow, echoing saxophone. The Dark Side of the Moon changed everything. But if you really sit down and listen—I mean, actually listen—to the lyrics to Us and Them Pink Floyd, you realize it isn't just a spacey rock song. It’s a tragedy. It’s a protest. Honestly, it’s probably the most human moment Roger Waters ever put to paper.
The song is long. It breathes. It’s over seven minutes of Richard Wright’s soulful organ and David Gilmour’s airy vocals, but the weight comes from the words. Waters wrote them at a time when the world felt like it was fracturing, much like it does now. He wasn't trying to be cryptic. He was trying to be devastatingly simple.
The accidental origins of a masterpiece
Most people don't realize that "Us and Them" wasn't even written for Dark Side. Originally, the melody was a piano piece Rick Wright wrote for the 1970 film Zabriskie Point. Back then, it was called "The Violent Sequence." Michelangelo Antonioni, the director, actually rejected it. He thought it was too beautiful or too sad for the scene he was filming. Imagine that. One of the greatest pieces of music in history was basically a "no thanks" from a film director.
Roger Waters eventually took that haunting melody and realized it was the perfect canvas for his thoughts on conflict. By the time the band got into Abbey Road Studios, the song had evolved into a meditation on the absurdity of human division. It’s about how we draw lines in the dirt.
What the lyrics to Us and Them Pink Floyd are actually saying
The song is built on binaries. Black and blue. Us and them. Me and you. It’s about how easily we slip into these roles.
Take the first verse. "Us and them / And after all we're only ordinary men." That’s the core of it. Waters is pointing out that despite the uniforms, the borders, and the flags, the people on both sides of a war are just... guys. They’re ordinary. But then the "General" sits down, and the lines on the map get moved from side to side. It’s cold. It’s calculated.
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The contrast between the "ordinary men" and the "General" who "sat and the lines on the map moved from side to side" is a stinging critique of power. The people who start the wars aren't the ones dying in them. It's a sentiment as old as time, but Pink Floyd made it feel like a dream—or a nightmare.
The "Black and Blue" of it all
Then you get into the second verse. It shifts from the battlefield to the street. "Black and blue / And who knows which is which and who is who."
People often debate if this is about race or police or just the general confusion of civil unrest. Given the context of the early 70s, it’s likely all of the above. It’s about the loss of identity in a crowd. When things get violent, when the "up and down" of social hierarchy starts to grind people down, we lose sight of the individual.
The old man and the tea
The third verse is the one that usually gets people. It’s about a "man wandering round" who is "crying for a cup of tea."
It sounds British. It sounds mundane. But it’s actually about poverty and apathy. "With, without / And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?"
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Waters is basically saying that while we’re busy fighting over ideologies and borders, there’s a guy right there who is starving. We’re so wrapped up in the "Us and Them" of politics that we ignore the "Me and You" of human suffering. He dies at the end of the verse. "And the old man died." It’s blunt. No metaphor there. Just the end of a life while the world keeps spinning.
The voices in the background
If you listen closely to the lyrics to Us and Them Pink Floyd, you’ll hear snippets of people talking. These weren't scripted. The band recorded interviews with roadies, studio staff, and even Paul McCartney (though his answers didn't make the cut).
The most famous voice is Roger "The Hat" Manifold. He’s the one talking about "short, sharp shocks" and "giving him a quick one." It adds this layer of real-world grit to the ethereal music. It reminds you that the "violence" the song talks about isn't just a concept. It’s a guy in a hallway thinking about getting into a fight. It grounds the high-concept philosophy in the messy reality of 1970s London.
Why it sounds the way it does
The production on this track is a masterclass. Alan Parsons, the engineer, used a lot of "echo" on Gilmour’s voice. This wasn't just to sound "trippy." It reinforces the lyrics. When Gilmour sings "Us... us... us..." and "Them... them... them...", it feels like the words are bouncing off the walls of a canyon. It feels lonely. It feels like the distance between two people is infinite.
Dick Parry’s saxophone solo is also essential. It doesn't scream; it mourns. It bridges the gap between the verses, giving the listener time to sit with the weight of the words. Without that sax, the song might have felt too heavy. Instead, it feels like a eulogy for humanity.
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Common misconceptions about the song
- It’s not just about war. While the battlefield imagery is there, Waters has stated it's more about the general idea of "othering" people. It's about any situation where we decide someone else is "them."
- The "General" isn't a specific person. He represents the detached nature of authority. He could be a politician, a CEO, or a literal general.
- It wasn't a hit single initially. In the US, it was released as a single but didn't set the charts on fire. Its legacy grew because the album stayed on the charts for 741 weeks.
The lasting impact of Us and Them
Even in 2026, these lyrics feel like they were written yesterday. Look at any social media comment section. It's all "Us and Them." The tribalism that Waters was worried about in 1973 has only become more digitized and efficient.
The song asks a question that it doesn't answer: Can we ever stop being "ordinary men" and start being something better? Or are we destined to just keep moving the lines on the map?
Honestly, the brilliance of the song is that it doesn't offer a happy ending. It just holds up a mirror. It says, "This is what you're doing. Look at it."
How to truly experience the song today
If you want to get the most out of the lyrics to Us and Them Pink Floyd, don't just stream it on a tinny phone speaker while you're doing the dishes.
- Get the right environment. Find a room where you can sit in the dark.
- Use high-quality headphones. The panning and the echoes are lost on cheap earbuds. You need to hear the way the voices travel from left to right.
- Listen to the full album. "Us and Them" is preceded by "Money" and followed by "Any Colour You Like." The transition from the cynical, upbeat "Money" into the slow, depressing "Us and Them" is vital. It’s the "come down" after the greed.
- Read the lyrics while listening. Even if you think you know them, seeing them on the page helps you catch the nuances in Waters’ writing—like the "forward he cried from the rear" line, which perfectly captures the cowardice of leadership.
The song is a reminder that empathy is a choice. We can choose to see the "ordinary man" or we can choose to see "them." Pink Floyd made it pretty clear which one leads to the old man dying for a cup of tea.
Actionable insights for the deep listener
- Analyze the Dynamics: Notice how the chorus explodes in volume. This represents the chaos of "Them," while the verses represent the quiet isolation of "Us."
- Contextualize with History: Read up on the 1960s student protests in Paris or the Vietnam War to see what was likely on Waters' mind.
- Compare to "Echoes": If you like the themes here, go back to "Echoes" from the Meddle album. It’s the precursor to this kind of "human connection" writing.
- Check out the 2023 Redux: Roger Waters released a re-recorded version of Dark Side recently. It’s much more spoken-word and stripped back. Comparing the two will give you a new perspective on how the lyrics have aged in his own mind.
Us and Them isn't just a song; it's a social commentary that refuses to go out of style. Its power lies in its simplicity. We are all ordinary. We are all just people. Everything else is just a line on a map.