Your Possible Pasts
"Your Possible Pasts" (mislabeled as "Your Impossible Pasts" on a radio promo single) is a song from Pink Floyd's 1983 album, The Final Cut. This song was one of several to be considered for the band's "best of" album, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.
Background
The song, like many others on The Final Cut, is a rewritten version of a song rejected for The Wall, originally to be used in Spare Bricks (an early version of The Final Cut that was an extension of The Wall.) Guitarist, David Gilmour objected to the use of these previously rejected tracks, as he believed that they weren't good enough for release.
Despite not appearing on The Wall album, the lyrics of the chorus did appear in the film for said album, Pink Floyd – The Wall, where the lyrics were read by the main character, Pink, in-between the songs "Waiting for the Worms" and "Stop".
"Your Possible Pasts" also appeared on a 12-inch promotional single entitled "Selections From The Final Cut," with "The Final Cut" on the B-side. However, despite not being released as a commercial single, the song did receive significant radio play, resulting in the song hitting #8 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in America.
Podcasts:
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by Anathema
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by Pink Floyd
Your possible pasts
by: Anathema[Digipack Bonus]
[Pink Floyd, from "The Final Cut"]
They flutter behind you your possible pasts
some bright-eyed and crazy some frightened and lost
a warning to anyone still in command
of their possible future to take care
in derelict sidings the poppies entwine
with cattle trucks lying in wait for the next time
Do you remember me? how we used to be?
do you think we should be closer?
She stood in the doorway the ghost of a smile
haunting her face like a cheap hotel sign
her cold eyes imploring the men in their macs
for the gold in their bags or the knives in their backs
stepping up boldly one put out his hand
he said, " I was just a child then now I'm only a man"
Do you remember me? how we used to be?
do you think we should be closer?
By the cold and religious we were taken in hand
shown how to feel good and told to feel bad
tongue tied and terrified we learned how to pray
now our feelings run deep and cold as the clay
and strung out behind us the banners and flags
of our possible pasts lie in tatters and rags
Do you remember me? how we used to be?