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The Wall

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"Pink Floyd The Wall" redirects here. For the movie based on the album, see Pink Floyd The Wall (film).
For other uses, see The Wall (disambiguation).
Untitled

The Wall is a 1979 rock opera concept album by Pink Floyd. The majority of the album was written and sung by Roger Waters. Hailed by critics and fans as one of Pink Floyd's best albums (along with The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals ), the album is known as a rock and roll classic, and its morbid, depressing anthems have inspired many contemporary rock musicians. This was also the last studio Pink Floyd album to feature Richard Wright until his return in 1987. By the time the album was being recorded, Waters had tightened his grip on the band and demanded near-complete artistic control. As a result, the other band members' input was kept to a minimum, which in turn created personal tensions. The album is one of the best-selling albums ever, with a reported 30 million sold worldwide.

Concept

Template:Spoiler The storyline portrays the fictional life of an anti-hero named Pink, who is hammered and beaten down by society from the earliest days of his life: having lost his father (killed in Anzio during World War II, as was Roger Waters' own), smothered by his over-protective mother, and oppressed at school by tyrannical, abusive teachers who tried to mold him and the other pupils into the "right" shape for society (hence the recurring image of the meat grinder). Pink withdraws into his own fantasy world, building an imaginary wall, an allegory for being emotionally distant to protect himself from the rest of the world. Every bad experience in his life is "another brick in the wall". After heavily contemplating how to fill in the last few empty spaces in the wall, Pink puts off its construction for a while. He becomes a rock star and gets married (although not to Vera Lynn, as some may think — she was an entertainer in the Second World War, the track 'Vera' is ironic of the fact that Roger Waters and his father never did 'meet again' after the war as Vera Lynn's original song stated.), only to be cheated on by his wife due to his distance and coldness, as well as the life as a rock star. After this he resumes and eventually finishes building the wall.

Pink slowly goes insane behind his freshly completed wall. He is lost on the inside, but is forced to surface by his demanding lifestyle, and I.V. drug use distributed by his crew to "Keep him going through the show". Hallucinating, Pink believes that he is a fascist dictator, and his concerts are like Neo-Nazi rallies where he sets his men on fans he considers unworthy, only to have his conscience rebel at this and put himself on trial, his inner judge ordering him to tear down his wall in order to open himself to the outside world. At this point the album's end runs into its beginning with the closing words "Isn't this where..."; the first song on the album, "In the Flesh?", begins with the words "...we came in?" hinting at the cyclical nature of Waters' theme.

Recorded version

Roger Waters was inspired to create the album during a concert on 6 July 1977 on the final night of the tour to promote Animals, dubbed Pink Floyd — In the Flesh. In Montreal, a fan's set off a firecracker near the stage. He stopped singing and shouted out:

"Oh, for fuck's sake. Stop letting off fireworks and shouting and screaming. I'm trying to sing a song." The crowd cheered at this. "I mean I don't care. If you don't wanna hear it, you know... Fuck you! I'm sure there's a lot of people here who do want to hear it. So why don't you just be quiet... If you wanna let your fireworks off, go outside and let them off out there. And if you wanna shout and scream and holler then do it out there but... I'm trying to sing a song that some people want to listen to. I want to listen to it!" (Audio file "Waters_Loses_Temper_With_Audience.ogg" not found)

He then continued with the song, but things went downhill from there, and during "Pigs (Three Different Ones)", Waters watched incredulously as one fan climbed the netting that separated the audience from the band and in disgust, Waters spat in his admirer's face. Near the end of the show, Gilmour is reported to have walked disgustedly off the stage, sitting out the final encore. Afterwards Waters regretted what he had done, and lamented the separation between the audience and band. It was this which caused Waters to come up with the idea of The Wall.

[1]

During recording, frontman Roger Waters felt that Richard Wright's contribution to the band was small, and ordered him to leave after The Wall was finished, or it would never be released (Wright confirmed this on the U.S. rock radio album premiere of Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 in 2000). During this time, Wright had a cocaine addiction that might have played a part in his dismissal.[2] Waters claimed that David Gilmour and Nick Mason supported Waters' decision to fire Wright. Gilmour and Mason, on the other hand, have repeatedly stated that they were against Wright's dismissal (Gilmour confirmed that he was against Wright's dismissal on the U.S. rock radio album premiere of Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 in 2000). Wright was fired from the band but stayed on to finish the album and perform the live concerts as a paid musician. Ironically, the huge startup costs for the tour, coupled with Waters' refusal to play large venues, meant that Wright was the only member to make a profit on the tour. In an interview with Mojo Magazine from December, 1999 on the 20th anniversary of Pink Floyd's The Wall, David Gilmour remarked that many of the keyboard parts were played by him, Roger Waters, Bob Ezrin, Michael Kamen and Freddie Mandell. Co-producer/engineer James Guthrie remembers Wright's contribution as being slightly more significant: "Rick did some great playing on that album, whether or not people remember it - some fantastic Hammond parts." [3]

The album was recorded at four studios in an eight month span. One in New York (CBS Studios), one in Los Angeles (Producers Workshop, which was also where the album was mixed) and two in the south of France (Super Bear and Miravel). It was revealed on the U.S. radio show In the Studio with Redbeard, which spotlighted the making of The Wall (in a 2-part episode), that the jumping around from studio to studio were the results of English tax laws and in fact financial considerations dictated the way the album was made. According to Roger Waters on that episode, "we were going to record it in London then we had an extraordinary reverse and we had channeled a lot of money into a company (Norton Warburg) in London who was supposed to be investing it and so forth but unfortunately they stole it all instead. They stole it in a way that the revenue in England still wanted us to pay tax on it. So five years after Dark Side of the Moon, we were completely skint. Having got this piece of work, looked as it might be a good one, we decided reluctantly to go make the record in the South of France. I confessed the reasons for making the record in the South of France was purely for the fear of being broke".

For "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)", Pink Floyd needed a school choir, and approached music teacher Alun Renshaw of Islington Green School, around the corner from their Britannia Row Studios, in the middle of a lesson. The choir were not allowed to hear the rest of the song after singing the chorus, and were let down, as they wanted to hear Gilmour's solo. The chorus was overdubbed 12 times to give the impression that the choir was larger. Though the school received a lump sum payment of £ 1000, there was no contractual arrangement for royalties. Under 1996 UK copyright law, they became eligible, and after choir members were tracked down by royalties agent Peter Rowan of RBL Music, through the website Friends Reunited, they sued. Music industry professionals estimated that each student would be owed around £ 500.

Originally released on Columbia Records in the U.S. and Harvest Records in the UK, The Wall was then re-released as a digitally remastered CD in 1994 in the UK on EMI. Columbia issued an updated remastered CD in 1997 in the United States, Canada, Australia, South America and Japan. For The Wall's 20th Anniversary in April 2000, Capitol Records in the U.S. and EMI in Canada, Australia, South America and Japan re-released the 1997 remastered CD with the 1994 European remaster artwork.

The Wall debuted at #51 on the Billboard album chart in December of 1979 and a month later it reached #1 on the Billboard Album Charts in the U.S. where it stayed for 15 weeks dethroning The Bee Gees' Greatest compilation album. Bob Seger's Against the Wind would eventually end The Wall's reign at #1 in the US in May of 1980. The album would spend two plus years on the Billboard chart. The Wall reached #3 in the band's native UK.

Around the world, the album produced a number of hit singles for Pink Floyd, including "Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)", "Young Lust", "Hey You", "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell".

Concert version

File:Pink Floyd The Wall Program.jpg
The offical program from the show

Rehearsals for The Wall concerts began shortly after the album's release in December of 1979 in Los Angeles at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles and rehearsals would run until January of 1980 when it moved to The Los Angeles Sports Arena for the first performance.

Pink Floyd performed the concert version of The Wall only in a handful of cities. This was due to the grandiosity of the performance, which involved constructing a giant wall across the stage between band and audience, not to mention staple Pink Floyd props such as giant screens, flying pigs and pyrotechnics. It was performed first in Los Angeles from February 7-14, 1980, then in New York from February 24 to 28, 1980 at Nassau Coliseum. It was followed by performances at Earl's Court in London from August 4-8, 1980, then again in Dortmund, Germany at Westfalenhalle from February 21-28, 1981. Finally, the band did one more week at Earl's Court in London from June 13-17, 1981. Roger Waters would later perform it in 1990 in Berlin.

File:David Gilmour on the wall.jpg
David Gilmour performing "Comfortably Numb" on top of the wall

The performances began with an MC reading a list of dos and don'ts (Jim Ladd and Cynthia Fox were the emcees for the Los Angeles shows. Gary Yudman handled the MC duties in New York and London shows. A German actor did the Dortmund shows). Then a "surrogate band" performing "In the Flesh?" composed of Andy Bown on bass (and miming Roger Waters who was singing on main stage), Snowy White on guitar (Andy Roberts would replace Snowy for the 1981 performances), Willie Wilson on drums and Peter Wood on keyboards. The surrogate band wore life masks of the faces of their counterparts in the real band whilst the real band were on the main stage in the dark. Then, a plane crashes and the "surrogate band" stops and freezes and the small stage sinks and the real Pink Floyd come in full view, and a giant wall is constructed by roadies out of 420 cardboard bricks throughout the first half of the performance augmented by appearances by an inflatable teacher, wife and mother. In the second half, the band would be completely obscured from view behind the wall, but still playing. A few bricks revealed David Gilmour playing classical guitar on "Is There Anybody Out There?". Roger Waters sang from an open hotel room on "Nobody Home" and "Vera". Then on "Comfortably Numb", Roger Waters sang his parts dressed as the doctor wearing a white coat in front of the wall while guitarist David Gilmour was hoisted hydraulically on to the top of the wall singing his parts and playing his famous guitar solos in full view of the crowd. Then, the surrogate band wore life masks of the four band members and the four Pink Floyd members all wore Hammer guard T-shirts, jeans and shoes (Gilmour, Mason and Wright) except for Roger Waters who wore a long leather trenchcoat with hammer logos and storm-trooper boots. The wall was eventually torn down during "The Trial", and Pink Floyd themselves joined the surrogate band in front of the wreckage of the wall to perform the finale, "Outside The Wall".

File:Teacher from the wall.jpg
The teacher puppet used in the concert

During the performance, giant puppets of the Teacher, Wife, and Mother, designed by Gerald Scarfe, were used, and animations by Scarfe were projected onto a circular area and onto the wall itself. Added to this, a hotel room (where much of the story is set) emerges from the wall midway through the second half for the song "Nobody Home".

File:Hammers wall live.jpg
Gerald Scarfe's images projected on the wall

The large stage shows required huge equipment (including full sized cranes), and cost an extraordinary amount of money to realize. As such, the band lost money from them, with the exception of Rick Wright, who was retained on a fixed salary for the concerts after being fired during the mixing sessions of the album in Los Angeles.

The intent of the band for these concerts was to give the audience a truly theatrical experience instead of just a show where the band played the songs. As such, during many songs, Waters assumed the role of the anti-hero, "Pink", singing despondently from a hotel room (a set on the stage). To this day, these performances are considered some of the greatest rock concerts ever. [citation needed]

In 2000, the best performances from these concerts were compiled into a live version of the album called Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81. The release includes two tracks not on the studio album ("What Shall We Do Now?" and "The Last Few Bricks"). The former was left off the studio release due to space constraints, and the latter was a medley of the first half of the show to let the roadies finish building the wall. Also included on the live performance was the full version of "The Show Must Go On" which on the studio version had only the second verse sung after the introduction. The first verse had the lyrics "Do I have to stand up wild eyed in the spotlight? What a nightmare! Why don't I turn and run?" The song in the live show also includes a very nice keyboard introduction that followed "Comfortably Numb".

Film version

Main article: Pink Floyd The Wall (film)
File:Geldof wall.jpg
Pink (Bob Geldof) at a fascist rally during the In the Flesh sequence of Pink Floyd The Wall.

A film version of The Wall was released in 1982 entitled Pink Floyd The Wall, directed by Alan Parker and starring Bob Geldof. The screenplay was written by Roger Waters. The film features music from the original album, much of which was re-recorded by the band with additional orchestration, some with minor lyrical and musical changes. These include edited versions of "Run Like Hell" and "Waiting For The Worms", and the major change being "Mother" which was substantialy re-recorded for the film which and included the above mentioned orchestral background and extro after David Gilmour's guitar solo to include a dialogue scene between Pink and his Wife, then the song picks back up again with Roger Waters playing an acoustic guitar and finishing the song.

Another small musical change in film was the small guitar riff that was played during the opening of "In The Flesh?" at the beginning of the film. This opening riff was played during the live shows but was slightly edited on the actual album recording. Also, the movie did not include the songs "Hey You" and "The Show Must Go On".

Bob Geldof sang both versions of "In The Flesh" in the movie and apparently gave David Gilmour a very difficult time during the recording sessions, with Gilmour calling Geldof a "bastard". Interestingly enough, Geldof would appear with Gilmour at one of his solo concerts in 2002 and later developed Live 8, which included a Pink Floyd performance.

The movie also includes the two part song "When the Tigers Broke Free", specifically written for the movie, and includes the song "What Shall We Do Now?", which was originally recorded for intended use in disc one of the album, but never made the final cut due to the constraints of vinyl records.

There were a couple of non-Pink Floyd songs featured in the film. The classic Vera Lynn song "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot" opened the film, while Pink sang the words to the then-unreleased Roger Waters solo song "5:11AM (The Moment of Clarity)" (which would eventually see release on Waters' 1984 solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking) in a restroom stall before singing the Pink Floyd song "Stop".

When the teacher finds Pink's poetry and reads it aloud, the lyrics are from the song "Money," from the Dark Side of the Moon album.

The song "Hey You" while filmed, was cut from the final edit of the film as it would have made the movie too long and also "added to the confusion" and as Roger Waters has commented in the documentary on the DVD, "it was too much". The song is featured as an "oddity" (special feature) on the DVD and scenes from Reel 7 (which the Hey You segment was shot on), were cut together for the "Another Brick In The Wall Part 3" and Tear Down The Wall segments of the film.

During the scene where Pink finds his father's items during the second part of "When the Tigers Broke Free" aka "The High Command", Pink stumbled on his father's certificate of appreciation. The name on the certificate says "J.A. Pinkerton". It is assumed that Pink's real name is Floyd Pinkerton, and that Pink legally changed his name to Pink Floyd because he didn't like the name Floyd Pinkerton.

Bob Hoskins appeared in the film as Pink's Manager.

The film includes Gerald Scarfe's animations sequences used in the Live Shows these include, "Goodbye Blue Sky", "What Shall We Do Now?", "Waiting For The Worms" and "The Trial".

Originally the film was intended to be intercut with concert footage and a few of the Live Shows in their entirety were actually shot but subsequently not used in the film at all. Footage from these concerts has appeared on different web-sites from time to time and on youtube.com. But an official release of this footage by Pink Floyd has not been authorized other than what was used in the documentary Behind The Wall.

Stage version

Waters has licensed the story and music for a number of amateur dramatic versions performed by schools and youth groups.

In 2004, it was announced that contracts had been signed for a Broadway musical version, with extra music to be written by Waters. The Broadway version will feature all of the music written by Waters. It is, however, unknown what will be done with the songs co-written by Gilmour ("Young Lust", "Comfortably Numb", and "Run Like Hell"). The show will be of a slightly "lighter tone" than Pink Floyd: The Wall was. Additionally, there are rumours that other Pink Floyd songs, possibly "Money" from the album Dark Side of the Moon, among others, will be included in the stage show.

Post-split

After Waters left the band, a legal battle ensued over the rights to the name "Pink Floyd" and its material. In the end, Waters retained the right to use The Wall and its material, as his name has been most closely associated with the album. This meant the sole ownership of all Wall tracks sans the three Gilmour wrote the music for ("Young Lust," "Run Like Hell" and "Comfortably Numb") and images relating to The Wall on the later 1987-1990 and 1994 tours by the three-man Pink Floyd required payments to Waters, including a $400 fee for using the inflatable pig (which Waters had called Algie, and asserted was a sow), although Gilmour narrowly dodged the pig fee by adding testicles to the pig used on these tours. Waters staged a gigantic concert performance of The Wall (with the addition of the song "The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)" from Waters' solo album Radio K.A.O.S.) at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on 21 July 1990, with guest artists including Ute Lemper, The Band, Van Morrison, Sinéad O'Connor, Cyndi Lauper, Marianne Faithfull, Scorpions, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Hall, and Bryan Adams, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and as a fundraising effort for World War Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief. This performance has several differences to the original Wall show. 'Another Brick In The Wall, Part II' is extended with solos by various instruments and has a cold ending. 'Mother' has the extended intro but a shorter guitar solo. 'Comfortably Numb' features longer duelling solos by the two guitarists as well as an additional chorus at the end of the song. 'The Show Must Go On' and 'Outside the Wall' are omitted completely, while both 'The Last Few Bricks' and 'What Shall We Do Now?' are included. Footage of the Wall coming down was used in The Scorpions' video, "Wind of Change".

At the UK Live 8 benefit concert on 2 July 2005, despite continued enmity between the former band members, Waters performed on stage with Gilmour, Mason and Wright for the first time in 24 years, their last performance together being at The Wall concerts in June 1981. Their set included "Speak to Me", "Breathe" segued with "Breathe (reprise)", "Money", "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb".

Track listing (album version)

All songs are by Roger Waters except as noted.

Side 1 (CD: Disc 1)

  1. "In the Flesh?" – 3:16
  2. "The Thin Ice" – 2:27
  3. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part I)" – 3:21
  4. "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" – 1:46
  5. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" – 4:00
  6. "Mother" – 5:32

Side 2

  1. "Goodbye Blue Sky" – 2:45
  2. "Empty Spaces" – 2:10
  3. "Young Lust" – 3:25 (David Gilmour/Roger Waters)
  4. "One of My Turns" – 3:35
  5. "Don't Leave Me Now" – 4:16
  6. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)" – 1:48
  7. "Goodbye Cruel World" – 0:48

Side 3 (CD: Disc 2)

  1. "Hey You" – 4:40
  2. "Is There Anybody Out There?" – 2:44
  3. "Nobody Home" – 3:26
  4. "Vera" – 1:35
  5. "Bring the Boys Back Home" – 1:21
  6. "Comfortably Numb" – 6:24 (David Gilmour/Roger Waters)

Side 4

  1. "The Show Must Go On" – 1:36
  2. "In the Flesh" – 4:13
  3. "Run Like Hell" – 4:19 (David Gilmour/Roger Waters)
  4. "Waiting For the Worms" – 4:04
  5. "Stop" – 0:30
  6. "The Trial" – 5:13 (Roger Waters/Bob Ezrin)
  7. "Outside the Wall" – 1:41

Total length of album: 1:17:20

Additional tracks from the film

  • "When The Tigers Broke Free" (Composed specifically for the movie--released on a vinyl single, Echoes (Disc 2, Track 05) and on the 2004 re-release of The Final Cut)
  • "What Shall We Do Now?" (The song was left off the original album due to lack of space, the reprise "Empty Spaces" which was originally meant to go between "Don't Leave Me Now" and "Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 3" was moved from its original spot on the album and put in its place for the sake of space. It is used during the wall-building sequence during the live show). Note: A majority of writers and aficionados of the album, movie, and live show always seem to think that "Empty Spaces" is actually the introduction to "What Shall We Do Now?" and it is not. Wall Engineer James Guthrie has always stated that "Empty Spaces" is a reprise of "What Shall We Do Now?" and not the introduction. However, a rough cut of "Empty Spaces" is used as the introduction to a rough cut to "What Shall We Do Now?" on The Wall 1978 demo tape. See Brain Damage Pink Floyd podcast show under "The Wall - Demos".

Tracks from the live concert

The live version of The Wall, Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81, included the following tracks not on the original album:

  • "What Shall We Do Now?" after "Empty Spaces"
  • "The Last Few Bricks" after "Another Brick In The Wall (Part III)"; usually a medley performed while the construction crew was finishing off the massive wall on stage

Tracks intended for use on the album, but not used

The album was originally written to be a triple-LP album, although Waters cut it down and left material out for the band's next release, The Final Cut.

  • "Is There Anybody Out There (Part II)" features previously unheard lyrics, part of which were later worked into "Hey You"
  • "Your Possible Pasts" later re-written for use on The Final Cut, however, the line "Do you remember me/How we used to be/Do you think/We should be/Closer?" was used in the film.
  • "One Of The Few" - working title, "Teach" - was later re-written for use on The Final Cut
  • "The Final Cut" also re-written for use on The Final Cut. A line from this song goes: Dial the combination / Open the priest-hole / And if I'm in, I'll tell you what's behind the wall. A gunshot is played over "behind the wall" in the final version of the song, to sever its connection to the album The Wall. The complete lyrics are still written in the inside sleeve of the album.

Plot

Template:Spoiler

"In the Flesh?": The introduction to the album. Very faintly at the beginning of the track, the words, "-we came in?" are heard accompanied by a clarinet. Following this small 16 second segment a loud fanfare commences. The entire album is a show performed by Pink in concert. He addresses the crowd as Sunshine before continuing the show. It also indirectly tells the listener that Pink's father was killed in World War II by the sound of a dive-bomber.

"The Thin Ice": Describes Pink's infancy before he is old enough to grasp what has happened to his father.

"Another Brick in the Wall (Part I)": When Pink is older, his mother explains to him that "Daddy's flown across the ocean, leaving just a memory.". Pink is devastated by this reality and begins to build the wall.

"The Happiest Days of Our Lives": Pink is sent to a boarding school run by overly strict and often violent teachers.

"Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)": Pink has a vision that all the kids rebel against and destroy the school, killing the teacher.

"Mother": The story of Pink's mother's overprotectiveness for him because of her loneliness after her husband's death. Also explains how Pink meets the girl who will one day be his wife and his mother's negative reaction to their relationship.

"Goodbye Blue Sky": When Pink grows up he travels to America and becomes a rock star. He and his girlfriend get married.

"Empty Spaces": Pink and his wife are having relationship problems, they never talk anymore and are becoming distant. This ties into the next song...

"Young Lust": Pink is on tour and has been away from his wife for months. As a result, he starts inviting groupies into his room between concerts. In the end Pink learns his wife has been having an affair for quite some time.

"One of My Turns": Pink invites a groupie into his room. When the groupie tries to seduce him, he explodes into a fit of violence and tears up his hotel room.

"Don't Leave Me Now": Pink is attempting to regain contact with his wife, but to no avail. In the end he blames his recent suffering on his wife and decides to finish the wall.

"Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)": Pink abandons the drugs and groupies that were consuming him earlier, concluding he does not need anything at all. He then looks back on all the people in his life and dismisses them all as just "bricks in the wall".

"Goodbye Cruel World": Pink's last statement to the outside world before placing the last brick into his wall.

"Hey You": A distress call from Pink. His call grows more and more desperate as the song progresses, but he is now beginning to realize that there is no escape.

"Is There Anybody Out There?": The period of time when Pink begins to lose his sanity behind his wall.

"Nobody Home": Pink grows lonely behind his wall.

"Vera": Going back to Pink's father's death (Vera is a reference to Vera Lynn, a singer in the 40s and 50s. She would entertain troops during World War II).

"Bring the Boys Back Home": Goes back to Pink's childhood when all the men come home from the war and Pink goes to find his father, but finds that he didn't make it.

"Comfortably Numb": A doctor gives Pink anti-depressions which will help Pink by "going through the show. C'mon its time to go." Pink is heavily drugged in order to perform at a concert.

"The Show Must Go On". Now completely separated from the rest of the world, Pink wonders why it is necessary to keep doing his concerts. He didn't realize that being a performer as he is, and in essence, building a wall, would cost him part of his soul.

"In the Flesh": Pink, drugged, believes he is a fascist dictator at a rally, though in reality he is performing at the concert. He has some bad news for the crowd (Sunshine) because Pink is locked away behind the wall, and this "surrogate Pink" is playing instead.

"Run Like Hell": Pink hallucinates that he turns the audience into a hate mob and sends them to the minority neighborhoods.

"Waiting for the Worms": Pink continues his hallucination, involving death, destruction, and sadistic followers carrying out his will until...

"Stop": Pink cries a halt to the destruction that is taking place. In a moment of reflection, the one remaining shred of Pink's sanity prompts himself to ask "Have I been guilty all this time?"

"The Trial": Pink, after realizing that he might have "been guilty all this time" puts himself on trial where testimony is heard from his school master, his wife and mother. Both his school master and his wife regale the jury and judge with damning testimony that alleges that Pink is an anarchist and inattentive husband. However, the testimony of his mother is a desperate plea to the judge for Pink's freedom and his return to home. This condition is asked due to the hole that Pink left in his mother's life after he left to become a rock star, incidentally this only provides further evidence that Pink is a wretched individual. In the end the judge commands him to "Tear down the wall". Although the sentence to tear down the wall and "expose [him] before [his] peers" is meant to prove a punishment founded on the values of his twisted mind, its enforcement ironically liberates him.

"Outside The Wall": After Pink's conscience has sentenced him to tear down the wall, the debris of mortar and brick is collected by children. As the music fades out, the spoken words "Isn't this where-" are uttered. The remaining words to this incomplete statement are found at the very beginning of the album in "In the Flesh?", making the album play in a seamless cycle with the completed inquiry, "Isn't this where we came in?". Then end can be interpreted that Pink has picked up the pieces of his life and has rejoined society AND possibly (because of the album's cyclical structure) other's fashion their own walls with what remains of Pink's wall, continuing an ugly cycle of isolation and reunification. Template:Endspoiler

Credits

Album

[4]

with

  • Lee Ritenour — Rhythm Guitar on "One Of My Turns" and Acoustic Guitar on "Comfortably Numb"
  • Jeff Porcaro — Drums on Mother
  • Joe Porcaro — Marching Snare drum on Bring the Boys Back Home
  • Blue Ocean — Marching Snare drum on Bring the Boys Back Home
  • Freddie Mandell — Hammond Organ on "In The Flesh?" and "In The Flesh"
  • Bobbye Hall — Percussion
  • Ron di Blasi — Classical guitar on "Is There Anybody Out There?"
  • Larry Williams — Clarinet on "Outside The Wall"
  • Trevor Veitch — Mandolin
  • Frank Marrocco — Concertina
  • Bruce Johnston — Backing Vocals
  • Toni Tennille — Backing Vocals
  • Joe Chemay — Backing Vocals
  • Jon Joyce — Backing Vocals
  • Stan Farber — Backing Vocals
  • Jim Haas — Backing Vocals
  • Fourth Form Music Class, Islington Green School, London — Backing Vocals
  • Bob Ezrin — co-producer; Orchestra Arrangement; Keyboards
  • Michael Kamen — Orchestra Arrangement
  • James Guthrie — Co-Producer; Engineer; Percussion; Synthesiser on "Empty Spaces" (in collaboration with David Gilmour), Sequencer; Drums on "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" (in collaboration with Nick Mason), remastering producer
  • Nick Griffiths — Engineer
  • Patrice Queff — Engineer
  • Brian Christian — Engineer
  • John McClure — Engineer
  • Rick Hart — Engineer
  • Robert Hrycyna — Engineer
  • Phil Taylor — Sound Equipment
  • Gerald Scarfe — Sleeve Design
  • Doug Sax — Mastering and Remastering


Miscellanea

  • At the beginning of the live 1980-81 album, the Vera Lynn song We'll Meet Again can be heard. In the live and studio versions of the song "Vera," it's referenced directly ("Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn? / Remember how she said that we would meet again some sunny day?"). The Vera Lynn song The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot is the first song in the movie.
  • "Empty Spaces" begins with a secret message recorded backwards:

Roger Waters: "Congratulations, You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answers to 'Old Pink', Care of 'The Funny Farm', Chalfonte..."
[interrupted by engineer James Guthrie who says] "Roger, Caroline's on the phone..."

  • "Waiting For The Worms": Near the end of the track, Roger Waters (as Pink) barks out instructions and directions in street names (most of the words are inaudible):

You are ordered to proceed and going to convene outside Brixton Town Hall where we're going to be… WAITING…to cut out the deadwood… The Worms will convene outside Brixton Bus Station. We'll be moving along at about 12 o'clock down Stockwell Road… (Abbot's Road) … twelve minutes to three we'll be moving along Lambeth Road towards Vauxhall Bridge. Now when we get to the other side of Vauxhall Bridge we're in Westminster (Borough) area. It's quite possible we may encounter some Jew boys…

Brixton Town Hall and Stockwell Road are both in South London, and in areas with large black populations. It also mentions Lambeth Road, Vauxhall Bridge and Westminster, which fit, if we move north from Brixton, crossing the Thames at Vauxhall Bridge. What was implied is not explict, but a racial pride "parade"/riot seems an obvious inference.

  • The beginning and end of the album features a continuity; perhaps the most famous tape loop.

"Outside the Wall": "Isn't this where…"
"In the Flesh?": "…we came in?"

  • Toni Tennille, of Captain & Tennille, sang background vocals on many of the album tracks,
  • Trudy Young provided the voice of the groupie for the infamous "oh my God, what a fabulous room" monologue in One of My Turns.
  • There are some small discrepancies between the liner notes of the album and the actual recorded version of the album. In the song Mother before David Gilmour's first chorus, Roger Waters sings "Is it just a waste of time" the lyrics on the liner notes are written "Mother am I really dying" this line would not be sung until the re-recording of the song for the movie. What Shall We Do Now? was included in the liner notes as was Empty Spaces. But due to the constraints at the time of vinyl recordins What Shall We Do Now? was dropped at the last minute. Interestingly enough, no re-issues of the album on CD have included this song and the only versions available are the ones included on Is There Anybody Out There and The Film. Also Hey You was originally supposed to go at the end of side three after Comfortably Numb but for the sake of pacing and storytelling it was moved to the beginning of side three. Finally on The Show Must Go On there was an original first verse but it was edited out of the final version on the album. The verse appears on the liner notes and was included, along with a very melodic keyboard introduction during The Live Shows.
  • In 2001, the Canadian alternative country band Luther Wright and the Wrongs released Rebuild the Wall, a track-for-track reimagining of The Wall as a country album. A tribute album, "Back Against The Wall", features artists like Ian Anderson, Keith Emerson, and other rock legends (so the label says) performing the tracks from the original album.
  • The Wall was the first Pink Floyd album since 1967's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn whose cover was not done by Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis. Instead, Gerald Scarfe did the cover and gatefold sleeve.
  • The album had custom picture labels. Side one had a quarter of the wall erected and a sketch of the teacher. Side two saw half of the wall erected and a sketch of the wife. Side three had three-fourths of the wall erected and a sketch of the character of Pink. Side four had the wall completely erected and a sketch of the prosecutor.
  • A work-in-progress version of the album, commonly referred to as Under Construction, had been traded among fans and collectors before it had made its way to the Internet. Among the differences between this earlier version and the final product include different lyrics, missing vocals, lack of orchestration, a different track order, a multipart version ( a la Another Brick in the Wall) of Is There Anybody Out There? and a general roughness that reflect the unfinished nature of the album at the time.[5]

Quotes

"In 1980 when we finished in New York, Larry Maggid, a Philadelphia promoter [...] offered us a guaranteed million dollars a show plus expenses to go and do two dates at the JFK Stadium with The Wall [...] and I wouldn't do it. I had to go through the whole story with the other members. I said, 'You've all read my explanations of what The Wall is about. It’s three years since we did that last stadium and I swore then that I would never do one again. And The Wall is entirely sparked off by how awful that was and how I didn't feel that the public or the band or anyone got anything out of it that was worthwhile. And that's why we've produced this show strictly for arenas where everyone does get something out of it that is worthwhile. Blah-blah-blah. And, I ain't fuckin' going!'"

– Roger Waters, June 1987, to Chris Salewicz

"Maybe the architectural training to look at things helped me to visualise my feelings of alienation from rock 'n' roll audiences. Which was the starting point for The Wall. The fact that it then embodied an autobiographical narrative was kind of secondary to the main thing which was a theatrical statement in which I was saying, 'Isn't this fucking awful? Here I am up onstage and there you all are down there and isn't it horrible! What the fuck are we all doing here?'"

– Roger Waters, June 1987, to Chris Salewicz

"You can't tour The Wall, the show is too complex. I was asked to perform the Wall this summer on 4th July, somewhere in America ... the Indianapolis speedway. I almost agreed because they said it would be a "free" concert, the idea appealed to me because anybody could go if they wanted. However, as I looked further into this free concert idea I discovered the concert would actually be paid for by Corporate America like Coca-Cola or AOL and they would want control of the way their tickets were distributed so it would be like I was working for some big corporation, like buy two crates of Coke and get two tickets - it's not quite the same."

– Roger Waters, October 2005, in an MSN chat

"I don't fully agree with the concept of The Wall. To me it's filled with a catalog of complaints and I don't want to blame everything on everyone else in my life but myself. I think it's too complaining myself. There's some wonderful stuff on the album. I think that's one of the wonderful things about music is that you can have a doom-laden lyric on top of an uplifting piece of music. It juxtaposes and gives you an uplifting feeling about it. I think the film got too black and bleak. Like I said, I don't fully concur with everything Roger says on it; I think some parts are very good and some parts are outright bleak to me."

– David Gilmour, May 1992, U.S. Radio interview

"As a phenomenon and as a record and a show I am very very proud of it but at the same time, I don't agree part of it philosophically."

– David Gilmour, April 2000, U.S. Radio interview for premiere of Is There Anybody Out There?: The Wall Live.

"And my view of what The Wall itself is about is more jaundiced today than it was then. It appears now to be a catalogue of people Roger blames for his own failings in life, a list of 'you fucked me up this way, you fucked me up that way'."

- David Gilmour, February 1993, Guitar World

Singles

  • "Another Brick in the Wall (pt.2)"/"One Of My Turns" - Columbia 1-11187; released January 8 1980 (UK, U.S., France and Italy [with Young Lust as a B-Side])
  • "Run Like Hell"/"Don't Leave Me Now" - Columbia 1-11265; released April, 1980 (Holland, Sweden and US)
  • "Comfortably Numb"/"Hey You" - Columbia 1-11311; released June, 1980 (US and Japan)

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1980 Billboard's Pop Albums 1

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year Single Chart Position
1980 "Another Brick in the Wall" Pop Singles 1
1980 "Run Like Hell" Pop Singles 53

Awards

Grammy Awards

Year Winner Category
1980 The Wall Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
  • According to Digitaldreamdoor.com, David Gilmour's guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb" was rated #1 best rock guitar solo ever.
  • Guitar World magazine also listed the guitar solo from "Comfortably Numb" as #4 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos, compiled according to reader polls.
  • The listeners of Planet Rock radio station concurred, also voting "Comfortably Numb" the #1 guitar solo of all time, in a poll conducted in 2006.
  • In 2006 Q magazine readers voted The Wall the 27th greatest album of all time and in a professional-voted poll. In 2003, a Rolling Stone cover story named it the 87th greatest album of all time.
  • The album was first certified Gold and Platinum in the U.S. in March of 1980 and has been since certified 23 times platinum in 1999.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ *Roger Waters Online
  2. ^ *Publius FAQ
  3. ^ *Brain Damage
  4. ^ * Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8
  5. ^ Analysis of the Under Construction recording from the Spare Bricks web magazine. Accessed 10/04/06.
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