Revisiting Pink Floyd's 1979 Album, The Wall
It takes courage to listen to Pink Floyd's album, The Wall, which requires you to think about painful emotions and feelings. If you believe ignorance is bliss, then don't bother listening to it; you won't make it halfway through. If you want something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside go watch Zootopia. Full disclosure: this commentary is more of a love letter than a critique. Also, I like Zootopia. After an intro, I'll write about each track on the album and include some, but not all, lyrics.
They say that the most successful posts on Steemit can be read in 3 minutes. This one might take 3 hours, so don't ever say I'm just here for the money, I'll be lucky if one person reads it, but that's ok. Good luck.
If you are brave enough to contemplate your dark half, The Wall is an effective cautionary tale. It tells a story of human nature so well that you'll find yourself searching your own feelings, no matter how you've buried them. You'll be surprised that examining them, with a little help from Pink Floyd, will make you feel better.
Many critics of The Wall say it's dark and depressing, no fun. I'm guessing most didn't pay close enough attention. You have to get some high quality headphones or earbuds, find a quiet place, turn that shit up, and open your mind. Put the kids to bed and tell your partner that you've got something important to do for 80 minutes and 54 seconds.
It will beautifully present to you emotional testimonies that make you sad, but will also point out how ignoring sad feelings can lead to depression, anger, and at worst violence. The Wall is about self-destruction and self-isolation, Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar if you will, but listening actually makes you feel less isolated, more connected, and in the end more hopeful. The music reinforces these ideas perfectly. Music is it's own language, and this music will speak to you. The Wall is a masterpiece.
I'm not a professional writer or musician, but The Wall means a lot to me and I wanted to pay it tribute somehow. When I was young and going through a hard time, I listened to this album from start to finish almost every night. Not only was the music therapeutic, but the message of the album was as well. For the first time in many years I listened to it recently and it quickly brought tears to my eyes. I realized I wanted to write about it.
The Wall is the story of a person's life: the innocence of youth, restlessness of young adulthood, the resignation of middle age, and the associated sadness, fear, and anger. It's told mostly as a first or third person narrative about our main character, Pink. This character is loosely modeled on the life of Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. The Wall's central metaphor is "the wall" a psychological barrier we create to hide our feelings and fears. It explains that society's contributions to the shame we feel constitute the "bricks" of this wall. It is brutal and shocking at times. But you know what? Not as brutal as real life. We've become desensitized to the brutality of real life, but The Wall frames it in such a way that you can't ignore it and how it makes you feel. The Wall's music and tone ranges from haunting melodies and melancholy to furious jamming and anger.
To understand this album, you have to give it your full attention. If you don't really listen to it, it won't make any sense. Every word matters, in the right order. Don't hit shuffle.
The artist behind the message and lyrics of the album is Roger Waters. David Gilmour is no doubt one of the best guitarists in history, and he's at the top of his game on this album. Nick Mason had already started mentally checking out from Pink Floyd at this time, but the drums are still well done. Michael Kamen and Bob Ezrin also contributed greatly to the album.
Track 1: In the Flesh
The Wall is two acts. Act 1 is the narrator building the wall around himself, Act 2 is about the effect of this wall on himself and others.
In the Flesh, the opening track, breaks the 4th wall and the narrator speaks directly to the audience. In summary it says hey! you came to see some show to make you feel like life is great and everything's cool, well sorry to disappoint you but that's all bullshit and you won't be getting that here.
He's saying this show isn't an escape, you're going to have to face something "cold", something real.
Track 2: The Thin Ice
With a beautiful, haunting melody played on piano, synth, base, and guitar, the song opens with a lullaby type verse representing the innocence of childhood, followed by a harsher turn in the music, in which Roger Waters gives a warning about real life. Don't be surprised when life gets hard; it's inevitable.
Track 3: Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1
This is the first mention of "the wall". As my mom used to say to me, "who told you life was fair?" We all have problems. They can make us sad, frustrated, helpless, and we suffer. For Roger Waters, writer of The Wall, his first wake up call to the shit life can drop on us was his father dying in World War II. He never knew his father. I'd imagine when you're an innocent little boy and you begin noticing the other boys have fathers and you don't, you lose your innocence quickly.
Over time, we learn to deal with the memories and experiences that hurt us. Often it's by trying to forget them(hiding them behind...a wall?? sort of!). The problem is, we're not really good at forgetting past trauma, especially painful parts of it. In this album, these things that hurt us and make us feel bad as we grown up, are the metaphorical "bricks in the wall".
Also, the music picks up again here with some jamming bass and guitar riffs, and bangin' drums.
Track 4: The Happiest Days of Our Lives
Tracks 3,4, and 5 blend together into one song, but in this part, a school scenario is described where the teachers treat the children badly, embarrassing them and discouraging them. Just another brick in the wall.
Track 5: Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2
A continuation of the school theme, this part expands past the teachers to the system in general; how it forces children to think a certain way instead of expressing themselves freely.
Track 6: Mother
Mother is one of the most loved songs on the album. The music is beautiful, including an epic guitar solo in the middle, and the structure is cool; the verse is the child asking the mother questions, and the chorus is the mother answering the child. I'll have to put all the lyrics here because it's too hard to choose just a few. The song describes the questions of adolescence, depression that comes with realizing there's no concrete meaning to life, first experiences with the opposite sex, and how a mother's influence affects your development. Often the overprotectiveness of parents can influence how the child sees the world and can contribute to "the wall" we build around our feelings.
Track 7: Goodbye Blue Sky
Very simple guitar picking but beautiful in this song. It is a haunting song with ominous hints of darkness to come; it's about a pattern in human society that has existed from the beginning. The powerful are corrupt and bystanders are destroyed in the process. There is revolution and war, and then the cycle repeats itself over and over. When you're growing up this is not a happy realization but it's one most of us have to deal with. Another brick in the wall.
Track 8: Empty Spaces
I think this short, dark, and sarcastic track is about the narrator's first experience of depression; becoming jaded, and realizing the wall that is forming inside him, and that he's powerless to stop it.
Track 9: Young Lust
Most of us leave home at some point. Going off to college, moving for a new job, or in a rock star's case, going out on tour. The thrills we seek as young adults when we first experience real freedom, to "have fun". Whether it's drugs, partying, money, women, whatever, having a sort of honeymoon phase with life, not quite ready to accept reality for what it is, even though deep down we're afraid of it(of course some people never make it out of this phase), so we distract ourselves. The narrator, Pink, is in a band, he has groupies, and he can have them anytime he wants. That physical indulgence though, can leave you feeling lost and empty, without a sense of purpose or real emotional connections to people.
Young Lust is a great, classic style rock song. Gilmour is awesome on guitar with a Jimmy Page like guitar riff. Nick Mason's drums are great(not as good as they are on Pink Floyd's album Animals).
Track 10: One of my Turns
This song and the following one are very dark. From here on, the narrator just starts going insane. He can't escape his depression and he starts to crack up. Many of us don't experience total breakdowns, but all of us suffer at some points in our lives. So in this extreme example, I can still relate to having "bad days", and for the less fortunate of us, some of those bad days can actually be life or death situations. When someone commits suicide, friends and family can get angry at some point, they ask themselves how their loved ones could be so weak, but that's misguided. We don't know why anything happens, why people do the things they do. Truthfully we don't know what the fuck is going on in general, who are we to judge? Life is meant to be lived, so live if you can. That's all I have to say about that. On with the show.
The song starts with our rockstar narrator bringing home one of the groupies from the previous track. She is talking about how impressed with the hotel room she is at first, but as you'll see in the lyrics below the narrator is not in the mood to have fun this time. It flows right into the next tracks so I'll just have lyrics below for those. The pace of these tracks is very slow and powerful. It's emotional and raw.
Yeah. Not doing so well. Referencing his suicidal thoughts, "would you like to learn to fly, would you like to see me try".
Track 11: Don't Leave Me Now
It's a slow, dark, eerie song, and obviously it's brutal. I think in an overstated way it's talking about how we take our bad feelings out on the people around us, even the ones we love. Feeling bad about yourself can make you selfish and self destructive. As in the song, it's tempting to blame your own faults on others when you're in that state. Specifically I think Roger Waters is referencing his divorce, perhaps it could be him or his wife talking.
Track 12: Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 3
This signals that the wall is almost complete and the narrator is retreating behind it, convinced that he doesn't need anything or anyone. In his case it starts leading him to be a psychotic egomaniac.
Track 13: Goodbye Cruel World
This track marks the halfway point in the album. There is almost no background music, just a bass track. The singing is in a very pretty melody though. The narrator, in a sad and regretful tone, is saying goodbye, revealing his true feelings for the last time, as the final brick in the wall is put in place. Sadly it comes off like a suicide note. As I said before this album is about facing the truth about life; it pulls no punches. Life can be such a struggle that we feel like giving up, and many people do. Art like The Wall helps open our eyes to the world outside us, and that can make our troubles seem smaller and more manageable.
Track 14: Hey You
This begins the second act of The Wall. It is not as cohesive as the first half; it moves around topics a more randomly(until the last half or so). We know the narrator is emotionally isolated behind his wall, and many songs talk about negative effects of such emotional detachment ranging from drugs and social unrest to outright genocide.
Hey You is a track that, like In The Flesh, calls out to the audience. It reminds me of the song, Wish You Were Here, in that it asks you a question, are you going to be weak or strong, strength being compassionate and not ego-centric. Are you going to impress Yoda, or give in to the dark side. Here are just a few of the lyrics.
Track 15: Is There Anybody Out There?
This track just has some eerie music and then says one line, "Is there anybody out there?"
Track 16: Nobody Home
This is one of my favorites. Some songs are a more stand-a-lone on the second half and this is an example. It refers to two or three different people that are apparently depressed and lost inside themselves. It's beautifully driven by the piano. One theory is that he's describing keyboardist Rick Wright and his drug habit. Here's some of the lyrics.
Track 17: Vera
Vera is an interesting song. It's a sad and reminiscent reference to Vera Lynn, an English singer who's songs were popular during World War II(in which Roger Water's father died). I haven't mentioned this yet, but throughout the album, there's a lot of background soundbites of old war movies. They're very faint behind and between songs, so you have to really listen to make out what they're saying. Roger Waters is very political, and although this is a personal album, you can still hear examples of his anti-war sentiment. I'd say the dark emotions explored in The Wall are relatable to a society at war, especially propaganda, which is heavily referenced in Track 23, Waiting for the Worms. The track about Vera Lynn basically just references her war-time hit "We'll Meet Again". To me the lyrics sound like a cry for help from someone in desperation. It's a simple song with a pretty yet melancholy tune backed up heavily by an orchestral section.
Track 18: Bring the Boys Back Home
Now after referencing a war-time hit song, it flows straight into a direct political anti-war message, stop the senseless suffering.
Track 19: Comfortably Numb
This is probably the most famous song from The Wall. The guitar solo by David Gilmour is consistently named one of the top 3 guitar solos every played. It's a song about giving up on happiness, swallowing your sadness, and just going through the motions, avoiding conflict and... comfortable. The story goes that Roger Waters was feeling sick before a show, and someone sent in a doctor to give him a shot of medication so he could play, but without telling him what it was or asking permission. That inspired him initially to write the song, and then it grew into a larger message about lost innocence, hopelessness, and resignation that living brings.
Track 20: The Show Must Go On
So now the narrator is numbed up comfortably behind his wall, but he's starting to crack up. Some great vocal arrangements in this song.
Track 21: In The Flesh, Part Two
Coming full circle, this is another version of the very first track of the album, "In The Flesh". However, this time, the narrator is insane and paranoid, and the concert turns into more of a nazi rally, where he has become purely internalized and doesn't feel any emotion to other people, other than what seems to be hatred. Egomania can make people cruel, and it often leads to violence. As I've said before this is a brutally honest work and Roger Water's lyrics are especially brutal here. He uses derogatory language, but in a way that's meant to make the listener feel how wrong it is, while at the same time seeing inside the mind of someone who believes it. After all, we've listened to the album so far and know how he turned into this monster.
Track 22: Run Like Hell
This fast, guitar jamming track is an expression of terror at what life is like when society is at its worst. A modern example would be North Korea. Everything we want to prevent happening to our culture, and the point is that it all starts with individual suffering, sadness, and anger.
Track 23: Waiting for the Worms
This is really a continuation of the last track. It's about ruthless egomaniacs taking advantage of civilized society, because of what they deem weakness, but is in fact empathy and compassion. Fascism like this is no fantasy, there are many countries where saying the wrong thing or looking different can kill you. Most of human history has been that way, and it could happen again anywhere. The scary thing is that it doesn't necessarily happen fast, and by the time people try to stop it, it's too late.
Track 24: Stop
Here's where our narrator finally cracks. He's gone mad and can't take it anymore. Now he wonders, how did I get like this? Did the world do this to me or did I do it to myself? How do I make it stop.
Track 25: The Trial
It makes sense that the next song describes a trial, a trial where he himself is being judged Each of the "bricks" in the wall that contributed to his character appears like a criminal prosecutor, deriding his weakness. However it's a trial that takes place in his own mind. This song is the climax of the album.
The three "prosecuters" take the form of one of his cruel teachers, his ex-wife, and his mother. It's a fascinating song lyrically but I don't want to include all the lyrics below. In the end Pink finds himself guilty and can't conceal his true feelings anymore, therefore tearing down the wall. It is not completely clear, but the implication is that he has gone insane in the process or perhaps killed. The last verse, sung as the judge in the trial:
Track 26: Outside the Wall
The last track is, a very short, gentle, and cathartic song that reminds us that it's not all bad, that we don't have to isolate ourselves from one another. As the earlier song "Hey You" reminds us, "Together we stand, divided we fall". Even if you hit rock bottom, there are people who will help you if you let them. It is quiet and unassuming, but it is absolutely one of the most important songs on the album.
If you're feeling lost, alone, or confused, talk to someone about it. And also, listen to The Wall, it may bring you some clarity.
The End.
Photo sources:
- Most images are from Pink Floyd's The Wall The Movie: copyright MGM, 1982, flower animation by the brilliant Gerald Scarfe.
- Also some album art which was released by Pink Floyd and Harvest, Columbia records in 1979
- Disney's Zootopia screenshot
I have literally listened to Pink Flyod, non stop, back to back for days. I don't know if I could do it again.
trust me I understand, but I'll tell you after taking a few years off, it's just as awesome as it was then.
I remember going to see them perform the wall in London. They literally built a wall in front of them, out of huge cardboard bricks until they disappeared behind the wall at the end of the first half. Then they knocked it down during the second half of the concert.
On the way hom the tube station was full of people carrying massive cardboard bricks. They'd climbed on the stage and taken them as souvenirs. All a bit surreal!
that's great, what a cool experience