Brick by brick The wall is amazing! (The Wall - Pink Floyd)

Member Name: justin_c12

Product:	The Wall - Pink Floyd
Date:	05/08/01 (216 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pink Floyd's best work, almost no other album is as good.

Disadvantages: Set's a high standard for other albums. Vera doesn't fit well

Pink Floyd's the wall is the masterpiece of Roger Waters design. It is one of the most creative, ground breaking, and greatest albums ever made. Contrary to popular belief Dark Side of The Moon is not better than this. That is a purely stoner album. This is better in almost every way.
Push play and descend into the warped brain of Roger Waters who wrote all but 4 songs on his own. The other 4 he co-wrote with David Gilmour. The story is about the downfall and comeback of a man who goes insane. His name is Pink.

The album starts out rocking with IN THE FLESH?. This song is a guitar driven great opener. This is him in his evil state, which was a shock to most Floyd fans who expect the same mellow relaxing music. "Is this not what you expected to see?" asks Pink. Brilliant. "If you wanna see what's behind these cold eyes, you'll just have to break through this disguise" he tells us and then spends a great deal of the rest of the album showing us how he reached that point.

The Thin Ice is a warning.. something his parents tell him about life how it could break down and he could lose his mind in the process. This is the beginning of his breakdown.

ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL part 1. first part of the classic song that many have heard. This one is about how his father left for the war and died leaving him feeling unwanted and lonely. This just the first major cause of his downfall(hence being another brick in the wall) The wall is his barrier of insanity to the outside world.

After his father left him he still went through school like any normal child. The sarcastic title of "THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES" tells it all. The lyrics are genius.

"Well, when we grew up and went to school,
There were certain teachers,
Who would hurt the children in any way they could,
By pouring their derision,
Upon anything we did,
Exposing every weakness,
However
carefully hidden by the kids.

But in (but in) the town it was well known,
When they got home at night,
Their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them,
Within inches of their lives."

This directly leads into the well known ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL part 2. This part is the lashing out and rebellion against the thought control of the education system. This is a rally cry for those children whose spirits are crushed by the schools. The use of real kids for the chorus is creepy and was a genius move. Completely unforgetable. This is the other brick in his wall of insanity. It ends with the music fading out and a teacher screaming at children while they cry "Leave me alone".

MOTHER is about the one thing of comfort in his life. She protected him from the outside with her own "wall" of love. The song starts out asking a lot of question for Mother to answer. The song explains how her protection made him unable to cope with other things in live. This is essential to the story because he searches for that type of comfort later in the story.

GOODBYE BLUE SKY is one of my favorite songs ever. About war and it's devasting effects. This, I think, is trying to say how the government and their lie of a great world was a huge letdown. Incredible. I can't say much else about it. Just read the lyrics and you'll understand..

"Look, Mummy. There's an airplane up in the sky(child's voice)

Did you, did you see the frightened ones?
Did you, did you hear the falling bombs?
Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter,
When the promise of a brave new world,
Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky?

Did you, did you see the frightened ones?
Did you, did you hear the falling bombs?
The flames are all long gone,
But the pain lingers on.
Goodbye, blue sky.
Goodbye, blue sky.
Goodbye."
PERFECT.


WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW? is a transition poem that is not on the album but is in the lyric book. I don't know why but the poem is about Pink maturing into adulthood and listing his choices of what to do in life. These choices include his ultimate career of becoming a rock star.

EMPTY SPACES. He is now using his rock stardom to fill the void he feels but it doesn't make him complete or protected and he then asks "How should I complete the wall?". awesome song.

In a further attempt to feel complete he falls into sexual desire in YOUNG LUST. It is an upbeat and fun song about groupies... you know the rock and roll cliche. Big surprise this does not solve his problems of loneliness and feeling vunerable. This song was one co-written by David Gilmour.

As indicted in ONE OF MY TURNS, these shallow things he has used to make him feel better are losing there effect. The song starts out by a short skit which consists of Pink going into his apartment with a groupie and turning on the tv. He completely ignores the girl even when she asks if he wants to "take a bath" with her. The song describes how everyday he feels more isolated and empty, then in the middle of the song he loses him mind. He gets out of his chair starts screaming and tearing apart his apartment. The girl freaks out and the song ends with Pink asking the girl insanly "Why are you running away?!"

After his rampage comes the calm after the storm. Now he's lost everything that made him slightly happy in DON'T LEAVE ME NOW. He spends the song calling for his girl to come back, but it's slightly more twisted than that. He says he wants her back to "put her through a shredder" or to "beat to a pulp"... crazy stuff.

This was the final straw to him going insane. Which leads into ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL part 3. This one is a battle cry that he no longer needs anything. The song is a lot more aggres
sive than the last two. He has built The Wall and is now hiding behind it.

GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD is his lonely final farewell to reality.. he is leaving and never coming back.

DISC 1 ends.
DISC 2 begins.

HEY YOU is classic Pink Floyd. Very stoner rock stuff, mellow and relaxing. This song is about Pink's inner self calling out to the person behind the wall. They are trying to save him "but it was only fantasy, the wall is too high as you can see." It is sung in two different voices, his two halves if you will... at the end he says "Together we stand, divides we fall".

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? is next. Pink is numb and is no longer a real person he just sits in his apartment and stares blankly into a television but doesn't really watch it.

In this state he's just reflecting on himself. NOBODY HOME is about everything that he has. All the good things in his life and yet sadly he explains "when he picks up the phone, there is still nobody home." All he has is still not enough.

VERA is a weird song. I don't see how this fits the storyline at all. It's not a bad song, it's just unimportant to the album.

COMFORTABLY NUMB is one of the best songs about drugs ever. It talks aobut how comforting you are and does a good job describing the feeling. The music puts you in that kind of state as well. This is how he ended up sustaining his wall, through being stoned. But he can't stay out of the world forever.

He is forced back into the world because he is a musician(money to be made) as his manager pulls him out of his isolated room in THE SHOW MUST GO ON. The manager has put him back into the real world but Pink is still crazy and instead of letting himself from behind the wall Pink transforms himself into an evil entity which leads us to the point Pink was at in the first song(a tad confusing but it makes sense when you here the album).


Enter the evil song and the reprise of IN THE FLESH. He starts refering to pink as a seperate person as he assumes a Hitleresce character using his fame to lead thousands on a rampage of hate and violence. The lyrics say it all:

"So ya thought ya might like to go to the show.
To feel the warm thrill of confusion, that space cadet glow.
I got me some bad news for you, Sunshine.
Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel,
And he sent us along as a surrugate band.
We're gonna find out where you fans really stand.
Are there any queers in the theatre tonight?
Get 'em up against the wall. -- 'Gainst the wall!
And that one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me.
Get him up against the wall. -- 'Gainst the wall!
And that one looks Jewish, and that one's a coon.
Who let all this riffraff into the room?
There's one smoking a joint, and another with spots!
If I had my way I'd have all of ya shot."

RUN LIKE HELL is the song where is now army of "nazis" take over and trash a town. It describes the chaos pretty well. Awesome song. One of the best on the album.

WAITING FOR THE WORMS is basically Evil Pink campaigning through a town spreading his message of hatred through a megaphone while his army marches beside him. The lyrics grow increasingly inaudible as the song goes on and the marching gets louder and louder. I think this is symbolic of his chaos getting the best of him. Pink has gone as far as he can.

STOP is him wanting out of this self-created evil hell and wonders if he is really the cause of all his pain. So he begins to judge himself and it begins.

THE TRAIL is really the climax to the story. Absolute genius, unique and amazing. I can't describe how awesome it is, you just have to hear it. Pink goes through every element of his insanity and the consequences of his actions before
witnesses and a menacing judge. The judge then sentences him to "TEAR DOWN THE WALL!!" and become human again. It ends with the crash of a wall crumbling down.

As the dust settles a serene and peaceful melody pokes through and Pink sings with a quiet backing of children. This makes up the final song as he is OUTSIDE THE WALL. I urge everyone to really listen to it. BUY IT NOW! you don't know what your missing. Whew.. that took a long time.

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