Pink Floyd - The Wall
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Free Music Notes for The Wall
Free Music Review: The final album from Pink Floyd's classic lineup is still a masterpiece today
Hit: 5 Stars
Pink Floyd's eleventh studio album The Wall was released in December of 1979 and is a classic and regarded as the band's most ambitious masterwork.
This double album ranks up there with other noted classic rock double studio albums like The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Tommy, Exile on Main Street, Quadrophenia, Blonde on Blonde, London Calling, The White Album, Physical Graffiti, Electric Ladyland and many others.
The concept for The Wall still holds up over 25 years after its initial release.
The idea came to bass player/singer Roger Waters whom was upset with himself after spitting on a fan on the last gig of the Animals tour at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.
In 1978, Roger was writing and recording demos that would become The Wall. Meanwhile, drummer Nick Mason was off producing other acts (ranging from punk rockers The Damned to prog rocker Steve Hillage) whilst the other two principle Pink Floyd songwriters whom were guitarist/singer David Gilmour and keyboard player Rick Wright were recording their first solo albums in France which both came out in 1978.
In late 1978 the band, along with KISS/Alice Cooper/Peter Gabriel/Lou Reed producer Bob Ezrin, began demoing the songs for The Wall at Britannia Row Studios in London.
The band properly began recording The Wall in April of 1979 in two studios in France (and later at studios in Los Angeles and New York) with Waters, Gilmour, Ezrin and engineer James Guthrie producing to avoid the crazy English tax laws as the band was almost bankrupt due to their agents stealing the money in a way that they still owed the British tax companies taxes.
All of the songs, save four, were written by Roger. The album's three best tracks "Young Lust", "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell" were co-written by Gilmour. Then, "The Trial" was co-written by Ezrin.
The Wall was a concept album which told the story of a character named Pink (a composite of Roger Waters and Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett).
After we begin with the bombast rock of "In the Flesh?", The Wall story begins when Pink goes through a traumatic childhood of losing his father in war ("The Thin Ice" and "Another Brick in the Wall (pt.1)"), cruel sarcastic teachers ("The Happiest Days of Our Lives", the chart-topping single "Another Brick in the Wall (pt.2)"), an overbearing mother("Mother"), problems with adolescence ("Goodbye Blue Sky" and "Empty Spaces"), groupie troubles ("Young Lust", "One of My Turns") and many other problems (like the wife beating in "Don't Leave Me Now") one goes through before walling himself off from the rest of the world ("Another Brick in the Wall (pt. 3)" and "Goodbye Cruel World").
The second disc starts with Pink walled off from society (starting with the classic "Hey You" and "Is There Anybody Out There?") then ponders his life in a hotel room ("Nobody Home") and thinks back to his father's death ("Vera" and "Bring the Boys Back Home"). The highlight of the album is "Comfortably Numb" which tells the tale of Pink being confronted by a doctor to take something before he could go on with the show. The song was first intended for David Gilmour's 1978 solo debut but was thankfully left off and saved for The Wall. The track is a classic and is always in the Top 10 greatest rock song/guitar solo polls! The track "The Show Must Go On" is Pink being led to the show and then as a fascist dictator Pink is performing like a madman as depicted in "In the Flesh", "Run Like Hell" and "Waiting For the Worms" before having his own trial ("Stop" and "The Trial") and is ordered to knock down his wall to start life fresh ("Outside the Wall").
Band turmoil during 1979 reached an all-time high and Roger eventually kicked Rick Wright out of the band citing Rick wasn't doing squat when in fact Roger was setting Rick up to fail from the word go. Rick was let go but stayed to finish the album and did The Wall shows in 1980/81 as a paid musician (the other three members lost money from staging the shows). Rick played on half of the album as does Nick whom is not on drums for half the record (Jeff Porcaro played drums on Mother and Jeff's father Joe played snare drum on Bring the Boys Back Home).
Despite the band turmoil, The Wall became Pink Floyd's third US chart-topping album (stayed at #1 for 15 weeks), sold over 23 million in the US alone (third best selling album of all time here in the US and best selling double album ever though some configurations were on one cassette and one heavily edited 8-track cartridge), spawned the greatest rock concerts ever produced (review for Is There Anybody Out There to come soon) and a classic film (review due soon).
The 2000 Capitol remaster is basically a re-issue of the 1997 Columbia remaster with improved sonic quality remastered by engineer James Guthrie and Doug Sax whom mastered The Wall originally.
The Wall is still a classic today and is highly recommended!
Free Music Review: Listen when ready (and I mean be prepared...)
Hit: 5 Stars
This is my second-favorite Floyd album (after "Wish You Were Here"), so I don't think I can disagree with any positive remark made about "The Wall." For a five-star rating, you're dang straight I think it's a masterpiece! What I'd like to do first is caution the casual browser who heard "Another Brick Part 2" on the radio, or thinks that all Pink Floyd is like "Dark Side of the Moon." "The Wall" is quite simply one of the most depressing works ever put together in a recording studio.I made the mistake of seeing the movie before listening to the entire album. For those who have never seen the movie, I'm just going to say that it's a truly nightmarish experience. There is imagery in there that one would never think to incorporate into the darkest recesses of their dreamscapes... In Alan Parker's own words, "It just hits you over the head" and doesn't let up. So after seeing the movie, for a very long time, I could not dissociate the brilliant music and writing from the overly effective horror show of the film. It took me four months to come back to the album and LISTEN to it.
The music and lyrics also hit the listener over the head, but in a much more subtle, psychological manner. (That seems like an oxymoron, but it's not.) To really appreciate the nuances included with this album, it's necessary to go through it repeatedly. By "repeatedly," I mean...um... many more times than is probably healthy. But there is a lot there. And it's all uniformly pessimistic and dark. Unadulterated Waters. The movie is an onslaught, the album is an infiltration. The worms eat into your brain, they don't feast on your carnal impulses as the movie does. (If you listen to the album, that last sentence will also make more sense.)
The titular Wall is a metaphor for the separation from humanity. In the album it is built and experienced by a rock star named "Pink," but the themes are universal, and Roger Waters includes plenty of his trademark political commentary. I think everyone at least once in their life has found themself inside a little bunker where they've retreated from the pressures of life. But as this saga makes terrifically clear, the separation from humanity is much more dangerous than dealing with it...
Stylistically, "The Wall" is almost completely hard rock, a far cry from the psychadelic R&B that Pink Floyd perfected with "Dark Side of the Moon." Like "DSOTM," it is also a single work much more than a collection of songs. The use of sound effects and dialogue is much more important and prevalent here than any other Pink Floyd album, but it does not detract from the quality of the songs. Plenty of songs from this album get radio play. "Happiest Years/Another Brick" is on classic rock stations a couple times weekly, and "Empty Spaces/Young Lust," "Hey You," and "Mother" are crowd pleasers that surface with frequency. "Comfortably Numb" is a showstopping anthem that, despite largely context-dependent lyrics, a lot of people have told me is their favorite Pink Floyd song of all time. A lot of music fans may take an album and say they love every song on it, but for me, this is especially true. I have even gotten into the melody-defficient "Don't Leave Me Now."
Sometimes "The Wall" comes across like a twisted Hollywood musical on acid, and perhaps that's an apt description, but it does serious disservice to the depth and complexity of it. Roger Waters poured his shredded soul into this magnum opus, and his blood, sweat, and tears (I mean those to be taken literally) show in the grit and guts that propel this epic. But Waters fan though I am, I also give due credit to David Gilmour, who claimed his contributions to this piece went unacknowledged (most Floyd fans know "Comfortably Numb" was his last real collaboration with Waters), and to Bob Ezrin whose orchestrations are especially appreciated in the climatic "Trial."
All in all, there's a lot to be found in "The Wall." It is a must buy for any rock - or even casual music - fan. But I deem it absolutely necessary to check out other, earlier Floyd music first. I was almost turned off to Floyd when my over-eager friend badgered me into watching "The Wall" before I was really ready for it. The album is also not very easily accessible. Sure, some of the songs sound great, but until you're accustomed to the full-concept-album ordeal, it might be best to put this near the top of your wish list, and purchase after you're prepared for a journey far beyond the darkest side of the moon...
Free Music Review: Josh's Music Reviews
Hit: 5 Stars
Pink Floyd's epic album is definitely one of the greatest music masterpieces of all time. While diehard Floyd fans may say that Dark Side of the Moon was infinitely better, The Wall, disturbingly beautiful, is still an undisputed classic. The story it tells, while easier to understand upon viewing the movie, is still here in all its dark glory, following a rock star through his battered mind and eventual breakdown. From start to finish, it's a nightmare dressed like a fantasy, easy listening that requires multiple close inspections. And that's just how it sounds on the surface. The opening track, "In the Flesh?", sets the stage for the rest of the album. The wistful guitar riff builds a sense of longing in the listener, and lyrics like "If you wanna find out what's behind these cold eyes/ You'll just have to claw your way through this disguise" practically force you to keep going. Once you're inside though, you'll wish you hadn't come. Songs like "The Thin Ice" and "Another Brick in the Wall - Part 1" see to that quickly, replacing the yearning cries of "In the Flesh?" with darker, more foreboding lyrics and sudden changes into keys normally reserved for funeral processions. Even in its happier sounding moments, the words and music still keep pulling you down when tied in with the rest of it. For example, soft acoustic melodies like "Mother" sound nice and peaceful, giving a respite from the anguish that came before until you start paying attention to lyrics like "Momma's gonna put all her fears into you." Even singer Roger Waters' voice sounds as though he is on the verge of tears throughout the song, making it painful, yet irresistible. And it's not just the music that hurts. In between some songs are bits of dialogue from the movie to help put everything in perspective; for example, "Goodbye Blue Sky" begins with a small child exclaiming "Look, Mommy, there's an airplane in the sky." When coupled with the song's title and the opening line, "Did you see the frightened ones?/ Did you hear the falling bombs?", the child's innocence (and implied loss thereof) wrenches as much pity as possible out of the listener. It's not all sorrow, though. Knowing that making the album 100% depressing all the way through would probably lead to more cases like the one being sung about, the band managed to fit in a couple tracks like "Young Lust" and "Run Like Hell" to give listeners a bit of a break. Of course, even these relatively upbeat songs are not completely free of the darkness overrunning this album; "Run Like Hell," with its bright guitar-driven melody, still contains lyrics like "If we catch you in the backseat trying to pick her lock/ We'll send you back to mother in a cardboard box," guaranteed to produce more than a slight shudder. And the climax of the whole album, "The Trial" is easily enough to drive anyone mad. If for whatever insane reason you haven't heard it yet, I won't ruin the details for you, but I suggest you hurry up and take a listen.
The album is also relatively unique in that it contains a number of lyrical symbols and motifs. The most obvious of these is, of course, the wall, which the star of the album builds up around his psyche to protect himself from the outside world. The wall plays a vast role in his life, and is mentioned in at least half the songs on this album. It is present from the beginning to the end, and is the focal point of all the nightmares the star suffers. Another frequently appearing symbol is the worm, which represents everything about the world from which the star is trying to hide. It is a symbol of terror, always around the corner, ready to make life miserable. This is most evident in the line "And the worms ate into his brain" (from the song "Hey You"), as well as in "The Trial", in which the worm takes on the role of the sadistic judge. This is much easier to see in the movie, when the worm itself can be seen more easily.
Overall, The Wall is an album seldom paralleled in its sheer ability to possess its listeners even while twisting the world about them until they can share the nightmare of the album's star. Pink Floyd mix their stunning lyrical ability and beautiful instrumental arrangements to create a dark fantasy from which none can truly escape. Not that they would ever want to.
Free Music Review: So you thought you might like to go to the show...?
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the biggest thing in the world. A double-disk concept album that manages to conform to the Pink Floyd sound whilst simultaneously pandering to the growing infatuation with all things punk -- or Punk Floyd, if you will. The story goes that bandleader-bassist Roger Waters was so mortified when over-enthusiastic fans wouldn't sit still during an acoustic rendition of Pigs on the Wing that he pulled one of the spotty upstarts from the crowd and spat in his face... ironically enough, a year later when punk finally broke, this was very much in vogue. However, for Roger, it was enough to send him into a spiral of shame, depression, and shoe gazing... most of which, would find its way into the themes and concepts of this legendary record.
The sound and motivation is somewhat schizophrenic... with Waters seemingly attempting to create five albums at once. On the one hand, this is a continuation of HIS Pink Floyd sound developed on Dark Side of the Moon, and more importantly, on the harder, more political Animals. Having said that, it is also an uneasy combination of fictionalised concept rock, ala Tommy by the WHO, juxtaposed with the semi-autobiographical honesty of singer-songwriters, like Dylan, Lennon and Neil Young. The concept then goes on to run two stories in parallel... one dealing with the inner-turmoil of a burnt out rock-star left jaded by the hostility of the industry, the treachery of women and the effect of hallucinogenic drugs... the other dealing with the rock-star's carefully constructed fantasy life as a fascistic demagogue hell-bent on cleaning out the dead-wood of a quickly rotting England.
The record then goes on to incorporate elements of dark-humour and political satire in order to tone down the dark extremities of Waters' lyrical ideals. At the time the band were attacked for racism, and now, over twenty-five years later, politically-correct listeners may be offended by the fictional rock star Pink lamenting 'Jews', 'coons' and 'queers' whilst referencing the holocaust with lines like 'turn on the showers and fire the ovens' and so forth... None of it is meant to offend of course, the record, as it is, being a lament against late 70's Britain and the fascistic fashion of people like Sid Vicious who wore swastika t-shirts and Jordan (not the 'I'm a Celebrity'!) who often appeared on TV wearing Nazi regalia such as arm-bands and leather-caps. It also has a lot to do with the government of the time, and particularly the infatuation with people like Enoch Powell (I'm not sure on the full details of this, as I wasn't born at the time).
If the lyrics can be described as aggressive, cathartic, and as in your face as anything else, then the music goes a long way to reflect it. This is a Pink Floyd eons away from the acoustic space-folk of songs like Wish You Were Here, Fat Old Sun and Shine on you Crazy Diamond, with the arrangements built around Waters' pounding bass, Gilmour's piercing guitar, and Mason's machine-gun drumming. By this point, Rick Wright had been booted out for not contributing to the song-writing process, so for the most part, keyboards are out, with the great (and sorely missed) Michael Kaman filling in on grand piano. Elsewhere, the production by Gilmour, Waters and Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel) is sharp, loud, and multi-layered, relying on sound effects more than any other Pink Floyd record before or since. A great big musical storybook of war, death, genocide and social alienation...
This is one of the defining musical masterpieces. As hard and aggressive as anything by the Clash, the Pistols or the Damned, though with an emotional resonance that few records can equate. It is impossible to pick a standalone track from this epic rock monster, though surely everyone is familiar with surprise Christmas number one Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) -- "we don't need no education... we don't need no thought control!" whilst the epic mid-record turning point Comfortably Numb was recently murdered by the scissor sisters (here's the original instead). This is a record that all true lovers of music should experience... as ambitious as it gets.
( Adrian Pennington from Great Britain )
Free Music Review: The most artistic Pink Floyd.
Hit: 5 Stars
In comparision to every other album released under the name 'Pink Floyd', this has to be the most complex of them all. Though it is the most artistic and complex, that does not necaserily make it the best, musically; Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here are much more hard-hitting, and overall stronger albums. In terms of sound, though, what makes The Wall so distinctive must be it's longevity, and the range of different themes covered in it's words and music. Listening to this album puts me into it the way a movie would while I was watching; little things like the TV in the background of most of the first half of the second disc creates a perfect vibe for me to sink into. Again, though it isn't Floyd's strongest musically, it's definitely the most effective one because of it's longevity, and because of the story held in it's lyrics.
One thing that makes this album so intriguing is the way the lyrics connect, creating a full, complete story with no 'empty spaces' left unfilled. For those interested in an interpretation on every single bit and piece of The Wall, [...]
The story told is perfect in the order that it's in, but it doesn't do the same justice with the music, unfortunately.
There are some weak points in the album, such as 'Bring the Boys Back Home' and 'Don't Leave Me Now' which I feel should've been more improved upon. Also, since this is a more a single work than a collection of songs, it does make it hard to listen to when you don't have an hour and a half to spare.
I know it would be more fitting to call this a 'Roger Waters' album, but without the influence of his bandmembers, it wouldn't have been what it is today. Also, when Waters was holed up in that cabin for the time when he wrote the core material, it wasn't very strong musically, but when he handed it to Bob Ezrin and David Gilmour, they were aware of this after listening and sought to fix it. Not only that, but David Gilmour had input on one of the most important tracks in both the story and the music in the history of Pink Floyd; 'Comfortably Numb' came from a song David Gilmour wrote that was originally supposed to be on one of his solo works, and is now a staple of classic rock with one of the best and most well-known guitar solos in rock's history. David Gilmour also had credits in Young Lust, and Bob Ezrin for The Trial. Though they aren't nearly as important as Comfortably Numb, it did lead them to become more distinctive tracks on the album.
Out of the whole album, my favorite scene has to be the hotel scene in the first half of the second disc. It's the strongest part musically, and a big part in the story. 'Hey You' is the perfect introduction to the second half, and 'Is There Anybody Out There?' creates the perfect setting and vibe for the rest of this portion.
When I listen to this album, everything around me seems to slow down, even if I happen to be doing something else while doing it. I'm in a computer class listening to The Wall as I type this, and though I'm focused on this review, my mind doesn't stray from the music. For this, The Wall definitely ranks among the top Floyd albums for me. I would suggest to buy this, but not before listening to their stronger works such as Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, or Meddle. I actually got this for Christmas of last year (after literally years of saying that I would buy it, but never getting around to it), and even after over three months, I haven't been able to stop listening to it.
This review was actually inspired by a discussion of 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens; it intrigued me how everything in the story seemed to be connected, and how every little thing contributes to the meaning and symbology, and this album actually came to mind. Though I don't have much more time, [...]
if your interested in finding the meaning of parts of the album, or maybe even every little bit of it if you want.
Though not their strongest musically, definitely a worthwhile experience, and a definitive point in Pink Floyd's history.