| Pink Floyd - The Wall (album analysis) |
| 1 | Pink Floyd's the Wall is one of the most intriguing and imaginative albums in the history of rock music. Since the studio album's release in 1979, the tour of 1980-81, and the subsequent movie of 1982, the Wall has become synonymous with, if not the very definition of, the term "concept album." Aurally explosive on record, astoundingly complex on stage, and visually dynamic on the screen, the Wall traces the life of the fictional protagonist, Pink Floyd, from his boyhood days in post-World-War-II England to his self-imposed isolation as a world-renowned rock star, leading to a climax that is as cathartic as it is destructive. |
| 2 | From the outset, Pink's life revolves around an abyss of loss and isolation. Born during the final throes of a war that claimed the lives of nearly 300,000 British soldiers - Pink's father among them - to an overprotective mother who lavishes equal measures of love and phobia onto her son, Pink begins to build a mental wall between himself and the rest of the world so that he can live in a constant, alienated equilibrium free from life's emotional troubles. |
| 3 | Every incident that causes Pink pain is yet another brick in his ever-growing wall: a fatherless childhood, a domineering mother, an out-of-touch education system bent on producing compliant cogs in the societal wheel, a government that treats its citizens like chess pieces, the superficiality of stardom, an estranged marriage, even the very drugs he turns to in order to find release. As his wall nears completion - each brick further closing him off from the rest of the world - Pink spirals into a veritable Wonderland of insanity. |
| 4 | Yet the minute it's complete, the gravity of his life's choices sets in. Now shackled to his bricks, Pink watches helplessly (or perhaps fantasizes) as his fragmented psyche coalesces into the very dictatorial persona that antagonized the world during World War II, scarred his nation, killed his father, and, in essence, affected his life from birth. As much as this story tips toward nihilistic victimhood, there also runs a strong existentialist countercurrent in which freedom cannot be separated from personal responsibility. |
| 5 | The narrative culminates in a mental trial as theatrically rich as the greatest stage shows, with Pink's tale ending with a message that is as enigmatic and circular as the rest of his life. Whether it is ultimately viewed as a cynical story about the futility of life, or a hopeful journey of metaphoric death and rebirth, the Wall is certainly a musical milestone worthy of the title "art." As with most art, Pink Floyd's concept album is a combination of imagination and the author's own life. |
| 6 | The album germinated during the band's 1977 Animals tour when frontman Roger Waters, growing disillusioned with stardom and the godlike status that fans grant to rock stars like himself, spit in the face of an overzealous concert-goer. Horrified by his disenchantment, Waters began drawing from the well of his alienation as well as the loss of his own father during World War II to flesh out the fictional character of Pink. |
| 7 | The wild stories surrounding Pink Floyd's original frontman, Syd Barrett - including his drugged-out escapades and subsequent withdrawal from the world - provided Waters with further inspiration for the moody rock-star. The contributions of bandmates David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright provided the final brush strokes for a contemporary anti-hero - a modern, existential Everyman struggling to find, or arguably lose, self and meaning in a century fragmented by war. |
| 8 | Side 1 When The Tigers Broke Free, part 1 Anxious as we are to dive headfirst into the heart of the Wall, let's take a moment at the beginning to address the song that opens the film and sets the stage for what is to come. Though most people assume "When the Tigers Broke Free, Part 1" is the first song of the movie, that honor actually belongs to "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot" as sung by Vera Lynn, part of which can be heard as the camera pans down the long, sterile hotel hallway. |
| 9 | As heard on the live Floyd album Is There Anybody Out There: The Wall, Live 1980-1981, the band opened their Wall shows with Vera's war-era classic "We'll Meet Again" playing over the loudspeakers, but for the movie Waters opted for the potentially more symbolic "Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot", the lyrics of which are as follows: "Christmas comes but once a year for every girl and boy The laughter and the joy They find in each new toy. |
| 10 | I tell you of the little boy who lives across the way. This fella's Christmas is just another day..." At this point, the vacuum cleaner whirs into electric life and "When the Tigers Broke Free, Part 1" begins. Yet that's not the end of Ms. Lynn's musical cameo. After "Tigers" ends, Vera's song continues along with the extreme closeup of Pink's Mickey Mouse watch. "He's the little boy that Santa Claus forgot" she sings. |
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