Album #4 : Pink Floyd - The Wall

Pink Floyd

The Wall (1979)

In July, 1977, Pink Floyd were playing their final date of the In the Flesh tour at Montreal's Olympic Stadium. It was a long stadium tour of which the band - particularly bassist Roger Waters and guitarist David Gilmour - had grown weary of long before. On that night, while playing, Waters took exception to a group of noisy fans near the front of the stage. Out of frustration, irritation and irrational anger, he spat at one of them. Gilmour was to later leave the stage without playing the band's encores, and an experience best described as torturous was at an end.

On reflection of this experience, Waters began to conceive of an idea. As a response to his feelings of alienation from both bandmates and audience, he conceived of a wall that separated artist from fan, built across the entire stage. From this idea was born The Wall, which is considered by many to be Waters' magnum opus.

As a long time Floydian, I was very keen to review this album because of its polarising nature. As you'll see, its very nature saw it warmly received by most while others didn't enjoy it quite so much. I myself find it hard to listen to at times. So....here we go.

The Album

The Wall tells the story of Pink (an analogy of Waters himself, with elements of band founder Syd Barrett), a disaffected rock star whose father died in World War II before he was born. The product of an overbearing, overprotective mother and a cynical, brutal school system, Pink becomes a superstar. He enjoys all the trappings of modern fame (groupies, drugs, adoring fans) while maintaining a wife at home. Somewhere - about the time he finds out about his wife's own affair - Pink snaps, and the wall he has been constructing all his life to block out all that is negative about his life is completed. Pink tucks himself away behind the safety of his wall.

While in there, though, he descends further into madness, eventually hallucinating that he is some sort of fascist dictator whose concerts descend into racist rallies, his fans merely his obedient followers....until finally it all becomes too much, and he is forced to confront his mental state, and finally destroy his own wall.

Heavy stuff. The music tells the story, both through instrumentation and the wonderful, wonderful lyrics. Consequently, The Wall cannot be listened to piecemeal if you really want to understand it. Unfortunately, this leads to problems, because there are some tracks on the album that are nothing more than story filler - that is, they are there for the story, and they are important to the story, but as pieces of music they offer very little.

The Good Stuff

The album opener In The Flesh?, which is later repeated without the question mark, is a bombastic piece of music. The version that is later in the album contains the first evidence of Pink's fascist turn, while the opener is exactly that, introducing us to the album while also introducing us to Pink. Everybody knows Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, so I won't write too much about it, except to say that a choir of schoolchildren singing that they need no education still makes my heart smile. Mother is one of the best tracks on the album, with Waters and Gilmour trading vocals and some sharp soloing from Gilmour's axe. It also acts as a counterpoint to all the preceding songs which are menacing and cynical, even if Pink's mum is a nutbag. Young Lust is exactly about what you think it is - Pink's on the shag and he wants some HOT GROUPIE ACTION. Another great Gilmour solo caps off a heavier Floyd piece. 

We then move onto what is Disc Two. Hey You is absolutely brilliant. Gilmour sings at first, but Waters gradually moves in as the song progresses. The acoustic arpeggios are pretty, the bass break is well played (by Gilmour) and the solo is searing. Run Like Hell is the last really good track on the album, an insistent bass line rumbling underneath a jangly chord sequence, and it features a nice little synth solo.

And then there's Comfortably Numb. Pink Floyd's last truly amazing piece of music. There is absolutely nothing wrong anywhere with this song and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. The second guitar solo.....it just doesn't get much better. Musical perfection. The juxtaposition between the harsher Waters sections and the dreamy, post-drugged up hazy Gilmour sections is wonderful.

The Rest

There are some other okay songs on The Wall that aren't as good as the above, but still pretty good tunes nonetheless. Goodbye Blue Sky is a pretty acoustic ditty that contains a foreboding note, The Thin Ice has a cool lead break from Gilmour and a nice set of lyrics, while One of My Turns takes a while to get going, but once it does serves up a nice lick of goodness. The Show Must Go On features some Beach Boys-esque harmonies and is well sung by Gilmour and Nobody Home is a gorgeous piece of music with real meaning to Floyd fans, given all the references to Syd Barrett.

There is also the album's penultimate track, The Trial, which I make special note of because it is so un-Floydian it's not funny. It's musical theatre, operetta, call it what you will....remarkably theatrical in execution and sound. However, it also features Waters' crowning vocal moment, as he manages to vocalise six different characters and make them all distinctive. 

Then...there's the story filler. Vera, Don't Leave Me Now, Bring The Boys Back Home, Stop, Is There Anybody Out There.....they serve a purpose in the narrative of The Wall. As pieces of music though, they are forgettable at best.

Therein lies the problem of reviewing The Wall, and why there were some reviewers who openly admitted that they didn't get it. It is not a traditional rock album. It is a concept album, possibly one of the purest concept albums ever because it never deviates from its themes. Because it is not purely a story and not purely a piece of music, it can't really be treated as such; however, I am endeavouring to provide people with as good an idea of what the music on each album is like with my reviews. As a result, I need to be quite harsh on some of the songs on the album, because even if they drive the story, they are terrible songs.

The (rather convoluted) Verdict

Pretentious it may be, but The Wall takes an idea borne out of the actual frustrations of being a touring musician and turns it into a deeply affecting story. Through arrangements, compositions, performances and lyrics, Pink Floyd (well, Roger Waters and his backing band, which is what they largely were by this time) bring that story to life. Some of the songs are amongst the finest in Floyd's canon and deserve to be hailed as classics. Others have a narrative purpose, but as pieces of music, they suck.

The Wall is not like other albums. It is an experience. But, it is not an experience that I can recommend to everybody, because if you don't care about the story, you'll find yourself skipping half the songs....and I wouldn't blame you. It is the Floyd's last great work; but it's quite possibly also their most difficult to listen to. Its rating from me will therefore reflect its nature - some genius, some crap, mostly average.

(Edit on 5/1/14)

Upon reflection, three stars is extremely unfair on this album. A good friend pointed out that I should consider the artistic merit of a work as well as the music. Consequently, in light of The Wall's vision, scope and artistic ideals, I have revised my rating. Bear in mind though, I stand by my belief that it is far from their best album musically.

My rating: ****

Standout Tracks

Hey You

Mother

Comfortably Numb

Tomorrow, I bring you an album from a genre that we probably all wish had never been invented. However, this is a request from my wife, so I have promised to be nice!