Alright, i'll concede a bit on this
been listening to the wall tonight, a few beers in hand and yeah im seeing the appeal a bit more
as some of you may have alluded to its more of the experience than an out and out hook.
Apologies in advance for the mini-essay!!
I think what makes The Wall for me is how ‘theatrical’ it is and how all of the story ties together. I think a lot of it is almost impossible to make sense of without seeing the film (yes, they made a film of it). The film isn’t actually that great other than providing you with some imagery for context.... so I’ll do me best to help! I won’t do a full on song-by-song explanation as it’ll take forever but I’ll name some. I’m doing this because I didn’t really appreciate it until I ‘understood’ that context which completely went over my head at first instance.
The story, if you can’t figure it out, is about a fictional man (a rock star) named “Pink”.
The album opens with the Rock Star addressing his audience at a live show - but really he is talking to you, the listener. You’ve come to listen to feel awesome and inspired, for a warm glow. Well, buckle up buckeroo because that’s not what you’re getting. Grab your popcorn, roll the sound effects, action - it’s the start of the show and the start of Pink’s life (as you go back to when he’s first born).
The rest of the album, until its climax, jumps back and forth between present day Pink and his backstory (or rather things that continue to haunt him) in a rough chronological order. But some things (like sound effects) don’t make sense until you’re familiar with the whole story. FYI the whole thing is semi-autobiographical of Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. FYI “In the Flesh” was the name of the PF tour that preceded The Wall and you’ll see that two tracks on the album are named after this.
The backstory: Pink loses his father at a very early age to the Second World War. He doesn’t really belong at school and resents the teachers he sees as people that vent their own frustrations on the pupils. His mother is overprotective and refuses to let Pink really ‘fly’ - even going so far as to vet his girlfriends; “you’ll always be baby to me”, she says. He becomes a successful rockstar. He eventually married (possibly before stardom) but he is now disconnected from his wife - he is too plagued with depression / anxiety and he has treated her very poorly. The physical distance created by touring as a rockstar has only made matters ever bleaker. This takes us to present day.
For the vast majority of the album, modern day Pink in present day, is in his hotel room doing the only thing he is capable of doing - sitting around watching TV, occasionally calling his wife in the hope of hearing her voice. But he just can’t get through to her. Despite being married, desperate to find excitement on the road he tries to find some relief from his demons with sexual excitement. He eventually gets through to his home telephone to find a man answering... it dawns on him that his wife has now abandoned him and he really is all alone. He takes a groupie back to his hotel room absolutely paralysed by his emotions (“... are you feeling OK?”) and explodes in a violent rage, trashing his hotel room and endangering the groupie, that flees.
Hitting absolute rock bottom, Pink switches to anger and declares that he doesn’t need anything or anyone, opting instead to erect a comfortable yet in other ways harsh and cold ‘mental wall’ (i.e. the tititular one) between himself and others, that nobody could ever get through.
This takes us to Side 2 of the album. ‘Hey You’ is one of the most confusing songs of the album because it’s sang from three different perspectives. First, it’s sang from a sympathetic audience that is rooting for Pink and wants him to reconnect. Secondly, it’s sang from the perspective of a narrator declaring that Pink is a lost cause. Third, it’s sang from Pink himself, bitingly declaring to the audience that he is a lost cause.
Pink watches his TV from his trashed hotel room and wallows in his loneliness, missing his wife and his father (and resenting the war). Eventually the tour management shows up and needs to take Pink to the show where he is performing - but he’s so depressed and devoid of normal emotion that he isn’t himself and can’t face going on. Therefore a doctor is dispatched to medicate Pink so he can go onstage - this exchange between the doctor and Pink is “comfortably numb”.
(I don’t think this is necessarily the ‘official line’ hence this is in brackets, but from this point I think Pink is fantasising about all of this in his head)
Pink goes to the show but is now at the final outcome of all of the negativity - bitter and twisted and wanting to take his anger out on someone. The first song of the album starts, it’s time for a new show. Pink declares to his audience that it’s time to blame all their failings on others in society. The queers, the Jews, the “coons”. Whipping his audience up into an angry frenzy they go on a spree attacking the ethnic minorities. Pink laughs at then saying that they better ‘Run Like Hell’.
Amongst the violence, Pink suddenly catches how awful and fascist he has become.... screaming “STOP... I wanna go home... take off this uniform and leave the show”. But it’s not over... as Pink then puts himself on trial in his own head to declare whether all of his failings have been his own fault.
At the trial we hear from the teacher, his wife and his mother. The judge, having heard the evidence (I.e. the whole album) effectively declares that Pink is a disgrace and everything he has blamed others for is actually entirely his own fault - sentencing him to tear down the wall and be exposed for what he his infront of everyone (which can be inferred as a demand to release an album documenting his failures - THIS album).
The album ends with a little chuckle that surely nothing is as maddening as throwing your heart against some mad bugger’s wall.... looping back to the beginning of the album and suggesting that the building of walls is cyclical. The film actually ends with children picking up bricks from the destroyed wall, suggesting that the burden from parents is often passed on to their children.
Phew that was probably a long read
but I wanted to say it to help you enjoy / appreciate it. I doubt I could write so much about the story of any other album, hence why I am quite happy declaring it ‘the best’. It is staggeringly detailed and well thought out. Masterpiece
(Joe's Garage is my all time No.1)
