A Thesis on the Finest Album Ever Recorded

Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”

By Daniel Singer

If you haven’t heard/bought this album yet, do it now. I’ll wait….Okay, let’s discuss.

This essay is revenge for all the over-analysis I was forced to do in English classes in high school.

Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is the greatest album ever produced. I respect the other great albums of classic rock such as “Revolver,” “Pet Sounds,” etc., but no other album quite matches the profound awesomeness of this two-disc monolith. For those who don’t know, “The Wall” is a concept album (as were most of Pink Floyd’s other albums). In other words, the songs tell a story. There is in fact an accompanying movie with just the album as audio. But I’ll stick to the recorded version in this analysis.

Let me begin by explaining and highlighting each individual track. Disc one opens with “In the Flesh?” This song provides the introduction of the main character of the album. Aside from the great musical overture (which recurs later in disc two on “In the Flesh”), the lyrics are intriguing.

So you thought you might like to
Go to the show.
To feel the warm thrill of confusion,
That space cadet glow.
Tell me is something eluding you, sunshine?
Is this not what you expected to see?
If you wanna find out what’s behind these cold eyes,
You’ll just have to blow your way through this disguise.

I won’t be including the lyrics for every song, but this one is poignant enough to be included in its entirety. The idea of what’s behind a disguise is extremely central to “The Wall.” In short, the story of the album focuses on a rock star who becomes famous, then withdraws from society out of his own insecurities. This is reflective of his shaky upbringing and his odious relationship with his father. The “wall” refers to a figurative barrier he constructs to separate himself from society.

The challenge to blow one’s way through the disguise leads into the second track, “The Thin Ice,” a song that even surpasses the lyrics of track one. Let me note that musically, the album doesn’t get much better than David Gilmour’s guitar solo in “The Thin Ice.” Lyrically, this song is either a narrator’s commentary or the mother talking to her baby depending on your perspective. Either way, this track is a commentary on the fickle nature of life in general. The bulk of the song goes as follows:

If you should go skating,
On the thin ice of modern life,
Dragging behind you the silent reproach,
Of a million tear-stained eyes,
Don’t be surprised when a crack in the ice,
Appears under your feet.
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind,
With your fear flowing out from behind,
You as you claw the ice.

In other words, don’t be consumed by society’s games. Don’t skate on thin ice or you’ll fall through. “The Thin Ice” transitions into one of the more haunting songs on this album, “Another Brick in the Wall Part 1.” As mentioned before, this is the central character focusing on his begrudging attitude towards his father. The most notable line is “Daddy, what’d you leave behind for me?” (An interesting side-note is the fact that songwriter Roger Waters’ dad was in fact killed in WWII.) The repeating phrase “all in all it’s just another brick in the wall” (or variations of the phrase) originates in this song. It’s important to watch for this line because these bricks in the wall are components to the figurative barrier mentioned before. It seems that the main character is willing to blame anyone but himself. Obviously, his father is the target in this track.

Directly subsequent to ABITW part 1 is “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” and “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.” Here, the lead character blames his teachers for his problems. The most important part of these two tracks, which I’ll come back to towards the end of this essay, is the spoken lyric,

There were certain teachers who would
Hurt the children any way they could
By pouring their derision
Upon anything we did
And exposing every weakness
However carefully hidden by the kids.

This is essential because he points out that the best way to hurt someone is to expose his or her weaknesses. Remember this point as we’ll come back to it. Next is “Mother.” This song is pretty straightforward. It details the main character’s inquisitions of his mother. Questions such as,

Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb?
Mother, do you think they’ll like this song?
Mother, do you think they’ll try to break my balls?
Ooooowaa mother, should I build a wall?

Mother, should I run for president?
Mother, should I trust the government?
Mother, will they put me in the firing line?
Ooooowaa is it just a waste of time?

This song is the first major turning point the album. It represents a loss of innocence. For the first time, the main character begins to question the world. A sense of hopelessness and frustration is evident in the second verse. Later in this track, we see how much the mother overprotects her son. This is probably another source of brick in the wall. The apparent sequel to “Mother” is present in track seven, “Goodbye Blue Sky.”

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

Many think, and I agree, that this song is about the effects of the war on the main character’s attitude (and it probably speaks more broadly about the entire world’s reaction to WWII.) The flames may be gone but pain lingers on. The sky will never be blue again for this character. The next track is brief but not without great impact. “Empty Spaces” goes as follows:

What shall we use to fill the empty spaces,
Where we used to talk?
How shall I fill the final places?
How shall I complete the wall?

What is this? Does he now want to complete the wall? It would appear so. This is the second major shift in “The Wall.” The lyrics of “Young Lust” speak for themselves.

I am just a new boy,
Stranger in this town.
Where are all the good times?
Who’s gonna show this stranger around?

Ooooo I need a dirty woman.
Ooooo I need a dirty girl.

Will some woman in this desert land,
Make me feel like a real man?
Take this rock and roll refugee.
Ooo babe, set me free.

Ooooo I need a dirty woman.
Ooooo I need a dirty girl.
Ooooo I need a dirty woman.
Ooooo I need a dirty girl.

This track represents a rebirth. He is just a “new boy.” He wants to be set free from his old self image as a “rock and roll refugee.” The main character has apparently acquired a reckless attitude and wants a dirty girl to liberate him. This new attitude is marked by a much quicker tempo in “Young Lust” than in any of the preceding tracks.

“One of my Turns” represents another turn, this one tending towards insanity. The track opens with a dialogue between the main character and someone else who we assume is his wife or girlfriend. Prompted by her incessant nagging, he gives his thoughts on their relationship:

Day after day,
Our love turns gray,
Like the skin on a dying man.
And night after night,
We pretend it’s all right,
But I have grown older,
And you have grown colder,
And nothing is very much fun, anymore.
And I can feel,
One of all my turns coming on.
I feel,
Cold as a razor blade,
Tight as a tourniquet,
Dry as a funeral drum.

Then, the song explodes. This is the coolest part of the album. He essentially starts screaming at her.

Run to the bedroom,
In the suitcase on the left,
You’ll find my favorite axe.
Don’t look so frightened,
This is just a passing phase,
One of my bad days.
Would you like to watch tv?
Or get between the sheets?
Or contemplate a silent freeway?
Would you like something to eat?
Would you like to learn to fly? -- would ya?
Would you like to see me try?
Ooohh. no!
Would you like to call the cops?
Do you think it’s time I stopped?
Why are you running away?

So he’s alone again. This can’t be good for his psyche. So he tries to get his girl to stay. Unfortunately, his reasoning for why she should stay isn’t exactly convincing. His plea is featured in “Don’t Leave me Now.”

Ooooo babe,
Don’t leave me now.
Don’t say it’s the end of the road.
Remember the flowers I sent.
I need you, babe,
To put through the shredder in front of my friends.
Oh babe,
Don’t leave me now.
How could you go?
When you know how I need you,
To beat to a pulp on a saturday night.
Oh babe,
Don’t leave me now.
How can you treat me this way?
Running away.
Oh babe,
Why are you running away?

I think it’s pretty obvious why she’s running away. The only reason he wants her is to ridicule and beat her. Her departure is yet another brick in the wall. Then comes “Another Brick in the Wall Part 3.”

I don’t need no walls around me.
And I don’t need no drugs to calm me.
I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don’t think I need any thing at all.
No. don’t think I need anything at all.
All in all it was all just the bricks in the wall.
All in all it was all just the bricks in the wall.

This is pretty clearly the main character reacting to societal attempts to calm him down and get his life back under control. He repeats the mantra “all in all it was all just the bricks in the wall” as sort of a rationalization of his behavior. Disc one concludes with “Goodbye Cruel World,” an apparent final adieu to the world, which concludes:

Goodbye all you people,
There’s nothing you can say,
To make me change my mind.
Goodbye.

Disc two opens with haunting “Hey You.” Apparent from the lyrics is that the speaker in this song is a third-party narrator trying to reach out to the extremely withdrawn main character. This outreach is a central motif to disc two.

Hey you, out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old
Can you feel me?
Hey you, standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles
Can you feel me?
Hey you, don’t help them to bury the light
Don’t give in without a fight.

The speaker urges him not give up. There are people who care. But as the speaker finds out,

…it was only fantasy.
The wall was too high,
As you can see.
No matter how he tried,
He could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain.

The worms are an important image as we’ll see later in the album. Interestingly, it appears that the main character actually does want to break free here, but at this point, he can’t. This transitions into “Is there anybody out there?” primarily an instrumental but beginning with the repetition of the question “is there anybody out there?” Not a whole lot of analysis is required here, but it is interesting once again to see that the main character is possibly seeking help. Track three on this disc is appropriately entitled “Nobody Home.” The most important lyrics are at the beginning of the song.

I got elastic bands keepin’ my shoes on.
Got those swollen hand blues.
Got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from.
I've got electric light.
And I've got second sight.
And amazing powers of observation.
And that is how I know
When I try to get through
On the telephone to you
There'll be nobody home.

So now it appears that society has stopped reaching back, understandably. His life has reached a new low, but there’s nobody home to talk to. The next track is “Vera.” On the surface, it appears that Vera is the main character’s lost love. I've been informed that Vera Lynn is, as a matter of fact, a famous singer from the WWII era. So the main character is acutally asking if anyone remembers the war.

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn
Remember how she said that
We would meet again
Some sunny day
Vera! Vera!
What has become of you
Does anybody else in here
Feel the way I do?

Okay, moving on, the next track is “Bring the Boys Back Home.” This appears to be an outcry to, well, bring the rebellious children back home. The parents have seen what happens when they’re out on their own.

Bring the boys back home.
Bring the boys back home.
Don’t leave the children on their own, no, no.
Bring the boys back home.

Next comes one of the best songs ever written. “Comfortably Numb” represents the lowest point in the removal of the main character from society. The song begins “hello, is there anybody in there?” Notice the contrast from “is there anybody out there?” The movie provides excellent imagery for this song. The main character is being literally shaken back to consciousness. But the attempted rescue attempts only “[come] through in waves. [Their] lips move but [he] can’t hear what they’re saying.” He has, as the song implies, become comfortably numb. The difference in his attitude here is that while before, he was depressed, he is now completely indifferent.

At the conclusion of Gilmour’s brilliant guitar solo, “The Show Must Go On” begins. After bottoming out, the main character snaps back into consciousness and wonders if it’s too late to get his life back together.

Ooooh, Ma, Oooh Pa
Must the show go on?
Ooooh, Pa. Take me home
Ooooh, Ma. Let me go

There must be some mistake
I didnt mean to let them
Take away my soul.
Am I too old, is it too late?

Ooooh, Ma, Ooooh Pa,
Where has the feeling gone?
Ooooh, Ma, Ooooh Pa,
Will I remember the songs?
The show must go on.

But it’s not as easy as just playing his songs again and going back home. As of the next track, the main character, who we find out is named Pink, isn’t well enough to perform. The second installment of “In the flesh,” this time with no question mark in the title, is the stunningly offensive performance of a replacement band.

So ya

Thought ya

Might like to

Go to the show.

To feel that warm thrill of confusion,

That space cadet glow.

I've got some bad news for you sunshine,

Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel

And they sent us along as a surrogate band

We're gonna find out where you folks really stand.

What follows is the most overt bit of bigotry featured on the album so far.

Are there any queers in the theater tonight?

Get them up against the wall!

There's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me,

Get him up against the wall!

That one looks Jewish!

And that one's a coon!

Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?

There's one smoking a joint,

And another with spots!

If I had my way,

I'd have all of you shot!

This begs the question, “is this the type of company Pink kept during his withdrawal?” It’s important not to be offended from a listener’s standpoint at this juncture. These anti-Jewish and racist comments aren’t endorsed by Pink Floyd; quite contrarily, Waters uses these statements as archetypal hate speech and later discredits them.

The hateful rhetoric continues with “Run like Hell,” a song still apparently being delivered by the surrogate band. It’s quite blatantly a threat being issued against the aforementioned “riff-raff.” The song can be summarized by the last bit of lyrics:

You better run all day

And run all night.

Keep your dirty feelings

Deep inside.

And if you're taking your girlfriend

Out tonight

You'd better park the car

Well out of sight.

Cause if they catch you in the back seat

Trying to pick her locks,

They're gonna send you back to mother.

Once again, we’re exposed to the type of hatred Pink must have developed throughout his life. The perspective seemingly switches back and forth between Pink and the surrogate band. This style and its resulting effect is reflective of the drug-induced state of Pink. In fact, it can be argued that the rest of the album never actually happens. It might all be in the head of Pink. “Waiting for the Worms,” the tenth track on disc two, is almost a hallucination, viewed from “behind the wall” of Pink. I won’t list all the lyrics, as they are extremely offensive, describing in great detail Hitler’s final solution. But the song begins with an important continuation of the story line,

Ooooh, you cannot reach me now

Ooooh, no matter how you try

Goodbye, cruel world, it's over.

Walk on by.

This song quickly escalates into a full-fledged neurotic rage. It gets out of hand even, and almost as if by a final, gruesome shock to Pink’s conscience, he yells “Stop!” the title of the next track.

Stop!

I wanna go home

Take off this uniform

And leave the show.

But I'm waiting in this cell

Because I have to know.

Have I been guilty all this time?

So apparently, Pink is now in prison. This inexplicable nature of this turn-of-events leads me to believe that the whole second part of this disc was all in his head. Either way, his revelation and his questioning of his guilt or innocence is the final change of direction on the album. Now that he’s been evidently accused of a crime, he must await “The Trial,” which is the title for the next track. Much like in the final episode of Seinfeld, the entire “cast” of the album comes back to testify for or against Pink. I’ll break down the lyrics into sections. I’ve included almost the entire song because it’s crucial to one’s understanding of the resolution of the story.

I. Opening Statements

Good morning, the worm, your honour,
The crown will plainly show,
The prisoner who now stands before you,
Was caught red-handed showing feelings.
Showing feelings of an almost human nature.
This will not do.

(Notice the sarcasm of the prosecutor. He says that he is shocked to see that Pink has actually shown feelings. Here is the indictment of the hate speech mentioned earlier.)

II. The schoolmaster

Call the schoolmaster!

I always said he’d come to no good,
In the end, your honour.
If they’d let me have my way,
I could have flayed him into shape.
But my hands were tied.
The bleeding hearts and artists,
Let him get away with murder.
Let me hammer him today.

…

You little shit, you’re in it now.
I hope they throw away the key.
You should’ve talked to me more often than you did.
But no! you had to go your own way.
Have you broken any homes up lately?
Just five minutes, worm, your honour,
Him and me alone.

(Okay, so the schoolmaster is a little angry. It’s understandable, since in ABITW Part 2, he was accused of being a brick in the wall.)

III. The Mother

Baaaaaabe!
Come to mother, baby.
Let me hold you in my arms.
M’lord, I never meant for him to get in any trouble.
Why’d he ever have to leave me?
Worm, your honour, let me take him home.

(So the overprotective mother returns, wanting what she has always wanted: her child back.)

IV. The Judgment

The evidence before the court is incontravertible.
There’s no need for the jury to retire.
In all my years of judging I have never heard before,
Of someone more deserving of the full penalty of the law.
The way you made them suffer,
Your exquisite wife and mother,
Fills me with the urge to deficate! -- no, judge, the jury!
Since, my friend, you have revealed your deepest fear,
I sentence you to be exposed before your peers.
Tear down the wall!

Okay, here’s where I told you I’d come back to the exposing of weakness. Remember how Pink said that the best way to hurt someone is to expose them? Ironically (but intentionally from the perspective of the songwriters), Pink’s sentence is to be exposed to his peers and to tear down his wall. This, as it turns out, is the full penalty of the law, for nothing can be as bad as being exposed.

Now that the wall has been torn down, the final track concludes the album with an important reflection.

All alone, or in twos
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall
Some hand in hand
Some gathering together in bands
The bleeding hearts and the artists
Make their stand
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall after all it's not easy
banging your heart against some mad bugger’s
Wall.

That pretty much speaks for itself. The ones who love you will stick by you, though it’s not always easy to throw your emotions behind someone who is so troubled and has constructed such a complex wall.

What’s the moral of the story? The hell if I know. I suppose the lesson to be learned is that you should never take loved ones for granted, and despite their faults, your friends generally want the best for you and you have to allow yourself to be helped when you’re in trouble.

Questions?