[HN Gopher] Pink Floyd's 'The Wall': A Complete Analysis
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Pink Floyd's 'The Wall': A Complete Analysis
Author : latentcall
Score : 63 points
Date : 2024-12-12 20:22 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thewallanalysis.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (thewallanalysis.com)
| genter wrote:
| Roger Waters bloviating for 90 minutes about not having a dad.
| schnable wrote:
| Good tunes, though.
| genter wrote:
| Gilmour can write good music. Too bad Wright was suffering
| from depression/drug addiction to be very productive. The
| best Pink Floyd songs are them working together.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Division Bell came out and took me a while to appreciate,
| but man I like that album as much as Dark Side and Meddle.
| I'm not saying they are all equal, just that I like them
| all equally. Gilmour is definitely my favorite bender of
| strings.
| bojanz wrote:
| People are sometimes unkind to the Division Bell, but it
| contains one of my personal favorites: "Wearing the inside
| out". Wright's lyrics and vocals (first time since The Dark
| Side of the Moon), Gilmore's guitar, it all comes together.
| flir wrote:
| It's a theme he.... revisited.
|
| This is the best visit, though.
| westmeal wrote:
| Took me dad in the war yeah
| 01100011 wrote:
| You forgot about the overprotective mum.
| 9front wrote:
| "Of course mama'll help to build the wall"
| 01100011 wrote:
| Yeah. Love the music but I stopped being able to listen to it a
| few years ago because it's so.. self-indulgent and emo. It kind
| of ruined PF for me since I became aware of those themes in
| their other albums with Waters.
|
| I still love and respect PF, but I don't listen much these
| days. I guess it also correlates with less substance abuse in
| my life.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Just as a fan of the music, I picked up the DVD set he
| released a few years ago. It was delivered to the office I
| was working at the time, and it was a slow day so we popped
| it in for a watch. Talking about a let down. It was the exact
| Waters droning on sentiment the GP had.
| duderific wrote:
| I recently took a long car trip solo and was able to listen
| to Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety without
| interruption. It still holds up in that kind of scenario; you
| almost have to listen to whole thing nonstop to fully
| appreciate it.
| worik wrote:
| > I still love and respect PF
|
| Me too.
|
| My teenage years sitting in the sun smoking pot listening to
| these incredible sounds....
|
| As a grown up I love everything they did before Dark Side of
| the Moon: That was when Roger Waters really started
| complaining.
|
| Atom Heart Mother is my favourite
| mmooss wrote:
| Why is that an inappropriate theme? 90 minutes isn't long or
| large for a single work of art, and many artists return to the
| same themes over their lifetimes.
| aanet wrote:
| Thanks for posting this! one of my fav albums of ALL time. <3
|
| Growing up in a developing country, where rock music wasn't
| really the preferred or even the available kind, _The Wall_ was
| foundational to me as a young teen and in early college years.
| The angst, the lyrics, the music - I drank heavy doses of Pink
| Floyd with whatever was available (bootleg cassette tapes,
| mostly, listened to on portable tape players and boomboxes). Much
| later did I learn that the original PF foursome had disbanded
| even before I started listening to them. That was a crushing blow
| :-( Those were the _pre_ pre-Internet days.
|
| I still listen to PF today, roughly 30+ years after I first heard
| them. And still find new nuances that I eluded my initial
| thousand listens.
|
| Thanks for posting this <3 You've made at least one person
| nostalgic. And happy.
| encoderer wrote:
| The wall was performed live in only 4 cities (LA, NYC, London,
| Berlin) because it was too big and expensive to move. My dad saw
| it and to this day it's one of his favorite experiences. They
| literally built a styrofoam wall in front of the band as they
| played until at one point you can't even see them.
|
| Well anyway about 15 years ago I'm showing the old man YouTube
| for the first time. And I ask him, is there any old memories we
| should go look up, he says, see if there's any videos from The
| Wall. And there is! An entire bootleg of the concert from 1981.
| It was magical, I gave my dad a Time Machine.
|
| Thanks YouTube!
| gapan wrote:
| > They literally built a styrofoam wall on front of the band as
| they played until at one point you can't even see them.
|
| I never had the chance to go to a Pink Floyd concert, but I saw
| Roger Waters a few years ago and the huge wall was there too,
| along with a helicopter if I remember well.
| ericzawo wrote:
| Christmas is coming, I suggest gifting him The Wall: Live in
| Berlin 1990 on DVD if you can find it. Or just forwarding him
| this URL: https://youtu.be/SU2m7uOiAZI
|
| One of my favourite live performances of music of all time.
| Playing at the Real wall to several hundred thousand people.
| Just amazing stuff.
| dylan604 wrote:
| > One of my favourite live performances of music of all time.
|
| As a broke college kid, my friends and I all camped out for
| tickets (remember those days) to the Division Bell tour in
| 1994. We got phenomenal seats, and the show is definitely the
| bet live performances I have seen. The second act as a
| complete play through of Dark Side. Lots of great memories
| from that entire night including sitting in traffic to get to
| the venue. Getting lost in the parking lot in pouring down
| rain to the point of asking the cops for directions to where
| we parked.
|
| I got into Floyd from my dad, and he never got to see them
| live. The closest he got was 15 years later when we went to
| see Aussie Floyd. It was the closest thing to the real thing
| I had ever seen and told him it was a really damn good 2nd
| place.
| cassianoleal wrote:
| I unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to watch Pink Floyd
| play live.
|
| I did watch Roger Waters play The Wall twice though. Complete
| with styrofoam wall and an airplane flying overhead and
| crashing onto it.
|
| Incredible concert! Hence the second time. :)
| louthy wrote:
| > They literally built a styrofoam wall
|
| Hope they know the difference between inches and feet [1]
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/zg5Ovdu6bOE?feature=shared
| lc9er wrote:
| I love Pink Floyd and The Wall, though I think it works better
| with visuals than a standalone album. It's a shame they were
| unhappy with their own footage of the few stage shows they
| performed of The Wall. My dad saw the New York show, for which
| I'll forever be jealous.
|
| If you're a casual PF fan, I'd recommend two overlooked albums of
| the 70's - Meddle and Animals. Meddle is probably the first album
| to sound like what the public recognizes as Pink Floyd.
|
| Animals is, to me, a masterpiece. Gilmour and Wright, especially,
| are amazing. It's dark and cynical, but maybe not as hopeless as
| The Wall. "Dogs" may be the best guitar work Gilmour has ever
| done, aside from "Comfortably Numb". Sadly, it seems like most of
| the band didn't like Waters controlling behavior and the dark
| turn his lyrics took on this album.
| encoderer wrote:
| As a fan of Waters I would add The Final Cut to that list.
| UberFly wrote:
| Final Cut could really be considered Waters' first solo
| album. One that the other members contributed to, so to
| speak.
| encoderer wrote:
| Yes, very much agreed, and when you compare that to his
| works like Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking you see that being
| in the band really did bring out his best.
|
| I am too kind to comment on Pink Floyd's albums without
| Roger, though.
| UberFly wrote:
| I was at a Brit Floyd concert (cover band super highly
| recommended) and during the few Division Bell songs
| everyone was running to use the bathroom so as to not
| miss the real Floyd music. :)
| Keyframe wrote:
| There are (dozens) of us who really like Division Bell,
| come on.
| jzb wrote:
| I thought that Momentary Lapse of Reason was okay: but
| that could be because it came out when I was a teen and
| apt to be uncritical about albums. I still enjoy it, but
| I can tell it's a lesser work, now.
|
| The rest don't even hold my attention, though. Not even
| enough to dislike them.
| MrMcCall wrote:
| Yeah, I saw The Wall in college and once was enough for me.
|
| I think your analysis of Waters is spot-on, as I've just
| introduced my teens to Dark Side (which they love) -- it's nice
| to have skipped it until my mid-50s, and now fully enjoy it and
| not be burned out on it.
|
| And our daughter appreciates Animals as well. Thanks for the
| recommend on Meddle.
| cassianoleal wrote:
| Animals is also one of my favourites.
|
| Now, this may sound like blasphemy but I find Les Claypool's
| Frog Brigade's rendering of Animals _even better_ than Pink
| Floyd 's. Heavier, darker and incredibly visceral, whilst still
| being as faithful to the original as it could be.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n4Cc7lX4NI&list=PLiEEpOHWcm...
| duderific wrote:
| > I'd recommend two overlooked albums of the 70's - Meddle and
| Animals.
|
| I'd even throw Obscured by Clouds in there, which has some
| straight up rock jams as well as the more moody sound that
| became typical later.
| grujicd wrote:
| Gilmour also played bass on Animals.
| aidos wrote:
| Did not know that! The pulsing baseline on Sheep is awesome.
| Not as awesome as the way the vocals tail off into hypnotic
| synth at the end of each line. It's such a well crafted
| album.
| Philpax wrote:
| _Echoes_ , which is on Meddle, is one of my favourite tracks of
| all time. It's an incredible sonic journey through all kinds of
| territory, and I find myself rejuvenated after having listened
| to it.
| ryandrake wrote:
| Not sure I'd call _Animals_ overlooked. It top-3 's pretty much
| everyone's PF album rankings. Yes, _DSOTM_ gets a lot of
| attention, but _Animals_ is a well-recognized amazing album.
| zimpenfish wrote:
| I remain convinced that Anathema are big fans of "Animals"
| because if they didn't write "Pulled Under at 2000 Metres a
| Second"[1] immediately after listening to "Sheep", I'll be a
| monkey's uncle.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKFzGI8Fxq0
| rikthevik wrote:
| One of my advisors saw Pink Floyd play Dark Side in its
| entirety in London in the 70s. I can't help bringing it up
| every time I see him.
| chasd00 wrote:
| I grew up in the country so during HS the only music i knew was
| either country/western or heavy metal. I didn't hear this album
| until college, i fell in love with it but my more sophisticated
| friends didn't think that highly of it. I still listen to The
| Wall end to end on long trips driving by myself.
| JimiofEden wrote:
| Wow it's impressive to see that this page has remained up for so
| long!
|
| I used to email the owner a long time ago when I was really
| getting into Pink Floyd in high school. It was one of the first
| times I can really recall about having long, ongoing
| conversations online about something I was becoming increasingly
| passionate about. I really enjoyed the debate and back and forth
| that they were willing to entertain with me.
|
| Sadly it looks like those conversations have been lost to
| time/old email addresses. But the idea that people would be open
| and willing to chat about their hobbies is really what defined
| the internet to me of that age.
| technothrasher wrote:
| I had a similar relationship in the 90's with the guy who
| started the Magnum Mania website for fans of the show Magnum
| PI. It was fun to communicate directly with somebody who was
| even more enthusiastic about the show than I was, and fun to
| send him pictures when I bought my Ferrari 308 after seeing the
| car on the show and literally saving up for it for 20 years. I
| haven't talked to him in many years now, and he doesn't seem to
| update the website as much these days, but the forum there is
| still pretty active, and there's still tons of info available.
| singleshot_ wrote:
| There is an episode of the original run of Magnum wherein a
| character picks up a phone and dials "9, 1," as though they
| are about to call emergency services, and then hangs up the
| phone instead. I think, but am not sure, that the caller is
| using a phone on the Masters estate.
|
| Any idea which episode I'm referring to?
| ohm wrote:
| My physics teacher played the whole album in high school class as
| we were doing our work. The door to the classroom was open and
| the music was echoing through the whole floor. I was surprised
| none of the teachers next door said anything.
| wingspar wrote:
| My jr high recollection was a teacher complaining about the bad
| grammar. "We don't need no education..."
| clarge1120 wrote:
| I got hooked on Pink Floyd's "Momentary Lapse of Reason".
| Listened to it on a 10 hour drive back home from Houston in my
| custom VW beetle. It was custom because I "built" it out of
| several broken down beetles and so it was a tense drive home,
| checking my car's vitals every so often.
|
| I have never forgotten that long intense drive home, in the
| summer, with no air conditioning, and playing Pink Floyd on full
| volume the whole way.
|
| Because of this, "The Wall" has always been Floyd's second best
| album.
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| _A Momentary Lapse of Reason_ is right up there with _Dark Side
| of the Moon_ in number of listen-throughs for me. Back when I
| was in high school it was one of the albums I'd put on prior to
| getting lost in working on something or another in Photoshop.
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