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| Album
Information |
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| Released:
Nov - Dec 1979 |
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| Recorded:
April – November
1979 |
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| Genre:
Progressive rock |
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| Length:
81:27 |
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| Label:
Harvest (UK original) |
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| Columbia
(U.S. original) |
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| Producer:
Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, |
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| James
Guthrie and Roger Waters
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Album Art |
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Background
The Wall is a concept album/rock opera by the
English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released
in 1979. In 1999, the RIAA certified The Wall
at 23x platinum, denoting sales of 23 million
copies of the album in the United States. The
album reached #1 on the Billboard album charts
in the US where it stayed for 15 consecutive weeks
in early 1980, and it remained on the US charts
for two years. The album peaked at #3 in the band's
native UK.
"Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"
was the band's only number one single, reaching
#1 in both the UK and the US. Around the world,
the album produced a number of hit singles for
Pink Floyd, including "Another Brick in the
Wall (Part 2)", "Young Lust", "Hey
You", "Comfortably Numb" and "Run
Like Hell". The Wall was the last Pink Floyd
album to feature Richard Wright until his return
in 1987. During the recording, Roger Waters demanded
a great deal of artistic control, which led to
tensions. The album is included in the book 1001
Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and in 2003,
Rolling Stone placed it 87th on their 500 greatest
albums of all time list.
The storyline portrays the fictional life of an
anti-hero named Pink, who is hammered and beaten
down by society from the earliest days of his
life: having lost his father (killed in Anzio
during World War II, as was Roger Waters' own),
smothered by his over-protective mother, oppressed
at school by tyrannical, abusive teachers who
tried to mould him and the other pupils into the
"right" shape for society (hence the
recurring image of the meat grinder) and a cheating
wife. Pink withdraws into his own fantasy world,
building an imaginary wall, an allegory for being
emotionally distant to protect himself from the
rest of the world. Every bad experience in his
life is "another brick in the wall".
After heavily contemplating how to fill in the
last few empty spaces in the wall, Pink puts off
its construction for a while. He becomes a rock
star and gets married, only to be cheated on by
his wife due to his distance and coldness, as
well as the life as a rock star. After this he
resumes and eventually finishes building the wall.
Pink slowly goes insane behind his freshly completed
wall. He is lost on the inside, but is forced
to surface by his demanding lifestyle, and I.V.
drug use distributed by his crew to "keep
[him] going through the show". Hallucinating,
Pink believes that he is a fascist dictator, and
his concerts are like Neo-Nazi rallies where he
sets his men on fans he considers unworthy, only
to have his conscience rebel at this and put himself
on trial, his inner judge ordering him to tear
down his wall in order to open himself to the
outside world. At this point the album's end runs
into its beginning with the closing words "Isn't
this where..."; the first song on the album,
"In the Flesh?", begins with the words
"...we came in?" – with a continuation
of the melody of the last song, Outside the Wall
– hinting at the cyclical nature of Waters'
theme.
The LP's custom picture labels tied in with the
album's concept. Side one had a quarter of the
wall erected and a sketch of the teacher. Side
two saw half of the wall erected and a sketch
of the wife. Side three had three-quarters of
the wall erected and a sketch of the character
of Pink, while side four had the wall completely
erected and a sketch of the prosecutor.
Recording History
In 1977, Pink Floyd were promoting Animals with
their In The Flesh tour. The tour was grueling
and made the band members miserable. The final
night of the tour, in Montreal, Canada, Waters
spat in the face of a fan who was trying to climb
over the netting between the audience and the
stage, and get up with the band. The incident
later helped inspire Waters to develop the idea
of The Wall.
Waters Loses Temper With Audience (file info)
— play in browser (beta)
Recording of the incident
Problems listening to the file? See media help.
The album was recorded at four studios during
eight months, due to English tax laws and to benefit
from the cheaper recording costs in the South
of France. During the recording, Waters fired
Richard Wright after The Wall was finished, arguing
that Wright was not contributing much, in part
due to a cocaine addiction. Waters claimed that
David Gilmour and Nick Mason supported Waters'
decision to fire Wright, but in 2000, Gilmour
stated that he and Mason were against Wright's
dismissal. Author Nick Mason claims that Wright
was fired because Columbia Records had offered
Waters a substantial bonus to finish the album
in time for a 1979 release. Since Wright refused
to return early from his summer holiday, Waters
wanted to dismiss Wright. Wright was fired from
the band but stayed on to finish the album and
perform the live concerts as a paid musician.
For "Another Brick in the Wall" (Part
II), Pink Floyd needed to record a school choir,
so they approached music teacher Alun Renshaw
of Islington Green School, around the corner from
their Britannia Row Studios. The choir were not
allowed to hear the rest of the song after singing
the chorus. The chorus was overdubbed twelve times
to give the impression that the choir was larger.
Though the school received a lump sum payment
of £1000, there was no contractual arrangement
for royalties. Under 1996 UK copyright law, they
became eligible, and after choir members were
tracked down by royalties agent Peter Rowan of
RBL Music, through the website Friends Reunited,
they sued. Music industry professionals estimated
that each student would be owed around £500.
Originally released on Columbia Records in the
U.S. and Harvest Records in the UK, The Wall was
then re-released as a digitally remastered CD
in 1994 in the UK on EMI. In 1997, Columbia Records
issued an updated remaster (which sounded superior
to the EMI remasters from 1994) in the United
States, Canada, Australia, South America and Japan.
For The Wall's 20th Anniversary in April 2000,
Capitol Records in the U.S. and EMI in Canada,
Australia, South America and Japan re-released
the 1997 remaster with the artwork from the EMI
Europe remaster. The Wall was the first Pink Floyd
album since 1967's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
whose cover was not done by Storm Thorgerson and
Hipgnosis. Instead, Gerald Scarfe designed the
cover and gatefold sleeve.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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