Thursday 7 May 2020

Pink Floyd - The Wall

With Pink Floyd, the usual accepted order of preference is either 'Dark Side Of The Moon' or 'Wish You Were Here' - both very very good albums.
But there is more to consider:
'Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' - peak psychedelic Floyd, and despite his best efforts (and those around him) Syd Barrett never soared to these heights again.
Their first run of initial post-Syd albums - 'Ummagumma', 'Atom Heart Mother', 'Meddle', 'Obscured by Clouds' - are awash with key tracks, studio experimentation and ongoing growth.  Many cite 'Meddle' as the pick of the bunch (and as it houses "Echoes" is not a bad choice at all).
This is followed by those 2 monolithic efforts ('Dark Side Of The Moon' and 'Wish You Were Here'), before their tenth album in as many years - the under-rated 'Animals'.
And then the discography arrives at 'The Wall' - my personal favourite.  Opinions vary, and in some areas of the interweb this one is varyingly referred to as "weak" or "the runt of the litter".  Poppycock!  It is a superb double album, and unlike some double albums it doesn't drag on, revert to a bit of filler, or and outstay it's welcome.
Everyone has their own favourites, but I'm here to tell you you're all wrong.
The Pink Floyd album is 'The Wall'.
From the quiet slow build of "In The Flesh?", to the slow fade of "Outside The Wall", it's always an enjoyable 1 hour 20 minutes.
(and to give a whole new meaning to the definition of a concept album as a song cycle, there is an attempted perpetual loop, and the last phrase uttered over the fade out of "Outside The Wall" - "Isn't this where we came in?" - is the first phrase you hear at the start of the album.)
It's damn near perfect.  And if you add "When The Tigers Broke Free" (which was used in the film, and subsequently appeared 'The Final Cut'), then it would be even perferecter.


Despite having sold shed-loads of their previous 2 albums (resulting in further sales of their earlier efforts), and having just completed a massively lucrative Stadium tour, Pink Floyd were very nearly broke.  An investment company, charged with reducing their Tax Liabilities, had invested in high-risk areas which hadn't paid off.  Each member was facing Tax Bills at the rate of 85%.
They needed a big selling album, and pretty quickly too.

Resulting from Roger Waters feeling of alienation form the audience now they were playing in stadiums, the original concept was one of two he presented to the band when they returned to the recording studio.
(The other concept was later recycled for his solo album 'The Pros and Cons Of Hitchhiking').
The band had produced their last albums themselves, but this time Roger Waters brought in Bob Ezrin to provide a certain independence, focus, and to help manage the workload in the time available.

Recording started at Floyd's own Britannia Row studios, but they soon decamped (due to the threat of the Tax Bills) to 2 studios in France - one which did the instrumental recording, and the other where Roger Waters recorded his vocals.  They then made use of various studios across the US to finish and shape the album.
Throughout the whole process, the bands relationships were deteriorating with Roger Waters becoming more and more controlling of the project (well, it was his concept after all).  This controlling including not giving Bob Ezrin due credit for his shaping and focussing of the story, constant badgering of David Gilmour for material (and then often discarding what was presented to him), and eventually the sacking of keyboardist Rick Wright - he appears on the album but as a session musician, rather than a full member.

Now for the concept - The Wall is the story of a generic Rock Star (it's suggested it is part Syd Barrett, part Roger Waters, part made up).
Always intended to be a film, as the Project progressed the Film idea was gradually dropped.  Until 1982 when Alan Parker professed a desire to film it.
Now, despite there being no dialogue, quite "arty" in delivery, and includes swathes of Gerald Scarfe animation which are both connected and dis-connected to the story, the film does a better job of expounding the concept than the album does, or my bumbled attempts below could ever do.

Young boy loses father at the fag-end of World War II.  His childhood and School life are not the easiest, and feelings of alienation, detachment, and like he's missing something begin. He's gradually withdrawing into himself and building a metaphorical wall to block out the fear of his past (and probably his future too).
In a leap from his young self to his adult self,  as a Rock Star now, the flashbacks and concerns continue.  His wife's infidelity (learned while he is on tour) leads to a full scale meltdown, a trashing of his hotel room - his Wall is now complete.  The outside world can't get him now.
But ... has he done the right thing?  Even locked in, the depression continues (shown in the film as the moment he shaves of all body hair), and then a descent into a drug-induced coma.
However, he still has a job to do, and his Manager gets a paramedic to give him a shot.  This creates the hallucination that he is leading a facist dictator with the power to assemble a master race.  As this part of his character continue, and insanity becomes stronger ,an inner monolgue tells him to remove the wall, and return to humanity.
(see, I told you I couldn't write it down and make any sense)

The motherload here is from Roger Waters pen - it is a very personal concept and song set.  Come of the recording conflict was down to the band feeling it was too personal, and becoming something of a Waters solo album.  David Gilmour did get 3 songs on the album, and also appears as a co-write credit on many others.
But despite all the conflict and fighting, every song sounds buffed up and fitting - there is no gap filling, or knock-off tracks to fit the concept and storyline.

From 'Meddle' to the last notes of 'The Wall', they have produced a run of highly individual, highly crafted, and (the only true descriptive term) "very Floyd-y".  Every track is recognisable as their work, but this was the last hurrah.
'The Wall' also gave them their only Number 1 single in the UK and the US with "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" - indeed this was the last Number 1 single of the 1970s in the UK - quite fitting for a band who were one the most successful of the decade.
Pedant's Note:  They obviously DO need education because of their use of the double-negative in "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)"

They did manage one more full album ('The Final Cut' - which was even closer to a Waters solo album) before relationships soured completely, and Court cases, recriminations, claims of copyright about inflatable pigs, and general sniping (mainly from Roger Waters towards David Gilmour and Nick Mason) clouded most of the 80s.
The Pink Floyd name returned in 1987 with 'Momentary Lapse Of Reason' (featuring only David Gilmour and Nick Mason - and on the face of it done to get one back at Roger Waters who said that he owned the name.  But, as he wasn't using it at the time, how can he stop 2 original members performing under the banner).  This is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but it just doesn't have the Floyd feel about it.  1994s 'The Division Bell' (with Richard Wright restored to the line uo) was closer, but still not quite right somehow.

With all the history, there was more chance of The Beatles or The Jam getting back together on stage than Pink Floyd (all four of them) treading the boards together again.
Until Bob Geldof (who had starred in the film version of 'The Wall') came calling - would Pink Floyd like to appear at the Live 8 Concert in Hyde Park?
This took some doing - Waters and Gilmour had not spoken for more than 2 years, and initial contact was hesitant.  However, they did eventually agree and went into rehersals together.  Had they learned new levels of tolerance whilst apart?  Apparently not - a lot of the old clashes re-surfaced, but for the sake of the concert they kept going.  Disagreements about the chosen songs, tempos, instrumentation, introductions, even who stood where on stage threatened.  The final setlist was apparently not agreed until the night before.
The set that night consisted of 3 tracks from 'Dark Side Of The Moon', the title track from 'Wish You Were Here', and to rapturous applause "Comfortably Numb" was lifted from The Wall, and remains the last track performed by the 4 members together.
If they chose that track for their (unexpected) final performance together, I think it shows the esteem 'The Wall' should be held in.


When The Tigers Broke Free (it's not on the album, but I think it should be)




In The Flesh?

Comfortably Numb

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