Pink Floyd

The Wall

Waters' Downfall

Review Score:

(2/10)
Pink Floyd's The Wall was released in December of 1979 and is a classic and regarded as the band's most ambitious masterwork. This album ranks up there with classic double albums The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Tommy, Quadrophenia, The White Album, Physical Graffiti, Electric Ladyland and many others. The concept for The Wall still holds up 25 years after its initial release. The idea came to bassist/vocalist Roger Waters whom was upset with himself after spitting on a fan on the last gig of the Animals tour. In 1978, Roger was writing and recording demos that would become The Wall. Meanwhile, drummer Nick Mason was off producing other acts(The Damned and Steve Hillage) whilst guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour and keyboardist Rick Wright were recording their first solo albums. In late 1978 the band, along with KISS/Alice Cooper/Peter Gabriel/Lou Reed producer Bob Ezrin, began demoing the songs for The Wall at Britannia Row Studios in London. The band properly began recording The Wall in April of 1979 in two studios in France(and later at studios in Los Angeles and New York) with Waters, Gilmour, Ezrin and engineer James Guthrie producing to avoid the crazy English tax laws as the band was almost bankrupt due to their agents stealing the money in a way that they still owed the British tax companies taxes. All of the songs, save four, were written by Roger. The album's three best tracks Young Lust, Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell were co-written by Gilmour. Then, The Trial was co-written by Ezrin. The Wall was a concept album which told the story of a character named Pink(a composite of Roger Waters and Floyd founder Syd Barrett) whom goes through a traumatic childhood of losing his father in war(The Thin Ice and Another Brick in the Wall pt.1), cruel sarcastic teachers(The Happiest Days of Our Lives, the chart-topping single Another Brick in the Wall(pt.2), an overbearing mother(Mother), groupie troubles(Young Lust, One of My Turns) and many other problems one goes through before walling himself off from the rest of the world. Other highlights on The Wall of course were Hey You, Nobody Home and the two best classics Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell. Band turmoil during 1979 reached an all-time high and Roger eventually kicked Rick Wright out of the band citing Rick wasn't doing squat when in fact Roger was setting Rick up to fail from the word go. Rick was let go but stayed to finish the album and did The Wall shows in 1980/81 as a paid musician(the other three members lost money from staging the shows). Rick played on half of the album as does Nick whom is not on drums for half the record(Jeff Porcaro played drums on Mother and Jeff's father Joe played snaer drum on Bring the Boys Back Home). Despite the band turmoil, The Wall became Pink Floyd's third US chart-topping album(stayed at #1 for 15 weeks), sold over 23 million in the US alone(third best seller in the US), spawned the greatest rock concerts ever produced(review for Is There Anybody Out There to come soon) and a classic film. The Capitol remaster is basically the 1997 Columbia remaster with improved sonic quality remastered by engineer James Guthrie and Doug Sax whom mastered The Wall originally. The Wall is still a classic today and is highly recommended!

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