Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. In The Flesh
2. Thin Ice
3. Another Brick In The Wall
4. Happiest Days Of Our Lives
5. Another Brick In The Wall
6. Mother
7. Goodbye Blue Sky
8. Empty Spaces
9. Young Lust
10. One Of My Turns
11. Don't Leave Me Now
12. Another Brick In The Wall
13. Goodbye Cruel World

Disc 2:

1. Hey You
2. Is There Anybody Out There
3. Nobody Home
4. Vera
5. Bring The Boys Back Home
6. Comfortably Numb
7. Show Must Go On
8. In The Flesh
9. Run Like Hell
10. Waiting For The Worms
11. Stop
12. Trial
13. Outside The Wall

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #399 in Music
• Released on: 1994-10-10
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Double CD, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered

From Amazon.com
The Wall is less a collection of songs than a single work, which is sometimes frustrating; the plot lacks enough coherence to hold the snippets of music together. However, there are occasional flashes of brilliance on what arguably ranks as Pink Floyd's most ambitious project. Most of these come from the fully developed songs, which have become classics in their own right; "Hey You," "Mother," and especially "Comfortably Numb" are subtly incredible pieces of music. Though complex, they move at a relaxed pace, allowing the listener to absorb them slowly; this kind of pacing was something Pink Floyd excelled at. Also worth noting is the "Another Brick in the Wall/The Happiest Days of Our Lives" medley, which has become a staple of rock radio. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

Why is this only four and-a-half stars?
There's no accounting for some people's taste. Whatever you say about Roger Waters' ego, the fact remains that 'The Wall' is one of the greatest albums of all time, and a masterpiece. Whatever people say, there is no filler on here - each song is vital to the story.

The concept of 'The Wall' is quite odd, but fascinating. You could do with seeing the film, too. The character is called 'Pink Floyd', and he sits alone in his hotel room, somewhere in Los Angeles. He remembers all the stuff that has happened to him - his father dying in WW2, his over-protective to the point of smothering mother, nasty schoolteacher and cheating wife. Each one of these is 'Another Brick In The Wall' around his feelings. He completes the wll at the end of disc one, only to realise that it is too high, and he can't go out. He is truly mad. His horrified manager shows up, and a doctor gives him an injection ('Comfortably Numb'.) He goes to the show, but the hallucinating Pink thinks that he is a fascist. He sends out skinheads and goes on a rally through the streets, before the trial inside his head commences, and the people from his former life, the very bricks in the wall, come forward to testify against him, and the wall is torn down. Pink Floyd is left as vulnerable as a newborn child.

Great story, great music. There are too many songs to go through, but 'Comfortably Numb' is the greatest song of all time, and that solo is unsurpassed. 'Run Like Hell' is an awesome song, as is 'Hey You', 'Waiting For The Worms', 'Young Lust', 'Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)' and 'Is There Anybody Out There?' All the very best ones ('Comfortably Numb', 'Run Like Hell', 'Hey You') were written by both Waters and Gilmour - Waters likes to think of this album as his, but without Gilmour, would it really be that good?

So shut up about Waters' ego, because he was, and is, a genius. 'The Wall' is one of the greatest albums of all time, and in the top five Pink Floyd albums. You really must own this.

How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?
Actually if I were going to go beyond the idea of a concept album with "The Wall" I would be more inclined to call it an oratorio, similar to Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" or "Passion Play," rather than a rock opera like "Jesus Christ Superstar" or the Who's "Tommy." That is because the over riding unity of the songs in "The Wall" is thematic rather than narrative in nature. The bleak double album is Roger Waters' meditation on the walls human beings build up to ensure their survival in the post-modern world. It is also something of a departure from the group's previous albums, most notably "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "Wish You Were Here," it that the group's signature cosmic rock sound is giving way to some more traditional pop music sensibilities. The compelling electronics and other special effects that had become key components of Pink Floyd's music, and which put "Dark Side of the Moon" on the chart for literally years, now takes a back seat to the themes and lyrics (although there are still some choice moments, such as when Gomer Pyle shows up on "Nobody Home").

The "story," such as it is, concerns a rock star named Pink (no subtlety here, boys and girls), who is disgusted with the lesser human being he has become as a result of his celebrity. The key song in the album is "Comfortably Numb" (co-written by lead guitarist Dave Gilmour), which is one of the classic rock songs about alienation, although obviously the title begs to have it labeled a song about intoxication by the drug on your choice. But the context for lyrics such as "You are only coming through in waves/Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying" is clearly about the despair of being disconnected from humanity. It is also a lament about the lose of childhood, which remains in Waters' vision the time when we are at our best as human beings:

When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown, the dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb

The music for "Comfortably Numb" is both operatic and eerie, a paradox that is nonetheless accurate. The relentlessly depressing picture of a rock star's life would have you worrying about the mental health of Roger Waters if it were not for the suspicion he is writing as much about the life in general and former Pink Floyd lead guitarist and main songwriter Syd Barrett as it is an attempt at catharsis by Waters after spitting on a fan during a concert for daring to applaud during an acoustic number. I always was struck by the start of "Mother," with one of the very best examples of a caesura with the extremely effective pause between the first line, "Mother, do you think they'll drop the bomb?" and the second, "Mother, do you think they'll like this song?" There is a world of meaning in the vocal silence there that I have never forgotten.

There are two pitfalls to "The Wall." The first is that Pink Floyd released a rare single with "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2," which mean that school children rebelling against the system now had something to sing throughout the year while waiting for the end of the year to do Alice Cooper's "Schools Out." Consequently, in the popular consciousness "The Wall" was boiled down to the following potent lyrics:

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

Yet taken in its totality it can hardly be said that the primary purpose of this double-album was an attack on the educational system in England. In song after song the "character" is blaming others for his troubles, so it is not surprising that teachers end up on that list. But the success of the single made it seem this was what the whole thing was all about. For that matter, there are more songs concerned with the threat of nuclear destruction ("Mother," "Goodbye Blue Skies") than education. By the time you through Waters' paranoia over Great Britain becoming fascist ("Run Like Hell") the whole indictment of education seems like just another, well, you know what (which would be the point, right?).

The second concern is that the disparity between the highs and lows on this album are rather substantial. It is rather like sitting through an opera and some of recitatives (e.g., "Goodbye Cruel World") to get to the arias (e.g., "Hey You"). The best tracks on this album are as pretty good, but you still have to sit through some less than stellar sections (e.g., "One of My Turns"). The loose narrative is not enough to help us connect the dots and I suspect it is only by really getting totally into the album and trying to achieve consubstantiality with the creative vision of Roger Waters that you can really make sense of it all. This is why the production values of "The Wall" as performed by Pink Floyd in concert tended to replace the psychological dimensions of listening to it in the dark in your room.

The key thing here is that there are moments in "The Wall" that match its ambition. The sum is greater than the total of the parts, but there is certainly nothing wrong with that being the case.

A brilliantly conceived album of superlative music
When I first bought this album on vinyl back in 1979, being a fledgling Floyd fan, I wondered on my first listening: "What have I bought here? "

But on subsequent playings, the album grew on me until I got to the point where it became my favourite Floyd LP.

Not being overly keen on their earlier works, I very much enjoyed 'Animals', 'Dark Side of the Moon' and 'Wish You Were Here' but 'The Wall' stands alone both in its length and its quality.

Every track is brilliantly conceived and the whole builds a tremendous story that fair carries you along through the central character's trauma and descent into his own personal hell.

As one reviewer has commented, evryone speaks of certain tracks (the guitar solo at the end of 'Comfortably Numb' is excellent) but if you allow the music to penetrate, every track has its appeal.

So don't be put off by your first exposure - listen to it a few times and then you'll really learn to appreciate to this superb magnum opus.