Personally I think this song is really weak. This era of Pink Floyd lacks much soul and depth without the socio-psychological observations of Roger Waters. Many fans do not realize that Pink Floyd hired a panel of accountants, marketing specialists and "song writers" during the late '80s in an effort to fabricate a record which resembled all previous Pink Floyd classics. The remaining band members led by David Gilmour brainstormed with professional song writers asking them to go off and compose songs that sounded like the tunes from the '70s glory days. When the songwriters returned "Delicate Sound of Thunder" was born. Not to take anything away from the remaining Pink Floyd band members (as they are all amazing musicians) but this album was influenced and produced with concern of sales profits and not with art and human emotion like previous records. "Delicate Sound of Thunder" has its moments but it is tiring to hear robbed sound effects from "Darkside of the Moon", "Animals" and "The Wall." Again, sound effects were robbed from previous albums and cleverely inserted on this album in aneffort to win fan enthusiasm from a subliminal source.

The first single, "Learning to Fly" is crafted in a very safe "Pop-Music" sort of formula. This sort of song is a major departure from Pink Floyd's previous conception album craft. I remember the video being shown on MTV back in the '80s. It was actually a great video featuring the two Native American Indian characters. I enjoyed the references and suggestions to Indian folklore by way of insinuated "Shape-Shifting" as when the younger Indian male transforms into an eagle after leaping over the mountianside. But I am left to wonder what percentage of this video concept was Pink Floyd's and what percentage was a marketing team and music video director.

The video was clearly filmed in the midwestern plains states of the U.S. Probably Nebraska if not South Dakota. The southern United States (where I was born and still live today) are coastal plains which are generally flat, grassy and at times swampy. It is rare to find beautiful, endless miles of wheat fields in the southern U.S. as shown in the "Learning to Fly" video. You'd be more likely to find an occassional corn field but typically the crops are cotton, tobacco, peanuts and soybean.

"The Wall" film for me is a work of art. The pennacle of Roger Waters career and definitely merged concepts he began threading throughout Pink Floyd's records from "Darkside of the Moon," "Animals and "Wish You Were Here." What I mean here is the constant references to "Syd Barret" and Syd's illness — which is schizophrenia. And also Rogers lamenting over the loss of his friendship and professional relationship with his former childhood friend and founder of the band. These feelings are communicated clearly in "Wish You Were Here" but "The Wall" tackled three major emotional issues for Roger. These being the loss of Syd Barrett to insanity, the loss of his father in World War II to the Nazis and marital problems. Understanding these important issues in Roger's life is the first step to understanding "The Wall" both as a record album and a full length film.

The "Pink Floyd Character" played by Bob Geldoff is merely a minced human built from Syd and Roger. The character is laced with sentiment and loss. The childhood scenes in the movie are both Syd's and Roger's but squeezed into one little boy. For example, when the boy gets slapped on the hand by the schoolmaster while he's writing the lyrics to the song "Money" is 100% Syd Barret. And actually based in truth. But when the boy walks around saddened and missing his dead war veteran father— well that is 100% Roger Waters and based on his own childhood memories. I personally relate to this strongly because my own father was killed in Vietnam. And it was "The Wall" that I first discovered as a young child and later led to my discovery of the earlier albums as well as Syd Barrett's solo material. I share a lot of common ground with Roger Waters. But it is this very talent of Roger's that so many people relate to. He writes songs that nearly everyone can relate to, no matter race, sex, religion and class. Roger is a poet for mankind in the modern world. It is rare for a rock musician to have Shakesperean impact on society. But I believe Roger came very close if not right on the mark. He has an uncanny ability of writing populist lyrics which communicate struggle, classism, fear, war, death, insanity and love loss all in a introspective but inviting way. This is brillance and irony at its best. Think about it for a second, everyone has experienced at least one of the things Roger has sang about. He simply knows how to scale complex life thoughts down into simple rhyme and melody.

Anyway, I am ranting too much here. THis reply was originally stirred to give you insight as to what the Southern United States looks like geographically. Oh well, I wnet a bit far with this one. And by coincidence, I come from Scottish decendancy myself. I hope to visit there soon.

Cheers!
J.