1979 - The Wall

The Wall
Pink Floyd, 1979



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Release date: November 30th, 1979 (UK); December 8th, 1979 (US)

Recorded at: Super Bear Studios, Miravel, France; CBS Studios, New York City and Producers Workshop, Los Angeles with some overdubs in Britannia Row Studio, London (April-November 1979)

The Wall is hugely impressive as a construction job, and there are some excellent songs lurking in the morass (notably "Comfortably Numb" and the sparkling cock-rock parody "Young Lust"). The band went to the south of France in 1978, after the loss of 2 million pounds in investments, to record a double concept album which proved to be their "Roger Waters-est" project yet. While there, the Pink Floyd Mark Two partnership finally started to dissolve.

David Gilmour: "I still think some of the music is incredibly naff, but The Wall is conceptually brilliant. At the time I thought it was Roger listing all the things that can turn a person into an isolated human being. I came to see it as as one of the luckiest people in the world issuing a catalogue of abuse and bile against people who'd never done anything to him. Roger was taking more and more of the credits. In the songbook for this album, against "Comfortably Numb", it says 'Music by Gilmour and Waters'. It shouldn't: he did the lyrics, I did the music. I kept finding hundreds of little things like that. Shouldn't bitch, but one does feel unjustly done." [Waters did re-arrange the chords and melody from Dave's original demo; of course, Dave did a lot of uncredited rewrites on Roger's demos... --Botley]

Nick Mason: "The recording was very tense, mainly because Roger was starting to go a bit mad. This was the record when he fell out badly with Rick. Rick has a natural style, a very specific piano style, but he doesn't come up with pieces easily, or to order. Which is a problem when other people are worrying about who did what and who should get the credit. There was even talk of Roger and Dave elbowing me out and carrying on as a duo. There were points during The Wall when Roger and Dave were really carrying the thing. Rick was useless, and I wasn't very much help to anyone either."

David Gilmour: "Generally Nick worked hard and played well on The Wall. He even worked out a way of reading music for the drums. But there was one track called "Mother" which he really didn't get. So I hired Jeff Porcaro to do it. And Roger latched on to this idea, the way he always did with my ideas, and began to think, is Nick really necessary?"

During the sessions for The Wall, Richard Wright was basically forced out of Pink Floyd.

Rick Wright: "Roger came up with the whole album on a demo, which everyone felt was potentially very good but musically very weak. Very weak indeed. Bob [Ezrin], Dave and myself worked on it to make it more interesting. But Roger was going through a big ego thing at the time, saying that I wasn't putting enough in, although he was making it impossible for me to do anything. The crunch came when we all went off on holiday towards the end of the recording. A week before the holiday was up I got a call from Roger in America, saying 'come over immediately.' [Roger cut the holiday short when their record company offered monetary incentive to finish in time for a pre-Christmas release date. Most of the main work was already recorded, but many keyboard parts had yet to be finished; Rick told Roger to "**** off" and left Gilmour & Ezrin to play most of them --Botley] Then there was this band meeting in which Roger told me he wanted me to leave the band. At first I refused. So Roger stood up and said that if I didn't agree to leave after the album was finished, he would walk out then and there and take the tapes with him. There would be no album, and no money to pay off our huge debts. So I agreed to go. I had two young kids to support. I was terrified. Now I think I made a mistake. It was Roger's bluff. But I really didn't want to work with this guy anymore."

David Gilmour: "We had a studio in the south of France where Rick was staying. The rest of us had rented houses 20 miles away. We'd all go home at night, and we'd say to Rick: 'Do what you like, here are all these tracks, write something, play a solo, put some stuff down. You've got all evening every evening to do it. All the time we were there, which was several months, he did nothing. He just wasn't capable of playing anything."

It is rumoured to be the biggest-selling double CD set of all time (over 750,000 sales in the U.K. alone).

The live shows for The Wall were from 07/02/1980 to 06/17/1981. The movie was released on 07/14/1982, and Roger Waters' The Wall live in Berlin show was on 06/21/1990.

Tracks:

• In the Flesh? (Waters)
  
  [03:17] Vocals by Waters.
• The Thin Ice (Waters)
  
  [02:28] Vocals by Gilmour and Waters ("If you should go skating").
• Another Brick in the Wall part.I (Waters)
  
  [03:41] Vocals by Waters.
• The Happiest Days of Our Lives (Waters)
  
  [01:20] Vocals by Waters.
• Another Brick in the Wall part.II (Waters)
  
  [03:56] Vocals by Waters and Gilmour.
• Mother (Waters)
  
  [05:32] Vocals by Waters and Gilmour ("Hush now").
• Goodbye Blue Sky (Waters)
  
  [02:48] Vocals by Gilmour.
• Empty Spaces (Waters)
  
  [02:07] Vocals by Waters.
• Young Lust (Waters, Gilmour)
  
  [03:29] Vocals by Gilmour.
• One of my Turns (Waters, Gilmour)
  
  [03:36] Vocals by Waters.
• Don't Leave Me Now (Waters)
  
  [04:22] Vocals by Waters and Gilmour ("OOOhhh babe" at the end).
• Another Brick in the Wall part.III (Waters)
  
  [01:17] Vocals by Waters.
• Goodbye Cruel Word (Waters)
  
  [01:05] Vocals by Waters.
• Hey You (Waters)
  
  [04:39] Vocals by Gilmour and Waters ("But it was only fantasy").
• Is There Anybody Out There? (Waters)
  
  [02:40] Vocals by Waters.
• Nobody Home (Waters)
  
  [03:25] Vocals by Waters.
• Vera (Waters)
  
  [01:38] Vocals by Waters.
• Bring the Boys Back Home (Waters)
  
  [00:50]Vocals by Waters.
• Comfortably Numb (Gilmour, Waters)
  
  [06:49] Vocals by Waters ("Hello") and Gilmour ("There is no pain").
• The Show Must Go On (Waters)
  
  [01:36] Vocals by Gilmour.
• In the Flesh (Waters)
  
  [04:16] Vocals by Waters.
• Run Like Hell (Gilmour, Waters)
  
  [04:22] Vocals by Waters.
• Waiting for the Worms (Waters)
  
  [03:56] Vocals by Gilmour ("Sitting in a bunker") and Waters ("To cut out the deadwood").
• Stop (Waters)
  
  [00:34] Vocals by Waters.
• The Trial (Waters, Ezrin)
  
  [05:16] Vocals by Waters.
• Outside the Wall (Waters)
  
  [01:42] Vocals by Waters.

Total Playing Time: 80'01

Musicians Featured:

• David Gilmour: Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Fretless bass on "Hey You"
• Nick Mason: Drums
• Roger Waters: Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer, Vocals
• Rick Wright: Keyboards
• Jeff Porcaro: Drums on "Mother"
• Joe Porcaro: Lead snare drum on "Bring the Boys Back Home"
• Lee Ritenour: Rhythm Guitar on "One of my Turns" and "Comfortably Numb"
• Ron di Blasi: Acoustic Guitar on "Is There Anybody Out There?"
• Orchestration: Michael Kamen and Bob Ezrin
• Backing Vocals: Toni Tenille, Bruce Johnston, Joe Chemay, Stan Farber, Jim Haas (on "The Show Must Go On", "In the Flesh", and "Waiting for the Worms"); Islington Green School (London) Fourth Form Music Class ("Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two")

Other information:

• Produced by David Gilmour, Bob Ezrin, Roger Waters
• Co-producer and engineer: James Guthrie
• Engineers: Nick Griffiths, Patrice Quef, Brian Christian, John Mclure, Rick Hart
• Orchestra arrangements: Michael Kamen, Bob Ezrin
• Sound equipment: Phil Taylor
• Sleeve design: Gerald Scarfe, Roger Waters

The Piper

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