information about another brick in the wall

Hi!!

I hope you'll help me!

I'm an English teacher and some pupils asked me to work on the song "another brick in the wall" but I need some information about the context, the history, the meaning...of this song and also about the band....

Thanks a lot !

In it's context, it makes a lot more sense. Its not really about "needing no education" but rather the roles teachers once played in children's lives. An overbearing role for one Roger Waters, it seems.

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stchrissie is not me.

I feel it is about the way schools churn out mindless automata. I mean, I feel it was his plea against the way children were being taught to think in a way not how to think...

Suppression of individuality etc.

Certainly seems true now.

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Things I've learned from working in the ER: Leave circumcision to the professionals

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Hiya Katy,

I noticed no-one has replied to your request (when I started writing this post this was true, but during the writing of it...!!!), so I thought I'd try to get the ball rolling. I'll try to be as brief as possible and hopefully I'll try to be accurate. I am sure any mistakes will be gleefully pounced upon and "put through the shredder" (Don't Leave me Now) by the pedants on this board. On with the show...

The band:
The key members of the band are:
Roger "Syd" Barrett - lead guitar and vocals 1965-68
Roger Waters - bass and vocals 1965-83/4
David Gilmour - lead guitar and vocals 1968-
Rick Wright - Keyboards and vocals 1965-83, 1987-
Nick Mason - Drums 1965-

I will try to be as brief as possible dealing with the history of the band, because there are loads of sites/posts (e.g http://support.uni-oldenburg.de/~flo...ish/story.html) that will do a far better job of explaining the story of the band.

Suffice to say, the name was thought up by Syd (after two American blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council). They have sold in excess of 140 million records over their career and released 17 official albums and recorded concerts, though there are numerous collections (A Collection of Great Dance Songs, Echoes) as well as a vast number of bootlegs available. The biggest selling albums have been Dark Side of the Moon (25 million copies) and The Wall (11+ million copies), though several other albums (Momentary Lapse of Reason, The Division Bell) have each sold several million copies. The majority of the writing (of the most well known songs and albums) was done by Roger Waters (who left the band acrimoniously in 1984) and David Gilmour (who notionally is still in Pink Floyd).

The album
The Wall was conceived and written almost exclusively by Roger Waters in isolation (indeed some have argued that it is almost a solo album), and is essentially the story/explanation of Roger's alienation from school, home, family, the band and finally himself. David Gilmour has described it as "a bit of a whinge", which although probably unfair has some truth to it. The concept behind the album is that Roger had become alienated from the bands' fans (there was a famous point during a 1977 concert in Canada when Roger spat at a fan), to such an extent that he felt the band should play behind a "wall", which at the time he conceived could be a large black plastic dustbin sack(!). During the period 1977-9 he was going through some personal difficulties which increased his sense of alienation. This alienation had caused Roger to develop a "wall" behind which he hid his feelings and protected himself from other people, "sitting in a bunker, here behind my wall/perfect isolation here behind my wall"(Waiting for the Worms). The things that he had turned to (school, family, etc) which he felt had failed him had caused him to develop this emotional wall, which once built became almost impossible to breach, "Is there anybody out there?". As he attempts to break down this wall there is an implicit nervous breakdown, and possible suicide attempt, a fact touched upon in the subsequent film, and songs from the Final Cut (the follow-up album written largely from off-cuts from the Wall). "I held the blade in trembling hands/prepared to make it but.../just then the phone rang/I never had the nerve to make the final cut"(The Final Cut).

Coupled with this sense of growing isolation (and perhaps because of it) there became increasing tensions in the band because Roger had felt that it had become "no longer a group, like The Who without Pete Townshend. It was just a marketing exercise that had nothing to do with music." Since Roger felt (rightly) that he was the principal creative force behind the band, he felt (wrongly) that he should solely dictate the direction and personnel in the band. Bob Ezrin (the album's producer) has compared Roger's behaviour in the studio to the fascistic rock star/leader depicted in the album, and there is certainly evidence that Roger was something of a hard taskmaster on himself and others. * Ultimately it was this conflict of ego's (initially with Rick Wright, but eventually with David Gilmour) that split the band up.

*It is important to note that Roger himself is something of a strident socialist and is NOT a fascist!!!

The song
The song "Another Brick in the Wall part 2" (I assume this is the song to which you refer) was released as a single in the UK November 1979 and reached no. 1 staying there for 5 weeks(I think), selling over 340 000 copies in its first week. This represented the band's biggest single selling song by some distance, and one they have never come close to repeating. The song itself is an attack on the (British) education system which (Roger felt) supressed individual creativity and enforced irrelevant facts and ideals (a la Mr. Gradgrind). During the recording of the song the Islington Green school choir (North London) were brought in to sing the main refrain, presumably to help emphasise these feelings, an act which guaranteed the song notoriety (not least amongst the children themselves), but also (I think) may have even raised questions in the Houses of Parliament. At the very least it did nothing to harm the sales of the single or the album.

"We don't need no education/we don't need no thought control/
No dark sarcasm in the classroom/Teacher leave us kids alone" (although with that sort of grammar...)

The implied message behind the song was that the education system had alienated children (particularly Mr. R.Waters esq), and was "all in all just another brick in the wall"(Another Brick in the Wall part 2).

An interesting addendum to this is that Roger has said that he refuses to let stage productions of the Wall take place, EXCEPT for school and youth productions. "I get requests all the time for my permission to allow people to mount shows, but the only ones I ever agree to are amatuer productions put on by schools and colleges" (Roger Waters, Is there anybody out there sleeve notes 2000)

I hope this is of some use to you, and at least a starting point. If I have made any mistakes I do apologise, I am sure that these will be corrected in due course.


p.s err... sorry about the length of this post. I kinda got carried away...

The bad grammer in the song is also a pun.

I think it's irony.

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stchrissie is not me.

I heard Waters say a while back, that Another Brick (pt2) wasn't about the education system as such, and was more about particularly unpleasant teachers. Personally, i never listen to it on it's own, as the prelude "Happiest Days of Our Lives" always brings a smile to my face.

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In 1954 the British Government, in order to maintain the balance of power between East and West, exploded their first atom bomb at Woomera. They failed to contact all of the Aborigine peoples at the time. The Aborigines still call this 'the day of the cloud.'

Yes Pow, thats what I heard Waters say too, in fact if you bought the Wall DVD, and you listen to the commentary Roger Waters says just that....

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No wire hangers everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr


This is what I'm listening to right now!

I'm afraid i haven't yet even seen the film. I've been meaning to actually, but i never actually have.
I heard Waters say that in an interview on the Radio 2 two-part tribute story that was on earlier this year.

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In 1954 the British Government, in order to maintain the balance of power between East and West, exploded their first atom bomb at Woomera. They failed to contact all of the Aborigine peoples at the time. The Aborigines still call this 'the day of the cloud.'

havent seen the film? do youself a favor!!!

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"I open the door, to an empty room, then I forget."

Well, I finally got round to getting pompeii in the summer, and p.u.ls.e. for xmas, so i suppose i really should get the wall next. I've heard it's mind numbingly depressing.

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In 1954 the British Government, in order to maintain the balance of power between East and West, exploded their first atom bomb at Woomera. They failed to contact all of the Aborigine peoples at the time. The Aborigines still call this 'the day of the cloud.'

See the film- it explains that kids are meant to feel like nothing but just a number sometimes, but become mentally damaged by the taunts and derision of the teachers.
-My friend and I have a plan to play the song over the intercom at school on the last day, but we don't have the guts to do it...

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...and if you're reading this, I'll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon.

The Film is not as depressing as the album, the ending is much more positive because it ends with the kids breaking the cycle instead of repeating it as they do on the album.

But listen to Roger's commentary if you have the DVD. Keep it on until the very end of the credits...

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I do not have to seek you out, I read you day and night
And drink and bathe and share my coat
And droplets spray in rainbows from that distant age
And we will never taste the final drop
Nor turn the final page

Great job man... i wish i cud type such long thingy ever !!

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Glance into the blackness hidden beneath your surface
And enjoy the suffering, sanity drained in disrespect
With such bedevilled faith in good, subsequently trusting evil
Next step for mankind will be the last seasons in sin

yeah i was just watching it last night actually. it is pretty depressing... i like the cartoon bits

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