A Great Day for Freedom

I often listen to lyric content and try to parse it; I haven't done that with this. The first part sounds a little overwrought, probably written about the Berlin wall, maybe about the juggernaut Pink Floyd had become after recording "The Wall," whatever.

But the guitar solo at the end is indescribably beautiful. This, after "Marooned," feels to my ears like, imagine it's evening in the summer and a storm is brewing on the horizon. The breeze is wafting through the trees and the climate feels fantastic, despite the coming rain. The music to these two tracks does to the ears what that type of sensation does to the body.

The Division Bell is roughly a concept album about levels of comunication, so this is a tad more obvious if you go in knowing that. Eh...But I'll let you all figure it out yourselves.

PEOPLE we must understand this song is about the MAN who sold the world the third anti christ that discovers music in the third person is HIS life and the government has written music for HIM HE will discover he cant be killed by walking around a park and making prank sexual phone calls to a city thats why when you are face to face with Him you cant kill Him although music is HIS life you can see the trends in such bands as the eagles the police and especially david bowie thats why there is jesus doesnt want me for a sunbeam before it on nirvanas unplugged thats why its the man who sold the world he sells out all the bands especially pink floyd with THE WALL ten years before the berlin wall ironic no govt we are all bricks in the wall not to mention the flesh and bone by the phone also found in personal jesus by johnny cash you can see it in discographies as well in radiohead nirvana and audioslave as well as the stones let it bleed and the beatles let it be if you are a music buff you can understand and see HAIL TO THE THIEF THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD

Interviewer: The album could easily be interpreted as an allegory about the split with Roger.

David Gilmour: I don't think that it is. There are a couple of hinted mentions that could or could not have something to do with him. But all that I read from people working out what they think it's about has been either fairly or wildly inaccurate. I enjoy that. I'm quite happy for people to interpret it any way they like. But maybe a note of caution should be sounded because you can read too much into it. 'A Great Day for Freedom,' for example, has got nothing to do with Roger or his 'wall.' It just doesn't. What else can I say?"

...you people do realize that it could actually be about BOTH walls, the one in Berlin and the one inside your head, going down and... gasp this could actually be comparing/reflecting the world situation with the personal situation?

Oh, but that's just too far-fetched. Continue arguing.

Umm... I think you guys are looking a little too deep. Not every song on this album is about the band. It fits with the theme of isolation and seperation ("division", gasp). I'm pretty sure that it has more to do with the Berlin Wall falling, and how everyone celebrated the event. However, the line "And there's a change that, even with regret, cannot be undone" shows how there are permanent damages that we can't just apologize away.

I think there's probably more to this song than just this. The Berlin Wall is the main focus, but there are probably other inspirations that went into this song.

i disagree, high hopes' lyrics are profound, so are these ones

This whole album is so much more than what people think. Instead of just 4 or 5 songs about the band, I think that's what every song on this album is about. This song inparticularly is, i think, about after The Wall album, and the success that came with it. "The Ship of Fools That Runs aground" is the band and everyone associated with them that never matched the success of the wall.

This is talking about the freedom the band had after Roger Waters left. When they say the wall came down, they mean when he took off because Roger Waters wrote all of The Wall and made a lot of the music. The rest is saying how they're free to do what they want because by the time they released The Final Cut, Waters was doing everything. The album jacket even says "An album by Roger Waters and performed by Pink Floyd." This whole album talks about Waters leaving.

I think this album is, more particularly, about the entire history of the band. The title "The Division Bell" is like saying "Hey, we're done." This song isn't just about the freedom, though. It's also about how when Roger Waters left, first he felt insecure, there was a certain feeling of "What do we do now?"