The Wall

I think Audiophile65 is on the right track, and I don't know for sure either, but for those of you out there that are Christian, you may catch on faster to where I'm going with this. Absolutely, no offense meant to anyone who is a non-Christian. Many of the contributors in Kansas have or had connections to Christianity, so it makes sense that there might be an influence. Steve Walsh was raised Catholic and as was mentioned by Audiophile65, Livgren is a born again Christian.

Anyway, to the song...

The first verse is his current situation: He's made some wrong choices in life (haven't we all) but now something has happened that far overshadows anything bad he has ever done and he has no where to turn. He is literally backed into a corner: He is against the wall. "...The path that I have chosen now, has led me to a Wall..."

Now with the full realization of the predicament he's in, he confronts his problem, faces it head on. The verses from, "...It rises now in front of me..." to "...It's just a travesty..." have a 'feel' that eludes to this.

One of the definitions of 'travesty' I found was, "A grotesque imitation with intent to ridicule." So he really feels that what ever he did, he screwed up royally and there may not be any turning back.

My next comment may be a bit of a stretch for some, but I don't think he is referring to his own spirit but rather the Holy Spirit.

(This song is also interesting as there is no refrain/chorus. It is truly a Poem Song and possibly, even a Prayer.)

The Second verse is about the struggle we all go through: To Believe or not to Believe.

He wants to and probably does believe, but struggles with his indecision, even after being born again, "...The Moment is a Masterpiece, the weight of indecision's in the air..."

Prior to that is a fairly direct biblical reference to one of Jesus' parables, "The Promised Land is waiting, Like a Maiden who is soon to be a Bride."

The verse begins with his wanting to get to the other side, Heaven, but feeling he is too week to achieve the goal, and ending with a glimpse of the eternal, blinding darkness of his own sin and Satan.

The third verse is his Epiphany. He sees the how money has ruled his life (and probably is a large contributor to the huge problem he is facing now) and that the true 'Riches' in life have nothing to do with money, and come from God: God is Love.

He comes to the realization that God never left him: He left God and its up to him to, "...tear down the Wall and let..." Him in.

So now he get's it: Finding the peace that comes with living in Harmony with God, and knowing that God smiles back at all of us inviting us to, "Cross" (double entendre?) and that "there is no Loss." Meaning that if you accept Gods forgiveness for your sins, you don't have to 'Pay' anything in return. God's forgiveness is unconditional and free when you are truly sorry for you sins. I believe this is what the Steve Walsh's Character in the song is experiencing and what Steve is singing about.

Other songs that have a Biblical 'twist' "Dust in the wind": as in the Bible, "...and to Dust you shall return." And, Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son: Read it and then listen to "Wayward Son".

All the Best and God's Blessings :-)

The song is about an obstacle, between what the main character is and what he wants to be. All that he ever wants is behind that wall. He is afraid to try to tear it down. he fears that he is too weak. but in the end, he knows he must.

Audiophile65 & SongsSearcher, I believe, are on track about the meaning behind this song. It was on the album "Leftoverture," which was released in 1976. I turned age 14 in July of 1976, so my memory is a little fuzzy as to how popular it was ... I have sat & laid next to - with my ears right up against - stereo console & radio speakers since probably age 3 or 4. Music & singing is my life - we have exceptional musical aptitude on both sides of my family - my maternal grandfather (a German immigrant) was a "prodigy" - he could literally pick up any instrument and play by ear (in my childhood, I heard him on the piano, violin & accordion - my mother and her sister said he never had a musical instrument lesson, in his life, yet could play multiple ones "by ear") ... I grew up listening to all kinds of örchestra" music in my grandparents' house - my Öpi - as we called him (German for grandpa) favored waltzes & polkas, of course! My paternal grandmother was a blues singer ... my dad has a voice that rivals Luciano Pavoratti ... I'm not kidding (tho he never did anything with his musical talent). By the time i was age 5 i could pick out and isolate the 4 different harmonic voices and sing them. I have always favored singing harmonies as opposed to lead melodies.

Anyway, from what I seem to remember, the single "The Wall" did not get the most air-play ... my first time hearing it was not on the airwaves, but after purchasing the album & listening to it. It may have had moderate play, i don't know (maybe some of you out there have a more clear memory of this) ... It just seems to me that among my friends, it was not the popular choice to listen to, from the album. I was immediately drawn to the orchestral arrangement & fascinated by the lyrics of this song - I didn't know exactly why back then, and didn't know for a very long time after .... since my friends favored other tracks on the album, I, VERY often, listened to that song alone - with and without headphones - soaking up the musical mysteries in my soul and searing the lyrics into my mind & memory ... the song touched the inner parts of my soul for a reason I could not comprehend at age 14.

The very first 2 lines of the first stanza caught me - Ï'm woven in a fantasy, I can't believe the things I see"... because my entire life was lived in a fantasy world up until that point - we did not have the games & electronics that exist today, to entertain us - our imaginations were a HUGE part of our entertainment world. I was always daydreaming & making up "make-believe"stories about me and my life ... I could be anyone & anything I wanted to be - and I DID - for many hours a day!! (Despite having 3 siblings - I am the oldest, we are all 1 year apart in age). So of course, the "fantasy" that I was perceiving, I could relate to the "concept" but not to the literal meaning of the songwriter (I just had it wrong, at that young age). The same was true for the words, "the path that I have chosen now has led me to a wall." I understood the concept - he was at the proverbial "fork in the road" of his life .... but the "änd with each passing day I feel a little more like something dear was lost" was, literally, "lost" on my part - being only 14, I hadn't yet travelled too far on the road of life, and felt my whole life was still ahead of me (& I still had an eternity to discover & figure everything out, in life) - and hadn't yet had any serious regrets to ponder ....

I then gets to the "dark and silent barrier between all I am and all I ever hope to be" .... the dark and silent barrier part was intriguing to me ... yes, i am a very dramatic person - even back in the 70s - and by age 10 or 11 - I became familiar with the label "drama queen" - as that's what my dad called me. Also, I love a mystery (and puzzles) - I am a born investigator - people always say my middle name should be "why?" ... I have always been one to question everything - had to know the reason for, or behind, EVERYTHING in my life and the entire world. Then, "marking off the boundaries my spirit would erase" ... well, I had no clue what that meant or what he was referring to. I knew full well what my "spirit" was ... and the fact that God is a Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), as I had attended the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, since the day I was born, and attended Lutheran school beginning in the 4th grade (when my dad got "saved," and agreed to let my mom have her way and enroll us in our church's school), through the 9th grade (when I, in my spiritual "rebellion" wanted to "be like all the other kids in my neighborhood" and attend the public high school. But what was this wall that was towering before him, marking off - what? - invisible boundaries - which his spirit would erase??? What in the world was he talking about???

Then the part about gold & silver cast a spell, it's not for me, I know it well .... ok, I got that - the riches that come along with becoming famous turn once-humble people into greedy, materialistic people .. the more we get, the more we want/crave ... but again, at only age 14, I heard the saying that money & things dobn't buy happiness, but I couldn't verify the validity of that sentiment from personal experience - my dad was a blue collar skilled tradesman (welder) who worked for GM & my mom, a beautician who owned her own beauty shop until I was age 3, was a full-time wife & mother (that's all I knew, since I had no memory of my life from birth to 3 years old). ... We always eventually got most of the things we wanted, but we learned how to dream dreams & having wishes & hopes, and we learned to wait for the things in life that we wanted very badly (and eventually, to learn how to set goals for them by working to earn them , or at least pay for part of them).

So, this song, aside from being somewhat mysterious to me in its meaning and why the writer of it chose the words he did (what was going on inside of his heart, mind & soul, that caused those particular words to pour out of him???), and why I was mysteriously drawn to it and had a deep affection for the orchestration, etc., was a secret pleasure in my life - fulfilled some musical need inside of me every time I listened to it - as well as a secret treasure in my heart & soul (the lyrics), waiting to be fully revealed.

If you have never seen the documentary on Kansas on either MTV or VH1 Classic channel (I forget which one I saw it on), you MUST see it. I learned, some years ago already, that Kerry Livgren had become a Christian. I, myself, though growing up in the Lutheran church and always believing in God and that Jesus was His Son who came to earth and died on the cross so that we could have restored fellowship with God and be saved, had made the choice in adulthood (age 20) to formally give my life back to God and make Jesus Lord of my life, after spending my entire teenage years (as well as age 11 and 12) in a rebellious state - towards both my parents/family and God/the church. I was a stoner, loved rock and roll and wanted to become a rock singer. I wanted to move out and live on my own at age 12 (really, truly believing I could do it, because I was so strong-willed and independent-minded). And at some point after that, God began revealing to me what "divine providence" meant. God's divine providence was most certainly in the lives of the members of the group Kansas, and the documentary makes this clear - they did not even know, themselves, why they wrote the lyrics of many of the songs that they did, and they proclaim divine gifts and talents, musically, that was essential in them somehow becoming a huge hit with fans - they admit they were stunned when success hit them, but in hindsight, can look back and see how God was moving in their lives and musical career. Every professing Christian should take serious time to pray to God & ask Him to show them the full workings of His divine providence in their lives, and take the time to meditate on the events, choices, decisions that were made, the paths they ended up on & how they got off them or diverted from going down a certain path, etc. Ïf you seek Me, you will find Me, says the Lord, if you seek Me with all your heart." God WILL reveal his golden thread of divine providence that He has woven (and is still weaving) through the tapestry of your life and purpose in this world, and how all those things have worked (and are still working) to carry out His will - both in your personal life and family's life, as well as how it fits in to the grand scheme here on earth in relation to others!!!! It's truly a wonderful thing - to know that you WERE created for a purpose - that God knew you before the seeds of ÿou"were planted in your mother's womb - and to have God reveal to you how you fit in to His plans and purposes singularly and in your collective environment/society!!!!

I truly believe that the writer of this song did not know the above, yet, when he wrote it, and he was simply pouring out his heart - that he could feel God's Holy Spirit "being after him," but did not fully know or realize that that is what it was - something was going on in his heart and soul, and he knew he needed to do something or make some change - he probably had an inkling that it was the Almighty God that was after him, but he was questioning it - ïs it really You, God, who is causing this turmoil in my soul? Is it because you really do exist?? We all voice that question at some point, and even many points throughout our lives. I believe he did not get a positive answer/confirmation of that until after the song was recorded and put on the album, etc. He simply let us into a very private part of his inner life struggling with spirituality - God, in His divine providence, caused him to allow himself to be so raw-ly vulnerable as to make his very private, inner questions/struggle/turmoil in his soul, a very public confession - in order that He may use it for His glory and plans and purposes in other peoples' lives - when we submit to God, He always turns our failures and shortcomings into something good, useful and worthwhile - for us and others - so that He may be glorified.

The writer was at a "spiritual" fork in the road - he needed to put his doubts to rest and act on his beliefs ... the wall was not the barrier between this life and the next - it was - and is for all who are at this spot on the road in their lives - it is the barrier/wall between us and God - and that wall is immediately dismantled, the mortar and bricks pulverized, the moment we submit our hearts and lives to God, ask Jesus into our hearts and to be Lord over ourselves and our lives, and have our fellowship with God restored, whereupon the Holy Spirit also enters us and lives within us to work and fulfill the plans and purposes of God. The "travesty" is to live life believing that God does not exist, and/or making something or someone else gods in our lives, and/or living a life-span without the presence of God in our hearts and lives (leading us, fellowshipping/communing with our spirits), and/or making our own self the god or enlightenment of our lives ..... that only leads to tragedy and comedic travesty, on top of emptiness, loneliness, purposelessness, meaningless, etc. .....

Dear readers, God DOES exist - He is the Almighty, Everlasting God - God your Father and Creater - He loves you more than my words can convey, and yearns to have felllowship restored with you, and to live in your hearts and life ....Go ahead - pick up that hammer (swallow your PRIDE) - and TEAR DOWN THAT. WALL !!!!

He wants to find something more in his life, and "pass beyond" the wall that is separating him into the unknown. He has a strong desire to feel completely free to be who he is without any worries... basically he is searching for happiness. This song is amazing when played how it should be: in vinyl, on an old record player. ;)

yes........something about record players that just makes the song better.

WYWH is right. Great song.

Great sytle of song.

an epic song.

lol, WYWH(for wish you were here), Me(pink_Floyd_Fan), and Brain Damage".

All the floyd fans love this song.

i love this song. It's their ballad on this album, other than dust in the wind, but i think that it is so cool. Good meaning too. easy to figure out. wywh got it.