Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
This is for those who want to know the concept behind The Wall: the album, and not just the songs. This is for us to discuss why the entire album was written, not just the songs individually, but for the concept behind the entire album.
This is also for discussion about the movie, which covers the album in a whole different light.
This is also for discussion about the movie, which covers the album in a whole different light.
Lyrics submitted by RainbowDemon, edited by Mellow_Harsher
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Spirit Within
Bertoldi Brothers
Bertoldi Brothers
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
JoeBaldwin, you hit the nail on the head. The Wall is just that. However I don't think it fair to call Pink mad for all of Disc 2. For songs like Waiting For The Worms, Run Like Hell, The Show Must Go on...yes. He is mad. But for songs like Hey You, Comfortably Numb, The Trial and Is There Anybody Out There? it's not fair to call him mad. He's built The Wall. It's not insanity, it's a mental state of extreme overprotection and depression.
To the person who didn't understand The Trial and Outside The Wall, it's Pink fighting heavily with himself. The Trial is a recap of everything, EVERYTHING, that has caused Pink to build the wall, and his personal battles with them. Outside The Wall is Pink feeling sorry for himself, and feeling sorry for those who have attempted to contact him during his time in the wall.
As for playing Disc 1 after Disc 2, that's not really the point. It's sort of reading too much into the album. The point of Goodbye Cruel World is that Pink didn't die, nor did the album end with his enclosure into the wall. It basically started with his enclosure. Everything on Disc 2 is Pink NOW. Everything on Disc 1 was Pink THEN.
Two things I think are interesting about The Wall: -The Trial is never actually clear. Is the fact that the wall is torn down a good thing or a bad thing? Does Pink really WANT to be outside of the Wall? Because for Hey You and a brief moment before Comfortably Numb, he does, but it's never actually clear. -Another Brick In The Wall is all in past tense. Mother is in present. This might be reading a little too much into it, but could Mother be Pink's little intervention between flashbacks?
Just my two cents on the matter.