Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1

Say what he wants, the whole album The Wall, is about Roger Waters life, who lost his real father in the war. You can hear the true pain in his voice on "when the Tigers broke free", at the beginnig of the movie, The Wall", which ends with "and that's how the high command, took my Daddy, from me!" And he so viciously hates the government for it, that he couldn't stop obsessing, and I can see his pain. The "FINAL CUT", the last album before the split, aptly named, was the final straw that broke them apart. The band Pink Floyd had had enough of dwelling on Rogers obsession with the war, and his father's death, and wanted to explore new things, but Roger was politically not done hammering out his feelings on the British government. Most of the songs were all about the war, the old generals who live in nursing homes now, who sent his Daddy to his death. More on that later. The life of a young rocker here is drugs and sex, and it burned him out. He is tortured by no role model to guide him. He even uses a picture symbolizing his dad on an album cover, in uniform. Once from the movie, and again, a soldier with a meat cleaver in his back, in "The Final Cut". Englands refrain"Bring the Boys Back Home" is the swaying political feeling of a tired people, tired of all the sons lost. His overprotective mother becomes the nickname "the Wall', as alluded to above, by someone else...The barrier to dangers she put up to keep him shielded from all things, until he broke out as an unprepared adult. ("Mother's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you") is contrasted with,"I need a dirty girl". in "where are all the good times". We see a worn out rocker, propped up by his promoter with drugs, to make sure he goes onstage, in "Comfortably Numb"...(just a little pin prick..that'll keep you going through the show, c'mon it's time to go"). He loses his wife to his own negligence on the road, as a rocker, yet is crushed one more time when she cheats on him) Roger Waters is fixated on this type of loss, in his solo album "The pros and cons of hitchhiking, he references..." then a friend from the east, rot his soul, stole your heart". He gets tossed from his own home, and leaves his family and moves on, but he is crushed. In "The Final Cut", Waters rips the prime minister, calling her"Maggie" (Margaret Thatcher)and refers to her going to get the Falklands back. He was keenly aware of her moves long after his dad's death, and pounds her repeatedly in the "Final Cut." Waters is disgusted that in war, real people like his dad lose their lives to hold a lousy bridgehead("and the Anzio bridgehead was held for the price, of a few hundred ordinary lives"), while the King sends a letter without even the courtesy of actually signing it personally, to the family, ("his majesty signed with his own rubber stamp") Syd Barrett may have been where Roger saw himself heading, but Roger had a better grip, for sure. Roger was fascinated with the horror, and the deep feelings of losing a dad in the war, and on his later solo album "Radio KAOS", he uses an interview with an old soldier, at the beginning, and to close at the end, a real man, who was haunted by having to leave a mortally wounded friend in a ditch, because the pain inflicted by carrying him, was too much for the wounded man, who begged to be left to die, and the soldier, reluctantly did just that. All his life, he lamented leaving him behind, until he saw his name on the memoriel to fallen soldiers, as stated in the interview. It's no accident that Roger keeps bringing these things up in album after album, so The Wall, isn't fictional at all, and there is no "PINK", in the band Pink Floyd, it's Roger. How obvious is it when he sings in the song, insulting the ditzy rock fans in his despised audience, mocking them as if they are saying, as they look up at him singing"The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think, Oh by the way, which one's PINK"?) (If I had my way, I'd have all of you SHOT!" Roger sings in THE WALL) The Wall is the story of the things that burn in Rogers heart, and that have shaped him, and his talent is so ferociously amazing, yet damaged almost beyond repair. It's a purging of his soul, from the torment, and along the way, he's more than disgusted at the way fans miss the point, and simply wind up liking the music, without a clue as to the pain that spawned it. And for the writer above who wanted the movie, it's at video stores like Circuit City, etc., and a live concert, made after the falling of the West German/East German border, called "The Wall, Live in Berlin" was made by Roger and several other musicians, doing the concert "The Wall", in it's entirity, using the styrofoam blocks that cornered the singers behind it. It happens to be an excellent quality soundtrack, and a monster visual experience. It was done in 1990 I believe. By the way, check out the "schoolmaster" reference in the song about kids in school being derided and chastised to keep them in their place, (the school master picks up young "Roger"s notebook in class, and says, in the movie "The Wall", "what have we here class, the young man fancies himself a poet, no less...(laughter from classmates). He reads the stuff little Roger(Pink) has written, and I have to laugh at that schoolmaster, who makes fun at the words..."new car caviar, four star daydream, think I'll buy me a football team"..(laughter). Well folks, those lyrics went on to become the lyrics to the smash hit single"MONEY" so I guess Roger is a tad more successful than the school teacher who rapped his knuckles in the movie, eh?

Dear God!! The Wall is about Waters, even if he doesn't admit it officially. Water's father left to go to war and was killed there, this "put another brick in his Wall". His Wall is his escapism and lack of ability to confront those around him and his hatred of all the things that have caused him to isolate himself.

Pink loses his father. Another person gone to seal his isolation from the world. It strengthens the Wall.

This song is one of my favourites on the album. It's about Pink's struggle with being fatherless, and how not having one was one of the first in a long list of bricks in the wall that shut him off from the world.

"Daddy's flown across the ocean" Water's father died in WWII, when he was just a baby. The same with Pink. Both of them probably never met their fathers, and wouldn't remember if they had.

"Leaving just a memory... A snap shot in the family album" All he will ever know about his dad comes from memories his mother has, or photos.

"Daddy what else did you leave for me Daddy what d'ya leave behind for me All in all it was all just a brick in the wall All in all it was all just bricks in the wall"

He's lamenting the fact that he never knew his father, and sounds very angry probably becuase he is. He's angry (irrationally) with his father for leaving him, and with the wold in general. The loss of his father was a brick in the wall.

For some reason, no matter how many times I listen to this, I always tear up at the "Daddy, what'dya leave behind for me?" His voice sounds so emotional at that part, and so angry, it makes me emotional just listening to it.

"Daddy's flown across the ocean" Means His father was in the war. Which means he flown across the ocean to fight in the war! Well... that makes sense!

"A snap shot in the family album " Means He wasnt even born to see his father. Which means he only sees him in pictures in the family album.

"Daddy what d'ya leave behind for me " Means he didnt leave nothing for him but a mother that is overproctective. He left him a life with out a father figure in his life. Someone to really look up too. He left him a brick for him for the wall the get bigger. Which describes this lyric "All in all it was all just a brick in the wall" And if you dont still dont understand your a total moron :D j/king

NIN has been my love for quite some time but every now and then I stumble across a band or a song that inspires me.... This song really makes me feel.

This song is about the character's father, how he left (maybe died) and left nothing behind but a picture and a memory. The character is still young in the story. This builds the "Wall of Perfection" and why he is the way he is. (check some more meanings from me to learn more about 'The Wall of Perfection')

All of the songs on The Wall should be in just one topic. Everything is repeated incessantly between all of these separate threads. The Wall is not a compilation of different songs. In itself, it is just ONE song.

I love the whole album, but this song especially hits close to home for me. I, like Pink and Roger Waters, lost my father at a very early age (who was killed in an architectural accident and coincidentally crushed by concrete bricks not very much unlike those featured in The Wall). I barely knew my father, and I've often wondered what he left for me too.

whitemagic is right, its in the movie.