another brick
So my first purchase last week from the new Amazon MP3 store was Pink Floyd’s The Wall. It was on the front page, it was (and still is) priced at all of $8.99, the last recording of this I owned was a worn out cassette (and before that a scratched up LP), and I’m sure the last dozen times I’d heard the record I wasn’t, you know, um, sober.
If you haven’t heard it in a while, go get it. Download it, put it on your fancy iThing, plug in your noise canceling headphones, and thank Roger Waters for every minute. If you’ve misplaced your bong, burned out the black light and sold the album sleeve for a buck to the used record store, here are some links to get you through the tracks…
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The Wikipedia article on The Wall includes information about how one of the band members was fired after recording the album, the story about the fight over royalties owed to the school choir who performed on “Another Brick in the Wall,” a song-by-song storyline of the album, descriptions of the live shows (yes, they did build a wall of cardboard bricks in front of the audience), some information about the movie (starring Bob Geldof) and a bunch more miscellaneous trivia. (I love that trivia sections are “discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.”)
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YouTube has a ton of stuff, of course. Start with this search, but you’ll find the original movie trailer and this crazy Lego version of The Wall concert.
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TheWallAnalysis.com is a complete site dedicated to, you guessed it, analyzing The Wall.
Sure, it’s late 70s over the top theatrical prog rock. And sure, if you’re even a remotely well-adjusted human being it’s hard to relate to Pink. But I dare you to ignore the chill that goes up your spine in “Mother” when David Gilmour says to Pink “Of course mama’s gonna help build the wall.”