The Wall was Pink Floyds’s eleventh studio album. It is the last studio album released with the classic lineup of guitarist David Gilmour, bassist/lyricist Roger Waters, keyboardist Richard Wright and drummer Nick Mason before Wright left the band. Released as a double album on November 30, 1979, it was supported by a tour with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a 1982 feature film, Pink Floyd – The Wall. The album features the band’s only number one single “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.”
Track listing
Disc 1:
1. “In the Flesh?”
2. “The Thin Ice”
3. “Another Brick in the Wall (Part I)”
4. “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”
5. “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)”
6. “Mother”
7. “Goodbye Blue Sky”
8. “Empty Spaces”
9. “Young Lust”
10. “One of My Turns”
11. “Don’t Leave Me Now”
12. “Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)”
13. “Goodbye Cruel World”
Disc 2:
1. “Hey You”
2. “Is There Anybody Out There?”
3. “Nobody Home”
4. “Vera”
5. “Bring the Boys Back Home”
6. “Comfortably Numb”
7. “The Show Must Go On”
8. “In the Flesh”
9. “Run Like Hell”
10. “Waiting for the Worms”
11. “Stop”
12. “The Trial”
13. “Outside the Wall”
Flip through the gallery to learn more about The Wall by Pink Floyd!
Roger Waters conceived the album during Pink Floyd's 1977 In the Flesh Tour, when his frustration with the audience became so acute that he imagined constructing a wall between the audience and the stage. While David Gilmour and Richard Wright were in France recording solo albums, he began to write new material
Bricks in the Wall Photo By: PRPhotos.com
In July 1978, Waters presented the group with two ideas for their next album. The first was a 90-minute demo with the working title Bricks in the Wall, and the other would later become Waters' first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Although they were initially cautious, the band chose the former to be their next album
Released November 30, 1979, The Wall topped the Billboard chart in the U.S. for fifteen weeks, reaching number three in the U.K. The Wall ranks number three on the RIAA's list of the all-time Top 100 albums, with 23 million certified units sold in the U.S.
The original cover design was one of Pink Floyd's most minimal; a white brick wall and no text. Waters had fallen out with Hipgnosis designer Storm Thorgerson, when he included the cover of Animals in his book, Walk Away Rene. The Wall was the first album cover since The Piper at the Gates of Dawn not created by the design group
Which One’s Pink? Photo By: PRPhotos.com
The album follows Pink, a character whom Roger Waters modeled after himself and the band's original leader, Syd Barrett. Pink's life begins with the loss of his father during the Second World War and continues with abuse from his school teachers, an overprotective mother, and the breakdown of his marriage
Technical constraints led to running order changes with "What Shall We Do Now?" being replaced by "Empty Spaces,” and "Hey You" being moved from its original place at the end of side three, to the beginning. With the November 1979 deadline approaching, the band left the now-incorrect inner sleeves of the album unchanged
Education Photo By: Evening Standard/Getty Images
Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” provided the band's only number one single, selling over 4 million copies worldwide. Originally with a working title of “Education,” the song received a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group, but lost to Bob Seger's "Against the Wind”
Young Lust Photo By: PRPhotos.com
The dialogue with the operator in the song was the result of an arrangement co-producer James Guthrie made with a neighbor in London, while the album was being recorded in Los Angeles. He wanted realism and for the operator to actually believe they had caught his wife having an affair, so they didn't inform her she was being recorded
Reel 13 Photo By: PRPhotos.com
Although "Hey You" was shot for the film Pink Floyd - The Wall, the sequence, also known as Reel 13, was ultimately not included. The song, along with "The Show Must Go On,” was edited out for fear on the part of the filmmakers that the film was running too long. However, a rough version is available as an extra on the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD
The Doctor
Comfortably Numb” is one of only three songs on the album for which writing credits are shared between Roger Waters and David Gilmour. The song, with an original working title of "The Doctor,” was inspired by an injection Waters had with a muscle relaxant to combat the effects of hepatitis during the In the Flesh Tour, while in Philadelphia
