Mostly, The Wall is so boringly bad because it’s so derivative and dark, a singular glorified Roger Waters’ solo effort of the megalomaniac who simply was unable to cope with this millionaire rock star lifestyle, dredging up an unhappy past and pouring it out like a spilt salt shaker across the table, tasty on the fingertips, though offering nothing of substance and leaving one thirsty for something relatable. The album’s themes of abandonment and isolation. Waters reputedly based Pink upon Syd Barrett, though with elements of his own life and character thrown in. Though if we look at the year 1979, the killing of the students at Ohio State was finally settled, the American ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped, for the first time ever Mardi Gras was canceled, Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant melted, the Unabomber continues his siege, gay and lesbians riot in San Francisco, then there’s the Iran Hostage Crisis, eleven Who fans are crushed at a concert, and of course, McDonald’s introduces the Happy Meal, where we find The Wall forever being played out on a cassette tape inside a yellow Sony Walkman that’s hanging off a beltless pair of baggy acid stonewashed jeans decked out with a sporty jacket with huge padded shoulders, all bouncing along the sidewalk on expensive unlaced sneakers, making it perhaps the worst album the band have ever done. Conceived by Roger Waters, Pink Floyd’s 11th studio album, The Wall, was a sprawling double-disc rock opera that explores the life of Pink, a jaded rock star whose eventual self-imposed isolation from society forms a figurative wall. In actuality, The Wall was foisted upon the world, smashed down on music lovers with Pink Floyd saying, “Here, deal with this, I’m giving you nothing but my pain, and I’m going to give it back to you relentlessly over and over again in concert for the rest of your life.”
Perhaps it was the drugs of the times, perhaps it was a bit of selfishness on the part of the musicians, thinking that they could give us any vision of their lives and that we’d wrap our arms around it with love … but it’s not my purpose in life to make any of the members of Pink Floyd feel good about themselves, and had this album been released with the usual host of singles it may not have been taken to heart by the public in the manner it was.
As with The Stones, gone was the lushness and warmth people had come to expect and relish, and in came an emptiness that fans couldn’t understand. With that in mind, may I suggest that there were several other bands who had this line of demarcation, with The Rolling Stones being a prime example, the step from Sticky Fingers to Exile On Main Street left far too many Stones’ fans out in the cold, people who would never walk through that door again.
#What is pink floyd the wall album about movie
This interview took place before the group had put on any of their shows (which I did manage to see later, thank goodness), or even before the movie came out.
I can certainly remember playing it a lot, finding the secret backwards message, etc etc. Now, those who were coming of age in 1979 have taken this album to heart, embracing it as a standard to be flown in opposition all that was happening around them. When TheWall came out in the UK in 1979, it became quite a hit with audiences.