Jump to content

Another Brick in the Wall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 24.68.131.138 (talk) at 02:22, 17 July 2011 (noted the two 1/4 shorter measures in the film version). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the Crooked X EP, see Another Brick in the Wall (EP).

"Another Brick in the Wall"
Song

"Another Brick in the Wall" is the title of three songs set to variations of the same basic theme, on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera, The Wall, subtitled Part 1 (work title Reminiscing), Part 2 (work title Education), and Part 3 (work title Drugs). All parts were written by Pink Floyd's bassist, Roger Waters. Part II is a protest song against rigid schooling in general and boarding schools in particular,[1] which led to the song being banned in South Africa during the apartheid regime.[2] It was also released as a single and provided the band's only number one hit in the United Kingdom, the United States, West Germany and many other countries. In addition, in the US, along with the tracks, "Run Like Hell", and "Don't Leave Me Now", "Another Brick in the Wall" reached number fifty-seven on the disco chart.[3] In the UK, it was their first single since 1968's "Point Me at the Sky": the song was also the final number one single of the 1970s. For Part II, Pink Floyd received a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group and lost to Bob Seger's "Against the Wind". In addition, Part II was number 375 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[4] The single sold over 4 million copies worldwide.

The single, as well as the album The Wall, were banned in South Africa in 1980 after the song was adopted by supporters of a nationwide school boycott protesting racial inequities in education.[5]

Concept

Each of the three parts has a similar, if not the same, tune and lyrical structure (though not lyrics, aside from the "all in all" refrain), and each is louder and more enraged than the one before, rising from the sadness of Part I to the protesting Part II to the furious Part III. This tune is repeated in almost every song on the album, albeit in a different form each time.

Part 1

Composition

Part 1 of the song is very quiet dynamically and features a long, subdued guitar solo. The vocals are softer and gentler in tone than in Parts 2 and 3, although there is a short, sharp rise in dynamics and tone for a brief period towards the end of the lyrical portion. Sniffing, shouting, wailing, calling, and children can be faintly heard in the background. The solo goes into The Happiest Days of Our Lives before being interrupted by a yelling teacher and helicopter.

Plot

The Thin Ice discussed during the previous song breaks when Pink becomes older and learns of the death of his father. Pink is devastated by this reality and begins to build The Wall.

Film version

Pink's mother is seen praying in a church after the death of her husband overseas. Pink, however, is, at this point, oblivious of his death, and can be seen playing with a toy aeroplane. The song continues with Pink playing in a public park after his mother leaves him to go shopping. He sees a man who he takes a liking to in the absence of his own father. The man gives Pink a lift onto a ride, and it's clear Pink feels as if this man is his real father. Pink follows the man's son around, copying him, but doesn't understand why the other boy's father isn't paying attention to him. He grabs the man's hand but is shooed away, only to grab the man's hand again. The man pushes Pink away again, and dejectedly he sits on a swing (which is too far off the ground for him to swing himself). He looks over at the other parents swinging their kids, feeling even more alone.

Part 2

"Another Brick in the Wall"
Song
B-side"One of My Turns"
Another Brick in the Wall part 2
The disco beat used in "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) presented a marked change from Pink Floyd's previous releases.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Composition

In the album version of The Wall, "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" segues from "The Happiest Days of Our Lives", with Roger Waters' signature scream. The song has strong drums, a well-known bass line and distinctive guitar parts in the background with a smooth, yet edgy guitar solo. The song also features a group of school children for lead vocals in the second verse: as the song ends, the sounds of a school yard are heard, along with the teacher (portrayed as an Scotsman) who continues to lord it over the children's lives by shouting such things as "Wrong! Do it again!" which somehow sounds mocking, and "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?!", and "You! Yes! You behind the bikesheds! Stand still, laddie!", all of it dissolving into the dull drone of a phone ringing and ending with a deep sigh.

School choir

Producer Bob Ezrin had immediately recognised the hit potential of this song, but it took some manoeuvring behind the band’s back until "Part II" had the now familiar shape.

It was Ezrin’s idea to use a school choir for this song, as he explained in 2009:[6]

The most important thing I did for the song was to insist that it be more than just one verse and one chorus long, which it was when Roger wrote it. When we played it with the disco drumbeat I said: ‘Man, this is a hit! But it’s one minute 20. We need two verses and two choruses.’ And they said, ‘Well you’re not bloody getting them. We don’t do singles, so fuck you.’ So I said, ‘Okay, fine,’ and they left. And because of our two [tape recorder] set up, while they weren’t around we were able to copy the first verse and chorus, take one of the drum fills, put them in between and extend the chorus. Then the question is what do you with the second verse, which is the same? And having been the guy who made Alice Cooper’s School’s Out, I’ve got this thing about kids on record, and it is about kids after all. So while we were in America, we sent [recording engineer] Nick Griffiths to a school near the Floyd studios [in Islington, North London]. I said, ‘Give me 24 tracks of kids singing this thing. I want Cockney, I want posh, fill ’em up,’ and I put them on the song. I called Roger into the room, and when the kids came in on the second verse there was a total softening of his face, and you just knew that he knew it was going to be an important record.

Griffiths did indeed approach music teacher Alun Renshaw of Islington Green School about the choir,[7] around the corner from Pink Floyd’s Britannia Row Studios.

Though the school received a lump sum payment of £1000, there was no contractual arrangement for royalties from record sales. Under a 1996 UK copyright law, they became eligible for royalties from broadcasts, and after royalties agent Peter Rowan traced choir members through the website Friends Reunited and other means, they lodged a claim for royalties with the Performing Artists' Media Rights Association in 2004.[8]

Disco beat

The idea for the disco beat came likewise from Ezrin. As David Gilmour explained in 2009:[6]

It wasn’t my idea to do disco music, it was Bob’s. He said to me, ‘Go to a couple of clubs and listen to what’s happening with disco music,’ so I forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, Gawd, awful! Then we went back and tried to turn one of the [song’s] parts into one to those so it would be catchy.

Of the final outcome, Roger Waters has commented:

It was great—exactly the thing I expected from a collaborator.

While Gilmour added:

And it doesn’t, in the end, not sound like Pink Floyd.

Plot

After being insulted by the teacher, Pink dreams that the kids in his school begin to protest against their abusive teachers.

Film version

Following "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" Pink starts to daydream during his class. He imagines several students marching in unison to the beat of the song, following a path until they fall blindly into an oversized meat-grinder to re-emerge as putty-faced clones void of individual distinction. Starting with Gilmour's guitar solo, the children destroy the school building using hammers (foreshadowing the subsequent neo-fascist Nazi-like animated sequence with its marching hammers) and crowbars, creating a bonfire, dragging their teacher out of the burning school kicking and screaming. The song ends with Pink rubbing his hand, which the teacher slapped with a ruler in the previous song.

During the song, the teacher's "meat and pudding" lines are folded into the first few lines of the school choir's lines, and are performed by the teacher in the film, played by Alex McAvoy. The 2 measures this is done over each are 1/4 shorter than the album version, creating problems for anyone attempting to dance or headbang to it.

Music video

Prior to the film, the first video for the track, directed by album/concert/film art designer Gerald Scarfe, depicted students running in a playground and the teacher puppet from The Wall concerts was used. The video also mixed in some animated scenes later used in "The Trial" and "Waiting for the Worms". The children who sang on "Another Brick in the Wall (Pt. II)" were not allowed to appear in the video as they didn't hold Equity Cards.[9]

Once the film was completed, the actual scenes of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" were combined into a new video, which now represents the music video for "Another Brick in the Wall".

Alternative versions

  • The single version had a short guitar intro but fades out earlier, ending after approximately 3 minutes 11 seconds.
  • The 1981 compilation A Collection of Great Dance Songs includes a hybrid (3:54) version which, like the single version, omits the segue from "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" but retains the longer playground ending of the studio version.
  • The versions from live albums and videos Delicate Sound of Thunder and P*U*L*S*E (recorded after Waters' departure from the band) feature the main guitar solo by David Gilmour, followed by an additional tapped guitar riff by touring guitarist Tim Renwick. These are backed by Guy Pratt's slap bass lines. On Delicate Sound of Thunder, the Children's Choir part is played from tape, while on P*U*L*S*E, it is performed by the backing singers.
  • The version from Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 (from the 1980–81 concerts at Earls Court, London) also features an extended solo by Snowy White and an organ solo by Richard Wright.
  • In 1990, prior to The Wall Live in Berlin a rare, limited edition promo CD titled "The Wall Berlin '90" was issued to radio stations (Columbia CSK 2126) which included When the Tigers Broke Free and a new version of "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" credited as a "New Recording by The Bleeding Heart Band / June 1990".
  • The version from The Wall Live in Berlin has Cyndi Lauper singing lead vocals, and features Rick DiFonzo playing the original solo, Snowy White playing a second guitar solo, Peter Wood playing an organ solo, and Thomas Dolby playing a synthesiser solo.
  • The song was included with "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" in the compilation Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, and segues into the first note of an edited version of "Echoes".
  • Another version of this video featured children with faceless masks arriving on a train, and several scenes feature a "conveyor belt" of school desks which the students sit at after marching through a steel tunnel; and even another machine featuring a hammer built against the side, pounding up and down to make it run, again referring to the "marching hammers".
  • During The Wall Live tour 2011, Waters added an acoustic coda to "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" with brand new lyrics referring to the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes[citation needed]:
All in all it's just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall
Just another blunder
Just another lousy call
Just another clap of thunder
And apologies ring hollow
From the guilty in Whitehall
And there's no hint of sorrow
Just the whitewash on the wall
And nothing is gained
Nothing at all
And Jean Charles de Menezes remains
Just another brick in the wall
This was the first time any new material has been added by Waters to The Wall. This is being nicknamed on the web as "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) Reprise".[citation needed]

Chart

Chart (1979–1980) Peak
position
Australian Singles Chart 1
Austrian Singles Chart 1
Danish Singles Chart 1
French Singles Chart 1
German Singles Chart 1
Italian Singles Chart 2
Spanish Singles Chart 1
Swedish Singles Chart 1
Swiss Singles Chart 1
UK Singles Chart 1
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1

Part 3

Composition

The song is dynamically loud, and features the once subtle bass line, now much louder, to express Pink's rage. It is also the shortest 'part' of "Another Brick In The Wall".

Plot

Pink decides to finish this wall as a result of his rage after his wife's betrayal. He states that he has seen the "writing on the wall". He concludes that he no longer needs anything at all, dismissing the people in his life as just "bricks in the wall".

Film version

In the film, the song is accompanied by a montage of events that contributed to the construction of the wall. This version was also completely re-recorded with a faster tempo.

Award

The song, part number unspecified, won Waters the 1983 British Academy Award for 'Best Original Song'.[10]

Personnel

Selected single sales

Country Certification Sales Certification date Comment
France Gold[17] 841,000 1980
United Kingdom Platinum[18] 995,000 January 1980
USA Gold[19] 1,000,000 03/24/1980 Re-certified platinum 9/25/01, same sales level.
USA Gold[20] 500,000 5 August 2008 Digital Sales Award
Germany Gold[21] 150,000 1993

Cover versions

"Another Brick in the Wall"
Song

"Hey Ayatollah" cover

A cover version designed to protest the Iranian government’s actions during the 2009–2010 Iranian election protests, was created by the Toronto rock band “Blurred Vision”. The band is fronted by two brothers who fled Iran in 1986. The cover substitutes the original lyrics with “Hey, Ayatollah, leave those kids alone!” Proceeds from iTunes downloads were donated to Amnesty International and the video to the cover went viral and became popular throughout South America, Europe, the UK, and North America.[24] The video also garnered attention in Iran, where among the youth Pink Floyd is popular. Before the video was released the band sought permission from Roger Waters, who gave his blessing and full permission to use the track and ceded them any rights to the phrase "Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone."[24] Waters also commented on his Facebook page, "I think it's great that these guys are using the song to protest against the repressive and brutal regime in Iran. I am proud to be a small part of this resistance. I think The Blurred Vision video is very accomplished and makes its point powerfully."[24] In early August 2010 Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned all forms of music, causing the band to speculate that their cover may have played a part in his decision.[24]

"Las Mañanitas" version

During Roger Waters's The Wall Live Tour concerts in Mexico City during December 2010, some fans suggested Waters to play Another Brick on the Wall Part II changing the lyrics of the song to the verses of the traditional Mexican birthday song "Las Mañanitas". He performed it as an "experiment" in front of his fans during the concerts of 19 and 21 December at the end of The Wall performance and using acoustic instruments to the delight of the Mexican public.

For this version Waters used the first part of "Las Mañanitas" song for the normal verse of "Another Brick on the Wall", but he left the original chorus and, as the Another Brick on the Wall song, he performed it twice.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ "'Wall' a perfect mix of rock, film". The State News. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  2. ^ "Counting out time Pink Floyd the wall – song was banned in South Africa in 1980". Dprp.net. 30 November 1979. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  3. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974–2003. Record Research. p. 203.
  4. ^ Rolling Stone: The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time[dead link]
  5. ^ (UPI) "South Africa Bans Floyd's 'The Wall'" The New York Times 15 July 1980: C6
  6. ^ a b Simmons, Sylvie, ed. (2009). "Good Bye Blue Sky," (Pink Floyd: 30th Anniversary, The Wall Revisited.)". Guitar World. 30 (10). Future: 79–80. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  7. ^ BBC News: Just another brick in the wall?, 2 Oct 2007
  8. ^ TimesOnline: Payout after Pink Floyd leaves them kids alone
  9. ^ Winterman, Denise (2 October 2007). "BBC News". BBC News. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  10. ^ "Past Winners and Nominees – Film – Awards". BAFTA. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  11. ^ a b c d e Fitch & Mahon, p.73, 76 and 88
  12. ^ Fitch & Mahon, p.88
  13. ^ a b Fitch & Mahon, p.76
  14. ^ Fitch & Mahon, p.73
  15. ^ Fitch & Mahon, p.73 and 76
  16. ^ "Kick against the bricks". smh.com. 30 December 2004. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  17. ^ Charts in France, retrieved 29 June 2008[dead link]
  18. ^ "UKcharts – best selling singles". Ukcharts.20m.com. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  19. ^ "Riaa single sales Riaa". Riaa.com. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  20. ^ "Riaa Digital Download". Riaa.com. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  21. ^ Template:Cite gold platin
  22. ^ Song that's driving teachers up the wall, Libertarian Review, September 1980, pp. 42–43 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |no= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |vol= ignored (|volume= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ a b c d "Full Albums: Pink Floyd's The Wall, Pt. 1 » Cover Me". Covermesongs.com. Retrieved 11 May 2011.
  24. ^ a b c d Diane Macedo (11 August 2010). "Iranian Rockers Tear Down 'The Wall'". FoxNews.

References

  • Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8
  • Fitch, Vernon and Mahon, Richard, Comfortably Numb – A History of The Wall 1978–1981, 2006
Preceded by UK number one single (Pink Floyd version)
15 December 1979 – 12 January 1980 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Billboard Hot 100 number one single (Pink Floyd version)
22 March 1980 – 12 April 1980 		Succeeded by

Template:Link GA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Another_Brick_in_the_Wall&oldid=439879847"