The Wall
Posted: 15 Mar 2020 03:52
"The story of THE WALL is told simply with the music of Pink Floyd, images and natural effects. There is no conventional dialogue to progress the narrative. Our story is about Pink, a Rock and Roll performer, who sits locked in a hotel room, somewhere in Los Angeles. Too many shows, too much dope, too much applause: a burned out case. On the TV, an all too familiar war film flickers on the screen. We shuffle time and place, reality and nightmare as we venture into Pink's painful memories, each one a "brick" in the wall he has gradually built around his feelings. Slowly he withdraws from the real world and slips further into his nightmare as he imagines himself as unfeeling demagogue, for whom all that is left is the demonstration of power over his unthinking audience, the culmination of the odious excess of his own world and the world around him. His internal self trial follows, as the witnesses of his past life, the very people who have contributed to the building of the wall, come forward to testify against him."
-Alan Parker (director of "The Wall" film)
This is the story of Pink Floyd's concept-rock opera album, "The Wall." I have always been fascinated with the idea of a progressive album that follows a storyline with the narrative being the music, as the story is being told. Usually a concept album or rock opera focuses on a particular character who is the main idea. In this case it is Pink, a burned out musician who sits isolated in his hotel room thinking about his past. All these painful memories start to show up, and Pink remembers the tragedies in his life like the passing of his Father in the war, his overprotective Mother who kept him away from society, his mean school teacher who brought down all his inspirations and desires, his wife who cheated on him, and many other scenes that contribute to build the wall. The wall is a metaphorical imagination for Pink. He builds this wall in his mind that divides him from society. Every one who contributed to the wall is a past scenery that was a painful memory, hence the song "Another Brick in the Wall". Eventually down the road in the story, Pink loses his identity and goes insane, while high on drugs he imagines a trial, in which all the people who have contributed to the building of the wall go to testify against him. Ironically even his overprotecting Mother is there who set the wall too high, and now he doesn't know how to cope with society. In the end, the judge decides that the only solution is to expose Pink before his peers and deepest fears, and that is to tear down the wall. We never know what happens to pink, although in another continuation album by Pink Floyd, in the song "The Final Cut", Pink almost decides to commit suicide but stops at the last second from the distracting sound of the phone ringing, and after that he was never able to make the final cut.
This album in particular is very interesting to me, for it is based off the life of Roger Waters and Sad Barret of Pink Floyd. Both members share tragic pasts, and Waters decided to base an album off their stories.
I felt I needed to share this on the oracle because art is a very important aspect on here, and this piece means a lot to me as my story resonates completely with the album. This to me is art at it's purest, not to mention to artwork done in the film. The final aspect is that the album or story I should say repeats itself in a cycle at the end, showing that the painful memories never go away, it goes up to a climax and repeats again.
-Alan Parker (director of "The Wall" film)
This is the story of Pink Floyd's concept-rock opera album, "The Wall." I have always been fascinated with the idea of a progressive album that follows a storyline with the narrative being the music, as the story is being told. Usually a concept album or rock opera focuses on a particular character who is the main idea. In this case it is Pink, a burned out musician who sits isolated in his hotel room thinking about his past. All these painful memories start to show up, and Pink remembers the tragedies in his life like the passing of his Father in the war, his overprotective Mother who kept him away from society, his mean school teacher who brought down all his inspirations and desires, his wife who cheated on him, and many other scenes that contribute to build the wall. The wall is a metaphorical imagination for Pink. He builds this wall in his mind that divides him from society. Every one who contributed to the wall is a past scenery that was a painful memory, hence the song "Another Brick in the Wall". Eventually down the road in the story, Pink loses his identity and goes insane, while high on drugs he imagines a trial, in which all the people who have contributed to the building of the wall go to testify against him. Ironically even his overprotecting Mother is there who set the wall too high, and now he doesn't know how to cope with society. In the end, the judge decides that the only solution is to expose Pink before his peers and deepest fears, and that is to tear down the wall. We never know what happens to pink, although in another continuation album by Pink Floyd, in the song "The Final Cut", Pink almost decides to commit suicide but stops at the last second from the distracting sound of the phone ringing, and after that he was never able to make the final cut.
This album in particular is very interesting to me, for it is based off the life of Roger Waters and Sad Barret of Pink Floyd. Both members share tragic pasts, and Waters decided to base an album off their stories.
I felt I needed to share this on the oracle because art is a very important aspect on here, and this piece means a lot to me as my story resonates completely with the album. This to me is art at it's purest, not to mention to artwork done in the film. The final aspect is that the album or story I should say repeats itself in a cycle at the end, showing that the painful memories never go away, it goes up to a climax and repeats again.