Greetings ladies and gentlemen,
and welcome to another installment of Rave Up Music! As always, I am the one
they call “Barius,” and today, I am introducing a new segment of this review
blog entitled Musical Anthology.
With Musical Anthology, we take a look at a series of songs or albums
from a music artist or group that are intended to tell a complete narration and
determine if they succeed in telling the story. We look at the songs/album’s
music, lyrics, and themes to see if the story is understandable and
well-composed. For this first installment, we are look at one of the biggest
rock bands of all time: Pink Floyd.
For as long as I can remember, I have
been a big Pink Floyd fan, particularly their work from 1973 onward, around the
time of Dark Side of the Moon. The
band consisting of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright
have written some of the greatest masterworks of rock, and really helped to
revolutionize the style of music known as progressive rock. Their experimental
use of sonic electronic sounds, philosophical lyrics, and complex rhythms and
time signatures has garnered them international success, with more than 250
million albums sold worldwide.
Pink Floyd also transformed the
idea of a concept album. Unlike a lot of their contemporaries of the time, who
would release albums comprised of individual songs, Pink Floyd would release concept
albums that told a story throughout the entire album. The well-known Dark Side of the Moon consists of ten
tracks, split into two continuous parts, and reflects on various stages of
life, hence the album starting and ending with a heartbeat. Within each album,
each song tells a mini-story that contributes to the overarching story of the
album, such as the song “Money” representing the greed and consumerism of
mankind, while songs like “Speak to Me” and “Breathe” together stresses the
simple, mundane things we take for granted, and should take care of throughout
our lives.
In 1979, Pink Floyd released what
is considered by many to be their crowning musical achievement: the
double-album The Wall.
The album deals with the themes
of abandonment and isolation, which is represented by a metaphorical wall meant
to keep people out and distances a person, in this case our main character Pink,
from the rest of humanity. Throughout the album, there are series of songs that
form short stories of the complete narrative, and three of these songs share
the same title: “Another Brick in the Wall.” The three songs are suppose to
connect to each other to the story how Pink builds this metaphoric wall around
him from all the tragic events in his life, from the death of his father to his
wife’s infidelity. While each song is unique in their own way, the goal Musical Anthology is to determine if the
tracks work well together to tell their own story within the overarching story
of The Wall album.
In order to determine this, I will
look at each track individually first. I will be looking at each track for
their musical and lyrical content, and determine if the intent of the song is
achieved. Afterwards, I will look at the songs collective and see if they work
together as one piece of music, or if they really do tell a story at all. So,
without further delay, this is Musical
Anthology: Pink Floyd – “Another Brick in the Wall.”
“Another
Brick in the Wall – Part 1”
Music:
Throughout Part One, there is
this repetitive guitar rhythm, which also heard in the other parts. This riff
represents the pieces of the wall being put in place, and in this song, it is
the foundation of the wall being put into place. The music is also very sparse,
with little musical accents here and there. The music is meant to create the
feeling of isolation and emptiness that Pink feels over the death of his father
at a young age. Some of the accented instrumental bits represent Pink wanting
to shout out and find someone to hear his cries for help to deal with his
father’s death. But, it is pulled back because no one wants to help him because
he is too young to understand.
Lyrics:
Like the music,
the lyrics are very sparse and limited. The line “Daddy’s flown across the
ocean, Leaving just a memory” informs us that Pink does not have a lot to
remember his father by, which is further emphasized with the line “Dad what did
you leave behind for me?” The lines indicate Pink’s sadness and isolation as
his father’s death is “just another brick in the wall,” or in this case, it was
the first brick that created Pink’s metaphoric wall. Overall, the song
establishes the metaphoric wall in Pink’s life, creating the idea of isolation,
and never finding the someone to listen and be there for him when he needed it.
“Another
Brick in the Wall – Part 2”
Music:
The music in Part 2 of “Another
Brick in the Wall” is a bit more rowdy and energetic. The drum beat is a bit
more disco-inspired, making the song more upbeat than the previous part. The
guitar riff introduced in Part 1 is a little more fleshed out, but still simple
and structured. The song is meant to show more bricks being placed in Pink’s
wall, this time being his distrust in authority, particularly the school
teachers who would use more corporal punishments when students were wrong, but
never explain how to correct their errors. The instrumental parts represent the
youth banding together to stand up and march against their teachers, and let
them be individuals, and not conform to the ideas society want them to be. The
guitar solo near the end represents the rebellious behavior of Pink and his
classmates. By the end of the song, we realized it was all part of Pink’s
imagination, as the song fades out, returning us to Pink’s reality.
Lyrics:
Although the song is meant to be anarchistic,
such as “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control,” it
still has a sense of conformity to it. Note the lyrics do not say “I” anywhere
in it, but it is all “we.” This suggests that although it is meant to be a
sense of individual, youthful revolt, there is always going to be humans
banding together for a common goal. The use of a children’s choir during the
second verse/chorus gives the youthful rebellion feel to it, but having them
sing in unison demonstrates that conformity is still a part of life. With this
song, Pink’s story of developing an imaginary wall around him from people
continues, as he tries to find individualism with others, but in the end, he is
still alone without any one to support him.
“Another
Brick in the Wall – Part 3”
Music:
The final part of “Another Brick
in the Wall” is short, but is filled with aggression and explosive behavior.
The main riff is a bit altered to be more pulsating and driven. The use of
punctuated hits in the music symbolizes hammering in the final parts of the
wall, as Pink finally closes off the world, due to the infidelity of his wife,
established in the song before this on the album, “Don’t Leave Me Now.” At the
end of the song, the musical riff is heard, fading away, giving the impression
of the wall standing tall, with Pink on one side, isolated from everyone else
on the other side.
Lyrics:
While the lyrics of the previous
two parts focus on other people (Pink’s dad, the school children), this is the
part where final Pink finally makes it all about himself, and how he no longer
wants to associate with mankind. The line of “I don’t need no arms around me”
indicated he needs no love in his life, now that his love has betrayed his
trust. While he was dependent on drugs, he does not need it in his life. The
line indicating the “writing on the wall” meant that everything has been in
front of him this whole time, and he does not “think he needs anything at all.”
The lyrics of “you were all just bricks in the wall” conclude the story of the
metaphoric wall being built around Pink, and the completion of his isolation,
signifying that no matter who we are/were, we cannot be trusted, and we are all
to blame for what has become of Pink.
FINAL
ANALYSIS:
All three parts to “Another Brick
in the Wall” are composed very well, and do connect to each other very nicely.
The songs follow a natural progression for Pink’s isolation from the world: his
sadness due to the lost of his father at a young age, his dreams of youthful,
teenage revolt that only lead back to an unforgiving reality, and finally
cutting all ties to people when the woman he supposedly loved betrays him. The
series of songs also tells the story of Pink’s metaphoric construction of the
wall, which began with the death of his father (the foundation of the wall) and
is finally built due to his wife’s infidelity.
While the songs work well
together as a trilogy, they truly work best in the collective narrative of The Wall album. Many of the songs between
the three parts of “Another Brick in the Wall” contribute to not only Pink’s
isolation and him building up his wall, as well as the events that happen after
the wall is built. The Wall is one of
the best musical experiences for any avid music listener, but for the casual
music listener who wants to expand their musical experiences, I recommend
starting with the “Another Brick in the Wall” Trilogy to ease yourself into
more epic storytelling in your music. For the more dedicated Pink Floyd fans
who love The Wall and want to explore
more into the themes of the album, I recommend checking out http://www.thewallanalysis.com,
written by Brett Urick. This website gives a unique analysis of the entire
album, and gives many great resources about the album’s production, as well as
behind-the-scenes aspects of what went into the making of The Wall.
Well, that brings us to the end
of the first installment of Musical
Anthology here at Rave Up Music! For my fans that enjoy my more humorous
approach to music reviewing rather than my serious analysis, tune in next time
as we go and grab A Little Slice of
Metal! Until next time, I am Barius, and as always, keep on rockin’.
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