Culture

The Wall: a European album that warns us against our inner Nazi dictator

How many of you have ever sung, at least once, the song that goes like «We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control»? And how many of you know the full story behind this incredibly famous song and the album that contains it, The Wall

The Wall

British band Pink Floyd composed The Wall between 1977 and 1979, with the album published in November 1979. It is considered one of the most well-known concept albums of all time, other than being one of the best-selling albums ever published. It had a profound impact on European popular culture and on an entire generation of young Europeans.

As parts of a concept album, the songs present a cohesive narrative. The Wall tells the story of Pink, a rock star who, after enduring several psychological traumas in his childhood and early adulthood, ends up self-isolating from the rest of the world and from human feelings, becoming – in one of his drug-induced visions – a cold-hearted, megalomaniac dictator. The whole album can be seen as a condemnation of war and as an invitation to be empathetic and reach out to other people. 

In 1982 a live-action / animated musical drama film came out, called Pink Floyd – The Wall. It was directed by Alan Parker, while the animations were created by political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe and the screenplay was written by Roger Waters himself, AKA the lead of Pink Floyd and main author of the album. The movie was fundamental to establish the collective imagination linked to the work, thanks to iconic scenes like the marching hammers and the butchered pupils. 

But let’s take a closer look at the story, shall we? Here are the most significant songs to understand the message.

#1 – In the Flesh?

If you want to find out what’s behind these cold eyes
You’ll just have to claw your way through this disguise

This is the introduction to the main character, Pink. The title track was inspired by the previous Pink Floyd’s tour, In the Flesh, during which Waters started to feel more and more alienated from his fans, to the point that he started to think of an invisible barrier in front of them. This experience inspired the “wall” idea first.

The track ends with the sounds of a military plane flying and a bomb being dropped, while the film features a Junkers Ju 87, a German dive bomber used during WWII.

#3 – Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 1

Daddy, what d’ya leave behind for me?
All in all, it was just a brick in the wall

Here we find out that Pink’s father died during the war, as he’s “flown across the ocean”. Little Pink is devastated by his father’s death and the consequent sense of loss, so he starts to build his emotional wall. The death of Pink’s father is openly based on Waters’ father. Eric Fletcher Waters was killed in 1944 while fighting in Aprilia, during the battle of Anzio, when Roger was five months old.

#5 – Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2

Hey! Teachers! Leave those kids alone
All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall

Pink is now a boy. We learn that his teachers are cruel and torture children at school, especially the Headmaster: the most famous song of the album condemns the violence of teachers and the depersonalization of students caused by the education system. While Pink fantasizes about a collective insurrection of the children, he silently continues building his psychological wall.

#6 – Mother

Mama’s gonna make all your nightmares come true.
Mama’s gonna put all her fears into you.
Mama’s gonna keep you right here under her wing.
She won’t let you fly, but she might let you sing.

Here we find out that Pink’s mother was the main factor for the building of the wall: as a widowed mother, she was overprotective towards her child. She was glad for Pink’s isolation (“Of course mama’s gonna help build the wall”) and she fed his insecurity, especially towards other women.

#10 – One Of My Turns


And night after night, we pretend it’s all right
But I have grown older and
You have grown colder and
Nothing is very much fun anymore

Pink is now a grown-up and a successful rock star. He is married, but his relationship is in crisis: Pink is often away from home because of the tours, moreover, his emotional wall is nearly complete. While he is far from his wife he cheats on her with groupies, but after he finds out she is unfaithful as well, he suffers a mental breakdown. In the film Pink destroys the hotel apartment while a groupie is still there, so we see him being violent for the first time.

GIF from The Wall 2

#12 – Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 3

I don’t need no arms around me
And I don’t need no drugs to calm me
I have seen the writing on the wall
Don’t think I’ll need anything at all

At this point, Pink’s mental wall is complete. He doesn’t want to suffer anymore, so he rejects every form of emotion and pretends he doesn’t need anyone or anything else.

#14 – Hey You


The wall was too high
As you can see
No matter how he tried
He could not break free
And the worms ate into his brain

Pink wants to get out of his self-built prison, but the damage is too strong and he loses his mind. After this point, Pink gets lost in his thoughts and memories, entering a vicious circle of alienation, worsened by drug abuse.
Special mention goes to the last verse of the song, in praise to unity and cooperation: “Together we stand, divided we fall”.

#19 – Comfortably Numb


The child is grown
The dream has gone
I have become comfortably numb

Our favorite rock star is on the verge of an overdose, but his manager expects him to perform a concert, so a medical team breaks in his hotel room and drugs him in order to function again. Pink now doesn’t feel anything anymore: he is numb and indifferent. When they drag him outside his hotel, which is a symbol of his inner mind, his face becomes confident and assertive.

#21 – In The Flesh

Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
Get them up against the wall
There’s one in the spotlight, he don’t look right to me
Get him up against the wall
That one looks Jewish!
And that one’s a coon!
Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?
There’s one smoking a joint!
And another with spots!
If I had my way
I’d have all of you shot!

Here the lyrics and the gif are self-explanatory, aren’t they? Pink is hallucinating that he has now become a Nazi dictator. Instead of the swastika, we can see two crisscrossed hammers. The following scenes show skinhead underlings beating and raping “non-conforming” people, especially people of colour.

#23 – Waiting For The Worms

Would you like to see Britannia
Rule again, my friend?
All you have to do is follow the worms
Would you like to send our colored cousins
Home again, my friend?
All you need to do is follow the worms

Pink’s spiral into fascism was already evident, but this is the first song in the album to contain explicit references to Nazism and violent ethno-nationalism. For instance, the lyrics talk about a “bunker” in Pink isolates himself in. They also include a “final solution”, encouragements to “turn on the showers” and “fire the ovens”.

In the last part of the song, though, the mentions veer towards British nationalism. As Pink sinks deeper into psychosis, finding common enemies and directing all energies to destroy them becomes a quick and easy way to avoid facing his own emotions and fears and deviate others’ attention.

#25 – The Trial


The prisoner who now stands before you
Was caught red-handed showing feelings
Showing feelings of an almost human nature
This will not do

Pink is now horrified by what he has done and wonders whether he has “been guilty all this time”. The Trial descends into Pink’s mind again, where the character enacts a trial against himself. A grotesque judge hears the testimony from the three main people responsible for Pink’s wall (The Headmaster, The Wife, and The Mother) and finally condemns the man to tear down the wall. We can understand that the judge actually represents his subconscious struggle for sanity, as Pink is now obliged to expose himself and reach out to others.

GIF from The Wall

#26 – Outside The Wall

All alone, or in two’s
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall
[…] And when they’ve given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all, it’s not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger’s wall

The final song of the album doesn’t talk about Pink anymore, but addresses the listener directly, working as the key message of the entire work: there are people, out there, who love you and want to help you, but you have to let them in in the first place, instead of barricading inside your own mind.

 

Did you enjoy this article? You may also like Top Ten Famous Dance Songs That Are Actually European.

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Grazia Vendrame

Graduate in Applied Pharmaceutical Sciences, she has an eclectic range of interests. Likes: desserts, plants and lists.

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