Roger Waters: The Wall, Part 2

 Read Part 1 HERE


We’re now at the point of the storyline where Pink slowly begins his downward spiral into isolation from the outside world. Along with earlier events and factors, like his father’s death in combat or his mother’s overprotective tendencies, some of the notable points here were the final “bricks in the wall” of self-imposed isolation.

The blues-rock style guitars started off ‘Young Lust’, remarkably more rock-and-roll sounding than any other song on the album. Here, Pink’s fame and fortune has brought on the inevitable craving for women and coitus, as clips of provocative naked women dancing were prominent in the background. The notable phone call at the end of the album version was played afterward, separate from the previous song.

Once you know what a collect call is, this call is somewhat amusing once you think about it enough.

 *random guy answers* ”Hello..?”
“Yes, a collect call for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd. Will you accept the charges from United States?”
*random guy hangs up*
“Oh, he hung up! That’s your residence, right? I wonder why he hung up? Is there supposed to be someone else there besides your wife there to answer?”
*operator tries again; random guy answers* ”Hello?”
“This is United States calling, are we reaching…”
*random guy hangs up again*
“See, he keeps hanging up! And it’s a man answering!”

Then, ‘One Of My Turns’ quietly starts off with a soft synthesizer drone at the beginning, along with dialogue between Pink and a groupie inside Pink’s vast apartment, although the background dialogue from the movie seems prominent as well. In the beginning of the song, Pink contemplates on how the love between him and his wife is slowly “turning gray”, but the sad dialogue gives way to another of Pink’s outbursts (apparently, this is only one of Pink’s “passing phases”). His actions and words are now violent in nature (“learning to fly”, as Pink put it, can be taken as jumping off the balcony), as scenes from the movie of Pink completely wrecking his apartment and possessions played in the background. In the end, the groupie is scared off, and Pink collapses into another soliloquy.

‘Don’t Leave Me Now’ is probably the most dissonant out of all the songs in the setlist, using augmented, minor seventh, and ninth chords. Even Roger’s voice quavers and oftentimes seems somewhat off pitch. Here, Pink’s conflicting emotions over his wife — loneliness and vengeance — clash, as his most sincere attempts at making amends transform into statements of violence, as in (When you know how I need you… to beat to a pulp on a Saturday night). The song ends in a drawn-out sequence of D minor and A minor chords, as it segues into ‘Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3’.

The final segment of ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ shows a deranged Pink refusing help from others, as Roger’s voice, as powerful as it already was, was accentuated by the piercing guitar chords and cymbal crashes. At this point, all of Pink’s past troubles are now “just bricks in the wall”, and the onstage wall that was only partly built at the start of the concert was one brick away from completion. The remaining gap was placed at Roger’s height, so that a small spotlight could shine on that very spot as he sang the last song before intermission.

As the rest of the instruments faded out, leaving only a quiet bass guitar, Roger sang his “goodbye” message to the outside world in — you guessed it — ‘Goodbye Cruel World’, as he placed the final brick in its gap.

When the lights were turned back on for the intermission, I was surprised but somewhat amused. (Actually, I wasn’t surprised at all.) Up near the roof of Joe Louis Arena was a huge cloud, presumably from pot smoke. Fun fact: two people in the row in front of me were actually passing around a joint, and my friends who also attended described a similar situation.

About fifteen minutes later, the quiet strains of ‘Hey You’ faded in from behind the wall. Note that the completed wall was at the height of the second balcony, and no one could see what was behind. This serves as an introduction piece to Act II, as Pink has now locked himself inside his apartment — the same one from ‘One Of My Turns’. But now, Pink begins to rethink his decision of isolating himself, as he tries to reach out to anyone — an idea reinforced in ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’, the next song.

The said song is highly instrumental, and features a quiet acoustic guitar with quieter accompaniment from the orchestra. Just one listen to the track and you’ll feel that haunting sensation of desolation coming from the melodies and overall lack of instruments or vocals or even sound effects. Note that at this point in time, everything is still going on from behind the wall, as Pink longs for someone to contact…

 …and that’s exactly what’s being implied in the next song, ‘Nobody Home’. With nothing else but a slow, bluesy piano, and later, the orchestra, as accompaniment, Pink starts listing off the few things he has left, since he’s lost nearly everything after his earlier outburst and his wife’s affair. There was a cleverly made inset of Pink’s apartment projected onto the wall, and Pink is shown with one of the only things he has left — his TV. Now, he is in an almost unconscious state, dozing off at the TV and/or doing drugs along with it.

Then, his questions become more numerous, as in the song ‘Vera’, recalling Vera Lynn, a 1940’s entertainer who provided optimism to the mainstream during World War II (I had to do some research on that one!). Pink now wonders if that optimism was in vain, recalling his father’s wartime death. However, uplifting video clips of soldiers from today’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan being reunited with their children played in the background, kinda foreshadowing the next song.

Pink now knows that he is not alone in his thinking, as a choir of voices resound the titular phrase of ‘Bring the Boys Back Home’. The song was accompanied by a brass fanfare as well as a powerful quote, displayed on the wall in sequence as the song went on…

“Every gun made
Every warship launched
Every rocket fired
Signifies, in the final sense,
A THEFT
From those who hunger
And are not fed
Those who are cold
And not clothed.”
-Dwight D. Eisenhower

But as his past comes back to haunt him in the form of the voices of previous “bricks in the wall”: his schoolmaster, the phone call, and the groupie, he realizes that he is still deep in isolation. But all that was about to change. Among the amalgam of voices at the end of the song, I was able to make out a new voice: someone knocking on a door, then saying “Time to go!” as if it was a foreshadowing of what comes next.

Read PART 3 HERE