I have listend to pink floyd to some time now. I have seen their movie "The Wall" and own the album. But I just don't understand the story behind the music in the movie. I just don't understand whats wrong with the guy whats making him go insane ect. Would anyone take the time to explain whats going on to my dumb-ass. Also, some songs that are on the album are not on the movie and vice versa. So whats the story with it. Thanx

Well, I'm probably wrong. Frankly, I don't really get it either. But apparently, it has something to do with this wall he's built around himself thats keeping everyone else out. That does explain why he ignores both his wife and the groupie and just watches TV instead.

Thats kinda my thought, but why in the hell did he build the wall? Thats what gets me.

The wall is a complex album with many themes.
The one that you are talking about is the most obvious and the most pronounced throughout the album.
The man in the movie, who is assumed to represent roger waters has become sick with society, its conformism, and basically 'the system' at large.
He builds an intangible wall around himself and his feelings and blocks himself off from the rest of the world searching to make sense of himself, both macro and micro.
"another brick in the wall" refers to all the people and things that make up this delerium around him. The movie isnt the only interpretation the wall is open to, far from it. It is simply one view someone could have of the album and it is certainly not difinitive of the lyrics, meaning it is not all to be taken at face value that the image MEANS the words...
If you're still following ?......
He ignores his wife and the groupie because they are insignificant to him...
This is just one of my interpretations of it no doubt some other member will be able to offer you a lot more insight into this profound album.

good points so far by all. this is a great album and deep subject matter. if you rad through the lyrics and "through" the lyrics, you will see it's all there. it starts when he is a child, his father is killed in WWII (i think roger waters father suffered the same fate) and he was left to be raised by his mother. she means well, but only succeeds in fucking him up further. then in school he is met with the horrible reality that is schoolage society. these factors eventually lead up to this kind of mental breakdown that he has. the trial at the end is where he is dealing with his demons and holding himself accountable for what he has become.

this is obviously incomplete but i hope it fills some holes.

also roger waters says he came up with the idea while he was playing a concert one night and some guy was calling to him from the audience. he was a devout roger waters fan. all night he was bothering roger. at one point this guy climbed over security to try to get up to the stage. somewhere along the line roger gets infuriated with this guys antics and spits on him. he said he wished he could build a wall between himself and the audience so they would be forced to listen to the music and not get caught up in hero-worship. that's where the idea originally came from. but it developed into something much deeper.

The movie is also definitely out of sequence for the narrative. And the parts w/ him in the limosine are referring to heroin. I haven't seen that movie or listened to that album in a long time. Last time I did I think I was under the influence.

I bought the movie, and finally got to watch it all alone, with no damn distractions. I sat in my room, locked the door, pulled down the shades and watched it. And i can say it was weird, damn weird once you start thinking about it. My only thing is when he became the nazi, y'know where he's giving the concert just after "comfortably numb". My question is why the hell did he become the nazi like man? Did he become drivin insane by society? I understand all the end with the judge in the song "the trial" but i don't understand why he became a nazi (or nazi like person) Thanx once again.

Hey yeah,why does he become a nazi after comftarbly numb??

All in all it sounds like a mid-life crisis to me. Why can't there be more bands like Pink-Floyd? Pink-Floyd is genious.

Yeah, Impulses is right, why can't there be more bands like Pink Floyd?

if there were more bands like floyd, maybe floyd wouldn't be so cool and unique anymore.

I thought, for sure, that someone would have by now mentioned the person that the Wall was written about [and Wish You Were Here, and, to a lesser extent, Dark Side of the Moon]: Syd Barrett.

I find it hard to believe that none of you know about him. And if you know about him you would have to know that he's the person that the character 'Pink' was modeled after.
In that wedding day scene from the movie [in the 60's], it looks just like Syd did then.

If you don't know anything about Syd, you should check it out: There would be no Pink Floyd today without him.


[This message has been edited by Metaphysicist (edited 05-03-2002).]

good call meta. the wall was more about syd and rogers experiences with fame. neither really liked their crowd, or the pressure that being a performer involved. both actually have admitted to feeling of hate for their fans. 'Pink' is a collaboration of rogers perceptions of syd and his path to insanity, and his own insecurities. i have a book that actually goes through the whole damn thing, song for song, scene for scene, id post it all if i could.

of course whenever you say pink floyd, there is always an echo of syd barret not too far behind. i forgot about how in the movie, the shaving part was in particular a direct reference to syd, among many others. syd is always there, in some more than others, but in later roger waters compositions, i think his own life was starting to replace syd's as subject matter for the bands albums. especially the final cut (how bleak). this is why i failed to mention him.