‘Mother’ is surprisingly a favourite of mine.
2 Likes
The Wall is a body of work not individual tracks, if you come at it with skipping to the big movements I suspect it will never land with you. I do appreciate it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and after so many listens I have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it and even then I rarely get past side 3 - that said it does get a monthly play at my house! It’s a sonic experience and I’m glad they made it.
Gary
10 Likes
I prefer The Final Cut, which is said to be part two of the Wall, but it’s a very hard hitting anti-war album.
4 Likes
My understanding is that when it came top making The Wall, PF were out of ideas - except Roger. He offered them The Wall or The Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking. They picked The Wall. Good choice.
Like most ‘concepts’, there are great tracks and some filler or joining pieces. And there may be a duff side on LP. (I could argue that Genesis’s Lamb also has a not-so-great Side 4…?). But the great tracks are some of the best ever PF.
Re. Rogers vocals. Yes, a lot are clearly forced/out of his range - and suffer. Guess he insisted on signing those tracks…? (Ego…)
Overall, it works probably as well as any other concept. IMO… YMMV… 
(I bought my copy withing days of its release in the UK - still have it.)
2 Likes
Is this thread being posted now due to the popcorn thread?
Has someone brought shares in a popcorn manufacturer?
If you’re judging it as a body of work why skip the finale?
I still listen to The Wall, side 4 as well, though far less often than I once did. That doesn’t stop me picking out a few odd tracks and enjoying them more frequently.
1 Like
And wonderful tortured music is wonderfully cathartic!
I don’t have a favourite PF album because DSOTM and Final Cut vie with The Wall, while the half-album tracks Echoes and Atom Heart Mother are also particular favourites - preference depending on mood.
1 Like
Yes I was there … to borrow a catch phrase, but I was more interested in the goings on behind the wall rather than the lyrics. Generally speaking I listen to music not the lyrics, but The Wall gets played less than DSOTM and WYWH, but as an event it was most memorable concert I have ever experienced.
2 Likes
The Wall is one album I never tire of listening to. It is a masterpiece, whether the studio version or the live album. So many strong tracks, obviously “Comfortably Numb”, but others such as “Run Like Hell”
Also saw a Roger Waters Wall show live a few years back. Up there with the best concerts I have ever seen.
5 Likes
Not sure which I dislike the most: The Wall or Roger Waters.
5 Likes
I followed Floyd from the beginning but The Wall was first album I didn’t buy. And still haven’t.
1 Like
You don’t say whether you have heard ‘The Wall’.
If you have heard it and disliked it, fair enough.
If not, why bother to post?
1 Like
I have to agree on the 2nd part, Waters has heavily tainted his music with his politics
2 Likes
“Tainted” implies that political comment in music is inevitably negative. In my opinion that is a fundamentally incorrect view, as some of the best music has been political or ‘social comment’.
2 Likes
We (still) love The Wall. Sitting on the couch between the speakers…lights dimmed…we’ll play it top to bottom (on the ND555 so no interruption by changing records) and listen without saying a word…really fabulous to me and my wife.
And it’s one of those albums that despite having listened to for decades, hearing it on a GOOD hi fi was revelatory. I have no shame saying it’s enjoyable to listen to at least in part because of all those little things and little riffs that get revealed.
14 Likes
Could not agree more. So much of the music of the late 60’s and 70’s, just as an example.
IMHO RW is a “nut” in many ways. As are so many artists. I nevertheless enjoy much of his music (not really his post-PF solo works) and still pay to see his live tours which are extremely well produced and performed.
1 Like
The Wall has never been a particularly easy listen and definitely requires a degree of commitment - it’s 4 sides long, so an album where I have to find the right time to commit to a listen. To that end, I only listen to it on vinyl - it suits it; the same double LP I bought back in 1981 from Pitchfork Records In Concord NH - still the best sounding copy of the many copies I’ve had to compare since. However, it never fails to reward and to my mind stands as among the top 50 or so albums of all time. Best of all, I think this thread has given me just the excuse I need to get it out again for another listen tonight…
17 Likes
Talk of sides with music like The Wall is a false concept and simply a limitation of vinyl as a medium (and indeed for longer works a limitation if CD). If played straight through, as is simple with streaming, there are no ‘sides’. Ditto Lamb lies down on Broadway, Tommy, etc, and a lot of opera, and some classical. All then hangs together perfectly.
1 Like
I’ll give it another listen. Streaming though.
I am not an avid reader of ‘rock star’ biographies/autobiographies but a couple I have read do stick out.
Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood & a DVD documentary of Tom Petty, all made me realise that being a rock star is not all it’s cracked up to be a lot of the time & even if I could have all the money as well, I would think seriously about changing places with any of them.
Ironically, the only autobiography I have read which made things sound fun a lot of the time was Nick Masons’ 2004 book ‘Inside Out’.
So I think there is an element of truth in some of RW’s lyrics, whilst the sentiments expressed are perhaps overemphasized for dramatic effect.
2 Likes