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Pink Floyd, The Wall (Part 4 of 4)

We pick up this last chapter of the Wall with "The Show Must Go On." Now revived, Pink contemplates not going to his show at all. Pink is pretty much tired of it all, and wants to just go home. His soul has been taken away and he's lost genuine feelings. Yet through all of this, he concludes that the show must go on, and so on he moves.

Pink arrives at the show with "In the Flesh." Like the first song on the album, "In the Flesh?" this version of "In the Flesh" introduces Pink, but this time as a Nazi-like figure, a sort of dictator. The song is hard to listen to if you don't know what it's actually about. Pink isolates those in the crowd who are different, like homosexuals, Jews and African-Americans, and puts them "up against the wall." While this all is very bigoted, the point of the song is quite the opposite. Pink has become all the things that he hates, and all the things that are wrong with the world. By isolating himself and filling himself with hate, Pink has become what has caused him so much pain. I actually think that Pink is just imagining this all as he is still in a drug induced state from "Comfortably Numb," and this state continues until "Stop."

With the proclamations against those different then him, in "Run Like Hell," Pink threatens these groups. In this song, Pink is essentially saying, be like me, or you're going be sent back "to mother in a cardboard box." The same themes from "In the Flesh" are basically covered here. The song is commonly played on the radio, but is also one of the more underappreciated Pink Floyd songs. The tempo of the music is pretty great, and taken apart from the Wall, the song stands up pretty well.

After "Run Like Hell," Pink informs us in "Waiting for the Worms" that he can't be reached, no matter how we try. And with this Pink continues, what I believe is his delusion, his acts as a fascist dictator. In "Waiting For the Worms," Pink goes beyond mere threats, and promises to make "Brittania rule again." The song starts somewhat commonly, but takes a chaotic tone toward the end, with followers shouting, and the music tempo picking up. The song is essentially about fascism and the evils and chaos of fascism. These evils take over Pink, and ultimately the illusion becomes too much for him. As his followers shout "Ja vol!" Pink, in a moment of absolute clarity shouts out "Stop!"

With this declaration and clarity, Pink cries out that he "wants to go home, take off [his] uniform and leave the show." Pink wants to end the chaos and return to some semblance of normalcy. Though the song is only 30 seconds long, it is critical. The song represents that we are all capable of making rational choices and to try and improve the world. Wondering if he's been guilty of all the things he has tried to avoid, Pink decides to put himself on trial.

"The Trial" brings a little bit of closure to the Wall, but as I will state later, there is no real closure. Pink is confronted at trial by his school master, his ex-wife and his mother, in addition to the Worm, his honor, symbolizing the decay that has taken over his mind. While the trial is another of Pink's hallucinations, it is critical in determining Pink's freedom. The song is really too complex for me to go into here. Just know that after putting himself on Trial, Pink is sentenced to be "exposed before his peers," and is ordered to "tear down the wall." And with this, we hear the wall coming down, and Pink is able to start fresh. With the wall down, we now have hope.

The album concludes, somewhat anti-climaticly with "Outside the Wall." Outside the Wall is a quiet song addressing the point of the Wall. The song is about community, and maintaing balance in this life, after all, "it's not easy banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall." In the film, we see a small child innocently putting out a Molotov cocktail. In this way, this child sort of prevents violence that so interrupted Pink and so many others. With this sense of optimism we can all start again. And with this restart, the song quietly ends with the words, "Isn't this where" If you remember from Part 1, the album begins with "...we came in?" So yeah, taken together, the question is "isn't this where we came in?" This question represents the circularity of history and how no matter how we try, some things are hopeless to prevent. But we can try to do our part. And ultimately, that's what the Wall is about.

Thanks for reading, if you actually did. And now, the blog can return to what it was before I decided to do this. If you want to know more about the Wall, please please please go to The Wall Analysis. Its a great resource, and has some interesting and different analysis of the film and album. It's so great, I'm going to add it as a permanent link.

Full post as published by The Present Tense on June 14, 2007 (boomark / email).