Another brick in the wall

Another brick in the wall
Pink Floyd
publication	November 23, 1979
length	3:11
Genre (s)	Progressive rock , disco
Author (s)	Bob Ezrin , David Gilmour , James Guthrie , Roger Waters ,
Producer (s)	Roger Waters
Label	Harvest , Columbia
album	The Wall

Cover of the single
Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)

Another Brick in the Wall ( English for Another Brick in the Wall is) the title of one of the most famous songs of the British rock band Pink Floyd , which on the album The Wall was first published on November 30, 1979th It was published in three parts, which had track numbers 3, 5 and 12 on the album's first CD. The second part of the trilogy, published as a single , became a world hit.

Creation and studio recordings

The song was written by Roger Waters , who was inspired by his own school days during the 1950s. In it, Waters expresses his displeasure with the oppression of the students by sadistic teachers, which he felt at the time, and slips into the role of a student. With their "upbringing" and "mind control" the teachers would do great harm to the children, so they should leave them in peace: Hey, Teacher, leave us kids alone. All in all you're just another brick in the wall ("Hey, teacher, leave us children alone! All in all, you're just another brick in the wall .")

The planning under the working title "Walls" began on November 18, 1978. For Another Brick in the Wall , arranger and music producer Bob Ezrin originally planned a 4/4 time, but the song only has one repeated verse. So sound engineer Nick Griffith (of Britannia Row Studios , which has owned Pink Floyd since 1975) suggested adding a children's choir. Not far from the Britannia Row studios was the London Islington Green School , where the music teacher Alun Renshaw was contacted. He prepared 23 children from the school for their singing part. The unanimous choir singing in the Cockney dialect took just under an hour to record. On an initial attempt at recording, the students sang as a choir, but the members of Pink Floyd asked the students to sing as if they were in a playground. Since the students sing, among other things, that they do not need education, the school forbade showing them in the music video .

The music recordings began in January 1979 in the small Super Bear recording studios ( Berre-les-Alpes in France) and lasted there until June 1979. The nearby Miraval ( Correns ) studio was also booked from June to July 1979; Roger Waters recorded the vocals here. The stay in France was also for tax reasons in order to save taxes in Great Britain. The main phase with the distinctive guitar solo by David Gilmour on an old Gibson Les Paul Goldtop from 1955 then began in the CBS 30th Street Studios in New York in August 1979, from September 6, 1979 in the Cherokee Recording Studios until September 9. Between September 12 and November 6, 1979, work in the Producers Workshop (Hollywood) continued.

The entire work was produced by Bob Ezrin and James Guthrie, alongside Roger Waters and David Gilmour.

Interpretation of the songs

The album The Wall is about a protagonist named Pink, who is also featured in the song Another Brick in the Wall . The different musical styles on the first CD of the album represent changes in his personality.

Part 1

Playing time: 3:10 minutes

Lancaster Pink, who is around 5 to 7 years old according to the music video, has built a wall ("The Wall") around his thoughts that keeps both good and bad away from him. He thinks he can't change her. He built the wall because of the burden of life that he experienced in the previous song The Thin Ice . Pink relates that his father flew over the ocean before he was born, which is a metaphor for his father's death in World War II . Resigning to his fate, he realizes that it was just another brick in the wall (“Another Brick in the Wall”). Pink believes it is his inescapable fate that the wall that has always been there in his life will keep growing.

Pink is bitter about his father's death. He asks what his father left for him besides a picture in the family album. The acoustic background indicates a time when all the feelings will break out of pink and at the same time shows the emotions he is feeling.

As Pink gets older, he directs his hatred against England , Hitler , the war and everyone involved in it. Anger becomes his purpose in life and he himself becomes what he hated most.

Part 2

Playing time: 3:59 minutes

At Pink's school, the students rise up against the teaching staff, who are cynical and cold to the students. The teachers try to lure the students into their world of fear and bondage with somber sarcasm and mind control .

With the text, Waters criticizes the school system in England , which does not promote individualism , but wants to educate everyone according to the scheme F. The line “We don't need no education” clearly states that the teachers are perceived as unsuitable. At the same time, Waters demonstrated that community is always present and that even in the struggle of the students for individualism there is follow-up and community.

The music of the second part contains more variations than the first part in order to represent the personality of Pink again. The melody is more energetic and reflects Pink's youthful rebellion and his emerging artistic imagination. At the same time, however, Pink's conformity to the process of building the wall is present in the refrain. Every injury is only followed by another brick in the wall . A guitar solo seems to herald a release, but then scenes from the class can be heard. The connection with the events of the songs Young Lust and One of my Turns are musically indicated by a telephone ringing at the end of the part. It later gives an indication of the failure of social connections such as marriage and school .

part 3

Playing time: 1:15 minutes

The third part shows the outbreak of injuries and humiliations accumulated for years. Pink rejects the things that seem to have taken away the pain of his existence for years: the questionable "love" of his dominant mother and later his wife, as well as medication. The guitar sounds are explosive to underline the mood. Pink foresees his story will end tragically if he doesn't change anything. Pink sees his only salvation is to the wall ( Wall ) finished assemble and to take refuge in isolation. He tells himself that all other people were just more stones in the wall ( All in all you all were just bricks in the wall ). Pink's inability to socialize, the thoughts of the pain in his past and the infidelity of his wife finally lead him to the final decision to fill all the remaining holes in the wall and to sacrifice himself by creating an isolation from everyone. Pink's wall has been transformed from a protective wall into a prison with no escape.

Waters supported this interpretation in 1979. He stated in an interview that Pink's wall fills his desires.

Publication and Success

The single Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) was published on November 23, 1979 and sold 340,000 times within 5 days in Great Britain, 1,080,000 copies were sold here by January 1980, including its status as a Christmas number. one hit contributed. In the USA 1.5 million, in France 841,000 and in Germany 250,000 singles went over the counter. A total of 3,661 million were marketed worldwide. The non-conformist million seller about repressive school policy was the number one hit in 10 countries , including the United States from March 22 to April 23, 1980, in Great Britain from December 9, 1979 to January 15, 1980, and in Germany from March 4 , 1980 . to February 18, 1980 and March 3, 1980. In Austria the single was from March 1 to April 30, 1980 and in Switzerland from February 3 to April 19, 1980 number one.

In 2004, the American magazine Rolling Stone listed Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 at number 375 of the 500 best songs of all time .

Another Brick in the Wall is the title song of the double LP (released November 30, 1979), the live rock opera (premiered on February 7, 1980 in Los Angeles) and the film The Wall (premiered in Cannes on November 23, 1980) May 1982, performed outside the festival ).

The critical passages against a certain way of learning led to Another Brick in the Wall, Part II being used as an anarchist anthem for protests. After colored schoolchildren in South Africa sang the song during their violently suppressed protests against the curriculum governed by apartheid ideology, the government banned it on May 2, 1980.

Another Brick in the Wall was, among other things grain , Class of '99 and the German formation Fourteen entitled stone by stone gecovert . In 2019, a version by Diego , Nora and Lionel Baldenweg was used as the theme song for the Netflix series The Unlisted .

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK)	1 (34 weeks)	34
Austria (Ö3)	1 (20 weeks)	20th
Switzerland (IFPI)	1 (17 weeks)	17th
United Kingdom (OCC)	1 (12 weeks)	12
United States (Billboard)	1 (25 weeks)	25th

Film sequences

The following sections refer to The Wall from 1982 and the scenes that are shown there for the songs in the appropriate places.

Part 1

The film shows the young Lancaster Pink who is with his mother in a chapel where the fallen veterans of World War II are commemorated. She prays while he wears war medals. The later overprotection of the mother is indicated. Pink eventually leaves the chapel and enters a playground, where another father pushes him on the carousel. But when he doesn't want to do anything else with him, Pink sits down on a swing and uses facial expressions to show the worries and burdens he was born with. The later bitterness of Pink is suggested by a self-oscillation while other fathers play with their children.

Roger Waters stated that the chapel scene is a modified scene from his own life. At that time he discovered his father's name in a book.

Part 2

The video for part 2 is one of the most famous videos from Pink Floyd. Gerald Scarfe used memories from his own school days for the set.

The children in the factory-like school all go through a machine, where they come out faceless, which represents the obliteration of their individuality. Then they run blindly one after the other into a large meat grinder, through which they are rotated to come out as part of the same meat mass. In the factory-like hall, the symbolism of hammers is used, which can destroy and create. The hammers of the machines destroy the individuality of children while creating perfect members of society.

The uniformity during the student uprising is also shown in the video. The song of individual rebellion contrasts with the similar behavior of the masses. The meaningful revolution expands into a meaningless act of annihilation, in the course of which the school is burned down.

The observer is initially left in the dark as to whether the images are real or whether they just flow from a dream Pink. While the factory scenes seem like Pink's fantasy, the subsequent revolt cannot tell whether it is real, until the video finally shows Pink sitting in the classroom. In later songs, Pink's dreams become even more intense as his wall builds up.

Waters shows the good and bad sides of the absence of education here. Over-dominant people can be just as harmful as a complete lack of upbringing, so the thesis of the video.

part 3

Several events from Pink's past, including his marriage and the bombing of his father's bunker, are shown. The scenes are reminiscent of some of the images at the beginning of the film for the song In the Flesh? where some followers of Pink are harassed by the police. A period in Pink's life has come to an end. Soon he will lock himself completely in his wall, where pink will crumble. At the end of the song you can see the entire wall, which has been transformed from a protection into a prison that cannot be broken through either from the outside or the inside.

Waters may have wanted to show that life is nothing more than an ongoing insurrection.

Litigation

In November 2004, some of the students claimed royalties to which they were entitled as session musicians after a 1996 change in copyright law . On the occasion of the recording, only the school had received a platinum record and £ 1,000 . The legal dispute has not yet been resolved.

Movies

• The Wall. 1982
• ONE Life: The Brick in The Wall Kids. 2007, BBC documentary
  • Just another brick in the wall? Presentation on BBC News , October 2, 2007

Awards for music sales

Another Brick in the Wall has been awarded 5 × gold and 4 × platinum worldwide. According to the awards, over four million units of the single were sold (including premium streaming).

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Denmark (IFPI)	gold	45,000
Germany (BVMI)	gold	250,000
France (SNEP)	gold	500,000
Italy (FIMI)	2 × platinum	100,000
Spain (Promusicae)	gold	50,000
United States (RIAA)	Platinum (Physical) + Gold (Digital)	2,500,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	platinum	1,100,000
All in all	5 × gold 4 × platinum	4,545,000

Main article: Pink Floyd / Music Sales Awards

Web links

• Another Brick In The Wall (part II) by Pink Floyd - entry on Songfacts
• Live video on wat.tv
• Song lexicon: "Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd)" , accessed on May 21, 2012
• English text and German translation of the text
• Official music video on YouTube

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall. Discogs , accessed May 13, 2018 . 
2. ↑ Just another brick in the wall? BBC News , October 2, 2007
3. ↑ ^{a b} “Another Brick In The Wall” has an aftermath. ( Memento of December 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Daily Pop, December 3, 2004
4. ↑ Gilmour's Les Pauls . on Gilmourish.com (English)
5. ^ ^{A b} Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1 ( Memento of October 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) - literary analysis by Bret Urick (English), accessed on September 19, 2008
6. ^ ^{A b} Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2 ( Memento of August 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - Literary analysis by Bret Urick (English), accessed on September 19, 2008
7. ^ ^{A b} Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3 ( Memento of August 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) - Literary analysis by Bret Urick (English), accessed on September 19, 2008
8. ↑ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time . Rolling Stone, December 4, 2004
9. ↑ h2g2 : Pink Floyd - The Wall . November 10, 2005
10. ↑ Rock History 101: Another Brick in the Wall, Part II . Consequence of Sound, July 30, 2008
11. ↑ New Netflix series runs with Swiss music. 20 minutes, October 16, 2019
12. ↑ Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall chart placement Germany. GfK Entertainment , accessed on May 13, 2018 . 
13. ↑ Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall chart placement Austria. In: Austriancharts.at. Hung Medien, accessed May 13, 2018 . 
14. ↑ Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall chart placement Switzerland. In: Hitparade.ch. Hung Medien, accessed May 13, 2018 . 
15. ↑ Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall Charthistory United Kingdom. Official Charts Company , accessed May 13, 2018 . 
16. ↑ Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall chart placement United States. Billboard , accessed May 13, 2018 . 
17. ↑ Payout after Pink Floyd leaves them kids alone . The Times , November 27, 2004
18. ↑ Dan Lane: Get Lucky becomes one of the UK's biggest selling singles of all-time! In: Official Charts Company. June 27, 2013, accessed May 2, 2016 .