Waiting for the worms

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Waiting for the worms
Pink Floyd
publication November 30, 1979
length 3:56
Genre (s) Rock music , progressive rock , hard rock
text Roger Waters
music Roger Waters , David Gilmour
album The Wall

Waiting for the Worms is a song by British rock band Pink Floyd from the 1979 concept album The Wall . It was composed by Roger Waters .

content

Like all other songs from The Wall , Waiting for the Worms tells part of the story of the protagonist Pink , who erects an imaginary wall to protect himself from emotional influences.

Because of the medication Pink got from the doctor in Comfortably Numb , instead of improving, his condition has rapidly deteriorated. As a result, Pink developed delusions that made him feel like a dictator on stage, which was already heard in the previous songs In the Flesh and Run Like Hell - but it remains unclear whether the concert is real or just Pink's fantasy .

At this point, Pink has already lost all hope. He makes it clear that nothing can stop him and feels safe behind his wall (“Sitting in a bunker here behind my wall”). He utters racist slogans with the promise to free Great Britain from minorities ("Waiting to put on a black shirt ... for the queers and the coons and the reds and the Jews") and even makes allusions to the Holocaust ("Waiting to turn on the showers and put on the ovens "). Finally, his announcements, shouted into the megaphone, become more and more incomprehensible.

At the end of the song, Pink, awakened from drug addiction, suddenly realizes his mistakes and yells out loud: "Stopǃ"

music

In contrast to the previous song Run Like Hell , Waiting for the Worms is melody-wise, slow, dark and aggressive. It's the last song that doesn't just feature Waters. As with Run Like Hell , Gilmour also sings along.

Gilmour's lines become calm, Waters's aggressively. In the two stanzas Waters sings All you need to do is follow the worms , the rest is sung by Gilmour. Only Waters can be heard in the intro, in the bridge and in the outro.

First the song, which is played in G major up to the end, begins with the German exclamation one, two, three, alleǃ . Then a Beach Boys -like vocal part by Waters begins , which is sung quite calmly.

This is where the calm, but very dark stanza begins, consisting of two lines from Gilmour and Waters. Then follows a bridge with angry comments from Waters through a megaphone, each of which begins with “Waiting”. In contrast to the verses, the melody here is rough and aggressive. Then follows the second stanza, similar to the first, with the same melody and also with four lines.

In the outro, again angry comments from Pink that sound increasingly incomprehensible. Angry guitars can be heard in the background, deviating from the previous theme. Now all the chords - both on the guitar and on the keyboard - are played at once. The main melodies of Another Brick in the Wall and Hey You , which form the leitmotif of the album, can be heard. The whole thing is accompanied by “Hammerǃ” calls from the audience, which get louder and louder.

After almost four minutes, the melody suddenly breaks off and the song continues without interruption into the next song . The “Stopǃ” call can still be heard at the end.

Movie

The film shows Pink at a concert that he is turning into a kind of fascist rally because of his drug addiction. He is wearing a uniform and is shown marching through the streets with a megaphone giving orders.

Soldiers can also be seen following Pink. At the end an animation with marching hammers can be seen until the song and the animation break off and Pink (played by Bob Geldof ), who has woken up from the drugs, screams “Stopǃ”.

occupation

literature

  • Andy Mabbett: The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd. Omnibus, London 1995, ISBN 0-7119-4301-X .
  • Vernon Fitch: The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia. 3. Edition. Collector's Guide Publications, Burlington, Ont. 2005, ISBN 1-894959-24-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pink Floyd - Waiting for the Worms. In: youtube.com. February 20, 2006, accessed March 17, 2017 .