Columbia 36183
Producers: Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, and Roger Waters
Track listing: In the Flesh? / The Thin Ice /Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1) / The Happiest Days of Our Lies / Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) / Mother / Goodbye Blue Sky / Empty Spaces / Young Lust / One of My Turns Don’t Leave Me Now / Another Brick in the Wall (Part 3) / Goodbye Cruel World / Hey You / Is There Anybody Out There? / Nobody Home / Vera / Bring the Boys Back Home / Comfortably Numb / The Show Must Go On / In the Flesh / Run Like Hell / Waiting For the Worms / Stop / The Trial / Outside the Wall
January 19, 1980
15 weeks
With the success of The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd had secured its place as one of the most popular rock acts on the planet. Although Animals, the group’s 1977 album, stalled at number three, Pink Floyd’s popularity had grown to such proportions that the band members began to feel trapped by their own success. While riding in a limo to the final date of Floyd’s Animals tour, bassist Roger Waters began to talk about his feelings of alienation. “He said he felt that there was a wall between himself and the audience and he would love to one day erect a real one on stage,” recalls producer Bob Ezrin. “We kind of laughed about it at the time, but that was the germ for The Wall.”
More than a year later, Waters invited Ezrin to his home in the country to listen to what Ezrin calls an “interminable demo.” The 95-minute “song” was the groundwork for The Wall, containing an embryonic version of “Mother.” Other bits and pieces would later turn up on Waters’s solo albums, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking and Radio K.A.O.S.
When Floyd settled into Super Bear studios in Miravel, France, in April 1979, the demo had been refined into The Wall. “We worked together focusing it into a more gestalt personality, a kind of everyman called ‘Pink,'” says Ezrin. “We also refined the pacing musically, and basically wrote a show. We built a model for the show at the same time we were actually recording the album on tape, so the album truly is a representation of a fully conceived work. We knew not only how it sounded, but what it looked like and how it played.”
The band worked tirelessly between April and November 1979, constructing The Wall and often second-guessing their work. “‘Comfortably Numb’ was the synthesis of the music that David Gilmour had written and a lyric that Roger Waters had written,” says Ezrin. “Dave Gilmour overdubbed his electric guitar to the guide track on the first take and played that famous solo.” Yet Gilmour wasn’t happy with his performance. “He spent nearly six months trying to make it better,” Ezrin says. In the end, Gilmour went with one of his last attempts.
As was the case with The Dark Side of the Moon, part of The Wall sessions were devoted to recording sound effects. “That was an adventure in itself,” says Ezrin. “We took sledgehammers to televisions, busted through doorways, and went out to Edwards Air Force Base to record helicopters.”
At one point, the band had two studios rented at once in France. “We would have to drive back and forth for two and a half hours on these little winding roads,” says Ezrin, “so one team could overdub on the tape we had just completed, while we continued recording.”
Aside from Floyd’s core members, several additional players and singers were featured on the album, including an orchestra arranged by Michael Kamen, drummer Jeff Porcaro, guitarist Lee Ritenour, Toni Tennille from the Captain & Tennille, and Bruce Johnston from the Beach Boys.
During the sessions, a wall began to develop between the members of the band, as Waters literally forced Rick Wright from the band. “It was really intense and tough on everyone,” says Ezrin.
In the end, however, the emotional turmoil produced a gem. The Wall, a two-album set, reached Number One in its sixth week, becoming Floyd’s third chart-topper. It also spawned the band’s first Number One single, “Another Brick in the Wall,” which features a chorus of school children on backing vocals. The album also went on to inspire the 1982 film starring Bob Geldof.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of January 19, 1980
1. The Wall, Pink Floyd
2. On the Radio-Greatest Hits-Volumes I & II, Donna Summer
3. The Long Run, Eagles
4. Bee Gees Greatest, Bee Gees
5. Damn the Torpedoes, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers