By the time he is an adult, he becomes a rock star, gets married, and wants to keep building his wall since he knows no other way to live. The abusive and belittling British school system, the failure of British society to properly cope with the aftermath of war, and especially his overprotective mother all add bricks to his emotional wall as he grows. The album then takes us back to Pink’s birth in Britain during WWII and the loss of his father on the battlefield quickly afterwards, beginning the construction of his emotional wall.

The album kicks off at the height of Pink’s isolation during “In The Flesh?,” with the line “if you wanna find out what’s behind these cold eyes / you’ll just have to claw your way through this disguise,” and we know we will soon find out how he turned into such a monster.

The Wall follows the life story of a character named Pink Floyd, and how events over the course of his life led him to build a wall in his mind to isolate himself from the rest of the world.

This idea, mixed with Waters’ real life experience losing his father in WWII and the mental breakdown of former Pink Floyd lead singer Syd Barrett, formed the bones of the twisted, disturbing, and crucial plot of the record. 2,” the haunting beauty of “Comfortably Numb,” the frightening visual style from the accompanying 1982 film, or just the legendary black and white brick wall on the album cover - The Wall is a pop culture staple.įirst inspired by an infamous concert where bassist and lyricist Roger Waters was so fed up with the rowdy audience that he spat in the face of a fan, he got the idea for a live show where a physical wall is built between the band and the crowd. Whether it is from the iconic line “we don’t need no education” shouted by the children’s choir on the hit song “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt.

Regardless of whether or not you listen to Pink Floyd, you probably have heard of The Wall.

1980s pink floyd the wall album cover