The Wall

Lore & Background

The group's bassist Roger Waters conceived The Wall during Pink Floyd's 1977 In the Flesh tour, modelling the character of Pink after himself and former member Syd Barrett. Recording spanned from December 1978 to November 1979. Co-producer Bob Ezrin helped to refine the concept and bridge tensions during recording, as the band members were struggling with personal and financial problems. The group's keyboardist, Richard Wright, was fired by Waters during production but stayed on during the tour as a salaried musician.

Reader's Guide

The Wall is a rock opera that explores abandonment, cycles of violence, and isolation, symbolized by a wall. The songs create a storyline of events in the life of Pink, a fictional rock star based on Waters and Pink Floyd's former frontman Syd Barrett. The first half of the album largely features events from Waters' childhood and young adulthood, such as the death of his father in WWII, and his wife's infidelity. The album also includes several references to Barrett, namely the track "Nobody Home", which mirrors lyrically one of Barrett's final songs for the Floyd, the unreleased B-side "Vegetable Man" through descriptions of the narrator's possessions and character.

"Comfortably Numb" was inspired by Waters' injection with a muscle relaxant to combat the effects of hepatitis during the In the Flesh tour in Philadelphia. In the song "In the Flesh" Waters "imagines himself as a fascist dictator".

Did You Know?

• The Wall topped the US charts for 15 weeks and reached number three in the UK.
• Three singles were issued: "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" (Pink Floyd's only UK and US number-one single), "Run Like Hell", and "Comfortably Numb".
• With over 30 million copies sold, it is the second-best-selling Pink Floyd album behind The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), the best-selling double album of all time, and one of the best-selling albums of all time.
• In 2000, it was voted number 30 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.
• From 2010 to 2013, Waters staged a new The Wall live tour that became one of the highest-grossing tours by a solo musician.