The Show Must Go On!

Roger Waters is taking The Wall on tour again!!!

The Wall, released in 1979 by Pink Floyd (of which Waters was the lead songwriter and singer), chronicles the psychological journey of a fictional rock star named Pink as he struggles to cope with his wife leaving him and the subsequent hopelessness and isolation that it brings about.

To Pink, this is only but one of a series of disappointments that have seemed to create an an impenetrable wall between him and happiness, a sense that he had already experienced since childhood. Having lost his father to the war before he was born (as Roger Waters did) and then subjected to the brutal, authoritarian British school system designed to inculcate obedience and conformity, even in his youth, young Pink already had the sense that the bricks of The Wall were being laid.

The story opens with Pink performing a show, in full fascist garb, with his hair slicked back and his eyebrows shaved off. By adopting a persona of hate and contempt for vulnerability, he has found a way of relating to the world.

Pink as an unfeeling fascist

The story then moves back in time to his infancy. Over the sounds of a baby's cry a premonition is given:

The sea may look warm to you babe,
and the sky make look blue.
But oooh babe,
If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life,
Dragging behind the silent reproach
Of a million tear-stained eyes,
Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet
You'll slip out of your depth and slip out of your mind
With your feel flowing out behind you
As you claw the thin ice.

We next find Pink as a young schoolboy, subjected to the harassment of disturbed schoolteachers and being disciplined for failing to adopt the thought processes that are expected of him.

"We don't need your thought control"

Pink is now much older and an international rock star. We see him attempting to call his wife and when her lover answers the phone he slides into despair. He seeks to cope with the pain through pleasure and material excess. As he says:

What shall we use to fill the empty spaces
Where waves of hunger roar?
Shall we set out across the sea of faces
In search of more and more applause?
Shall we buy a new guitar?
Shall we drive a more powerful car?
Shall we work straight through the night?
Shall we get into fights?
Leave the lights on?
Drop bombs?
Do tours of the east?
contract diseases?
Bury bones?
Break up homes?
Send flowers by phone?
Take to drink?
Go to shrinks?
Give up meat?
Rarely sleep?
Keep people as pets?
Train dogs?
Race rats?
Fill the attic with cash?
Bury treasure?
Store up leisure?
But never relax at all
With our backs to the wall.

Pink with his back to The Wall

Is There Anybody In There?

Frustrated with the failure of those efforts Pink then enters a destructive rage and destroys the hotel room he's been holed up in. With his wrist bleeding from the episode, he lays on his back in the pool in a symbolic representation of Jesus on the cross, hoping for salvation.


Numb and completely cold, he settles into an almost comatose state, where even the pain is gone. He has become, as he describes, "comfortably numb."

Comfortably numb

At this point, his manager comes knocking at the door, trying to revive him for the show that he has to put on. It is here where the story comes full circle. Pink, dressed in his Nazi-like uniform, puts on the show for his fans and then goes on a campaign of terror to root out what he calls "the worms." As he says:

Ooooh, you cannot reach me now
Ooooh, no matter how you try
Goodbye, cruel world,
it's over
Walk on by.
Sitting in a bunker
here behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come.
In perfect isolation
here behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come.

At some point in his reign of terror he becomes horrified by what he has become and yells:

Stop!
I wanna go home.
Take off this uniform and leave the show.
I'm waiting in this cell because I have to know:
Have I been guilty all this time?

Pink then puts himself on trial at which his mother, his old schoolmaster, and the judge all testify and make sentencing recommendations. In the end, he is "sentenced to be exposed before [his] peers."

Waiting for trial

Whether or not he ever makes it "Outside The Wall" is unclear. Based off of Roger Waters' monologue album "The Final Cut" one can guess that the answer is no.

With its tracks blending into one another thus creating a two-hour seamless opera, The Wall was a revolutionary album in many respects. Using state-of-the-art recording techniques to create never-heard-before 3D sound effects combined with unparalleled sound quality, The Wall is not only a masterpiece of music but also a milestone in music history. To top it all off, the live shows done for the tour of the album were apparently the most extravagant and impressive shows ever done. Pink Floyd has continued that tradition ever since with shows that use lasers, fireworks, and elaborate sets.

So get your tickets now before it's too late! Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the greatest rock opera ever written performed live!

"I don't need no walls around me!"