Have you ever seen this movie? As a teacher, I think you would like it. My favorite line. "Teachers lie, ALL the time". (Except music teachers of course.)🤣😋 >>> ruclips.net/video/saUCSQt6iKU/видео.html
i am enjoying these reactions, but dont understand why you are not at least going back to the previous songs last 10-20 seconds to hear the transitions, also quite a few of the songs are short transitional pieces between two songs. like this one. it should be played together with the next song ideally.
Are you aware that the word “worm” on this album always refers to the evil indoctrination process that was forced on them, Waters even referred to the schoolmaster as Worm later in this album.
I've been anticipating the next song. I'm really enjoying this series. The album was ingrained in me since youth. I have always felt like someone on the sidelines watching, and with this album, I learned that I wasn't alone, which gave me strength. Your take is spot on. Congratulations on the baby! I'd love to see you react to more ballad or story songs very interesting the way you do it. One more cup of coffee, Bob Dylan or All Along the Watchtower, Bob Dylan.
From what I have heard, Rodger Waters is an extremely bitter person. A big inspiration for the wall album, was when he started spitting on fans in montreal, because they weren't paying attention to the show. A real Class Act😂
"I HATE THIS SONG".... Sometimes it is not easy to meet Roger Waters bitterness... . Amy Shafer, thank You so much for the work You are doing. Honest, straight from the heart.
Her visible recoil from that sharp slap of brutal reality is probably the most beautiful reaction to The Happiest Days of Our Lives I've ever seen! It's a physical, visceral kind of pain. She's making me feel like I'm hearing all of this again for the first time. So much for the rest of my afternoon! 😆 Stranger to stranger, you really should come listen to these again. Whatever kind of day you're having, Amy's reactions will make it better 💕
Music's purpose is to make you feel something. Angry, happy, melancholy... If you're feeling something, it's a good song even if you don't like the feeling.
@@CelticSpiritsCoven that's an absolute tragedy. I'm saddened to hear the story, and I feel for everyone who had to go through that. I'll admit though some confusion. That's a DUI tragedy. That it happened with a relationship to this music, compared against the general observation that music should make you feel something (in context that Amy is self-conscious about her feeling a certain way about this song), is a bridge I'm not seeing.
That was an INCREDIBLE reaction! I’m sure everyone here can understand the impact you felt. Children are molded by their experiences, and the fact that there are some teachers out there that have no concept of nurturing, is both sickening and disturbing. Pink Floyd is incredibly masterful at eliciting emotions, conveying ideas and giving the listener so much to really think about. Lyrically and musically painting images and drawing emotion from the listener They were truly masters at their craft.
On the next Pink Floyd album, The Final Cut, Waters looks more deeply into experiences of that generation of teachers who served in the Second World War, the horrors they witnessed, the emotions they suppressed. It made me less judgmental of the people who used to beat me in school. They were, after all, the same generation as my parents, and there were things they couldn't talk about either.
When you're done with side one, dissecting each song individually, I suggest doing a listen of the whole side as a single piece. I think you'll find new meaning and context to each song as well as an appreciation for the transitions and the full shape you could not have seen at the granular level.
She did say she listened to the album a few times and watched the wall, which, according to Waters, was actually the animators idea and concepts. After he listened to it. Great album.
@@Enrico.Sbardolini There's no pretending. They recorded all the first listens all together (not sure if it was all one sitting, but it was all genuinely the first listen), and then she did a bunch more listening, watching, research, etc., and now she's going back and doing analysis videos for each song, and they're releasing both the first listen and the reaction for each song together, even though chronologically there's a big gap between when they were recorded. It makes sense to me, though I can see why one might find it confusing. It's also just fascinating, though, to week after week see first reactions to these songs, that stitch together so closely... (who else heard the scream in their heads that we didn't hear at the end of this track?)... knowing she's gone back, but that what we're seeing is the first listen. It's like... I want to be angry almost that she's not listening through, and yet, there's something beautiful in a way about the fact that she didn't at first, but has since.
I had a math teacher in 5th grade tell me I was stupid and would never amount to anything. Forty years on that memory is still crystal clear. I know exactly what this song is saying and I appreciate your analysis and understanding of it.
Screamin' Freeman was my fifth-grade teacher. She's who I am reminded of when I think about this album. Even at that age, I remember wondering why that miserable woman chose teaching as a profession.
I was eager to see your reaction to this one. I wasn’t disappointed. This is one of my favorites from the album. The rawness of the voice and lyrics, the sharp, intense drumming, then the build- up at the pierced by the scream. Intense and brief.
I use this entire album in my High School English classes as a way to approach figurative language and inferential comprehension. We look at each song as a chapter in this short story of "The Wall"; This almost certainly shocks them when they find out that "The happiest days of our lives" is a perfect example of Irony/sarcasm (something Waters uses a LOT in his writing). This is a wonderful song to demonstrate how important mental health is. We talk about how (if Pink is 12 years old here) the year would be 1955; 10 years after the end of the Second World War. A lot of the male teachers were returning veterans who were suffering from some form of PTSD. We talk about how "Hurting people hurt people" which allows us to have a deeper conversation about generational trauma and how (and why) this particular event (his education) is a "Brick" in his emotional wall.
There are a lot of things to sharply disagree with Waters as a person, but after almost 30 years of listening to PF I cannot help but to finally acknowledge him as a profoundly influental talent, if not a genius. The pain, the trauma, and the tragedy artists like him express in their work are definitely worth of our most serious attention, though conclusions we may draw can be more delicate or even completely different, and rightly so.
@@badrobot3159 The more I live, the closer I come to agree with that. There's something unique about Roger's lyrics - it catches you from the beginning, but with years passed somehow gets even more solid and deep.
@@vampdan Sadly, being an expert in human "walls" doesn't necessarily help to crush them. Theory is one thing, practice is another. A person may realize their hatred, yet still be full of it, and condescendingly project on others.
Your insights into this album are truly incredible. I've been listening to this album for nearly 25 years.. Watching you listen to this is like listening to it myself for the first time.
This is where the album shifts from "a bit dark" to "very dark". The great thing about it is that it serves as a cathartic experience for some of us. Great reaction, Amy
@@nectarinedreams7208 Yep. There's the more significant shift, I'll agree. Maybe I should have said the point of no return is reached - any chance that the mood will lift again is gone. 🙂
The 'military experience' is right: most teachers in the post-war period in Britain were ex-servicemen and shouted and ranted at children in a Sgt. Major voice in a way that we would now think essentially abusive. This was the norm, Waters writing about ti was spot-on, and we all grew up in that atmosphere of fear.
Your reaction.. the way that it makes you feel.. the conversation (whether in your head or not) that occurs.. what you "see" in your minds eye.. the world you are transported to.. the experience of it all.. it's just what Pink Floyd does.
Hi Amy, what a treat to hear such an expression of truth regarding education and the educational system. I know you have already listened to the entire album, but now I am REALLY looking forward to your reaction to the very next song here, "Another Brick In The Wall, Part Two". The way this one angered you, I think the next one will both anger and inspire you, and perhaps make you think even more deeply about the role of education in shaping human society and in fact the very destiny of humanity itself. The next song introduces the iconic line, and revolutinary concept: "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control." I was 12 years old when I heard this next song, and in fact the whole album. But it was THIS upcoming song, Part Two of Another Brick In The Wall that spoke to me like NO OTHER song I had ever heard before, and very few since. My experience within the educational system was terrible. I felt...suffocated, molded, controlled, indoctrinated. From kindergarten on, but I felt it worse and worse with every passing year. This song became my ideological anthem as a boy of 12-16 who loved to LEARN but hated to be told what to think, how to think, what to believe. Teachers could save the world, if only they were not trapped within a system. But they are. The educational system is designed, intended, and mandated to create molded copies of the existing status quo perceptions of life, reality, morality, normalcy. It is a blueprint to impose the past upon all existing futures. Not to progress the mind, but to stifle it. Education is indoctrination. Of course there is some degree of leeway depending upon what you teach. A music teacher is somewhat more free to positively open child minds, than a history or social studies teacher. And I do understand that some teachers try to subvert the "system" as best they can, but working with a governmentally imposed curriculum, this is almost impossible. I dropped out of school on my 16th birthday, and that is when I really started to learn, to educate myself, to break free completely of the thought control that the next song so perfectly addresses. But of course the world is controlled by the "formally" educated. This is why every new generation is a broken generation. The rebellions they attempt to undertake are not rooted within truth, because truth is invisible, unknown to the formally educated. Music could in theory change the world. But it cannot reach enough open minds to do so. And it is diverted by society and government to serve as mindless distraction, entertainment. I thank you for recognizing the potential of education, and the tragedy that as a collective whole, this potential is universally failed throughout the modern era.
beautiful comment. Thank you. And yeah, I was thinking as she shared her reaction to the song about the meat grinders in the film for the next song (which, of course, is so closely tied to this one. Indeed, I long ago noticed that in radio play, one often hears a little bit of Another Brick in the Wall Part 1, then Happiest Days of Our Lives (this track), then Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 all as though it's one track. On the radio! What else is like that on the radio? 😂 ... and yeah, hatred is the right reaction, though for me, I _love_ the *song* exactly because of the hatred it brings out at _the system(s)_ being described. I'm paused before she's finished, let alone the reaction vid... hopefully Amy gets there too. :) Edit: 9:31 - she _at least_ got to a similar place. Yay. :)
@@DavidLindes It's interesting how this album, and even more so the specific song Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, has attained such immense and enduring popularity, and yet very few people seem able to recognize, much less embrace, the core message and meaning that I always saw very clearly since age 12: A damning indictment and condemnation of the educational system itself, as a structural whole. Instead, most listeners seem to go with the ideas that a few teachers might be bad, or that maybe the system way back then, in the 1950's in england, might have been problematic... It's the essential human problem of fleeing from truths too unbearable to deal with, ironically, a skill taught very well to children in schools... I agree that Amy's capacity to go a bit further in her philosophical ponderings is impressive, especially given that she is a teacher herself. When you are inside the Matrix, it is even more difficult to recognize just how structurally perverse such structures actually are. To look at it logically and sanely, children have a ton more to teach adults, than vice-verse: How NOT to think. What NOT to do. How to seek out, recognize, and treasure truth, instead of how to hide from, dismiss, and condemn truth in favor of ornately constructed lies, myths, and delusions that provide false comfort and rationalizations to commit and to support genocidal evil and universal harm... Sadly, these types of profoundly important revelations of truth are doomed to always be marginalized and buried within the shrouds of "artistry", entertainment, and amusement. I love music because you can use it to both escape from reality, and to commune with, make love to hidden and condemned truths and realities, and use such truth to at least try to break free of the mind bondage that comes with being born human and trapped within the social shackles of education/indoctrination.
I'm 100 percent sure that you'll go back and listen to the album in its entirety, uninterrupted. It seems counter intuitive but I totally see the point of doing it this way from your perspective. For right now though, I'm really enjoying the track-by-track breakdown! Thanks!
As a kid, I've had a terrible experience with teachers and the educational system. This song brings a lot of feelings together. To think those are supposed to be the happiest days... brings tears to my eyes. Great reaction! Edit: the next song is gonna make you mad 😁
This song has special meaning to me as it was my late Uncle's FAVORITE song from the Wall. He always said it had the most meaning and message out of all of Water's lyrics. You might also want to check out the movie The Wall sometime and watch it as a singular experience, the images from this particular song are dynamic to say the last and at times haunting.
Floyd always took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride . My first listen was in my dorm wearing headphones after partaking in the wacky tobaccy! It was incredible. Then I put Dark side on and was hooked on Floyd ever since.
I understand doing individual songs but some of these are almost always played together like this and another brick in the wall pt2. And there are other parts of this album that just don’t stand on their own unless you let them flow. But still love your reactions. And will still watch them.
Yeah, this doesn't really stand on its own. I really see it as a transition between Part 1 and Part 2, forming one big song, but at the very least, it's an intro to Part 2.
One of the best album concept (story wise) of all time, of any type of music. Masterpiece, legendary status. Thank you for doing an analysis for the entire album.
I think you really get this in a way that I've been explaining it to people for years. Wait until you get to "comfortably numb." You are amazingly intuitive.
i was a teacher in a firefighter school....and yes all my students are gave me so many experience to learning, too..open up her hearts and mind....to listen from my experiences
I think it's important for you, as a teacher, to note the lyric, "...there were certain teachers who ..." Just certain ones. I think we all have encountered the kind of people he describes to some degree or another. I LOVE your reactions. ☺✌💛 PJ
HDOOL and Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 were usually played back to back on FM radio back in the day. If that helps any. Love your analysis, by the way.
Your reaction to this song touched me very deeply - as this song obviously touched you very deeply. The song was written to elicit a strong reaction and I think in most listeners - including you and me - it does! You appear to be very sincere in your anger and I totally believe what you are saying. It is truly a tragedy that teachers such as those described in this song exist. Fortunately for me, I didn't personally have one. Thank you for a very enjoyable reaction video to a very depressing topic.
I was detected a bit late as a gifted kid in the 90s. Teachers were so not trained for it I too had a wall back then. This intro song in particular makes me as angry and upset by memories
Your reaction, as a teacher, is not the first time I've heard this. Back when I was in highschool and this was first released I heard (it might have been Kasie Kasom AT40) a teacher wrote in and had a very similar reaction. She loved Pink Floyd, but felt so let down, betrayed almost. I'm really enjoying your reactions and analysis of PF. Some of the best compositions ever recorded. We're so lucky to have been here for them.
For all those below that express frustration that she is stopping on individual songs and not allowing certain songs to flow together, it is explained in reaction of song two that she will 'perhaps' allow certain songs to be linked together, but as she had listened to the whole album all the way through previously, that she will review each song singularly.
We all have two teachers we'll never forget - mine are the one who encouraged me to the stage, or at least not to give up on it, and the other who made me physically flinch, until I was nearly 40, when had to write the word 'garden' in cursive. I understand the visceral reaction.
eagerly waiting for the next installment. it's been 12 days! perhaps you would consider releasing "another brick in the wall (part 2)" and "mother" together this week just to finish up side one.
As the son of a music educator I can absolutely relate to, and understand your visceral reaction to the caricature of a teacher which Waters paints so vividly in this song.
Awesome! Go for it! You have well honed, refined sensibilities and you are understanding this work deeply! What a joy! Your insights are rich! This song is played hundreds of times a day in America, if that tells you anything.
With regards to the "Helicopter" at the beginning of the track. You have to experience it in concert, they have quad audio. Everyone starts looking around them to see where the helicopter is, and the barking dogs, it really is quite immersive, it's not the same in stereo. As far as I'm aware, Pink Floyd were one of the early adopters of quadraphonic concerts. Image playing a computer game in VR, but with audio. This is what Floyd were experimenting with 40+ yrs ago. They're WAY ahead of their time!
Its a common saying in the UK; almost become cliche, that our school days are 'the happiest days of our lives'. You can clearly hear by the teachers shouting that these days certainly weren't happy for everyone.
Greatest transition in music history. The drums and the scream into “we don’t need no…” it’s impossible to listen to this without the transition to the next song 😢
Your reaction talks about the skills of Roger Waters to put those feelings in lyrics, and the deep sense of composition, sound and music to go with it. I know very well that "education". I had the experience as a child. And is a mark for life . Great analysis, teacher! Congrats!
Just like the painting "the scream" the artist (Munch) delivers the sentiment of a moment in his life, to me the album reflex it's society on and the oppression or the working class.
This section of the album and the next segment are usually played as one entire song on the radio. If the DJ is cool, usually they'll include the first section as well.
Of course in the context of this album, which is more than the sum of its songs, this teacher is a WW2 veteran who has witnessed horrors beyond normal comprehension. It should also be noted that this song segues into "Another Brick 2" with a scream and the ominous lyric "We don't need no education". It could be argued that this album is only four songs. Sides 1, 2, 3 and 4. I love your analyses.
Hehehe Amy - Happiest Days moves to comment on education. While you're a modern teacher in 2022 the reality of English/Australian education from post WW2 to 1980s was very much as Roger describes in The Wall. You might hate it but it's pretty accurate. As a short piece of music though I love it - the bass lines are fabulous imo and the lead into Another Brick pt 2 is great too :)
Your best reaction. Good job by you but very good job by Pink Floyd. Rock music is supposed to take you emotionally and this piece has done that excellently.
I love this reaction! That visceral reaction that you had when hearing about the child's experience is exactly what you were supposed to feel! You've mentioned in other videos that that is how you know music has done its job, and you're absolutely right. The band wanted you to feel righteous anger on behalf of these abused kids. Every point you've hit on is exactly right on.
There's another version of "Empty Spaces" that was used in the movie called "What Shall We Do Now?" I highly recommend you check it out, too. I think it was shortened in the album due to there not being enough space on the record for the full song.
I'm loving this The Wall videos, and for the next one I truly suggest you listen this song again together with the next one. It will make more sense to you.
I am glad to see you had such a strong emotional reaction. Pink Floyd can do that so often and it is not always pleasant. This music is clearly touching you. Listen to more of their albums. Wish You Were Here is the best.
I am really appreciating the time you spend on your reactions. As a Pink Floyd fan for over 30 years, I never really knew that this wasn't a part of The Wall pt. 2. And I appreciate your honesty in acknowledging the problems in the secular education system that the majority of us get indoctrinated through. Whatever it's original intentions, today it is an overpriced ideology mill with a monopoly. It's a track to follow, K-12 and then on to the University where there is an educational gulag for those with differing thoughts and ideas. This album came out around the time I was born, making it way ahead of it's time to call these things out.
At the time and place for this song the education system was not very secular it had a lot of religious overlaying it. Secular or religious, there is a tendency to frown upon decent.
Your reaction is spot on, it's a very angry song about some of the worst people in the world who cause untold damage to children as they are just starting out. It's definitely meant to stir those emotions and for all the millions who suffered at their hand it's a very cathartic song. I have no doubt you are a wonderful teacher and would very naturally have this reaction.
I just have to say that I think you are a wonderful communicator of your musical knowledge, and I think your harp sounds beautiful! Thanks for the content, and keep it up!
What an amazing analysis. I've known this song for years and yet you bring a depth to your analysis of the tragedy of it all that is unlike anything I've ever heard. Not to take anything from the brilliance of Waters, but it does make one wonder what he could have been if life had taken a different turn for him. What would his music and writing have been if he had been nurtured from an early age to develop his obvious innate gifts in a positive direction? I saw him in concert last year, and he seems now to have withered into a bitter old man who never has been able to get past the past injustices of his life (including those he perpetrated against those he loved). There has to be something beyond the cynicism that just rages against the inhumanity of it all -- something that can elevate us above all of the pain and anger. Talk about a missed opportunity. I sincerely hope that despite your (hopefully) ever increasing success on this channel, that you never stop teaching. Your personal involvement of loving your students and helping them to grow beyond their potential is your most valuable contribution to this world. Thank you!
His experiences with the British disciplinarian school system is what he's communication, and it's spot on and continues today in a similar way. Some schools have move on but I'd venture to say that based on my experience in an ex British colony, and now my children in British schools, he's accurate. Many a child with a future has been hollowed out by the uncaring, antiquated and demeaning British education system. There are exceptions, but all they do is prove the rule. My value from the system is that it taught me to speak out and rebel against that type of behaviour which has ultimately taught me, and my children to resist efforts to make them to be comfortably part of the mediocre majority.
As usual, please write here your questions only.
Have you ever seen this movie? As a teacher, I think you would like it. My favorite line. "Teachers lie, ALL the time". (Except music teachers of course.)🤣😋 >>> ruclips.net/video/saUCSQt6iKU/видео.html
i am enjoying these reactions, but dont understand why you are not at least going back to the previous songs last 10-20 seconds to hear the transitions, also quite a few of the songs are short transitional pieces between two songs. like this one. it should be played together with the next song ideally.
You need to listen to "When the Tigers Broke Free", it was a song recorded but not included in the wall album
Are you aware that the word “worm” on this album always refers to the evil indoctrination process that was forced on them, Waters even referred to the schoolmaster as Worm later in this album.
I've been anticipating the next song. I'm really enjoying this series. The album was ingrained in me since youth. I have always felt like someone on the sidelines watching, and with this album, I learned that I wasn't alone, which gave me strength. Your take is spot on. Congratulations on the baby! I'd love to see you react to more ballad or story songs very interesting the way you do it. One more cup of coffee, Bob Dylan or All Along the Watchtower, Bob Dylan.
This is probably the response that Roger Waters wanted the audience to feel.
No question
Absablatively
I totally agree!!!
From what I have heard, Rodger Waters is an extremely bitter person. A big inspiration for the wall album, was when he started spitting on fans in montreal, because they weren't paying attention to the show. A real Class Act😂
Well said. I'm sure this is exactly what he wanted you to feel.
An intense reaction is what Pink Floyd music is designed to do. You didn't overreact at all. You are supposed to think and reflect. Good job.
The Happiest Days of Our Lives and Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 are usually played as one single song
Yeah, her reaction to Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 should be rather interesting…
@@JoeTomasone LoL, truth
Just wanted to say that too…
I gotta say Pt1 even more so
She knows. But it's funny, when she gets to the end, my brain automatically inserts the scream.
You absolutely GOT the message. Your anger as an educator is apt.
She's obviously one of the "bleeding-hearts and artists" discussed at the trial.
"I HATE THIS SONG".... Sometimes it is not easy to meet Roger Waters bitterness...
.
Amy Shafer, thank You so much for the work You are doing.
Honest, straight from the heart.
Her visible recoil from that sharp slap of brutal reality is probably the most beautiful reaction to The Happiest Days of Our Lives I've ever seen! It's a physical, visceral kind of pain.
She's making me feel like I'm hearing all of this again for the first time. So much for the rest of my afternoon! 😆
Stranger to stranger, you really should come listen to these again. Whatever kind of day you're having, Amy's reactions will make it better 💕
Music's purpose is to make you feel something. Angry, happy, melancholy... If you're feeling something, it's a good song even if you don't like the feeling.
@@CelticSpiritsCoven that's an absolute tragedy. I'm saddened to hear the story, and I feel for everyone who had to go through that. I'll admit though some confusion. That's a DUI tragedy. That it happened with a relationship to this music, compared against the general observation that music should make you feel something (in context that Amy is self-conscious about her feeling a certain way about this song), is a bridge I'm not seeing.
@@CelticSpiritsCoven What about the Walt Disney they saw , I think that was to blame,,
💯💯
That was an INCREDIBLE reaction! I’m sure everyone here can understand the impact you felt. Children are molded by their experiences, and the fact that there are some teachers out there that have no concept of nurturing, is both sickening and disturbing. Pink Floyd is incredibly masterful at eliciting emotions, conveying ideas and giving the listener so much to really think about. Lyrically and musically painting images and drawing emotion from the listener They were truly masters at their craft.
On the next Pink Floyd album, The Final Cut, Waters looks more deeply into experiences of that generation of teachers who served in the Second World War, the horrors they witnessed, the emotions they suppressed. It made me less judgmental of the people who used to beat me in school. They were, after all, the same generation as my parents, and there were things they couldn't talk about either.
When you're done with side one, dissecting each song individually, I suggest doing a listen of the whole side as a single piece. I think you'll find new meaning and context to each song as well as an appreciation for the transitions and the full shape you could not have seen at the granular level.
She has done that. See reaction one or two where she explains she has listened to the whole thing.
She did say she listened to the album a few times and watched the wall, which, according to Waters, was actually the animators idea and concepts. After he listened to it. Great album.
@@gbsailing9436 Yeah. I was hoping she'd do a reaction to it.
@@groujo1
The point, in my opinion, is that now it seems to "pretend" to listen "to pieces" and for the first time. Bah ...
@@Enrico.Sbardolini There's no pretending. They recorded all the first listens all together (not sure if it was all one sitting, but it was all genuinely the first listen), and then she did a bunch more listening, watching, research, etc., and now she's going back and doing analysis videos for each song, and they're releasing both the first listen and the reaction for each song together, even though chronologically there's a big gap between when they were recorded. It makes sense to me, though I can see why one might find it confusing. It's also just fascinating, though, to week after week see first reactions to these songs, that stitch together so closely... (who else heard the scream in their heads that we didn't hear at the end of this track?)... knowing she's gone back, but that what we're seeing is the first listen. It's like... I want to be angry almost that she's not listening through, and yet, there's something beautiful in a way about the fact that she didn't at first, but has since.
THIS is what the internet should be doing. Simply the most wonderful thing on YT.
Good music = intense reaction. Nothing wrong here
I had a math teacher in 5th grade tell me I was stupid and would never amount to anything. Forty years on that memory is still crystal clear. I know exactly what this song is saying and I appreciate your analysis and understanding of it.
Screamin' Freeman was my fifth-grade teacher. She's who I am reminded of when I think about this album. Even at that age, I remember wondering why that miserable woman chose teaching as a profession.
Mrs Kerrigan, at Raglan School. I hated her. She was mean and rude.
So weird to hear this without Pt. 2 immediately following it.
I just went and listened to pt. 2 after finishing this video
I was eager to see your reaction to this one. I wasn’t disappointed.
This is one of my favorites from the album. The rawness of the voice and lyrics, the sharp, intense drumming, then the build- up at the pierced by the scream. Intense and brief.
I use this entire album in my High School English classes as a way to approach figurative language and inferential comprehension. We look at each song as a chapter in this short story of "The Wall"; This almost certainly shocks them when they find out that "The happiest days of our lives" is a perfect example of Irony/sarcasm (something Waters uses a LOT in his writing). This is a wonderful song to demonstrate how important mental health is. We talk about how (if Pink is 12 years old here) the year would be 1955; 10 years after the end of the Second World War. A lot of the male teachers were returning veterans who were suffering from some form of PTSD. We talk about how "Hurting people hurt people" which allows us to have a deeper conversation about generational trauma and how (and why) this particular event (his education) is a "Brick" in his emotional wall.
Wow! Your "The Wall' analyses Is great! Let's hear this new One....
There are a lot of things to sharply disagree with Waters as a person, but after almost 30 years of listening to PF I cannot help but to finally acknowledge him as a profoundly influental talent, if not a genius. The pain, the trauma, and the tragedy artists like him express in their work are definitely worth of our most serious attention, though conclusions we may draw can be more delicate or even completely different, and rightly so.
Roger waters is a lyrical genius.
@@badrobot3159 The more I live, the closer I come to agree with that. There's something unique about Roger's lyrics - it catches you from the beginning, but with years passed somehow gets even more solid and deep.
@@IgorFoukzon That's your prejudice and hatred melting. Careful, you won't recognize yourself if you step out from behind your wall.
@@vampdan Sadly, being an expert in human "walls" doesn't necessarily help to crush them. Theory is one thing, practice is another. A person may realize their hatred, yet still be full of it, and condescendingly project on others.
Such a brilliant reaction.
If your reaction is so intense with "The Wall". What will happen when you analyze "The dark side of the moon"? 😍
Or the Final Cut
@@thejeremyclouse “Haven’t we been here before ?” - Dave G
or......Shine on You Crazy Diamond
Animals.
Every Pink Floyd album honestly
Your insights into this album are truly incredible. I've been listening to this album for nearly 25 years.. Watching you listen to this is like listening to it myself for the first time.
This is where the album shifts from "a bit dark" to "very dark". The great thing about it is that it serves as a cathartic experience for some of us. Great reaction, Amy
I'd say that happens in Empty Spaces
@@nectarinedreams7208 Yep. There's the more significant shift, I'll agree. Maybe I should have said the point of no return is reached - any chance that the mood will lift again is gone. 🙂
I appreciate your honesty and insight.
Thank You for teaching. We need more teachers like you.
The 'military experience' is right: most teachers in the post-war period in Britain were ex-servicemen and shouted and ranted at children in a Sgt. Major voice in a way that we would now think essentially abusive. This was the norm, Waters writing about ti was spot-on, and we all grew up in that atmosphere of fear.
Song did its job. You're a kindhearted person!
Your reaction.. the way that it makes you feel.. the conversation (whether in your head or not) that occurs.. what you "see" in your minds eye.. the world you are transported to.. the experience of it all.. it's just what Pink Floyd does.
Hi Amy, what a treat to hear such an expression of truth regarding education and the educational system. I know you have already listened to the entire album, but now I am REALLY looking forward to your reaction to the very next song here, "Another Brick In The Wall, Part Two". The way this one angered you, I think the next one will both anger and inspire you, and perhaps make you think even more deeply about the role of education in shaping human society and in fact the very destiny of humanity itself. The next song introduces the iconic line, and revolutinary concept: "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control."
I was 12 years old when I heard this next song, and in fact the whole album. But it was THIS upcoming song, Part Two of Another Brick In The Wall that spoke to me like NO OTHER song I had ever heard before, and very few since. My experience within the educational system was terrible. I felt...suffocated, molded, controlled, indoctrinated. From kindergarten on, but I felt it worse and worse with every passing year. This song became my ideological anthem as a boy of 12-16 who loved to LEARN but hated to be told what to think, how to think, what to believe.
Teachers could save the world, if only they were not trapped within a system. But they are. The educational system is designed, intended, and mandated to create molded copies of the existing status quo perceptions of life, reality, morality, normalcy. It is a blueprint to impose the past upon all existing futures. Not to progress the mind, but to stifle it. Education is indoctrination.
Of course there is some degree of leeway depending upon what you teach. A music teacher is somewhat more free to positively open child minds, than a history or social studies teacher. And I do understand that some teachers try to subvert the "system" as best they can, but working with a governmentally imposed curriculum, this is almost impossible.
I dropped out of school on my 16th birthday, and that is when I really started to learn, to educate myself, to break free completely of the thought control that the next song so perfectly addresses. But of course the world is controlled by the "formally" educated. This is why every new generation is a broken generation. The rebellions they attempt to undertake are not rooted within truth, because truth is invisible, unknown to the formally educated.
Music could in theory change the world. But it cannot reach enough open minds to do so. And it is diverted by society and government to serve as mindless distraction, entertainment. I thank you for recognizing the potential of education, and the tragedy that as a collective whole, this potential is universally failed throughout the modern era.
beautiful comment. Thank you. And yeah, I was thinking as she shared her reaction to the song about the meat grinders in the film for the next song (which, of course, is so closely tied to this one. Indeed, I long ago noticed that in radio play, one often hears a little bit of Another Brick in the Wall Part 1, then Happiest Days of Our Lives (this track), then Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 all as though it's one track. On the radio! What else is like that on the radio? 😂 ... and yeah, hatred is the right reaction, though for me, I _love_ the *song* exactly because of the hatred it brings out at _the system(s)_ being described. I'm paused before she's finished, let alone the reaction vid... hopefully Amy gets there too. :)
Edit: 9:31 - she _at least_ got to a similar place. Yay. :)
@@DavidLindes It's interesting how this album, and even more so the specific song Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, has attained such immense and enduring popularity, and yet very few people seem able to recognize, much less embrace, the core message and meaning that I always saw very clearly since age 12: A damning indictment and condemnation of the educational system itself, as a structural whole. Instead, most listeners seem to go with the ideas that a few teachers might be bad, or that maybe the system way back then, in the 1950's in england, might have been problematic... It's the essential human problem of fleeing from truths too unbearable to deal with, ironically, a skill taught very well to children in schools...
I agree that Amy's capacity to go a bit further in her philosophical ponderings is impressive, especially given that she is a teacher herself. When you are inside the Matrix, it is even more difficult to recognize just how structurally perverse such structures actually are. To look at it logically and sanely, children have a ton more to teach adults, than vice-verse: How NOT to think. What NOT to do. How to seek out, recognize, and treasure truth, instead of how to hide from, dismiss, and condemn truth in favor of ornately constructed lies, myths, and delusions that provide false comfort and rationalizations to commit and to support genocidal evil and universal harm...
Sadly, these types of profoundly important revelations of truth are doomed to always be marginalized and buried within the shrouds of "artistry", entertainment, and amusement. I love music because you can use it to both escape from reality, and to commune with, make love to hidden and condemned truths and realities, and use such truth to at least try to break free of the mind bondage that comes with being born human and trapped within the social shackles of education/indoctrination.
I'm 100 percent sure that you'll go back and listen to the album in its entirety, uninterrupted. It seems counter intuitive but I totally see the point of doing it this way from your perspective. For right now though, I'm really enjoying the track-by-track breakdown! Thanks!
I can't wait for her to move on from drug music.
brilliant...4 tracks in and you're getting your head messed with already..
welcome to pink floyd
As a kid, I've had a terrible experience with teachers and the educational system. This song brings a lot of feelings together. To think those are supposed to be the happiest days... brings tears to my eyes. Great reaction!
Edit: the next song is gonna make you mad 😁
This song has special meaning to me as it was my late Uncle's FAVORITE song from the Wall. He always said it had the most meaning and message out of all of Water's lyrics. You might also want to check out the movie The Wall sometime and watch it as a singular experience, the images from this particular song are dynamic to say the last and at times haunting.
Brilliant reaction !. Your outrage is lovely !
Floyd always took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride . My first listen was in my dorm wearing headphones after partaking in the wacky tobaccy! It was incredible. Then I put Dark side on and was hooked on Floyd ever since.
I understand doing individual songs but some of these are almost always played together like this and another brick in the wall pt2. And there are other parts of this album that just don’t stand on their own unless you let them flow.
But still love your reactions. And will still watch them.
Yeah, this doesn't really stand on its own. I really see it as a transition between Part 1 and Part 2, forming one big song, but at the very least, it's an intro to Part 2.
She did listen to the entire album in one go. Each video in this series is a slice of that listening experience.
@@cleetose, good for her, but that doesn't help the presentation of these videos.
One of the best album concept (story wise) of all time, of any type of music. Masterpiece, legendary status. Thank you for doing an analysis for the entire album.
Brilliant reaction for a first time listen. That is the exact emotion they wanted you to feel.
I think you really get this in a way that I've been explaining it to people for years. Wait until you get to "comfortably numb." You are amazingly intuitive.
My Christmas wish is that Roger and David somehow find this video series.
Looks like it hit you exactly the way it was supposed to hit. Great reaction.
i was a teacher in a firefighter school....and yes all my students are gave me so many experience to learning, too..open up her hearts and mind....to listen from my experiences
I think it's important for you, as a teacher, to note the lyric, "...there were certain teachers who ..." Just certain ones. I think we all have encountered the kind of people he describes to some degree or another. I LOVE your reactions. ☺✌💛 PJ
never knew this was a song, always thought that it was the beginning of another brick in the wall pt.2.
HDOOL and Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 were usually played back to back on FM radio back in the day. If that helps any. Love your analysis, by the way.
You are an incredible human being!
Your reaction to this song touched me very deeply - as this song obviously touched you very deeply. The song was written to elicit a strong reaction and I think in most listeners - including you and me - it does! You appear to be very sincere in your anger and I totally believe what you are saying. It is truly a tragedy that teachers such as those described in this song exist. Fortunately for me, I didn't personally have one. Thank you for a very enjoyable reaction video to a very depressing topic.
Everyone is waiting for your reactions to Wall Pt II, for which this is a prelude. Indeed, the album is best appreciated as a whole piece.
Your reaction to the song was exactly how you should react. It was Roger Water's intention.
great point
I was detected a bit late as a gifted kid in the 90s.
Teachers were so not trained for it I too had a wall back then. This intro song in particular makes me as angry and upset by memories
Your reaction, as a teacher, is not the first time I've heard this. Back when I was in highschool and this was first released I heard (it might have been Kasie Kasom AT40) a teacher wrote in and had a very similar reaction. She loved Pink Floyd, but felt so let down, betrayed almost. I'm really enjoying your reactions and analysis of PF. Some of the best compositions ever recorded. We're so lucky to have been here for them.
Thank you. I'm glad the world has teachers like you.
Im loving the pink floyd analysis... much Respect from Durham UK..
For all those below that express frustration that she is stopping on individual songs and not allowing certain songs to flow together, it is explained in reaction of song two that she will 'perhaps' allow certain songs to be linked together, but as she had listened to the whole album all the way through previously, that she will review each song singularly.
There's a song on this album, called "Stop" - I'm looking forward to see another separate analysis of it here on your channel, dear lady 😉.
your reaction is what he was asking for. so pure.
Please do the long and ingenious „Shine On Your Crazy Diamonds“ at some time. It‘s probably my most favorite track(s) ever.
Although this is technically a separate track, it's really an intro section for the following track; the two are meant to be listened to as one song.
I love music that gives me a visceral reaction and Floyd did that in spades for me.
We all have two teachers we'll never forget - mine are the one who encouraged me to the stage, or at least not to give up on it, and the other who made me physically flinch, until I was nearly 40, when had to write the word 'garden' in cursive.
I understand the visceral reaction.
eagerly waiting for the next installment. it's been 12 days! perhaps you would consider releasing "another brick in the wall (part 2)" and "mother" together this week just to finish up side one.
As the son of a music educator I can absolutely relate to, and understand your visceral reaction to the caricature of a teacher which Waters paints so vividly in this song.
Awesome! Go for it! You have well honed, refined sensibilities and you are understanding this work deeply! What a joy! Your insights are rich! This song is played hundreds of times a day in America, if that tells you anything.
With regards to the "Helicopter" at the beginning of the track. You have to experience it in concert, they have quad audio. Everyone starts looking around them to see where the helicopter is, and the barking dogs, it really is quite immersive, it's not the same in stereo. As far as I'm aware, Pink Floyd were one of the early adopters of quadraphonic concerts. Image playing a computer game in VR, but with audio. This is what Floyd were experimenting with 40+ yrs ago. They're WAY ahead of their time!
Its a common saying in the UK; almost become cliche, that our school days are 'the happiest days of our lives'. You can clearly hear by the teachers shouting that
these days certainly weren't happy for everyone.
Greatest transition in music history. The drums and the scream into “we don’t need no…” it’s impossible to listen to this without the transition to the next song 😢
Your reaction talks about the skills of Roger Waters to put those feelings in lyrics, and the deep sense of composition, sound and music to go with it. I know very well that "education". I had the experience as a child. And is a mark for life . Great analysis, teacher! Congrats!
Can't wait !
Please listen to "When the Tigers broke free" from Floyd, for me it's one oft their masterpeases. It'll takes you to a complete different world.
"It's amazing! I hate it."
Yes, the most ironically named song on the album.
i rly enjoy your reactions. its very pleasing to see someone explore a new field and open their mind to everything.
Just like the painting "the scream" the artist (Munch) delivers the sentiment of a moment in his life, to me the album reflex it's society on and the oppression or the working class.
I found your channel the other day , analysing another brick in the wall and I wished you would do this exact piece! It’s a Christmas miracle!
Ms. Shafer, your opinion is all we ask Maestro!
ur empathy n passion is refrehsing
This section of the album and the next segment are usually played as one entire song on the radio. If the DJ is cool, usually they'll include the first section as well.
Of course in the context of this album, which is more than the sum of its songs, this teacher is a WW2 veteran who has witnessed horrors beyond normal comprehension. It should also be noted that this song segues into "Another Brick 2" with a scream and the ominous lyric "We don't need no education". It could be argued that this album is only four songs. Sides 1, 2, 3 and 4.
I love your analyses.
Hehehe Amy - Happiest Days moves to comment on education. While you're a modern teacher in 2022 the reality of English/Australian education from post WW2 to 1980s was very much as Roger describes in The Wall. You might hate it but it's pretty accurate. As a short piece of music though I love it - the bass lines are fabulous imo and the lead into Another Brick pt 2 is great too :)
Your best reaction. Good job by you but very good job by Pink Floyd. Rock music is supposed to take you emotionally and this piece has done that excellently.
agree,this is her best reaction until now
I love this reaction! That visceral reaction that you had when hearing about the child's experience is exactly what you were supposed to feel! You've mentioned in other videos that that is how you know music has done its job, and you're absolutely right. The band wanted you to feel righteous anger on behalf of these abused kids. Every point you've hit on is exactly right on.
There's another version of "Empty Spaces" that was used in the movie called "What Shall We Do Now?" I highly recommend you check it out, too. I think it was shortened in the album due to there not being enough space on the record for the full song.
Looking forward to your reaction to Mother, which should be soon :)
I'm loving this The Wall videos, and for the next one I truly suggest you listen this song again together with the next one. It will make more sense to you.
You are amazing!
I am glad to see you had such a strong emotional reaction. Pink Floyd can do that so often and it is not always pleasant. This music is clearly touching you. Listen to more of their albums. Wish You Were Here is the best.
I am really appreciating the time you spend on your reactions. As a Pink Floyd fan for over 30 years, I never really knew that this wasn't a part of The Wall pt. 2. And I appreciate your honesty in acknowledging the problems in the secular education system that the majority of us get indoctrinated through. Whatever it's original intentions, today it is an overpriced ideology mill with a monopoly. It's a track to follow, K-12 and then on to the University where there is an educational gulag for those with differing thoughts and ideas. This album came out around the time I was born, making it way ahead of it's time to call these things out.
At the time and place for this song the education system was not very secular it had a lot of religious overlaying it. Secular or religious, there is a tendency to frown upon decent.
Brilliant dissection!! Love this channel and your insights!
Your reaction is spot on, it's a very angry song about some of the worst people in the world who cause untold damage to children as they are just starting out. It's definitely meant to stir those emotions and for all the millions who suffered at their hand it's a very cathartic song. I have no doubt you are a wonderful teacher and would very naturally have this reaction.
Had this type of teacher in the 4th grade that seemed me out. This is why I related to this to begin with back when it came out.
This is a visceral song, so it is good that you had a visceral reaction.
I love your honesty. The best reaction video series out there.
Hi when you doing the rest of the wall album
I just have to say that I think you are a wonderful communicator of your musical knowledge, and I think your harp sounds beautiful! Thanks for the content, and keep it up!
I love your reaction videos. Can't wait to see your reaction to the next track.
What an amazing analysis. I've known this song for years and yet you bring a depth to your analysis of the tragedy of it all that is unlike anything I've ever heard. Not to take anything from the brilliance of Waters, but it does make one wonder what he could have been if life had taken a different turn for him. What would his music and writing have been if he had been nurtured from an early age to develop his obvious innate gifts in a positive direction? I saw him in concert last year, and he seems now to have withered into a bitter old man who never has been able to get past the past injustices of his life (including those he perpetrated against those he loved). There has to be something beyond the cynicism that just rages against the inhumanity of it all -- something that can elevate us above all of the pain and anger. Talk about a missed opportunity. I sincerely hope that despite your (hopefully) ever increasing success on this channel, that you never stop teaching. Your personal involvement of loving your students and helping them to grow beyond their potential is your most valuable contribution to this world. Thank you!
The precursor to one of the all-time greatest tracks.
They wanted you to react exactly as you did.
His experiences with the British disciplinarian school system is what he's communication, and it's spot on and continues today in a similar way. Some schools have move on but I'd venture to say that based on my experience in an ex British colony, and now my children in British schools, he's accurate. Many a child with a future has been hollowed out by the uncaring, antiquated and demeaning British education system. There are exceptions, but all they do is prove the rule. My value from the system is that it taught me to speak out and rebel against that type of behaviour which has ultimately taught me, and my children to resist efforts to make them to be comfortably part of the mediocre majority.
Such an amazing song. Drums are incredibly on point.
Great job on the analysis! Happy Holidays to you and yours!
A meaningful reaction to meaningful piece of art. job done. I'm sure you understand, of course, that it is part of a greater whole.