He could’ve said “just another kick in the teeth” If you think back to the end of the first track on this album “In the flesh ” you may remember how it finished with a stuka dive bomber attacking with it’s siren screaming, that’s a clue to where daddy went.
I'm really loving this series. As a musician I love the way you break it down in your other series. Listen close to the very first song and the last song on the album you realize the intro is actually the last part of the last song on the album. It's a circle.
The snapshot in the family album - Daddy what else did you leave for me? is the killer lyric for me. I’ve never seen my father or even a photo. Yet I was named after him. Im sixty years old now. The route to find him went cold. That’s life. That became my first Brick in the Wall.
I've never met my father either. I've lived about an hour away from him my entire life (except for my time in army). I always figured he'd come see me if he wanted to and if he didn't, then I didn't want to see him either. I did go through a period of trying to find him when I was about 30; never actually get his number or address. Then, several years later, he called me. Somehow, as soon as he spoke, I knew it was him. When he said who he was, I said, "Yeah, I know." He said he wanted to meet. I told him to go to hell. I'm 45 now and I hate him more than ever.
@@positivelynegative9149 Nice to hear that you resolved it to your personal wishes. I have occasionally wondered but as I’ve got older I’m really not that bothered to be honest. Others think it would be amazing if we could meet but I’ve had a good (adult) life and didn’t need his input. My stepfather was a twisted individual who disliked me even from when I was so very young. A nasty man and I only went to his funeral to make the Ba*&#@d was really dead.
I too have never seen my father that I can recollect. He was lost at sea when I was 6 months old. The submarine he was on mysteriously sank. My mother said I would lay on the bed and watch him get dressed, but as an infant, there is no memory of it. All I have is photos and stories of others that knew him. Having never grieved over his loss, but knowing that I somehow should, has been my lifelong pain.
Incomprehensible how Roger Waters sums up his childhood-dominating trauma in a couple of beautifully clear sentences. His lyrics are always stunningly on the mark. Pure poetry.
When this album first came out, I think this was the song I listened to the most. I was quite isolated (this started in late childhood) and this song hit home HARD.
The children could be heard at a distance... as if he , as a child, was watching the other kids from a distance. Not joining in with them. Again, just another brick in his wall.
Well we, who were born over a decade later than you, who weren't born in the drug culture, thought this music was trash from drug-heads. Of course we all grow up and can appreciate older music.
As a 40+ year devotee of this album, and an amateur muso, its great to hear the insights of someone with substantial Classical experience & training (who clearly has analytical skills too). You see/hear aspects I haven't after all these years. Bravo.
Probably one of the saddest scenes in the movie. Showing the loneliness growing up without a dad. Was a punch in the stomach for me the first time I saw the movie.
While the scene in the movie is effective and affecting, this piece is also a prime example of why Gilmour has remarked that much of _The Wall_ is musically weak or uninteresting - very little of interest or very little at all happens musically in this song - if it can even properly be called a song. Without the movie it is mostly just a vehicle for Waters to barely sing a few lines of his libretto. With the movie scenes, the music completely recedes into the background as unimportant soundtrack filler. Waters’ libretto lines in this piece are important to the overall story of _The Wall_ , but the musical ramble (barely more than practice room noodling) is not.
@@markhamstra1083 Well this album is a "audio movie" completely... That's why a "music theory" analysis is a bit overkill, although it's interesting, but some piece should have been "glued together" in this analysis... Typically, Part 1 - The happiest days of our lives and Part 2 could have been analyzed as ONE arc. Problem is, she couldn't do the split before knowing the album so it's tricky. Maybe someone else, educated in the album, could have done the splitting (but again different Floyders might split a different places so...)
That echoing is an effect known as a delay. It’s actively part of the guitar/vocal tone and has to be considered by the player/singer in real time. They play this stuff live.
To add to this, usually they will have either presets which can be switched between at will, or multiple pedals chained together which can be turned on and off at will.
"A snapshot in the family album" were all Roger Waters had of his father growing up. He was killed at the battle of Anzio in WW2. I always thought this song was about "Pinky" (the main character/Roger Waters) looking back through his memories, trying to connect and being completely unable to do so. This album is very personal to me and particularly this song. Although my father is still alive, he was absent for most of my childhood and 20 years of my adult life. When I first heard The Wall, it was like listening to the story of my life. At the time, I felt as if my father might as well have been dead, his absence from my life felt like loss. The day my sister told me she had found our father I cried like a baby. Very powerful subject matter that a lot of people can connect with...which is a hallmark of Pink Floyd and specifically Roger Waters lyrics. It's great that you are taking such care to examine and analyse this album. It is a complicated work and I don't know if this has been done quite like this before. Thank you.
This song is perfect in its purpose. A gut check that puts your listener in a failure position. You know exactly what he's talking about, and what he is feeling, and you can't do anything but accept it. War sucks for the children affected.
I am loving this. What an epic endeavor to listen to the Wall in it's entirety! Here we are still in the early childhood of the protagonist. Even at an early age his father is only a memory growing more faint every day. His longing for his father is everpresent compared to his father's absence. This experience, the half-remembrance if his father and his desperate need for a father figure, are the foundation upon which the wall shall be built. We are all the sum of our experiences, and each moment in time is a piece of who we are and who we become.
I can see the fascination in your expressions as you get deeper into the album. The best is yet to come. I strongly suggest that you combine your reaction video for the next two tracks into one video as they are very much a larger song even though they are different.
Great analysis! Waters is deep, dark, sad and Gilmour follows him with his guitar compositions, as a master. The back sounds of Wright and the drums of Mason are the columns to support al that.
Love hearing your interpretation of this album. This is not an easy listen, and I appreciate your ability and willingness to sit with it and reflect on it.
My childhood was nasty bad! I was 22 yo when this album was released and it spoke to me as if it was written based on my life. Just thinking about the songs today bring back to mind so many unfortunate memories of my father and mother. I was damaged as a child and 40 some years later this album still speaks to me.
@@tutdvd9533 Very well stated @tutdvd and I wish you well on your life journey. And thanks for the reply. I read a book long ago ... something like ... everything I know today I learned in my first 6 years of life. For me I am the product of my first 15 years of life. I believe reflecting on bitter sweet nostalgia teaches us who we are, how we have been molded to think and act, and sets a benchmark for us to do better. Once again, thank you for the reply.
"Heartbeat" and "Time" marching on. Two call backs to a previous album. How astute you are. This music has great significance in my life. What a pleasure to witness your discovery of it. Thank you.
Reliving this journey with you is such a delight -- I feel like I'm hearing some of my favorite music for the first time again. Your earnestness is a true joy -- thanks so much!!!
The emotions rippling across her face are an absolute study! If I could have three wishes, the very first one would be to be able to hear all of Floyd's works again for the first time
I had a good-natured chuckle when Amy said she wouldn’t interrupt unless she felt an urgent need and stopped a few seconds later. I’m actually finding the interruptions more enjoyable now, as a chance to hear her immediate reactions. I’m eager for the next song. The build up at the end then that scream before the song after always gets me on an emotional level. I’m curious to learn what’s happening musically.
This might be my favorite section of the album-it's so evocative and haunting-but it feels weird standing alone, because it's so incomplete. Sure, other songs flow into each other, but they mostly still feel like separate pieces. Maybe it's partly down to how I first heard them on the radio, but "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1", "The Happiest Days of Our Lives", and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" very much seem like different stages of a single song to me. And sure, the radio would often play Part 2 by itself, but then it's just sort of like a radio edit or short single of a longer album track. Anyway, you might want to consider doing "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" together, as the former is less than two minutes long, and it's more of a transition or interlude between Parts 1 and 2 than it is a legitimate song on its own. It's definitely the least of the three in that sense, and I feel like you lose the sense of progression and momentum if you don't do them together.
I'm sure if she listened to the entire as presented she would have a whole different reaction... She's breaking it up for copyright strikes. Which sucks so bad!
The Roger Walters The Wall Live tour 2010-2013 was the best experience I had of a concert! I saw it at the United Center in Chicago on September 21st 2010. It was immersive and captivating. My best friend and I we on the floor about 20 rows back. Watching the wall being built was mind numbing. As they say one for the books. This is after listing to the original release and not really getting all the nuances until I was in my 30s. I was 23 when the Wall came out.
Since their first album, Pink Floyd were masters of using ambient noises to help tell a story. The children in the background help to subtly move the story along.
Near the end you will hear what will sound like a brass instrument. That is a keyboard synthesizer. As best as I can tell on a quick search it was a Prophet V. When one hears this track the guitar part actually sounds like an arpeggiator.
When you're done with the album, you should review the movie. It will fill in any gaps and bring clarity of what Waters intended. It also includes "When the Tigers Broke Free", which is integral to the story but missing from the album.
I love how you mention pulse at the end. Their last tour was called 'The Pulse Tour'. I remember buying the cassette of the concert music, which had a small red light in the corner of the box that pulsed until the power source died.
An interesting note is that there's a companion piece to this that was put on their next album, _The Final Cut_ and on the movie version of the Wall called "When the Tigers Broke Free." It's a little heavier on detail (and semiautobiographical on Waters' part).
When most people think of the song "Another Brick in The Wall", part 2 is what will come to mind, same for me, however I do find Part 1 has a special draw to it. The pulse / heartbeat, you picked up on, is a thing that runs through the album, sometimes more forward in the music sometimes lost in the back ground, it is a thing I notice in several of Pink Floyd's albums, not the same pulse in each album, but the presence of a certain pulse connected to that album. They also did a tour called the Pulse Tour, which contain the songs from their catalogue, but many with added elements, generally extended guitar solos.
To understand more about David Gilmour's guitar sound you should watch some videos on the Binson Echorec Box. He used one of these to achieve the delay part of his sound. It's his signature sound. He played a guitar solo on Paul McCartney's No More Lonely Nights and there it is. There were other echo boxes around and delay boxes but he chose that one.
I had not actually heard this intro to the song before, so I am pleasantly surprised at the complexity, skill and sheer interest there can be in what is actually not the song itself!
Taking on The Wall song, by song is such a huge undertaking. There is a lot to process. Watch the Movie of it. The visuals the movie puts out will help so much in understanding it more clearly.
I still remember the day as a young teen boy that I bought this album (on vinyl) and listened to it in its entirety with the liner notes on my lap. Music and memories of a lost world
For me, it's the subtle note changes at 5:55 (in this video), where the mood gets more serious, and the ubiquitous adult whistle that every child recognizes..."1,2,3 (whistle) HEY!" is a dominating yell to control the din in the school yard perhaps. We all live near an adult neighbor that always yells, HEY!!! to command authority...to be yelled at... like a dog.
I think this is possibly "Pink's" first true childhood memory. (The first two tracks were more setting the scene - events he knew must have happened, even though he had no recollection of them. Like much of the album, this actually draws on Roger Waters' own experiences. His father, - previously a conscientious objector - joined the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers on 11th September 1943, just five days after Roger's birth. He was killed in action five months later.
I just subscribed because I'm really enjoying your very thoughtful insights, without making huge declarations. This entire album is best when appreciated in the same manner as a work of classical music. I think your commentary is wonderful, and I'm so excited to see the rest of the videos. If I could be so bold to make a request, I've been longing for someone to react to the entire Untitled album [released as "( )"] by Sigur Ros. I think someone with your background would really appreciate it and those of us who love it would gain valuable insights from hearing your commentary.
This whole series is really great. I’ve been listening to this album for 30 years and you are greatly enhancing my enjoyment of this music. I don’t know if you’ll even see this comment considering the age of the video, but if you you do I highly recommend you fit Terrapin Station by the Grateful Dead into your schedule. I think you’ll enjoy it and there will be tons to talk about.
I would love to see you do an end of year review in which you place the music you have listened to on your channel ranking the music you’ve mentioned so far.
Being in Berlin, the biggest concert after the wall really got down Was a piece to cry for so many people. We had a Party, but we all started cryin. Together.
Im very glad that someone filled you in on the basics before you started this album! Not just the theme of the album, the concept of a concept album, but also the tip about not interrupting the guitar solos lest your audience loose our tiny little minds! 😂 Im having a ridiculous amount of fun watching this series, and im only 3 songs in! 🥳
Amy - I think it's impressive that you can parse and pick up on even the nuances of the lyrics on your first hearing. And though I've loved the music over the years, I've never really analyzed it in the direct context of the story being told as you do. This material is dark - It takes a little courage to stare unblinking at Roger's pain. It's a little painful for me, too. Thank you and well done.
The key to understanding Pink Floyd is knowing about their band history, how they lost Syd, and also understanding Rogers biography. I highly recommend the documentary „making of the dark side of the moon“.
I think the children’s voices in this track is a type of foreshadowing for what’s to come. This song is deeply connected to the next two songs, which are all about childhood and school and the terrors within.
Most Pink Floyd albums have a theme running through them almost like an Opera and are meant to be listened to in their entirety, they tell a story. The music will also progresses in a similar fashion, while the music of the album changes, there's always an underline theme holding the album together, quiet often the bass or keyboard will fall back into a repeated or at least a similar pattern. The songs blend together making the album almost feel as one continuous piece. Also, the very first notes in the background in the first song "In the Flesh" is a continuation and ending to the last notes being played on the last song "Outside the Wall" which is actually the beginning of sequence, forming sort of a loop. It reminds me of the book "The Outsiders" where the first sentence in the book is also the last sentence at the end of the book.
A snapshot in the family album , daddy what else did you leave for me ... This is the strongest sentence in the album for me. It is like a nuclear bullet - Roger Waters is huge.
The voices of the children in the background represents his isolation from the normal childhood of others, and the base beat and the echoing music is more likely to represent this seemingly never ending feature of his childhood timeline. A memory that is forever the background of his life. I feel that is etched on Roger's face and I see it every time I see a picture of him. This is great music coming from a place of internal and extreme pain and shows his courage in sharing it so openly. You seemed to be caught out and saddened by how he felt about his father at that age.
I hope that when you finish this "rock opera" you combine it all together somehow... I keep wanting to hear the next analysis, lol... It DOES all fit together very nicely and I always feel like, OK, now comes... Oh no! LOL Great work, my dear, as always! Actually, this song and the two that follow it impress me as more like one song with three different parts, movements...
That artificial echo your hearing is called a delay pedal. I don't remember if it was mentioned in your introduction to electric guitar or not, but one of the cool things about it is you can buy all sorts of gizmos and gadgets that alter the signal of the guitar that plug in between the guitar and the amp. One of the earliest effects was echo or delay, which was done by recording the signal onto a short piece of tape and playing it back onto itself. Each time it would degrade further and further and sound more muffled. That's called tape delay. As time went on, it evolved to 'bucket brigade' chipsets which are often called analogue delay, then in the 80's the big thing was digital delay which has much more of a precise and cleaner sound. All of these delays sound very different from each other but achieve the same effect, which make the electric guitar a very fun instrument and an endless source of inspiration. But pedals are not limited to electric guitar, they can be used on virtually any electric instrument.
I'm really enjoying your videos, subscriber for some time and really love your perspective. It's really fun to watch. It just amazes me that a musician, does not matter the genre, listens the the wall album for the first time, that's just bonkers. I'll give everything to hear Pink Floyd for the first time again.
Things like the children playing in the background or TVs are what I consider transitional soundscapes that set the atmosphere for Pink's memories. This is about how he's come to his current condition. A series of childhood traumas and misfortunes. An overbearing mother, abusive school masters, no father figure...all just bricks in the wall.
I would like to say that for me, the music is the relentless and repeating thoughts in his mind that will not leave him long enough to allow him to interact with the other children who are playing around him. He is already being unwillingly secluded from others by the trauma that envelopes him and that he can't escape.
The children's voices are important because of their distance, life and childhood are carrying on all around our main character, but he is alone in his isolation. Note : this is the first song on the record where we meet Pink, and we do so from inside his head, this is the common ground where we will be meeting him throughout the album, and he may be sad, but he is relatable. On the few occasions where we meet him outside of his head, in the real world, he comes across as horribly distorted and unlikeable.
Love the Channel. Pink Floyd is the GREATEST ALBUM ORIENTED BAND. There is only one other band that has Albums with SEGUES, INTERLUDES, BACKWARD MESSAGES, HIDDEN TRACKS, ODD TIME SIGNATURES, INCREDIBLE ALBUM ART, and INCREDIBLE ENGINEERING. That band is my GENERATIONS Pink Floyd. It's TOOL. Please keep these incredible reaction coming. 🙏 🤞✌️
I have never interpreted the delay effect on the guitar as ‘memory of [something/someone] no longer present. This is brilliant. That interpretation makes perfect sense, and if they actually thought of that whilst recording/mixing the track, they were even more ingenious than i already thought, which is-shall we say-an almost inconceivably vast amount.
@@hansemannluchter643 I know. Syd used the Echorec before him. My professional training is in audio engineering, in fact, and I’ve a pedal that does a pretty good simulation of an Echorec. Nothing quite like a tape delay… Of course, the one on The Wall is a bucket-brigade type unit.
In the movie, the end of this song shows Pink following a father in a park where all the kids are playing. He tugs on the man’s hand to help him get on a ride, & afterwards follows the man & his small son, trying ti hold the guys hand & the man shoos him away. It shows the loneliness of young Pink, whose father was killed in WWII. Poignant scene. Another brick in the wall.
@Virgin Rock Main echo you hear at the beginning is the guitar with delay effect and reverb. That is one of those effect pedal that you were told about the short introduction to guitar. Guitar player can activate these live by stomping the pedal with their foot live. The delay effect is set here to repeat the played note by dotted quarter note after the actually played note and you can adjust how many times it repeats and how loudly it repeat and how loud the repeated notes are and how they fade after original note etc. Here David Gilmour is playing for example the bottom single note line only by playing quarter notes, but the delayed notes fill the riff and make it have a galloping feel since they fall in between the actual played notes.
The snapshot in the family album - Daddy what else did you leave for me? I believe this line is refering to Rogers Waters dead father, who was killed during WWII when Roger was only 5 months old, and never got to know his father.
The combination of the children's voices and the music reminds me of the last vestiges of childlike freedom of mind and spirit before the machine of the world and life that is droning on and stalking them swallows them up and destroys their innocence.
A child grows up without any memory of his father (who died in the fighter crash)...this part always tears me up...a feeling of complete abandonment. Like many classic Disney movies and The Who's " Tommy ", The Wall starts with the horrific death of a parent and a newborn trying to deal with it.
This is a great project, thank you for doing it. I haven't always been the greatest fan of the songs you've reacted to (Locomotive), but I'm all in for this. If you wanna look a little outside of prog rock, but still complex compositions, please let me recommend you Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Big Eyed Beans From Venus Stands somewhere in between complex blues and complex pop. And is a treat. Regards.
The children's voices, my opinion on that is they are setting the time frame. Having no father in grade school (P-9/10) would be tuff, thats when you need one for influence. About the time he lost his farther. Enjoying the videos. keep it up!
all pink floyd albums were recorded in quadrophonics, they had to find new ways to fit all the tracks on and sometimes had to ditch aspects to do so, that is why their sound is so good.
No, they were recorded on multiple tracks (I think 24 track mixers were common in recording studios at the time), not in "quadraphonics" (4 tracks). Those 24 tracks were mixed down to two-track stereo for wide distribution and probably there was at least one four-track version as well for quadraphonic playback systems.
Unfortunately, to experience the recording as intended, you needed a quadrophonic audio (4 channel) playback system, which here VERY expensive in the 1970s.
Another Brick pt 1 is one of my fav tracks. PF were masters of producing unique soundscapes that set moods and develop themes. Yes the bass line is both a heart beat and indicator of the passing of time. I particularly love D Gilmore's multi layed guitar work on Pt 1 using 2 delay pedals. Gilmour was a sublime maestro, technician and innovator of guitar effects. Gilmour's playing on Pt 1 is melodic, beautiful, eerie and prophetic all at same time imo. Much of the guitar effects you hear on The Wall had never been done before. The playing children sets the theme for the next few tracks about Pink's childhood and the guitar delays represent the repetitive nature of laying brick upon brick :)
There’s a song in the movie (and two parts) that was not on the album called When the Tigers Broke Free. It is an explicit description of what happened to his father. The “snapshot in a family album” is too. While the album isn’t autobiographical, Roger leaned on his history with his father heavily, who died in WWII when Roger was five months old. His father was originally a pacifist and conscientious objector to the war, but later enlisted. Roger was born on September 6, his father was commissioned on September 11th, and died five months later in Italy in February. The Final Cut, the following Floyd album, and Roger’s last with the band, continues the anti-war themes almost entirely. The absence of his father is one of the metaphorical bricks that layer formed that wall of isolation, not necessarily physically, but psychologically.
As usual, please write here your questions only.
This album really requires the movie in many instances . It has the visual that paint a sonic picture .
Will you listen to dark side of the moon? Its much more organic and musical.
He could’ve said “just another kick in the teeth” If you think back to the end of the first track on this album “In the flesh ” you may remember how it finished with a stuka dive bomber attacking with it’s siren screaming, that’s a clue to where daddy went.
I'm really loving this series. As a musician I love the way you break it down in your other series. Listen close to the very first song and the last song on the album you realize the intro is actually the last part of the last song on the album. It's a circle.
Is the Harp your first instrument?
The snapshot in the family album - Daddy what else did you leave for me? is the killer lyric for me. I’ve never seen my father or even a photo. Yet I was named after him. Im sixty years old now. The route to find him went cold. That’s life.
That became my first Brick in the Wall.
That's gnarly. My condolences? I know you've already mourned, but still.
I got ONE newspaper photo clipping of my absent father..who died when i was 14 years old....never saw him
I've never met my father either. I've lived about an hour away from him my entire life (except for my time in army). I always figured he'd come see me if he wanted to and if he didn't, then I didn't want to see him either. I did go through a period of trying to find him when I was about 30; never actually get his number or address.
Then, several years later, he called me. Somehow, as soon as he spoke, I knew it was him. When he said who he was, I said, "Yeah, I know." He said he wanted to meet. I told him to go to hell.
I'm 45 now and I hate him more than ever.
@@positivelynegative9149
Nice to hear that you resolved it to your personal wishes. I have occasionally wondered but as I’ve got older I’m really not that bothered to be honest. Others think it would be amazing if we could meet but I’ve had a good (adult) life and didn’t need his input. My stepfather was a twisted individual who disliked me even from when I was so very young. A nasty man and I only went to his funeral to make the Ba*&#@d was really dead.
I too have never seen my father that I can recollect. He was lost at sea when I was 6 months old. The submarine he was on mysteriously sank. My mother said I would lay on the bed and watch him get dressed, but as an infant, there is no memory of it. All I have is photos and stories of others that knew him. Having never grieved over his loss, but knowing that I somehow should, has been my lifelong pain.
“daddy’s flown across the ocean, leaving just a memory” probably summarises 90% of Roger Water musical motivation”
Took him most of his life to work out that trauma, it would seem - but the resulting art is quite the result.
He was aware his whole life along with Sid probably influenced "Wish You Were Here" anyhow his loss has been our gain@@JasonBunting
Roger Waters' dad died in World War 2
You are a ray of sunshine.
Most definitely! I've never heard this kind of sensitive analysis of this album anywhere else! She sheds light here!❤
The guitar in this gives me chills. Gilmour is effing brilliant.
Incomprehensible how Roger Waters sums up his childhood-dominating trauma in a couple of beautifully clear sentences. His lyrics are always stunningly on the mark. Pure poetry.
When this album first came out, I think this was the song I listened to the most. I was quite isolated (this started in late childhood) and this song hit home HARD.
The children could be heard at a distance... as if he , as a child, was watching the other kids from a distance. Not joining in with them. Again, just another brick in his wall.
Well we, who were born over a decade later than you, who weren't born in the drug culture, thought this music was trash from drug-heads.
Of course we all grow up and can appreciate older music.
@@CelticSpiritsCoven I think your music, whatever the era, is just fine. The people are kind of bitter though.
As a 40+ year devotee of this album, and an amateur muso, its great to hear the insights of someone with substantial Classical experience & training (who clearly has analytical skills too). You see/hear aspects I haven't after all these years. Bravo.
Probably one of the saddest scenes in the movie. Showing the loneliness growing up without a dad. Was a punch in the stomach for me the first time I saw the movie.
When he grabs the hand of an unknown man, it crushes me every time...
Heartbreaking 😢
While the scene in the movie is effective and affecting, this piece is also a prime example of why Gilmour has remarked that much of _The Wall_ is musically weak or uninteresting - very little of interest or very little at all happens musically in this song - if it can even properly be called a song. Without the movie it is mostly just a vehicle for Waters to barely sing a few lines of his libretto. With the movie scenes, the music completely recedes into the background as unimportant soundtrack filler. Waters’ libretto lines in this piece are important to the overall story of _The Wall_ , but the musical ramble (barely more than practice room noodling) is not.
What'd you leave behind for may
@@markhamstra1083 Well this album is a "audio movie" completely... That's why a "music theory" analysis is a bit overkill, although it's interesting, but some piece should have been "glued together" in this analysis... Typically, Part 1 - The happiest days of our lives and Part 2 could have been analyzed as ONE arc.
Problem is, she couldn't do the split before knowing the album so it's tricky. Maybe someone else, educated in the album, could have done the splitting (but again different Floyders might split a different places so...)
Can't wait for Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2. That's a real banger and the biggest hit.
That echoing is an effect known as a delay. It’s actively part of the guitar/vocal tone and has to be considered by the player/singer in real time. They play this stuff live.
To add to this, usually they will have either presets which can be switched between at will, or multiple pedals chained together which can be turned on and off at will.
"A snapshot in the family album" were all Roger Waters had of his father growing up. He was killed at the battle of Anzio in WW2. I always thought this song was about "Pinky" (the main character/Roger Waters) looking back through his memories, trying to connect and being completely unable to do so. This album is very personal to me and particularly this song. Although my father is still alive, he was absent for most of my childhood and 20 years of my adult life. When I first heard The Wall, it was like listening to the story of my life. At the time, I felt as if my father might as well have been dead, his absence from my life felt like loss. The day my sister told me she had found our father I cried like a baby. Very powerful subject matter that a lot of people can connect with...which is a hallmark of Pink Floyd and specifically Roger Waters lyrics. It's great that you are taking such care to examine and analyse this album. It is a complicated work and I don't know if this has been done quite like this before. Thank you.
This song is perfect in its purpose. A gut check that puts your listener in a failure position. You know exactly what he's talking about, and what he is feeling, and you can't do anything but accept it. War sucks for the children affected.
I am loving this. What an epic endeavor to listen to the Wall in it's entirety! Here we are still in the early childhood of the protagonist. Even at an early age his father is only a memory growing more faint every day. His longing for his father is everpresent compared to his father's absence. This experience, the half-remembrance if his father and his desperate need for a father figure, are the foundation upon which the wall shall be built. We are all the sum of our experiences, and each moment in time is a piece of who we are and who we become.
I can see the fascination in your expressions as you get deeper into the album. The best is yet to come.
I strongly suggest that you combine your reaction video for the next two tracks into one video as they are very much a larger song even though they are different.
Agree, The Happiest Days of Our Lives and Part II should be reviewed concurrently.
Heard.
Great analysis! Waters is deep, dark, sad and Gilmour follows him with his guitar compositions, as a master. The back sounds of Wright and the drums of Mason are the columns to support al that.
Love hearing your interpretation of this album. This is not an easy listen, and I appreciate your ability and willingness to sit with it and reflect on it.
My childhood was nasty bad!
I was 22 yo when this album was released and it spoke to me as if it was written based on my life.
Just thinking about the songs today bring back to mind so many unfortunate memories of my father and mother.
I was damaged as a child and 40 some years later this album still speaks to me.
@@tutdvd9533 Very well stated @tutdvd and I wish you well on your life journey. And thanks for the reply. I read a book long ago ... something like ... everything I know today I learned in my first 6 years of life. For me I am the product of my first 15 years of life. I believe reflecting on bitter sweet nostalgia teaches us who we are, how we have been molded to think and act, and sets a benchmark for us to do better. Once again, thank you for the reply.
@@tutdvd9533 Or in a sexual way ... lol. Have a great life!
"Heartbeat" and "Time" marching on. Two call backs to a previous album. How astute you are.
This music has great significance in my life. What a pleasure to witness your discovery of it. Thank you.
Reliving this journey with you is such a delight -- I feel like I'm hearing some of my favorite music for the first time again. Your earnestness is a true joy -- thanks so much!!!
The emotions rippling across her face are an absolute study!
If I could have three wishes, the very first one would be to be able to hear all of Floyd's works again for the first time
I had a good-natured chuckle when Amy said she wouldn’t interrupt unless she felt an urgent need and stopped a few seconds later. I’m actually finding the interruptions more enjoyable now, as a chance to hear her immediate reactions.
I’m eager for the next song. The build up at the end then that scream before the song after always gets me on an emotional level. I’m curious to learn what’s happening musically.
I’ve listened to the album so many bazillions of times that the interruptions don’t bother me at all. The music keeps playing in my head lol
Your understanding of the story as you listen is impressive! I had to watch the movie before I actually "got it".
This might be my favorite section of the album-it's so evocative and haunting-but it feels weird standing alone, because it's so incomplete. Sure, other songs flow into each other, but they mostly still feel like separate pieces. Maybe it's partly down to how I first heard them on the radio, but "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1", "The Happiest Days of Our Lives", and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" very much seem like different stages of a single song to me. And sure, the radio would often play Part 2 by itself, but then it's just sort of like a radio edit or short single of a longer album track.
Anyway, you might want to consider doing "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" together, as the former is less than two minutes long, and it's more of a transition or interlude between Parts 1 and 2 than it is a legitimate song on its own. It's definitely the least of the three in that sense, and I feel like you lose the sense of progression and momentum if you don't do them together.
I believe she's already listened to the whole album in one go, she just split the song reactions and initial impressions up in different videos.
I'm sure if she listened to the entire as presented she would have a whole different reaction... She's breaking it up for copyright strikes. Which sucks so bad!
Our local radio station actually played "Happiest Days/Another Brick Part 2" together.
There is a copyright clause that you can’t play even one song all the way through without permission or you can be sued for copyright infringement
The Roger Walters The Wall Live tour 2010-2013 was the best experience I had of a concert! I saw it at the United Center in Chicago on September 21st 2010. It was immersive and captivating. My best friend and I we on the floor about 20 rows back. Watching the wall being built was mind numbing.
As they say one for the books. This is after listing to the original release and not really getting all the nuances until I was in my 30s. I was 23 when the Wall came out.
Since their first album, Pink Floyd were masters of using ambient noises to help tell a story. The children in the background help to subtly move the story along.
also take note of the parallels in the music, mirroring for later on in the album 'on the thin ice!
i am a big PF fan, and you are quite spot on in your thoughts
It is a great story
Love your content! And your in depth analysis of Pink Floyd’s work! Very difficult at times lol
Near the end you will hear what will sound like a brass instrument. That is a keyboard synthesizer. As best as I can tell on a quick search it was a Prophet V. When one hears this track the guitar part actually sounds like an arpeggiator.
When you're done with the album, you should review the movie. It will fill in any gaps and bring clarity of what Waters intended. It also includes "When the Tigers Broke Free", which is integral to the story but missing from the album.
I love how you mention pulse at the end. Their last tour was called 'The Pulse Tour'. I remember buying the cassette of the concert music, which had a small red light in the corner of the box that pulsed until the power source died.
An interesting note is that there's a companion piece to this that was put on their next album, _The Final Cut_ and on the movie version of the Wall called "When the Tigers Broke Free." It's a little heavier on detail (and semiautobiographical on Waters' part).
When most people think of the song "Another Brick in The Wall", part 2 is what will come to mind, same for me, however I do find Part 1 has a special draw to it. The pulse / heartbeat, you picked up on, is a thing that runs through the album, sometimes more forward in the music sometimes lost in the back ground, it is a thing I notice in several of Pink Floyd's albums, not the same pulse in each album, but the presence of a certain pulse connected to that album. They also did a tour called the Pulse Tour, which contain the songs from their catalogue, but many with added elements, generally extended guitar solos.
To understand more about David Gilmour's guitar sound you should watch some videos on the Binson Echorec Box. He used one of these to achieve the delay part of his sound. It's his signature sound. He played a guitar solo on Paul McCartney's No More Lonely Nights and there it is. There were other echo boxes around and delay boxes but he chose that one.
I had not actually heard this intro to the song before, so I am pleasantly surprised at the complexity, skill and sheer interest there can be in what is actually not the song itself!
Taking on The Wall song, by song is such a huge undertaking. There is a lot to process. Watch the Movie of it. The visuals the movie puts out will help so much in understanding it more clearly.
Roger always intended for the three mediums (concert, movie, album) to stand on their own. Ask a movie channel!
I still remember the day as a young teen boy that I bought this album (on vinyl) and listened to it in its entirety with the liner notes on my lap. Music and memories of a lost world
For me, it's the subtle note changes at 5:55 (in this video), where the mood gets more serious, and the ubiquitous adult whistle that every child recognizes..."1,2,3 (whistle) HEY!" is a dominating yell to control the din in the school yard perhaps. We all live near an adult neighbor that always yells, HEY!!! to command authority...to be yelled at... like a dog.
I think this is possibly "Pink's" first true childhood memory. (The first two tracks were more setting the scene - events he knew must have happened, even though he had no recollection of them. Like much of the album, this actually draws on Roger Waters' own experiences. His father, - previously a conscientious objector - joined the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers on 11th September 1943, just five days after Roger's birth. He was killed in action five months later.
I just subscribed because I'm really enjoying your very thoughtful insights, without making huge declarations. This entire album is best when appreciated in the same manner as a work of classical music. I think your commentary is wonderful, and I'm so excited to see the rest of the videos.
If I could be so bold to make a request, I've been longing for someone to react to the entire Untitled album [released as "( )"] by Sigur Ros. I think someone with your background would really appreciate it and those of us who love it would gain valuable insights from hearing your commentary.
Love the way you are analysing the songs. Suggest you to watch the movie of this masterpiece. Probably you will understand the genius of Waters.
This whole series is really great. I’ve been listening to this album for 30 years and you are greatly enhancing my enjoyment of this music. I don’t know if you’ll even see this comment considering the age of the video, but if you you do I highly recommend you fit Terrapin Station by the Grateful Dead into your schedule. I think you’ll enjoy it and there will be tons to talk about.
I would love to see you do an end of year review in which you place the music you have listened to on your channel ranking the music you’ve mentioned so far.
My favourite Brick In The Wall version. The solo marks a passage of time as he moves to him as a boy, hence the kids voices.
The echoing in a distance it's the vibrations of the memory of his father disappearing to a place never to be seen or heard from again..
Saw you’re commentary video first. As always, thank you, ma’am.
Being in Berlin, the biggest concert after the wall really got down Was a piece to cry for so many people. We had a Party, but we all started cryin. Together.
Im very glad that someone filled you in on the basics before you started this album!
Not just the theme of the album, the concept of a concept album, but also the tip about not interrupting the guitar solos lest your audience loose our tiny little minds! 😂
Im having a ridiculous amount of fun watching this series, and im only 3 songs in! 🥳
This is so powerful! Your show should be on TV. It will. You’re on the right path. Soon!❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Amy - I think it's impressive that you can parse and pick up on even the nuances of the lyrics on your first hearing. And though I've loved the music over the years, I've never really analyzed it in the direct context of the story being told as you do. This material is dark - It takes a little courage to stare unblinking at Roger's pain. It's a little painful for me, too. Thank you and well done.
Never thought of it that way...a book that just goes into the next chapter. What a unique way to describe the transition to the song that follows.
The key to understanding Pink Floyd is knowing about their band history, how they lost Syd, and also understanding Rogers biography. I highly recommend the documentary „making of the dark side of the moon“.
I think the children’s voices in this track is a type of foreshadowing for what’s to come. This song is deeply connected to the next two songs, which are all about childhood and school and the terrors within.
Most Pink Floyd albums have a theme running through them almost like an Opera and are meant to be listened to in their entirety, they tell a story. The music will also progresses in a similar fashion, while the music of the album changes, there's always an underline theme holding the album together, quiet often the bass or keyboard will fall back into a repeated or at least a similar pattern. The songs blend together making the album almost feel as one continuous piece. Also, the very first notes in the background in the first song "In the Flesh" is a continuation and ending to the last notes being played on the last song "Outside the Wall" which is actually the beginning of sequence, forming sort of a loop. It reminds me of the book "The Outsiders" where the first sentence in the book is also the last sentence at the end of the book.
Loving this so far
These have been great so far. I'm really exciting knowing how much more there is to come, and how good the album gets from here.
Please pleaaase do Happiest Days of Our Lives straight into Another Brick in The Wall II, its the best way to experience it haha
A snapshot in the family album , daddy what else did you leave for me ...
This is the strongest sentence in the album for me. It is like a nuclear bullet - Roger Waters is huge.
The voices of the children in the background represents his isolation from the normal childhood of others, and the base beat and the echoing music is more likely to represent this seemingly never ending feature of his childhood timeline. A memory that is forever the background of his life. I feel that is etched on Roger's face and I see it every time I see a picture of him. This is great music coming from a place of internal and extreme pain and shows his courage in sharing it so openly. You seemed to be caught out and saddened by how he felt about his father at that age.
Great piece choice from an equally legendary album by a rock progressive visionary’s band. Thank you, miss.
Fantastic commentaries. Respect.
I hope that when you finish this "rock opera" you combine it all together somehow... I keep wanting to hear the next analysis, lol... It DOES all fit together very nicely and I always feel like, OK, now comes... Oh no! LOL
Great work, my dear, as always!
Actually, this song and the two that follow it impress me as more like one song with three different parts, movements...
That artificial echo your hearing is called a delay pedal. I don't remember if it was mentioned in your introduction to electric guitar or not, but one of the cool things about it is you can buy all sorts of gizmos and gadgets that alter the signal of the guitar that plug in between the guitar and the amp. One of the earliest effects was echo or delay, which was done by recording the signal onto a short piece of tape and playing it back onto itself. Each time it would degrade further and further and sound more muffled. That's called tape delay. As time went on, it evolved to 'bucket brigade' chipsets which are often called analogue delay, then in the 80's the big thing was digital delay which has much more of a precise and cleaner sound. All of these delays sound very different from each other but achieve the same effect, which make the electric guitar a very fun instrument and an endless source of inspiration. But pedals are not limited to electric guitar, they can be used on virtually any electric instrument.
I'm really enjoying your videos, subscriber for some time and really love your perspective. It's really fun to watch. It just amazes me that a musician, does not matter the genre, listens the the wall album for the first time, that's just bonkers. I'll give everything to hear Pink Floyd for the first time again.
This is going to be one of the longest album reviews I've ever watched. I'm totally ok with that, love the album and the channel!
Things like the children playing in the background or TVs are what I consider transitional soundscapes that set the atmosphere for Pink's memories. This is about how he's come to his current condition. A series of childhood traumas and misfortunes. An overbearing mother, abusive school masters, no father figure...all just bricks in the wall.
awesome breakdown. I've listened to this album countless times. It is neat seeing it from a new perspective. I know the story of this album by heart.
Pure heaven into my mind. My fav album ever. I was a teen in high school when the Wall came out. How perfect was that.
It's nice to watch a reaction and see someone get the song, thank you. Great job!✌❤
And you've added another brick in the wall of your breakdown of this masterpiece.
You have Amazing insights esp. for your first listening... it is very complex...well done! :))
Mastery of the guitar tone with this one
Are you going thru the whole album??? Please do. The greatest of all theme albums deserves your discerning ear.
I like that the "marching" bass, guitar riff and sfx elicit imagery of placing bricks in the wall. It's a steady rhythm to work to.
Gilmour was masterful on this song. The echo he uses creates a great mood. You have to listen to "In the flesh" and "Run like hell".
I would like to say that for me, the music is the relentless and repeating thoughts in his mind that will not leave him long enough to allow him to interact with the other children who are playing around him. He is already being unwillingly secluded from others by the trauma that envelopes him and that he can't escape.
The children's voices are important because of their distance, life and childhood are carrying on all around our main character, but he is alone in his isolation. Note : this is the first song on the record where we meet Pink, and we do so from inside his head, this is the common ground where we will be meeting him throughout the album, and he may be sad, but he is relatable. On the few occasions where we meet him outside of his head, in the real world, he comes across as horribly distorted and unlikeable.
Floyd gets really deep,,,, really fast. They are just FANTASTIC. 💥💥💥👍😎
Love the Channel. Pink Floyd is the GREATEST ALBUM ORIENTED BAND.
There is only one other band that has Albums with SEGUES, INTERLUDES, BACKWARD MESSAGES, HIDDEN TRACKS, ODD TIME SIGNATURES, INCREDIBLE ALBUM ART, and INCREDIBLE ENGINEERING.
That band is my GENERATIONS Pink Floyd.
It's TOOL.
Please keep these incredible reaction coming. 🙏 🤞✌️
I thought she was going to cry at times. On another note, she and her background look straight out of the movie.
You will have to go back to "Dark Side of the Moon" to find the heartbeat.
Love your work.
JT
When she listens to another brick in the wall 2 she should start from the ending of happiest days of our lives. The transition is too superb.
Im really excited for her to get to Pink shutting down, especially the musal motifs in Goodbye Cruel World
This has always been my favourite Floys album.
I have never interpreted the delay effect on the guitar as ‘memory of [something/someone] no longer present. This is brilliant. That interpretation makes perfect sense, and if they actually thought of that whilst recording/mixing the track, they were even more ingenious than i already thought, which is-shall we say-an almost inconceivably vast amount.
Delays used to be called Echo-machines, Gilmour used a Binson Echorec, basically a fancy tape-recorder with 4 playback-heads..
@@hansemannluchter643 I know. Syd used the Echorec before him. My professional training is in audio engineering, in fact, and I’ve a pedal that does a pretty good simulation of an Echorec. Nothing quite like a tape delay…
Of course, the one on The Wall is a bucket-brigade type unit.
I grew up in this era so relatable
The sonic landscape of this song is amazing. :)
In the movie, the end of this song shows Pink following a father in a park where all the kids are playing. He tugs on the man’s hand to help him get on a ride, & afterwards follows the man & his small son, trying ti hold the guys hand & the man shoos him away. It shows the loneliness of young Pink, whose father was killed in WWII. Poignant scene. Another brick in the wall.
@Virgin Rock Main echo you hear at the beginning is the guitar with delay effect and reverb. That is one of those effect pedal that you were told about the short introduction to guitar. Guitar player can activate these live by stomping the pedal with their foot live. The delay effect is set here to repeat the played note by dotted quarter note after the actually played note and you can adjust how many times it repeats and how loudly it repeat and how loud the repeated notes are and how they fade after original note etc. Here David Gilmour is playing for example the bottom single note line only by playing quarter notes, but the delayed notes fill the riff and make it have a galloping feel since they fall in between the actual played notes.
The snapshot in the family album - Daddy what else did you leave for me?
I believe this line is refering to Rogers Waters dead father, who was killed during WWII when Roger was only 5 months old, and never got to know his father.
The combination of the children's voices and the music reminds me of the last vestiges of childlike freedom of mind and spirit before the machine of the world and life that is droning on and stalking them swallows them up and destroys their innocence.
In my opinion, the "wall" concept is an amazing (and sad of course) representation of depression. Isolation, fear of the outside world, nostalgia...
Just found your channel. Loving your analysis.
Listening to this album piecemeal is like looking at the corner of a Da Vinci Painting for an hour.😊😢
A child grows up without any memory of his father (who died in the fighter crash)...this part always tears me up...a feeling of complete abandonment. Like many classic Disney movies and The Who's " Tommy ", The Wall starts with the horrific death of a parent and a newborn trying to deal with it.
I'm looking forward for the next brick on the wall
This is a great project, thank you for doing it.
I haven't always been the greatest fan of the songs you've reacted to (Locomotive), but I'm all in for this.
If you wanna look a little outside of prog rock, but still complex compositions, please let me recommend you
Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band -
Big Eyed Beans From Venus
Stands somewhere in between complex blues and complex pop. And is a treat.
Regards.
The children's voices, my opinion on that is they are setting the time frame. Having no father in grade school (P-9/10) would be tuff, thats when you need one for influence. About the time he lost his farther. Enjoying the videos. keep it up!
all pink floyd albums were recorded in quadrophonics, they had to find new ways to fit all the tracks on and sometimes had to ditch aspects to do so, that is why their sound is so good.
No, they were recorded on multiple tracks (I think 24 track mixers were common in recording studios at the time), not in "quadraphonics" (4 tracks). Those 24 tracks were mixed down to two-track stereo for wide distribution and probably there was at least one four-track version as well for quadraphonic playback systems.
Unfortunately, to experience the recording as intended, you needed a quadrophonic audio (4 channel) playback system, which here VERY expensive in the 1970s.
No they weren't. They were recorded as mono multitracks and I don't believe the wall was ever mixed or released as quad.
From the mouth of David Gilmour in interviews. I know who I believe.
@@Glasgow_kiss please provide your reference of this being released.
Another Brick pt 1 is one of my fav tracks. PF were masters of producing unique soundscapes that set moods and develop themes. Yes the bass line is both a heart beat and indicator of the passing of time. I particularly love D Gilmore's multi layed guitar work on Pt 1 using 2 delay pedals. Gilmour was a sublime maestro, technician and innovator of guitar effects. Gilmour's playing on Pt 1 is melodic, beautiful, eerie and prophetic all at same time imo. Much of the guitar effects you hear on The Wall had never been done before. The playing children sets the theme for the next few tracks about Pink's childhood and the guitar delays represent the repetitive nature of laying brick upon brick :)
There’s a song in the movie (and two parts) that was not on the album called When the Tigers Broke Free. It is an explicit description of what happened to his father. The “snapshot in a family album” is too.
While the album isn’t autobiographical, Roger leaned on his history with his father heavily, who died in WWII when Roger was five months old. His father was originally a pacifist and conscientious objector to the war, but later enlisted. Roger was born on September 6, his father was commissioned on September 11th, and died five months later in Italy in February.
The Final Cut, the following Floyd album, and Roger’s last with the band, continues the anti-war themes almost entirely.
The absence of his father is one of the metaphorical bricks that layer formed that wall of isolation, not necessarily physically, but psychologically.