Another Brick In The Wall #6

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

We've just finished listening to "Vera" in which Pink mourns over how he will never meet his father who died in the war. We are then swept into a loud choral song called "Bring the Boys Back Home," which Roger Waters calls the central and unifying song of the whole Wall Rock Opera. In an interview with Tommy Vance in 1980 Waters says that the song is "...partly about not letting people go off and be killed in wars, but it's partly about now allowing rock and roll, ... or anything that anybody might do ... not letting that become such an important and 'jolly boy's game' that it becomes more important than friends, wives, children, or other people." Though the song is loud and full of people, the song ends abruptly on a minor chord when Pink realizes that he is still alone. 

Wall Projection During The Wall Live Tour For "Bring the Boys Back Home."

Segueing into "Comfortably Numb," we find that Pink has moved from lonely to delusional. Pink has just been found unconscious in his room, mostly likely from a drug overdose. The dialogue is between a doctor who treats Pink (the verses Waters sings) and Pink's thoughts (verses sung by David Gilmour). This song was written by Waters about being treated for Hepatitis right before a show and how numb and delirious he felt during the performance.

After being revived (in the film version at least), Pink knows that "The Show Must Go On" and he prepares himself to perform. It's very short and almost like a pep talk for him to get ready for the show he starts playing. The backing vocals were supposed to sound Beach Boys-esque, especially after the Beach Boys cancelled the morning of the actual recording. This song was omitted from the movie and has been omitted in post-Pink Floyd concerts in the 1990s.

The Iconic Crossed Hammers - Pink's Logo

We hear the show Pink is playing in "In the Flesh" - not to be confused with the introductory song "In the Flesh?" In this segment, Pink envisions himself as a fascist dictator and his concert is a large political rally. Pink questions his fans loyalty and singles out the "queers" and the "coons." The incited crowd chants "Pink! Floyd! Pink! Floyd!" until the end of the song. This song is where the iconic Hammer salute comes from and projections of marching hammers can be seen during performances and in the movie.

Now that Pink is in a heightened delusional state - what will he do next? Find out in Part 7!

Another Brick In The Wall #5

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

After a long summer hiatus, I'm starting back up with Part 5 of The Wall which is super exciting since we have arrived at the long awaited Disc 2.

Pink has just finished building his wall and has put in the final brick. His isolation from society is complete. Now we go into "Hey You," an acoustic number to get us back into the story. Pink has now decided that completely shunning society was not the best idea and this song is his way to try to connect again. However, his wall is still up so no one can hear him calling and as the song progresses, his cries become more desperate as he realizes that there is no escape. Fun Fact: This song was shot but not included in the movie due to time restraints.

The iconic wall that Pink is trying to break free of.

"Is There Anybody Out There?" is very similar in plot to "Hey You." It is mostly a desperate song by Pink trying to reach out and he is asking the questions since there is no response. The other half is an instrumental song with TV show dialogue snippets. One excerpt is from Gunsmoke and the other is from Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Also, the shrill siren-like noise you where in this track is the same noise you hear in "Echoes" (Meddle, 1971) that was made to sound like a whale call. It is simply a wah-wah pedal with the cables reversed.

Now we flow into "Nobody Home" which is about how lonely Pink feels on the road with no one to talk to . But it's al pretty much about everyone's mental problems or drug abuse while on tour. Roger Water's wrote some of it about Syd Barrett's mental state in 1967 and the lines "I got a silver spoon on a chain/Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains" allude to Richard Wright's alleged struggle with cocaine at the time. Since there is so much allusion to drugs and deteriorating mental states, are we to assume that Pink too is suffering from an addiction or some mental disease? There is a television playing in the background with the lines "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise" that connects to the line "I got thirteen channels of shit on the TV to choose from." "Nobody Home" was the last song to be written for the album and it is also David Gilmour's favourite song.

Waters singing "Vera" during a Wall concert. This section is a small room that folds out of the wall. Really cool!

"Vera" is a very ironic and sad song. The Vera in this song is Vera Lynn, a singer who came to fame in World War II with her song "We'll Meet Again." Pink, similar to Waters, would never meet his father since he died in the war. The line "Vera, what has become of you?" suggests the Vera Lynn and her promise have vanished. The opening dialogue of the song "Simon, where the hell are you?" is from the 1969 movie, The Battle of Britain, a choice which makes a lot of sense contextually. This song was recorded with the New York Symphony Orchestra.


All in all, this section of The Wall is a little depressing, but all the good stuff is about to come! Pink has tried very hard to get out from his wall and reconnect with society. Will he prevail or is his resistance futile? More to come in Part 6!

"I'll See You On the Dark Side Of the Moon"

40 years ago today, one of the greatest and most popular Pink Floyd albums, Dark Side of the Moon was released. So I decided to shove aside a bit of school work and talk about this AWESOME album.

Following Meddle (1971), Dark Side was the 8th studio album for the group, written entirely by Roger Waters. Waters wanted to write an album that deal with things that "made people mad," focusing on the arduous lifestyle the band faced in day-to-day life, including dealing with Syd Barrett's mental problems that had caused him to leave the band. It's original working title was The Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics. The band agreed on Waters' unifying concept and went straight to work.

If you don't recognize the artwork, you should probably stop reading this blog.

In 1972, the band went a world wide tour to perform Dark Side as it would be recorded and the tour was praised by the public. The long tour allowed Pink Floyd to make some changes until they found the songs to be just what they wanted them to be.

Each side of the album is a continuous song and represents a specific part of life: it begins and ends with a heartbeat, and explores human nature throughout. "Speak to Me/Breathe" is about the mundane parts of life, "On the Run" shifts to an airport and explores Richard Wright's fear of flying, and "The Great Big Gig in the Sky" is a soulful metaphor for death. "Money" mocks greed and consumerism, "Us and Them" addresses the isolation of the depressed, and "Any Colour You Like It" concerns the lack of choice one has in society. "Brain Damage" is clearly a song for Syd and looks at mental illness from resulting fame. The whole album ends with "Eclipse" which forces the listener to recognize the common traits shared by humanity through the concepts of alterity and unity.

Some have said that Dark Side is actually about the movie The Wizard of Oz. Apparently, if you start playing the album when you start the movie, there are some coincidental match ups between lyrics and Dorothy's movements. Alan Parsons, who helped record the album, says that the band never brought up the movie even once during writing or recording.

A live performance of Dark Side in Earl's Court, shortly after the release.

"Money," ironically, has become one of the most popular songs off the album. It was one of the first songs that got me into Pink Floyd and I remember my father blasting it whenever it came on the stereo. It didn't matter what we were doing - bbqing, working outside, washing dishes, driving the car - "Money" was blasted very loudly and was accompanied with a certain foot thumping from my father. This song's got some great memories tied up in it for me.

One of my other favourites is "Speak to Me/Breathe." It's just a nice mellow song that you can really get into. I really enjoyed listening to it during my summer commute to work. But all in all, this a fantastic album and probably one of their most popular (next to The Wall, of course). If you haven't heard it, go listen to it - you're missing out a piece of musical artwork.

Another Brick in the Wall #4

In honour of the recent anniversary of "The Wall": Part 4 of The Wall series. To refresh your memory, read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

We left Pink while he was on tour, attempting to collect call his wife and finding out that she was cheating on him. So how does Pink react? "One of My Turns" shows Pink's twisting emotions after the revelation. 

Enter The Bimbo, a groupie who is Pink's company for the night. She keeps trying to make conversation with him while he stares at the TV (Fun Fact: He's watching The Dam Busters). She's got some lovely lines like "Wanna take a bath?" to try and get his attention but eventually she goes over to Pink to figure out what's wrong. Pink feels "cold as a razor blade, tight as a tourniquet, tight as a funeral drum" after he finds out his wife has cheated on him.

The Groupie from the film version of The Wall

And now, he goes and gets his "favourite axe" and starts on a highly violent rampage, destroying the room, frightening The Bimbo, throwing this at her, and eventually beating her up. In the film version, Bob Geldof (who played Pink) actually cut himself on a shard of glass as he threw a TV set out the window, but the producer to keep it in the film.

At this point, Pink feels remorse and self-pity and asks the groupie "Why are you running away?" We move into "Don't Leave Me Now," a song that Roger Waters says is about two people who have hurt each other very badly but are upset at the prospect at their marriage dissolving. The song is purposefully non-harmonic to show the emotion of the moment. I have an unanswered question about this song: in the background you can hear a respirator, so are we to assume that he's either a) beat up the groupie or b) is having thoughts of hurting his wife after her adultery?

All the major players from The Wall

"Another Brick in the Wall Part 3" is the loudest of all the parts and also the shortest. It really emphasizes Pink's rage and he has now decided to finish constructing his wall after his wife's adultery. He decides he doesn't need anyone at all since they're all "just bricks in the wall." The song then cross fades into "Goodbye Cruel World," the end of Disc 1 of The Wall.

Pink has now acknowledged his mental completion of his wall and his isolation from society. At a live performance, there is one brick gap left and Waters can be seen singing through it. On the word "goodbye" at the end of the song, the last brick is put into place and the music cuts immediately, as Pink has now cut all ties with the outside world.

And that ends Disc 1 of The Wall. Now that I'm on winter holidays, I'll be posting Part 5 soon and we'll start looking at Disc 2. 

The Tragically Hip

Most of the places I've spent time have always had a number of big name bands come out of them. For example, Jacksonville is home to Lynyrd Skynyrd, though I'm sure most people who've heard "Sweet Home Alabama" would want to disagree. 

Right now, I'm living in Kingston, Ontario - Canada's first capital, home to Canada's first Prime Minister (Sir John A MacDonald) and the first maximum security penitentiary. It's not exactly cultivating an exciting music culture like Chicago or LA. But, Kingston is home of a great Canadian band: The Tragically Hip, or The Hip if you're into that whole brevity thing. 

The Hip playing in Aspen, Colorado in 2007

The Hip were formed in 1983 and at the time consisted of Gordon Downie (vox and guitar), Rob "Bobby" Baker (guitar), Gord Sinclair (bass), Johnny Fay (drums), and Davis Manning (sax). The members had all been friends since high school in Kingston together and started their musical career playing in Baker's living room. The name, which is fairly unique, was taken from a skit in Michael Nesmith's movie Elephant Parts (1981). The Hip played a lot of local venues in the Ontario area until they were discovered by MCA in 1986. In 1986, Manning left and John Langlios filled Manning's place playing guitar. 

I have yet to find a Hip song that I don't like in some, way, shape, or form. Their music changes as the band grows up, their first albums having bluesy hints to them and their later albums more rocky. One of my personal favourites is "Bobcageyon" from 1998's Phantom Power. "Bobcageyon" won a Juno award in 2000 for Best Single of the Year. To critics, the Hip really hit their stride and artistry in the albums Fully Completely (1992) and Day for Night (1994), the latter of which helped them secure a spot as the musical artist for an SNL epsiode with the help of Dan Aykroyd, a fellow Canadian who also lives in the Kingston area.

The Hip's newest album Now For Plan A (2012)

Since their formation, The Hip boast 12 studio albums, two live albums, 9 No. 1 albums, and 14 Juno awards. In 2002, The Hip were inducted into the Canadian Walk of Fame in Toronto and in 2005 they were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Their most recent album, Now For Plan A, was released in September 2012 and debuted at #3 on the Canadian charts.

For those of you in Kingston, think about buying tickets to go to their show in February at the K-Rock Centre. And for those of you who can't make it to a show near you, just listen and appreciate the fantastic music that is made by The Tragically Hip.

Website: www.thehip.com

Twitter: @thehipdotcom

OBTWWOIP Status

Sincere apologies for the long hiatus. Moving into uni, getting settled, and starting classes totally threw me off my game. As of yesterday, OBTWWOIP is back up and will be running intermittently (i.e. when I somehow manage to find free time in my Engineering schedule).

To those of you who are actually reading this blog, muchas gracias! Hopefully you learn something new every time you come. Got a request? Feel free to leave it in a comment or tweet at me.

- Megan

A Memory of Richard Wright

Today in 2008, we lost Richard Wright, the keyboardist for Pink Floyd, at the age of 65. To be fair, Wright was more than a keyboardist, he also played synth, organ, bass, harpsicord, harmonium, and performed backing vocals. He was also a songwriter, though not as prolific as David Gilmour or Roger Waters, and produced a significant amount of lyrics for Division Bell, Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon, and Meddle.

At 12, Wright taught himself how to play guitar. In 1962, he enrolled in the Regent Street Polytechnic where he met future bandmates Waters and Gilmour. The three formed The Pink Floyd Sound in 1965. In 1967-68, Wright wrote and sang many of his own songs. He is not credited with lead vocals on several Syd Barrett penned tunes from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Wright performing in Munich in 2006.

Typically, Wright contributed to the long, epic songs such as "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," "Atom Heart Mother," and "Echoes." He also extensively contributed to "Time" and "Breathe," and sang alternating lead vocals with Gilmour on "Breathe." But as the sound and goals of Pink Floyd changed, Wright focused more on his keyboard style for the extended instrumental breaks in songs like "Dogs," "One of These Days," and "Interstellar Overdrive."

Wright was forced to resign from Pink Floyd by Waters during the The Wall sessions. Waters threatened to axe the tapes if Wright didn't leave. However, he was kept on as a salaried session musician. He was the only member to not attend the film premiere of Pink Floyd-The Wall (1982) and Pink Floyd's Final Cut (1983) is the only album Wright does not appear on. He continued to appear alongside Pink Floyd as a salaried musician following Waters's departure.

One of the last times Pink Floyd played together (L to R): Gilmour, Waters, Mason, Wright

In November 2005, Pink Floyd was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. Wright was unable attend due to cataracts surgery. In 2006, Wright joined Gilmour and Nick Mason for the recording of the PULSE DVD. In 2008, Wright died of cancer while he had been working on a new solo album. His contributions to the music world have been and will continue to be missed.

Woodstock Day 15: Blood, Sweat, & Tears

Formed in 1967, Blood, Sweat, & Tears played at Woodstock on August 18th at 1:30 am. At the time, their line-up consisted of David Clayton-Thomas on vocals, Bobby Colomby on drums, Jim Fielder on bass, Dick Halligan on keyboard and flute, Jerry Hyman on trombone, Steve Katz on guitar and harmonica, Fred Lipsius on alto sax and piano, Lew Soloff on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Chuck Winfield on trumpet and flugel horn as well. Their belend of jazz, psychedelic, soul, and R&B was a perfect addition to the musical diversity of Woodstock.

Clayton-Thomas singing at Woodstock.

In 1969, BS&T already produced two hit albums: Child Is Father to the Man and Blood, Sweat & Years both released in 1968. This allowed the band to choose from a bevy of popular and well-known songs and their set was well received. Most of their songs from the set were not taped and their performance wasn't included in the 1970 film Woodstock. However, their set was played flawlessly and with a lot of feeling. But sax player Lipsius felt that Woodstock was the worst gig that the band had played, claiming that Clayton-Thomas sang off key that night, which would have been the only time in the band's history that it had ever happened.

The band continued to be highly successful until their disbandment in 1981. However between Woodstock and the break-up, the band had so many incarnations that only one original member remained at the end. In 1983, the band restarted with Clayton-Thomas at the wheel until 2004. The band had an ever changing roster and still continues to change very often. Though active today, the band is very different than they were in the 60s and 70s, most likely due to lack of the influence of the original members.

The eponymous Blood, Sweat, & Tears album (1968).

BS&T put out some great hits: "Spinning Wheel," "More and More," "Fire and Rain," and "And When I Die." 1968's Blood, Sweat, & Tears was featured in the 2006 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Website: http://www.bloodsweatandtears.com/

Woodstock Day 14: Bert Sommer

Bert Sommer played on Friday, August 15th as the third act for Woodstock at about 7:15 pm. Sommer was a folk singer and fit in quite well with the Friday line-up. He wrote a song called "We're All Playing For The Same Band" at and about the Woodstock Festival. The song peaked at #48 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sommer was active from 1967-1978.

Sommer performing the song "Jennifer" at Woodstock.

Sommer's performance was not included in the 1970 film Woodstock nor in the Woodstock album that was issued in the same year. If his performance had been included in either instance, his stardom could have been sealed as it was with other acts at the Festival.

Bert at Woodstock.

After Woodstock, he was a member of the baroque-pop group Left Banke. He co-wrote and sang on their hit "Ivy Ivy/Suddenly." He also played Woof in the original Broadway production of Hair and his hair is featured on the original playbill.

Sommer died in 1990 in Troy, New York at the age of 41 from a respiratory illness.

Woodstock Day 13: John Sebastian

John Sebastian, ex-member of The Lovin' Spoonful, played on Saturday, August 16th at 3:30 pm at Woodstock. Sebastian wasn't originally scheduled to play at Woodstock, but he took the best filler spot available. Sebastian was also high during his set so it very spontaneous and casually played. At the end of his set he had a funny comment: "Just love everybody all around ya and clean up a little garbage on your way out and everything gonna be alright." Clearly a mellow guy at an apropos venue and his set was highly memorable - I mean it's hard to forget a fully tie-dyed man.

Sebastian at Woodstock

Sebastian left The Lovin' Spoonful in 1968 and in the same year he composed the music and lyrics for the musical Jimmy Shine which premiered on Broadway. In 1970, Sebastian released his LP John B. Sebastian which featured him accompanied by various Los Angeles artists. In 1976, he had a #1 single, "Welcome Back," the theme song for the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. He is cited to be a major influence to many rock and blues rock artists.

Sebastian returned for Woodstock '94 and played harmonica for Crosby, Nash, Stills, and Young. (don't worry, I'll get to them too!) In 2008, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He's still fairly active today, mostly in the songwriting department.

To see what Sebastian is up to these days, visit his website: http://www.johnbsebastian.com/