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.