History Music / TheWall

-->'''Roger Waters:''' Are there any paranoids in the audience tonight? Is there anybody who worries about things? [[TakeThatAudience Pathetic!]] This is for all the WEAK people in the audience! Is there anyone here who's WEAK? (Audience cheers) This is for you, it's called 'Run Like Hell'![[note]]Sometimes Waters would introduce the song under the title [[PrecisionFStrike 'Run Like Fuck']][[/note]] [[AudienceParticipationSong Let's all have a CLAP! COME ON, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!]] [[AxCrazy PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER! HAVE A GOOD TIME! ENJOY YOURSELVES!!! THAT'S BETTER!]] [[CarefulWithThatAxe AAAAAARGH!]]

* PrecisionFStrike:
** According to the 2010 tour, the answer to the question "Mother, should we trust the government?" is "NO FUCKING WAY".
** At the end of the "One of My Turns" sequence in the film, Pink yells "TAKE THAT, FUCKERS!" to the street below after [[ApplianceDefenestration throwing his TV through the window]].
** The promoter played by Bob Hoskins in the Film gets one when he breaks down the door to Pink's hotel room, and finds him overdosed and near death at the beginning of the "Comfortably Numb" sequence.
** Also in the new tour, at the end of "The Trial", the Judge orders Pink to "TEAR DOWN THE FUCKING WALL!"
** In at least some concerts, the song between "In the Flesh" and "Waiting for the Worms" was introduced as "Run Like Fuck".
** From "Nobody Home": "I got thirteen channels of ''shit'' on the TV to choose from."
** [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "You little SHIT, you're in it now...!"]]

->''So ya' thought ya' might like to go to the show,\\

->''So ya thought ya might like to go to the show,\\

-->-- '''"In the Flesh?"'''

* ImAHumanitarian: "How can ya have any PUDDIN' if ya don't eat yer Meat?" The "Meat" is made of students, though this IS all in Pink's mind. And it's only in the movie, but still.

->''--[[{{Bookends}} we came in?]]''\\\

!!!Goodbye, all you Tropers, there's nothing you can say to make me change my mind. Goodbye...

->''[[{{Bookends}} Isn't this where]]--''

->''--[[BookEnds we came in?]]''\\\

->''"So ya thought ya might like to go to the show,\\
To feel the warm thrill of confusion, that space cadet glow.\\

You'll just have to claw your way through this disguise!"''

* AlbumClosure: The final song is "Outside the Wall," a brief track that, while still leaving Pink's fate ambiguous, wraps up the album with a message about how it's not all that great to isolate yourself.[[note]]along with "Now isn't this where--" which leads into the intro track[[/note]]

!!! Goodbye all you Tropers, there's nothing you can say to make me change my mind. Goodbye.

->''[[BookEnds Isn't this where]]--''

* {{Anaphora}}: Almost every line in "Mother" begins with either "mother" (in Pink's verses) or "mama" (in the titular mother's choruses). Usually they form part of the larger phrases "mother, do you think" or "mama's gonna."

''[mumbling resumes] '''[CRASH]'''''

** Possibly unintentional, but the Prosecutor in "The Trial" looks a fair bit like [[VileVulture a vulture]], especially when he leaps onto the wall, perches on it and briefly stretches out his neck while holding out his arms like wings. This fits with how lawyers are frequently percieved as deceitful opportunists.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: If the idea of a rock star turning a concert into a neo-fascist rally sounds ridiculous, remember that Music/EricClapton delivered a racist rant on-stage in Birmingham in 1976. In another parallel with Pink, he was very drunk at the time. Music/DavidBowie had also toyed with fascist imagery in the ''Music/StationToStation'' era with his "Thin White Duke" persona, and once infamously advocated the idea of a fascist Britain during an in-character interview. One notorious photo also appears to depict Bowie giving the Nazi salute (Bowie and eyewitnesses attest that he was simply photographed mid-wave). Bowie deeply regretted the Thin White Duke fiasco and, similarly to Pink's predicament, attributed it to psychosis induced by heavy cocaine use.

* AnswerCut: "Empty Spaces" sees Pink ask himself how to continue to fill the gaps in his ever-growing wall; the song hard-cuts into "Young Lust", implying that as an adult, his main way of closing those holes is through casual sex.

* AndIMustScream: ''The Wall'' emphasizes how Pink is essentially [[InvokedTrope inflicting this trope upon himself]], using the Wall as a means to [[HeroicBSOD distance himself from reality and human interaction]], completely relinquishing control of his life and circumstances [[DespairEventHorizon after everything he's gone through]].

* AnimalMotifs: The worms. Starting in "Hey You", they are, according to Waters, "symbols of negative forces within ourselves, [of] decay. The worms can only get at us because there isn't any light or whatever in our lives". The judge is a worm named Worm before he turns into a buttocks.

** The eponymous wall is a reference to the last verse of "Echoes" from ''Meddle'': "And through the window in ''the wall'' comes streaming in on sunlight wings / a million bright ambassadors of morning". The full version of "Echoes" carries a number of themes that seem to link in to the same patterns: disconnection, loss of communication, and after a long (instrumental) struggle, re-connection, when the singer at the end of the song can "throw the windows wide and call to you across the skies". This wall, at least, ''has'' a window.

** The eponymous wall is a reference to the last verse of "Echoes" from ''Meddle'': "And through the window in ''the wall'' comes streaming in on sunlight wings / a million bright ambassadors of morning". The full version of "Echoes" carries a number of themes that seems to link in to the same patterns: disconnection, loss of communication, and after a long (instrumental) struggle, re-connection, when the singer at the end of the song can "throw the windows wide and call to you across the skies". This wall, at least, ''has'' a window.

** The eponymous wall is also referenced in the last verse of ''Echoes'': "And through the window in ''the wall'' comes streaming in on sunlight wings/ a million bright ambassadors of morning". The full version of ''Echoes'' carries a number of themes that seems to link in to the same patterns: disconnection, loss of communication, and after a long (instrumental) struggle, re-connection, when the singer at the end of the song can "throw the windows wide and call to you across the skies". This wall, at least, ''has'' a window.

** The biggest one of all comes from ''Music/WishYouWereHere'', and has connections in reality: the song "Have a Cigar" asks, "Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?" Which, naturally, came up in a radio interview.
*** Similarly, Pink shaving his eyebrows in the movie is based on an incident from the ''Music/WishYouWereHere'' sessions, where the band was recording "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", their tribute to founding member Music/SydBarrett, when they were randomly visited by a fat, bald, middle-aged man with shaved eyebrows; after several uncomfortable minutes, they realised it was Syd.

** "One of My Turns" is based on a backstage incident at the band's 1975 Knebworth concert. Roy Harper, who did the vocal on [[Music/WishYouWereHere "Have a Cigar"]], flew into a rage upon discovering his stage costume was missing, smashing up one of the band's vans. He also coincidentally cut his hand, as Pink does during the movie.

''The Wall'' is the eleventh studio album by Music/PinkFloyd, released in 1979. It is their last studio album to feature Pink Floyd as a quartet: keyboardist Richard Wright was fired during the making of this album, and while he officially returned by ''Music/TheDivisionBell'', bassist and de-facto bandleader Music/RogerWaters had left as well in the interim. The theme of this album is similar to the one found in the band's earlier work ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'' as it involved descent into insanity. The album also marked the start of the band's working relationship with Bob Ezrin, previously known for his work with artists such as Music/LouReed, Music/AliceCooper, Music/{{KISS}}, and Music/PeterGabriel; Ezrin would bring his bombastic sound to this album, building off of the {{punk|Rock}}-inspired ArenaRock sound that Pink Floyd had already developed on ''Music/{{Animals|1977}}''.

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* VariantCover: CD releases of the 2011 remaster (both the ''Discovery'' and Pink Floyd Records editions) change the text on the front cover from black to red.

''The Wall'' was a major commercial success for Pink Floyd, topping the charts in the US, Australia, Austria, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, and Sweden, and peaking at No. 3 on the UK Albums chart; the lead single "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" would also top the charts in the UK, the US, and Norway. It would go on to be certified double-diamond in Canada, diamond in France, platinum 23-fold in the US, platinum 14-fold in New Zealand, platinum 11-fold in Austria, quadruple-platinum in Italy and Germany, double-platinum in the UK, and platinum in Argentina, Brazil, Poland, and Spain. To this day, it remains the second-highest-selling album in the band's entire discography, bested only by ''The Dark Side of the Moon'', and ranks among the biggest-selling albums in music history.

Who would hurt the children any wat they could. \\

** "Young Lust" is a pastiche of ArenaRock bands like Music/{{Foreigner}} and Music/BadCompany. There's also a little bit of SelfDeprecation here, too: in the 1979 interview with Tommy Vance, Roger said that it was inspired by the earlier Floyd tune [[Music/{{More}} "The Nile Song"]].

* PayPhone: In the movie, Pink's call to his wife, only to find another man answering, was done via pay phone. He is seen sinking down to the floor when he realizes what has happened.