Released in 1979, this double album of the already famous group Pink Floyd - one of the most important in 20th century history - would "grow up" to be one of most famous concept albums in the world, a masterpiece of progressive rock and would also inspire a splendid movie, starring Bob Geldof and directed by Alan Parker. It was the movie that offered the rich imagery of the music, with several new passages and songs, one of the best movies of the decade and one of the most profound and touching works of cinematographical art. An amazing and historical recording, the music album is still very popular and high on demand, almost 30 years since it's release.
The hero of the story is a little boy, named simply Pink, an orphan who grows up alone, isolated and lacking any real love or friendship, accustomed to abuses and poverty, only to finally separate himself from the real world and society. Obsessed by poetry and music, depressed by the bleak atmosphere of his childhood and teenage years, Pink would eventually grow up to be a famous rock star, beloved by thousands and causing mass hysteria. The force of the music and the sheer, blunt atrocity of the marketing campaigns into creating and promoting modern gods are righrly presented.
From the very beginning, growing up without a father, ridiculed by his classmates and teachers, suffocated by an over-protective mother, Pink went through hard times. An kept going due to poetry and later music. Later still, when he became a rock star, the pressure, the tiredness, the drugs, alcohool and women, the depravations and the exhaustion, all made his lose, little by little, his grip on reality. Up to the point where he just couldn't go on, and Pink began drawing himself away from the world, at the same time creating his own reality, a mix of nostalgia, memories, dangers, obsessions and fears. A phantastic and equally terrifying universe, which will eventually prove to be way too much. Pink loses his friends, wife and sanity, builds a wall against the outside world and cowers inside of him, wanting to forget and be forgotten. The breakdown is final. The story is told. Although the outside world tries to stop him, he eventually finishes the wall and hides inside his world. Only on a trial where he puts himself as the guilty party he finds the energy to try and tear down the world. Or doesn't he ? Doesn't Pink really manage to break down the wall and return to the reality of others ?
The album was a great success for the band, and after the release of the briliant 1982 movie it became an aknowledged masterpiece and one of the landmarks in modern music. The tour promoting the album was costly and very difficult, which lead to tensions among the musicians. It was also an album which was a strong protest against extremism and dictatorship, the first target being the communist regimes. So it was no wonder that The Wall - and Pink Floyd - were forbidden in the Eastern European countries, where this album became a symbol of the fight for freedom.
The Wall by Pink Floyd is one of those albums that comes around only once in the career of a group, the type of briliant compositions that makes itself a landmark and a legend of the genre, is imitated and liked by countless generations and somehow never gets really old. A briliant composition, great talent and keen musical mastership, an album to be remembered for all times. And the story of Pink, the tragic hero who builds the wall and hides behind is, in it's essence, the story of the contemporary, postmodern and neurotic existence, far away from the real world. Out of fear, out of guilt, out of autistic imagery.
September 2008
