Great Soundtracks of 1982: The Wall

For the life of me, I can’t remember much about this film. I did see it once many years ago but I had to read the synopsis on Wikapedia to remind myself what it was about. The reason for my lapsed memory on this occasion is the fact that like so many who watched the film at the time, I became like one of the songs suggests, “Comfortably Numb.” I can’t even remember if I liked it or not but nevertheless, the one thing no one can fault is that the soundtrack to it kicks ass.

What is really cool about the soundtrack is that Roger Waters doesn’t take the easy road here and just chuck in tracks from the album of the same name. It must have been very tempting to do that. There are some new songs introduced and many of the songs from the album had changes made to them with varying results in my view. A negative one and it is very minor is from the track “Goodbye Blue Sky.” They omit the child at the very beginning saying, “Look mummy, there’s an airplane in the sky.” While it’s a good song, that bit was always my favourite part of the song. “Mother” was remixed almost completely and I couldn’t hear the acoustic guitar along with the lyrics although I’ll admit that I have always loved the lyrics to the song and at least they left the guitar solo alone and that makes the song. However, the most noticeable change for  me is with “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.” The teacher saying those amusing lines: “If you don’t eat your meat how can you have any pudding?” comes in during the children’s singing and is broken up. The following line of “How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?” follows on a few lines later. Strangely, I find that this doesn’t effect my appreciation for the song at all. Other changes include vocal contributions from Bob Geldolf who played the lead role in the film and the inclusion of a brass band in the final song. None of these change the song for me as I can appreciate that Pink Floyd are talented enough to pull anything like this off. The two new songs, “When the Tigers Broke Free 1” and “When the Tigers Broke Free 2” are decent enough to be included in the soundtrack. Actually they make little impact on the quality of this great soundtrack.

A scene from The Wall

Track Listing:

1. When The Tigers Broke Free 1

2. In the Flesh

3. The Thin Ice

4. Another Brick in the Wall Part 1

5. When the Tigers Broke Free 2

6. Goodbye Blue Sky

7. The Happiest Days of Our Lives

8. Another Brick in the Wall Part 2

9. Mother

10. What Shall We Do Now

11. Young Lust

12. One of My Turns

13. Don’t Leave Me Now

14. Another Brick in the Wall Part 3

15. Goodbye Cruel World

16. Is There Anybody Out There

17. Nobody Home

18. Vera

19. Bring the Boys Back Home

20. Comfortably Numb

21. In the Flesh

22. Run Like Hell

23. Waiting for the Worms

24. 5:11 AM (The Moment of Clarity)

25. Stop

26. The Trial

27. Outside the Wall

I have heard this film rubbished by some people although I can’t see what they were expecting to find when they went to view it. Maybe they weren’t comfortably numb. Whether or not you like the film, you can’t fault the soundtrack, it is simply classic Pink Floyd doing what they did best.

Next post: Fast Times at Ridgemont High

To buy Rock And Roll Children, go to: http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London