Album Anniversaries: 40 Years of Pink Floyd’s 'The Wall'

The Wall by Pink Floyd was monumental in a lot of ways. It epitomized the concept album, cemented the band in pop culture, broke a wider discussion of mental isolation into the mainstream, redefined how bands can perform live, and showed the many different ways art can be used to represent music. 40 years later, here is a look back at how The Wall became one of the most iconic and influential albums of all time, and why it might be more relevant now than ever before. 

In Album Anniversaries, writers honor their favorite aging albums and their subsequent legacies, revealing which projects have stood the test of time.

Written by Haley Kennis

Photo courtesy of Loudersound

Regardless of whether or not you listen to Pink Floyd, you probably have heard of The Wall. Whether it is from the iconic line “we don’t need no education” shouted by the children’s choir on the hit song “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2,” the haunting beauty of “Comfortably Numb,” the frightening visual style from the accompanying 1982 film, or just the legendary black and white brick wall on the album cover — The Wall is a pop culture staple. 

First inspired by an infamous concert where bassist and lyricist Roger Waters was so fed up with the rowdy audience that he spat in the face of a fan, he got the idea for a live show where a physical wall is built between the band and the crowd. This idea, mixed with Waters’ real life experience losing his father in WWII and the mental breakdown of former Pink Floyd lead singer Syd Barrett, formed the bones of the twisted, disturbing, and crucial plot of the record. 

The Wall follows the life story of a character named Pink Floyd, and how events over the course of his life led him to build a wall in his mind to isolate himself from the rest of the world. The album kicks off at the height of Pink’s isolation during “In The Flesh?,” with the line “if you wanna find out what’s behind these cold eyes / you’ll just have to claw your way through this disguise,” and we know we will soon find out how he turned into such a monster. The album then takes us back to Pink’s birth in Britain during WWII and the loss of his father on the battlefield quickly afterwards, beginning the construction of his emotional wall. The abusive and belittling British school system, the failure of British society to properly cope with the aftermath of war, and especially his overprotective mother all add bricks to his emotional wall as he grows. By the time he is an adult, he becomes a rock star, gets married, and wants to keep building his wall since he knows no other way to live. Pink is on tour in America and is revealed to hold backwards, disgusting views towards women and cheating on his wife after shows. But once he discovers that his wife turned the tables and is cheating on him, he has a mental breakdown and nearly kills the groupie he took back to his hotel. Pink was abusive and neglectful to his wife when he was at home, but he is unable to see himself as anything other than a victim. Finding out about what his wife did is the final brick in his wall. He shuts off all contact with the world, locking himself in his hotel room, and is stuck watching old WWII films on TV. 

Pink’s isolation continues into the second half of the album. Though he is the one who decided to complete the wall, the first few songs are his attempts to connect with anyone outside. He fails, and both the isolation and the WWII films slowly drive him to lose his mind. Pink shaves his hair and eyebrows off and starts imagining himself as a fascist dictator. His managers find him in his room, completely emotionally removed, and inject him with steroids so he can perform at his concert that night. The album has circled back to where it began: Pink Floyd’s concert at the depths of his isolation. Pink turns his concert into a rally and spouts off Nazi rhetoric, slowly convincing his audience to start rioting (though it isn’t clear if it is all in his mind or actually happening.) Pink has fully transformed into a monster, ironically becoming the very thing his father died fighting against. After a few terrifying songs showing Pink as a ruthless dictator, he comes down from his high and is slapped in the face by the realization of his behavior, wondering: “have I been guilty all this time?” In distress, he puts himself on a mental trial complete with a judge and three witnesses: a schoolteacher, his wife, and his mother. After the witnesses retell Pink’s crimes, the judge finds him guilty of all of them. He sentences himself to tear down the wall and face the terrible things he has done throughout his life, fully realizing he is not the victim, but the ultimate villain and cause of his suffering. The wall is demolished and Pink is revealed to the world once more. In an almost bittersweet end, it’s revealed that there were always people on the outside trying to reach him even though he turned into pure evil. It seems like Pink finally will take responsibility for his actions and learn to deal with his emotions, but suddenly, the words “isn’t this where…” are whispered and then “...we came in?” loops back to “In The Flesh?,” suggesting that building and destroying the wall is actually a cycle he is doomed to repeat. 

The music on The Wall is just as impactful as the stirring storyline. The range of different musical styles across the entire album weave perfectly with the lyrics and were crucial to the album’s success. The funky disco style and heavily accented children’s choir on “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2” propelled the song to number one on the charts: the first number one single in the band’s long history. David Gilmour’s impeccable guitar solos on “Mother,” “Young Lust,” and especially “Comfortably Numb” soar like no other guitarist’s and add so much beauty to the album. Some songs are huge and theatrical like “In the Flesh,” “The Show Must Go On,” and “Bring the Boys Back Home,” but the impactfulness of the album really shines in its quieter moments like “Is There Anybody Out There?”, “Goodbye Blue Sky,” and “Hey You.” Last but not least, the penultimate “The Trial” is like a mini-opera in itself, with Waters’ brilliantly acting out each character over a full orchestra. On past albums the band were known for over ten minute progressive rock anthems, so this musical direction was completely new and divisive. But the range of sounds, emotions, and the way Gilmour’s sweet vocals contrast to Waters’ scathing singing paint brilliant colors over the bleakness of The Wall and continue to sound absolutely beautiful, haunting, and exhilarating all these years later.

Photo courtesy of Illustration Chronicles

The Wall live shows were ahead of their time — probably too ahead of their time. The first tour went from 1980 to 1981 and only had thirty-one shows in four cities: Los Angeles, Uniondale, Dortmund, and London. Just like Waters’ initial idea, the show mainly featured a gigantic brick wall that was slowly build up with large brick props as the songs were performed. By the end of the first half of the album, the final brick is placed to complete the wall. The band performed in both in front of and behind the wall during the show and mannequins of the band were put in front of the complete wall to try and fool the audience it was them. Gigantic puppets of the schoolmaster, the wife, and the mother came down from the ceiling during their respective songs, as well as a giant inflatable pig that flew over the audience. While Pink Floyd were known for their inventive live shows, these shows proved too ambitious and were a gigantic financial loss due to the expensive technology. Keyboardist Richard Wright, a former band member who got kicked out during recording due to Waters’ wrath, was the only touring member to make any money. 

The shows were not a total success at the time, but a quote from the New York Times predicted its lasting impact: “Never again will one be able to accept the technical clumsiness, distorted sound and meagre visuals of most arena rock concerts as inevitable… The Wall show will be the touchstone against which all future rock spectacles must be measured.” The Wall was performed again by Roger Waters to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990 with some improved technology, but the true potential of the live show wasn’t reached until 2010. Waters once again decided to revive the album for a tour, revamping the concerts with better puppets, better lighting, new visuals, and even more ideas that could now actually work. The show toured from 2010-2013 and became one of the most successful solo musician tours of all time, and in 2012, one of the most important nights of my life. The live show was one of the most ambitious, creative, and impactful live shows that set the bar so high, it couldn’t reach it itself until thirty years later. Bands today still take inspiration from The Wall live shows to make their concerts even more creative and immersive to the audience. 

In yet another way the album impacted music media, the album was turned into a movie in 1982: Pink Floyd — The Wall. Though not the first concept album to be turned into a film, the movie has an incredibly striking and innovative art style of both live action scenes and animated sequences by artist Gerald Scarfe (who later went on to animate Disney’s Hercules.) The movie takes the disturbing elements of the album and turns them up to eleven, making it a difficult but brilliant film to watch.

There is so much to be said about The Wall, so much that the album and its related art that it is hard to understand fully comprehend all of its impacts today. However, it isn’t too hard to see why the album’s story resonates so much with people 40 years later. Pink Floyd’s story shows how systemic issues can affect people on a personal level, but also what happens when someone refuses to see the harm they are causing. As more people like Pink rise to power and try to make the world more isolated, The Wall is a reminder that vulnerability and facing the truth is much more powerful than any wall you can build.