Random Record Revisited
The Wall – Pink Floyd [1979]
 
   I was in the library last week picking up a couple of books [Only ONE book on poker? In the whole Fort Worth library system? Come on!] and wandered into the “other media” section. One of the CDs I spotted was Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Now I have not had a physical copy of the album for years, having sold my LP in one of my purges. I have actually been very down on this record for a while. Probably about the time I decided I can’t do Tom Petty anymore. Anyway, that was a week ago and The Wall had been drifting in and out of my head for a few days but yesterday I woke up singing In the Flesh and I decided I needed to revisit this album. So after a 45 minute wait at CVS [don’t get me started], I went over and checked it out.

   I had played The Wall a lot in the 80s.I sang “We don’t need to education” a thousand times and played air guitar to Comfortably Numb, saw the movie at the midnight movies and on VHS. But listening is sometimes not the same as hearing and hearing is not always the same as understanding. So I had an acquaintance with The Wall. But this time, I was listening with headphones. And I mean HEADPHONES, not ear buds or earphones but full 1970s / 1980s Nova 40s that I’ve had since high school. And this time I wasn’t half listening doing something else – not reading, not writing, not “not doing my homework”. And in the dark recesses, the furthest corners of The Wall, I found some disturbing things.

   A little backstory or those not familiar with the “concept” of The Wall. During of their 1978 tour, bassist and main songwriter Roger Waters became jaded with playing concerts, feeling that people were there for some experience [“to feel the warm thrill of confusion, that space cadet glow…”] but not really listening. At one point, Waters spat on some overly excited fans in Montreal Canada. It lead Waters to create a concept for the next Floyd album, Bricks In the Wall. [An alternative concept Waters offered would become Waters’ first solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking.] After the band accepted the concept, the band hired producer Bob Ezrin [Lou Reed, Kiss, Alice Cooper] and he helped shape a working script to remove some of Waters autobiographical elements and creating the character “Pink.” [A reference to the lines from Have A Cigar “the band is just fantastic, that is really what I think! Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?”] The album itself [per Wikipedia – link:  The Wall - Wikipedia] explores abandonment, isolation and existentialism symbolized by a / the wall.

   To summarize the plot, all of those traumas we go through growing up [in Pink’s case the death of his father, nasty teachers, an overbearing mother] cause Pink to isolate himself by building that metaphorical wall to try and protect himself. All of this on side 1 [and the first song on side 2]! Side 2 is adult Pink, married, a musician, on the road calling home to have the phone answered by a man. He brings in a groupie for some revenge but he instead has a freakout and decides to close himself off, completing the wall. Side 3 is Pink locked into his room, deeply depressed and flicking the TV channels and contemplating it all. But the show must go on and the tour manager breaks in to find catatonic Pink and give him some sort of something to get him to the stage. Side 4 is Pink hallucinating that he is not a rock star but a Hitler-esque dictator ordering violence against “those folks who aren’t like Us” and rallying to take over Britain. As the drug wears off, Pink places himself on trial and determines in order to carry on he must tear down the wall and rejoin the world and thus he tears down the wall. The end.

   Now remember – YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO UNDERSTAND ALL OF THIS THROUGH NOTHING MORE THAN THE RECORD AND THE LYRIC SHEET. And the lyric sheet looks like it was written by Hunter Thompson on a speed rush with a leaky fountain pen.

   There is no script, no booklet explaining all of this, it’s just you, two LPs [or one cassette] and your brain. Maybe you get a few pages in some magazine with the band explaining the idea behind the record but that’s it. So the average Joe putting this on in 1979 or 1980 sitting in his living room only had lyric sheet and the vibes he got from the music itself. Was some of it really bitchin’? Sure. Was some of it pretty? Yes. Was some of it dark and spooky? Definitely! Did he understand the concept? Probably not.

      Pink Floyd had been doing concepts and themes for a while. Wish You Were Here [1975] spoke to alienation and the music business. Animals [1977] spoke to class structure as depicted in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Dark Side Of the Moon [1973] was about the various aspects of human nature. But The Wall is an attempt to tell a story. This is where it runs into problems. It’s one thing to have several songs linked around a theme like the stages of life or critiquing capitalism but the "story" of The Wall is incomplete by itself. It requires someone to say "this is about THIS and this part refers to my father dying before I knew him, then that part is..."

   Music probably isn’t the best form for storytelling since it leaves too many gaps. Just listening to the soundtrack of Oklahoma probably doesn’t get the story across. But neither does the Who’s [first concept album / rock opera] Tommy. Their second, Quadrophenia certainly doesn’t. I can’t speak to Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway as I’ve never made it all of the way through.  

   Most casual listeners like myself didn’t get the theme or didn’t listen too deeply. Maybe this proved Waters’ point that people were more interested in concerts as events or having the latest “cool” band in your stack of records and that the audience wasn’t really listening / paying attention to what was being said. I paid my 12 or 13 or 15 dollars and it’s up to me how I listen or don’t listen. And double albums are hard anyway. It’s hard to keep an audiences full attention for 60 - 80 minutes.  On The Wall, the suite of Another Brick In the Wall and Mother on side one is pretty good. Side two opens well with Goodbye Blue Sky / Empty Spaces / Young Lust but drags after that. Side three has the great opening [Hey You] and closing [Comfortably Numb] tracks. Side four has Run Like Hell… and a bunch of weird shit.

   Under the headphones, listening closely I had a few of those “aha” moments. Like One Of My Turns – somehow I associated “turn” with taking one’s turn like playing a game but it’s actually meaning a mood swing, a turn from okay to depressed or turning manic. Of course in the film, this is where Pink destroys the room, scaring the bejeusus out of the groupie who has no idea what he’s angry about. Deep in the lyrics of Don’t Leave Me Now, the phrase “you know how I need you [need you, need you, need you] / To beat to a pulp on a Saturday night” jumped out. What the hell!?! Did I hear that right? Yes I did.

   Of course, one always heard the “Are there any queers in the audience tonight? Get the up against the wall.” And “that one looks Jewish and that one’s a coon / Who let all of this riff raff into the room?” during In the Flesh. But the list of things during Waiting For the Worms – the things “We” are going to do…[ in the movie this is the red and black hammers marching.] “Clean up the city [well, okay], cut out the deadwood [okay]… put on the black shirt [uhhhh], weed out the weaklings [uhhhh], smash in their windows and kick in their doors and for the Final Solution to strengthen the strain … turn on the showers and fire the ovens for the queens and the coons and the reds and the Jews to follow the worms.”

   EW.

   It always gets back to the Nazis doesn’t it?

   This is supposed to be a drugged out delusion of poor Pink [or a comment on how the power of the stage has been / can be misused?] but how is one to understand that?

   I think my final takeaways from revisiting The Wall are this:

   Art is always open to interpretation.

   Roger Waters needs some serious help.

   The Wall is as simple or as dense as the listener wants to go. As a musical work it’s pretty good but it will always be eclipsed by Dark Side Of the Moon.

 Random Record Challenge:

Rainbow – the Ronnie James Dio Years [1975 – 1978]

    I’m probably not going to make a habit get into doing requests but my Facebook [and real life friend] Mike Bond is apparently in a group that has challenges – listen to this and we’ll discus in a week or so. And the record recently was Rainbow’s 1978 LP Long Live Rock And Roll. So I have taken the challenge. But I have all three studio albums of the Dio years remastered so I’ll go over them all really quick.

   Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore originally recorded a standalone single – a cover of Quatermass’ song of Black Sheep Of the Family and the original instrumental composition Sixteenth Century Greensleeves with vocalist Ronnie James Dio and drummer Gary Driscoll from the American band Elf. But after splitting from Deep Purple in 1975, Blackmore brought back Dio and Driscoll and the rest of Elf [keyboardist Mickey Soule and bassist Craig Gruber] to record a full album which became Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow [1975]. It’s odd production has a dulling effect in that a lot of the high end seems to be compressed – cymbals just “sploosh” instead of crash and splash. Drums thud instead of thundering. It’s very noticeable when compared to the wide open range of 1976’s Rising.

   Blackmore’s Rainbow is a good album but not a great album. Of course the lead track Man On the Silver Mountain is just brilliant as much for Dio’s great lyric as Blackmore’s great riff and playing. Listen how Blackmore supports the lyric with great runs under the pre-chorus [0:45 – 1:00, 1:37 – 1:52, 2:50 – 3:04]. The galloping Black Sheep Of the Family is a great vehicle for Dio. The centerpiece of the album is the ballad Catch the Rainbow. Ballad? Ritchie Blackmore? Yes! Power chord banished [at least for this song], Blackmore lays wonderful spidery slide [!] licks all through this six and a half minute masterpiece. The notes Blackmore plays through the long fade [3:53 – 6:39] are some of the saddest, haunting lines ever laid to tape. Dio matches the subtlety needed for this song brilliantly as a Mellotron lays soft waves behind them both.

   Snake Charmer kicks off side two with a slice of funkiness that would have felt right at home on the Mark III [David Coverdale / Glenn Hughes] Deep Purple albums. And no, it’s not about one of those road ladies who charms the ol’ one eyed trouser snake. Just more of Ronnie James Dio’s lyrics about seekers [and wizards and maidens]. On Temple Of the King, Blackmore brings out an acoustic guitar for some very nice playing and the slide is back for the very short solo. If You Don’t Like Rock ‘N’ Roll is a great little stab of old rock and roll – maybe a little tip of the hat to Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll? Sixteenth Century Greensleeves is a good little chugging riff akin to Purple’s Maybe I’m A Leo from Machine Head.

  The second album, Rising [aka Rainbow Rising] [1976] is this era’s peak. Dropping the whole Blackmore’s Rainbow band, Blackmore and Dio brought in keyboardist Toney Carey and bassist Jimmy Bain [both of whom lasted one studio album and the live On Stage. Bain would later join the Dio band from 1983 – 1978. Carey when ton to form the Planet P Project in the 80s, best remember for 1983’s single Why Me.] and former Jeff Beck Group drummer Cozy Powell [who would last three studio albums as well as On Stage]. A mere six songs but five amazing songs with a hot shit band that allowed Blackmore to soar in ways he hadn’t since Deep Purple’s Burn. The album kicks off with the insistent burning riff of Tarot Woman. Run With the Wolf is the filler feeling song on this album. It’s not terrible but it certainly isn’t up to the standards of the rest of the album. Starstruck has Blackmore matching Dio’s vocal line [or Dio matching Blackmore’s riff?] and has been a favorite since I heard it a long time ago on 1981’s The Best Of Rainbow. Do You Close Your Eyes is a great riff which David Coverdale would rip off for Slide It In. This album is worth the price is just for Blackmore’s middle eastern tinged solo [3:27 to 5:10] on Stargazer. And Dio’s vocals and lyrics rose to the same level, just as they had on Catch the Rainbow. A Light in the Black allows Carey to stretch out some. To be sure he’s no Jon Lord but there is [was] only one Jon Lord, R.I.P.

   Finally, there’s 1978’s Long live Rock ‘n’ Roll. Blackmore, Dio and Powell bring in keyboardist David Stone [Tony Carey plays on three of the others] and bassist Bob Daisley [soon to join Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard Of Oz band] for three tracks. [Blackmore plays bass on the rest.]  If Blackmore’s Rainbow sounds flat, LLRnR suffers the opposite problem – it’s incredibly bright, wide open in the mid ranges and treble but the whole bottom when bass thunders and the kick drum pumps is just completely dead. Of the two, I’d rather have the Blackmore’s Rainbow production. The lead off title track is just undeniable, one of the best Rainbow tracks ever. Lady Of the Lake is another vintage Blackmore riff. L. A. Connection just plods and never really gets off the ground. Gates Of Babylon feels like a return or a leftover from Rising but it was actually the last song recorded. By the time is was recorded Daisley and Stone had been out on the road with the band on some European dates, so maybe they had a better idea of what Blackmore and Dio expected. Kill the King is another great slab of rocking in he vein of the title track. Unfortunately, it’s the last great track on the record. The Shed is another plodder. Sensitive To Light is a good riff but there’s no urgency to the song – it feels like a filler track. The solo is interesting in that it feels like Blackmore is channeling Brian May’s [of Queen] tone. Rainbow Eyes… I just have no interest in it after the first 30 seconds which is really just recycling the lick from Catch the Rainbow with a few Hendrix chords thrown in. Metallica will make it better when they turn it into Nothing Else Matters.

   Rating one to five, I say three and a half stars for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, four stars for Rising and three stars for Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll.