Another Brick in the Wall
"Another Brick in the Wall" is a three-part composition on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera The Wall, written by the bassist, Roger Waters. "Part 2", a protest song against corporal punishment and rigid and abusive schooling, features a children's choir. At the suggestion of the producer, Bob Ezrin, Pink Floyd added elements of disco.
This article is about the song. For the opera, see Another Brick in the Wall: The Opera."Another Brick in the Wall"
Pink Floyd Music Publishers
30 November 1979
April–November 1979
8:28 (All three parts)
- 3:11 (Part 1)
- 3:59 (Part 2)
- 1:18 (Part 3)
23 November 1979[1]
April – November 1979
- 3:11 (single version)
- 3:59 (album version)
- 3:54 (A Collection of Great Dance Songs version)
- 5:43 (album version combined with "The Happiest Days of Our Lives", alternative radio edit)
"Part 2" was released as a single, Pink Floyd's first in the United Kingdom since "Point Me at the Sky" (1968). It sold over four million copies worldwide and topped singles charts in fourteen countries, including in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was nominated for a Grammy Award and was ranked number 384 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Concept[edit]
The three parts of "Another Brick in the Wall" appear on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera album The Wall. They are essentially one verse each, although Part 2 sees its own verse sung twice: once by Floyd members, and the second time by the guest choir along with Waters and Gilmour. During "Part 1", the protagonist, Pink, begins building a metaphorical wall around himself following the death of his father. In "Part 2", traumas involving his overprotective mother and abusive schoolteachers become bricks in the wall. Following a violent breakdown in "Part 3", Pink dismisses everyone he knows as "just bricks in the wall."[2][3]
Bassist Roger Waters wrote "Part 2" as a protest against rigid schooling, particularly boarding schools.[4] "Another Brick in the Wall" appears in the film based on the album. In the "Part 2" sequence, children enter a school and march in unison through a meat grinder, becoming "putty-faced" clones, before rioting and burning down the school.[5]
Reception[edit]
"Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" was released as a single, Pink Floyd's first in the UK since "Point Me at the Sky" (1968). It was also the Christmas number one of 1979 and the final number one of the decade in the UK.[16] In the US, it reached number 57 on the disco chart.[17] The single sold over 4 million copies worldwide.[4] Cash Box described it as a "catchy but foreboding selection, with its ominously steady drum work and angry lyrics."[18]
The song won Waters the 1983 British Academy Award for Best Original Song for its appearance in the Wall film.[19] "Part 2" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group. It appeared at number 384 on Rolling Stone's 2010 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[20]
The lyrics attracted controversy. The Inner London Education Authority described the song as "scandalous", and according to Renshaw, prime minister Margaret Thatcher "hated it".[13] Renshaw said, "There was a political knee-jerk reaction to a song that had nothing to do with the education system. It was [Waters'] reflections on his life and how his schooling was part of that."[13] The single, as well as the album The Wall, were banned in South Africa in 1980 after it was adopted by supporters of a nationwide school boycott protesting instituted racial inequities in education under apartheid.[21][22]
Personnel, according to The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia.[71]
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
"Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 (Live in Berlin)"
"Run Like Hell" (Potsdamer Mix)
10 September 1990
21 July 1990
6:29
Roger Waters
Roger Waters
Nick Griffiths
December 2004
2004
Elementree Studios (Tarzana, California)
7:08