Taking The Wall Apart To See What It Says

I'm looking at making a video for my Writer's Craft class which explores how Roger Waters made art of things he'd experienced or felt.  Like an exercise in recycling, he took a bin of stuff that bothered him, and explored, depicted, de-constructed and expressed it in the form of a show that had to be a movie and needed cartoons and animation for full impact.

In the process of planning this, I guess I ended up outlining a whole lot of ideas presented by The Wall.  Here they are:

Huge rock concerts do not really connect fans to the artist who is expressing him/herself (the artist feels very walled off and isolated, but exposed to the view of thousands)

Tell me is something eluding you, sunshine?
Is this not what you expected to see?
If you wanna find out what's behind these cold eyes
You'll just have to claw your way through this disguise.

But The Wall is an attempt to expose the artist’s real inner self by expressing it.  He’ll have to start at birth.  At birth you are connected to father and mother and you don’t know about the loneliness and isolation that awaits you: 

Momma loves her baby
And daddy loves you too.
And the sea may look warm to you babe
And the sky may look blue
But ooooh Baby
Ooooh baby blue
Oooooh babe.

War separates fathers permanently from their families (and governments try to stop people expressing their negative feelings about it):
And no one survived

From the Royal Fusiliers Company C.

They were all left behind,

Most of them dead,

The rest of them dying.

And that's how the High Command

Took my daddy from me.

Daddy's flown across the ocean
Leaving just a memory
Snapshot in the family album
Daddy what else did you leave for me?  
Daddy, what'd'ja leave behind for me?!?
Bring the boys back home.
Bring the boys back home.
Don't leave the children on their own, no, no.
Bring the boys back home.
(Only in a song has Roger Waters ever been able to talk to his father)

School can viciously punish self-expression and reward mediocrity and conformity (which isolates the kids):
When we grew up and went to school
There were certain teachers who would
Hurt the children in any way they could
By pouring their derision
Upon anything we did
And exposing every weakness
However carefully hidden by the kids

"Wro-ong, Do it again!"
We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
 

Mothers can raise sheltered, isolated children who are afraid of everything and connected to no one
Mother do you think they'll drop the bomb? Fear
Mother do you think they'll like this song? Fear
Mother do you think they'll try to break my balls? Fear (of getting caned at school)
Mother should I build the wall? Isolation = reponse to fear
Mother should I run for president?
Mother should I trust the government? Fear and Obey
Mother will they put me in the firing line? Fear and Obey during War
Mother am I really dying? War casualties

Hush now baby, baby, dont you cry.
Mother's gonna make all your nightmares come true.
Mother's gonna put all her fears into you.
Mother's gonna keep you right here under her wing.  

Mother gets to comfort child she put Fear into (assuring importance of her role)
She wont let you fly, but she might let you sing. (maybe a little bit of self-expression?)
Mama will keep baby cozy and warm.
Ooooh baby ooooh baby oooooh baby,
Of course mama'll help to build the wall.
Mother do you think she's good enough -- to me? Fear (of connecting with the opposite sex)
Mother do you think she's dangerous -- to me?
Mother will she tear your little boy apart?
Mother will she break my heart?

Hush now baby, baby dont you cry.
Mama's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you.
Mama wont let anyone dirty get through.
Mama's gonna wait up until you get in.
Mama will always find out where you've been. Fear and Obey Mother
Mama's gonna keep baby healthy and clean.
Ooooh baby oooh baby oooh baby,
You'll always be baby to me.

Mother/Government: the world is full of dangers.  Fear it and Obey us.  Fear us too.


What Governments do affects children
"Look mummy, there's an aeroplane up in the sky" (children with mothers witness bombers sent by governments)
Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?
Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter


Isolation (cutting one’s self off from others and not expressing oneself) makes one feel empty. What can be used to fill in the emptiness?
What shall we use
To fill the empty spaces
Where we used to talk?
How shall I fill
The final places?
How should I complete the wall (feel empty, also the wall of isolation needs a few last bricks)

 Shall I buy a new guitar?  Shall I drive a more powerful car?

Consumerism = the rich feeding off the poor of the world
because the poor lost the wars that made them The Poor
and their conquerors The Rich

Technology + Brutality = Victory!


Casual sex allows pleasure without actually connecting meaningfully to another human being
I am just a new boy,
Stranger in this town.
Where are all the good times?
Who's gonna show this stranger around?
Ooooh, I need a dirty woman.
Ooooh, I need a dirty girl.

Travelling for your job (including rock tours) cuts you off from your friends and family back home
Got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from.
I've got electric light.
And I've got second sight.
And amazing powers of observation.
And that is how I know
When I try to get through
On the telephone to you
There'll be nobody home.

"Oh, He hung up! That's your residence, right? I wonder why he hung up?
Is there supposed to be someone else there besides your wife there to answer?"

Day after day, love turns grey
Like the skin of a dying man.
Night after night, we pretend its all right
But I have grown older and
You have grown colder and
Nothing is very much fun any more.
  


When you can’t connect to another person, you don’t know what to say to them
“Wanna take a bath? Are you feelin' OK?”




People who are isolated and can’t express themselves go crazy inside
Sitting in a bunker here behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come.
In perfect isolation here behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come. (insanity represented by brain-eating worms)
 
When we have severe emotional problems, we drive away everyone with our craziness, despair and rage
Run to the bedroom,
In the suitcase on the left
You'll find my favorite axe.
Don't look so frightened
This is just a passing phase,
One of my bad days.
Would you like to watch T.V.?
Or get between the sheets?
Or contemplate the silent freeway?
Would you like something to eat?
Would you like to learn to fly?
Would'ya?
Would you like to see me try?

Would you like to call the cops?
Do you think it's time I stopped?
Why are you running away?
Ooooh, babe
Don't leave me now.
Don't say it's the end of the road.
Remember the flowers I sent.
I need you, babe
To put through the shredder
In front of my friends
Ooooh Babe.
Dont leave me now.
How could you go?
When you know how I need you
To beat to a pulp on a Saturday night
Ooooh Babe.
How could you treat me this way?
Running away.

And we go into denial and say it’s ok and we don’t need anyone or anything anyway
I don't need no arms around me
And I don’t need no drugs to calm me.
I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don't think I need anything at all.
No! Don't think I'll need anything at all.


And we are tempted to turn our backs on the world entirely, through substance abuse or through suicide
Goodbye cruel world,
I'm leaving you today.
Goodbye,
Goodbye,
Goodbye.


Goodbye, all you people,
There's nothing you can say
To make me change my mind.
Goodbye.


But we keep trying “one last time” to connect to another person
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Hey you, out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone
Would you touch me?
Hey you, with you ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out
Would you touch me?
Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I'm coming home.
Vera! Vera! What has become of you?
Does anybody else here
Feel the way I do?
But it was only fantasy. And failing and giving up
The wall was too high,
As you can see.
No matter how he tried,
He could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain.


And being trapped in a life filled with obligations to others
Stop!
I wanna go home
Take off this uniform (war or job uniform?)
And leave the show.
Ooooh, Ma, Oooh Pa
Must the show go on?
Ooooh, Pa. Take me home
Ooooh, Ma. Let me go


Legal and Illegal drugs are often used to keep people "producing"
O.K.
Just a little pinprick.
There'll be no more aaaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick.
Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working, good.
That'll keep you going through the show
Come on it's time to go.
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying. There must be some mistake I didnt mean to let them
Take away my soul.  How many celebrities died in this state?
Am I too old, is it too late?
Ooooh, Ma, Ooooh Pa,
Where has the feeling gone?
Ooooh, Ma, Ooooh Pa,
Will I remember the songs?
The show must go on.




Isolated, crazy people lash out and express themselves mainly in hate
teacher caning Difference is punished
bombing
TV out window
Cartoon head smashing


We all have what was in Hitler in us
I've got some bad news for you sunshine,
Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel
And they sent us along as a surrogate band
We're gonna find out where you folks really stand.
Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
Get them up against the wall!
There's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me,
Get him up against the wall!
That one looks Jewish!
And that one's a coon!
Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?
There's one smoking a joint,
And another with spots!
If I had my way,
I'd have all of you shot!
You better run all day
And run all night.
Keep your dirty feelings No self-expression
Deep inside.
And if you're taking your girlfriend
Out tonight
You'd better park the car
Well out of sight.
Cause if they catch you in the back seat
Trying to pick her locks,
They're gonna send you back to mother  Mother again
In a cardboard box.
You better run.


In war-time, whole countries get like this.
Fist turns to uniformed, marching hammers


If you can make citizens fear another country or group, you can start a war

And the individual is left wondering if s/he or the society is guilty.  So s/he allows someone else, often a professional or an authority figure to judge them.

Waters feels you have to be a messed-up, crazy, isolated control-freak with delusions of grandeur to want power.  That’s also what Plato said.

But I'm waiting in this cell
Because I have to know.
Have I been guilty all this time?


The Trial
Good morning, Worm your honor.
The crown will plainly show
The prisoner who now stands before you
Was caught red-handed showing feelings
Showing feelings of an almost human nature;
This will not do.


Witnesses are called
Schoolteacher:
I always said he'd come to no good
In the end your honor.
If they'd let me have my way I could
Have flayed him into shape.
But my hands were tied,
Ex-Wife
You little shit you're in it now,
I hope they throw away the key.
You should have talked to me more often
Than you did, but no! You had to go
Your own way, have you broken any
Homes up lately?
Mother
Come to mother baby, let me hold you
In my arms.
M'lud I never wanted him to
Get in any trouble.
Why'd he ever have to leave me?
Worm, your honor, let me take him home.


Why can’t you decide your own worth for yourself?  Because you’re “crazy”
Crazy,
Toys in the attic I am crazy,
Truly gone fishing.
They must have taken my marbles away.
Crazy, toys in the attic he is crazy.


Sentencing:
The evidence before the court is
Incontrovertible, there's no need for
The jury to retire.
In all my years of judging
I have never heard before
Of someone more deserving
Of the full penalty of law.
The way you made them suffer,
Your exquisite wife and mother,
Fills me with the urge to defecate!
  Since, my friend, you have revealed your
Deepest fear,
I sentence you to be exposed before
Your peers.  

(this is what bad teachers, parents and other authority figures do when they’re angry.  Expose us.  Humiliate us publicly.  No mercy, no forgiveness.)
Tear down the wall!

Your worst nightmare has come true.  Everyone has seen the hidden, "bad" side of you.  The Hitler, the worm, the weak, frightened child.  Is there any hope? 

(Friends.  People who love us enough to forgive us our craziness)
All alone, or in two's,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.


And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall