Another Brick in the Wall

"Another Brick in the Wall" is the title of three songs set to variations of the same basic theme, on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera, The Wall, subtitled Part I, Part II, and Part III, respectively, all of which were written by Pink Floyd's bassist and then lead songwriter, Roger Waters. It has become one of the most famous Pink Floyd songs.

Part II is a protest song against rigid schooling in general and boarding schools in particular,^[1] which has led to the song being banned in South Africa^[2]. It was released as a single and provided the band's only number-one hit in the UK, the US, West Germany and many other countries. In the UK, it was their first single since 1968's "Point Me at the Sky". For Part II, Pink Floyd received a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group and lost to Bob Seger's "Against the Wind". In addition, Part II was #375 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.^[3] The single sold over 4 million copies worldwide.

In 1980, the song was adopted as a protest anthem by black students during the "Elsie's River" uprising in South Africa, protesting against the racial propaganda and bias in the official curriculum. On May 2, it was banned by the government.^[2]

Each of the three parts have a similar, if not the same, tune and lyrical structure (not lyrics, apart from the "all in all" part), and each one is louder and more enraged than the one before, rising from the sadness of Part I to the protesting Part II to the furious Part III. This tune is repeated in almost every song on the album, albeit in a different form each time.

Part I of the song is very quiet in dynamics and features a long, subdued guitar solo. The vocals are softer and more gentle in tone than in Parts II and III, although there is a short, sharp rise in dynamics and tone for a brief period towards the end of the lyrical portion. Sniffing, shouting, wailing, calling, and children can be faintly heard in the background, along the lines of "You! Stand still, Laddy!"

The Thin Ice discussed during the previous song breaks when Pink becomes older and learns of the death of his father. Pink is devastated by this reality and begins to build The Wall.

Pink's mother is seen praying in a church after the death of her husband overseas. Pink, however, is at this point oblivious of his death, playing with a toy airplane. The song continues with Pink playing in a public park after his mother leaves him to go shopping. He sees a man who he takes a liking to in the absence of his own father. The man gives Pink a lift onto a ride, and it's clear Pink feels as if this man is his real father. Pink follows the man's son around, copying him, but doesn't understand why the other boy's father isn't paying attention to him. He grabs the man's hand but is shooed away, only to grab the man's hand again. The man pushes Pink away again, and dejectedly he sits on a swing.

"Another Brick in the Wall part 2"

The disco beat used in "Another Brick in the Wall part 2" presented a marked change from Pink Floyd's previous releases.

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In the album version of The Wall, "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" transitions in from "The Happiest Days of Our Lives", with a trademark scream from Roger Waters (Waters screams like this most notably on the track "Careful with That Axe, Eugene"). The two songs are sometimes played one after the other on the radio, particularly on rock stations, because of how the songs merge together and because the single version has a guitar intro not used on the album. The song has strong drums, a well-known bass line and distinctive guitar parts in the background with a smooth yet edgy guitar solo. The song also features a group of school children for lead vocals in the second verse: as the song ends, the sounds of a school yard are heard, along with the teacher who continues to lord it over the children's lives by shouting such things as "Wrong! Do it again!" which somehow sounds mocking, and "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?!", and "You! Yes! You behind the bikesheds! Stand still, laddie!", all of it dissolving into the dull drone of a phone ringing and ending with a deep sigh.

For "Part II", Pink Floyd needed a school choir, and producer Bob Ezrin asked sound engineer Nick Griffiths to find one. Griffiths approached music teacher Alun Renshaw of Islington Green School,^[4] around the corner from their Britannia Row Studios. Though the school received a lump sum payment of £1000, there was no contractual arrangement for royalties from record sales. Under 1996 UK copyright law, they became eligible for royalties from broadcasts, and after royalties agent Peter Rowan traced choir members through the website Friends Reunited and other means, they claimed their payments. Contrary to press reports, this did not involve suing Pink Floyd. Music industry professionals estimated that each student would be owed around £500.^[5]

After being insulted by the teacher, Pink dreams that the kids in Pink's school begin to protest against their abusive teachers.

Following "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" Pink starts to daydream during his class. He imagines several students marching in unison to the beat of the song, following a path until they fall blindly into an oversized meat-grinder to re-emerge as putty-faced clones void of individual distinction. Starting with Gilmour's guitar solo, the children destroy the school building using hammers (foreshadowing the subsequent neo-fascist Nazi-like sequence with its marching hammers) and crowbars, creating a bonfire, dragging their teacher out of the burning school kicking and screaming. The song ends with Pink rubbing his hand, which the teacher slapped with a ruler in the previous song.

During the song, the teacher's "meat and pudding" lines are folded into the first few lines of the school choir's lines, and are performed by the teacher in the film, played by Alex McAvoy.

Prior to the film, the first video for the track, directed by Alan Parker, depicted students running in a playground and the teacher puppet from The Wall concerts was used. The video also mixed in some animated scenes later used in "The Trial" and "Waiting for the Worms". The children who sang on "Another Brick in the Wall (Pt. II)" could not appear in the video because they didn't hold Equity Cards.^[6]

Once the film was made, the actual scenes of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" were combined into a new video, which now represents the music video for "Another Brick in the Wall".

• The single version had a short guitar intro.
• The versions from live albums and videos Delicate Sound of Thunder and P*U*L*S*E (recorded after Waters' departure from the band) feature the main guitar solo by David Gilmour, followed by an additional tapped guitar riff by touring guitarist Tim Renwick. These are backed by Guy Pratt's slap bass lines.
• The version from Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 (from the 1980–81 concerts at Earls Court, London) also features an extended solo by Snowy White and an organ solo by Richard Wright.
• In 1990, prior to The Wall Live in Berlin a rare, limited edition promo CD was issued to radio stations (Mercury CSK 2126) which included When the Tigers Broke Free and a new version of "Another Brick in the Wall part 2" re-recorded by Roger Waters and the Bleeding Heart Band
• The version from The Wall Live in Berlin has Cyndi Lauper singing lead vocals, and features Rick DiFonzo playing the original solo, Snowy White playing a second guitar solo, Peter Wood playing an organ solo, and Thomas Dolby playing a synthesizer solo.
• An edit without the segue from "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and with an early fade-out was included in the 1981 compilation A Collection of Great Dance Songs.
• The song was included with "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" in the compilation Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, and segues into the first note of an edited version of "Echoes".
• Another version of this video featured children with faceless masks arriving on a train, and several scenes feature a "conveyor belt" of school desks which the students sit at after marching through a steel tunnel; and even another machine featuring a hammer built against the side, pounding up and down to make it run, again referring to the "marching hammers".

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The song is loud in dynamics and features the once subtle bass line now unleashed at a loud volume to express Pink's rage. It is also the shortest "part" of Another Brick In The Wall.

Pink decides to finish this wall as a result of his rage after his wife's betrayal. He states that he has seen the "writing on the wall." He concludes he no longer needs anything at all, dismissing the people in his life as just "bricks in the wall".

In the film, the song is accompanied by a montage of events that contributed to the construction of the wall.

• In 1986, à;GRUMH... covered "Part II" on their Underground EP.
• In 1995, Jaz Coleman released an album Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd, including symphonic arrangements of Pink Floyd songs including "Another Brick in the Wall".
• In 1998, for the film The Faculty, "Part II" was covered by Class of '99. A cover of "Part I" also appeared on the soundtrack album.
• In 1999, the British Rock Symphony with Eric Burdon released a cover of "Part II".
• In 1999, ApologetiX pardodied the song under the name "Kick in the Wall Pt. 2" on their album Biblical Graffiti.
• In 2001, Luther Wright and the Wrongs released Rebuild the Wall, a country and western version of The Wall, including cover versions of "Another Brick in the Wall".
• In 2004, Korn released their version of the song on the compilation album Greatest Hits Volume 1, consisting of all three parts of "Another Brick in the Wall" and "Goodbye Cruel World".
• In 2005, rock group Parason made a cover version of "Part II" named Vaša škoła (Ваша школа), meaning Your school in Belarusian.
• In 2005, Keller Williams released a bluegrass version of the song on the album Grass.
• Lounge/comedy group Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered "Part II" on their 2006 album The Sunny Side of the Moon: The Best of Richard Cheese.
• In 2007, Eric Prydz released a remix of the song, entitled "Proper Education" which was released as a single.
• In 2008, the song was covered by the Taliesin Orchestra on the band's Rock Rhapsody album.
• Stahlhammer covers the song on their Killer Instinkt album.

• Roger Waters: bass guitar,^[7] lead vocals on "Part I" and "Part III", harmony vocals,^[7] guitar on "Part III"^[8]
• David Gilmour: guitars,^[7] lead vocals on "Part II"^[9] (in unison with Waters), harmony vocals on "Part I"^[10]
• Nick Mason: drums on "Part II" and "Part III"^[7]
• Richard Wright: Hammond organ "Part II",^[11] Prophet-5 synthesizer^[7]
• Islington Green School students (organised by Alun Renshaw ): vocals on "Part II"^[9][12]

• Proper Education
• Discipline and Punish

• Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8
• Fitch, Vernon and Mahon, Richard, Comfortably Numb - A History of The Wall 1978-1981, 2006

• Islington Green School's article on their contribution
• BBC story on royalties suit
• Songfacts.com – "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II"
• BBC – ONE Life – Islington Green singers reunion. Aired 3 October 2007.
• Eric Burdon's version