Another Brick in the Wall

The three parts of "Another Brick in the Wall" appear on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera album The Wall. During "Part 1", the protagonist, Pink, begins building a metaphorical wall around himself following the death of his father. In "Part 2", traumas including his overprotective mother and abusive schoolteachers become metaphorical bricks in the wall. Following a violent breakdown in "Part 3", Pink dismisses everyone he knows as "just bricks in the wall".[1][2]

Bassist Roger Waters wrote "Part 2" as a protest against rigid schooling, particularly boarding schools.[3] "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.[4]

At the suggestion of producer Bob Ezrin, Pink Floyd added elements of disco, which was popular at the time. According to guitarist David Gilmour:

[Ezrin] said to me, "Go to a couple of clubs and listen to what's happening with disco music," so I forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, Gawd, awful! Then we went back and tried to turn one of the parts into one of those so it would be catchy.[5]

Gilmour recorded his guitar solo using a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top guitar with P-90 pick-ups.[6] Despite his reservations about Ezrin's additions, Gilmour felt the final song still sounded like Pink Floyd.[5] When Ezrin heard the song with a disco beat, he was convinced it could become a hit, but felt it needed to be longer, with two verses and two choruses. The band resisted, saying they did not release singles; Waters told him: "Go ahead and waste your time doing silly stuff."[7]

While the band members were away, Ezrin edited the takes into an extended version. He also had engineer Nick Griffiths record children singing the verse at Islington Green School, close to Pink Floyd's studio.[7] Griffiths was instructed to record only two or three children; inspired by a Todd Rundgren album featuring an audience in each stereo channel, he suggested recording an entire school choir. The school allotted only 40 minutes for the recording.[8]

Alun Renshaw, head of music at the school, was enthusiastic, and said later: "I wanted to make music relevant to the kids – not just sitting around listening to Tchaikovsky. I thought the lyrics were great – 'We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control' ... I just thought it would be a wonderful experience for the kids."[9]

Renshaw hid the lyrics from the headteacher, Margaret Maden, fearing she might stop the recording.[10] Maden said: "I was only told about it after the event, which didn't please me. But on balance it was part of a very rich musical education."[10] Renshaw and the children spent a week practising before he took them to a recording studio near the school.[11] According to Ezrin, when he played the children's vocals to Waters, "there was a total softening of his face, and you just knew that he knew it was going to be an important record".[5] Waters said: "It was great—exactly the thing I expected from a collaborator."[5]

"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 and still is Pink Floyd's only number-one hit in the United Kingdom, the United States, West Germany and several other countries. It was also the final Christmas number one of the decade in the UK.[12] In the US, it reached number 57 on the disco chart.[13] The single sold over 4 million copies worldwide.[3]

The song won Waters the 1983 British Academy Award for Best Original Song for its appearance in the Wall film.[14] "Part 2" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group. It appears at number 384 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[15]

The lyrics attracted controversy. The Inner London Education Authority described the song as "scandalous", and according to Renshaw, prime minister Margaret Thatcher "hated it".[11] 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."[11] 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.[16][17]

In exchange for performing vocals, the children of Islington School received tickets to a Pink Floyd concert, an album, and a single.[18] Though the school received a payment of £1,000, there was no contractual arrangement for royalties.[19] Following a change to UK copyright law in 1996, they became eligible for royalties from broadcasts. After royalties agent Peter Rowan traced the choir members through the website Friends Reunited and other means, they successfully lodged a claim for royalties with the Performing Artists' Media Rights Association in 2004.[19]

Personnel, according to The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia.[62]

Part 1

• Roger Waters – lead vocals, bass
• David Gilmour – guitar, harmony vocals
• Richard Wright – Prophet-5 synthesizer, Minimoog

Part 2

• Roger Waters – bass, vocals (unison with Gilmour)
• David Gilmour – guitar, vocals (unison with Waters)
• Nick Mason – drums
• Richard Wright – Hammond organ, Prophet-5 synthesizer
• Islington Green School students (organized by Alun Renshaw) – vocals

Part 3

• Roger Waters – bass, vocals, rhythm guitar
• David Gilmour – lead guitar
• Nick Mason – drums
• Richard Wright – Prophet-5 synthesizer

A live version of "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" with Cyndi Lauper on vocals, recorded on 21 July 1990 at Potsdamer Platz, was released as a single on 10 September 1990 to promote The Wall – Live in Berlin. The B-side was the live version of "Run Like Hell" performed with Scorpions at the same concert.

In promotion of The Wall – Live in Berlin a new studio version was recorded by Roger Waters & The Bleeding Heart Band that was released on promo compilation titled The Wall Berlin '90 featuring Pink Floyd and Roger Waters solo recordings.

"Another Brick in the Wall, Pts. 1–3"
Single by Korn
from the album Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
Released	December 2004
Recorded	2004
Genre	Industrial rock alternative metal nu metal
Length	7:08
Label	Epic
Producer(s)	Jonathan Davis Korn Frank Filipetti
Korn singles chronology
"Word Up!" (2004) "Another Brick in the Wall, Pts. 1–3" (2004) "Twisted Transistor" (2005)

Nu metal band Korn covered all three parts along with "Goodbye Cruel World" in 2004 for the compilation album Greatest Hits, Vol. 1. The cover was released as a single, peaking at number 37 on the Modern Rock chart and number 12 on the Mainstream Rock chart. And this is also the last Korn single recorded with their full original lineup, as their original guitarist "Brian "Head" Welch" who leaves the band in February the following year, until his return in 2013.[63][64] A live music video was released to promote the single, directed by Bill Yukich.[65]

Will Levith of Ultimate Classic Rock called Korn's cover "one of the worst covers of a classic rock song of all time".[66] Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic described it as "overwrought, yet enticingly so".[67]

• Proper Education – a 2007 remix of the song by Swedish DJ Eric Prydz, with the band credited as Floyd.[70]

Citations

Sources

• Fitch, Vernon and Mahon, Richard, Comfortably Numb – A History of The Wall 1978–1981, 2006

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Wall

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics