My First Time Listening to Pink Floyd's "The Wall"

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by raq0915, Mar 17, 2017.

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  1. Xabby

    Xabby Senior Member

    Location:
    Galicia (Spain)
    I listened to this album the first time the year of its publication but without more enthusiasm. Even today is an album that does not call me too much. The Wall has some beautiful songs but I prefer other PF albums.
     
  2. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    I loved it when it came out, but it soon became overrated! Nothing compared to Animals, Dark Side, Wish You were Here & Meddle

    Would make an awesome single LP!!! :edthumbs:
     
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  3. amonjamesduul

    amonjamesduul Forum Resident

    Location:
    florida
    When ABITW Pt 2 came out in 1980 I thought it was just another pop/rock ban(never heard of the Floyd i was 10).Got my parents to buy the Wall for me (my third album ever after Blondie and Olivia NJ) and was blown away how weird it was,I was hooked,Floyd became my obsession to this day and within a year i had all their albums which made the Wall look tame in comparison.So I don't listen to it much anymore but it lead me down the path of strange music even tho looking back The Wall is not that out there,also some great songs.
     
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  4. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    Still haven't heard it. It's Spring Break, once I finish this essay. I'll give it a listen and post my thoughts, in the next few days.
     
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  5. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I remember listening to The Wall for the first time very well. I was 15 years old. I was shocked that the Floyd had a new album coming out because it had been over a year since Animals and I thought they had broken up. Me and a friend who had turned me on to Floyd were ecstatic. He got the album first and told me over the phone that the first track sounded like Iron Butterfly. I was over at his house within the hour to hear it.

    Sure enough, the stentorian march of "In The Flesh?" did and does remind me somewhat of the IB. But what was incredible about The Wall was the sheer complexity and scope of the work. It all flowed very elegantly but it went such different and incredibly strange places. It was like nothing we'd ever heard before. With Roger Waters taking most of the lead vocals it was like a completely different band at times. I must admit that we were both a little bit at a loss for words when it was over. There was actually some disappointment as it was so different from what we were expecting, and such a challenge musically and intellectually. We were expecting head music and this was insane head music. Nevertheless I dubbed a tape copy of his LP (bought my own copy a few weeks later) and I listened to it every day for a long time. I used to play it at bedtime and fall asleep to it.

    Some months later, my friend said to me, somewhat flippantly, as if if needed to be said, that he thought that perhaps the Floyd had slapped together The Wall just to make some quick money and then the next time they'd be back to doing something serious like Atom Heart Mother or Meddle or WYWH. I retorted that rather this was the Floyd's Really Big Statement and that it was exactly what they wanted to say - it was their tour de force and we may have been puzzled by it, but they were doing just what the intended to do. Ironically we were both right - it was serious money problems that made a new Floyd epic necessary, but also The Wall was a concept taken most seriously and treasured by at least one member of the band.

    These days I regard it as the last truly great Pink Floyd album, and a stately bridge between their glory years and the future shattering.
     
  6. applebonkerz

    applebonkerz Senior Member

    I heard the album in college -- under no extra influences -- and thought it was brilliant. I absolutely loved it from first listen, and still do. I love the film version as well, and consider it one of my favorite movies.
     
  7. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    The theme of alienation will always speak to teenagers everywhere. But musically it's really only a few songs that make it.
     
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  8. Runicen

    Runicen Forum Resident

    It's funny just because the amount of filler this album has is kind of "hidden." At least, it was for me and I suspect it's true for other listeners as well.

    Where the album is great, it's top tier. The linking material is really insubstantial to the point of making you wonder why it was included, but for someone like me who heard it coming off of stuff like grunge rather than prog, it was mind-blowing. It really seemed amazing what they were doing with the album format, how the songs were being used, etc. The thing is, this is the album that serves as the gateway drug for people born after its release into long-form drama and concept albums, even if plenty of others did more with less.

    It deserves it's credit because it's still a great piece of work, but it's definitely not without its flaws. You always remember your first... :love: :laugh:
     
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  9. lambfan68

    lambfan68 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minnesota
    It really helps matters if you are a moody young adult when you listen to it for the first time. Seriously.
     
  10. everythingmusic

    everythingmusic New Member

    Location:
    Chicago
    Very hard to remember things for those days from what others have told me, wished I livcd in another time, Pink Floyd was light years ahead of time.
     
  11. Frozensoda

    Frozensoda Forum Resident

    I saw the movie on a VHS store rental before I heard the album proper, I had heard AB in the W Pt.2 on the radio when it was on the charts so I knew that song.

    I watched it twice in one night, taped the album off my brother's LP the next day and listened to it on my paper route the day after that.

    I wonder, how my life, and my taste in music, be different if I had rented a movie like Porky's Revenge instead of The Wall?;)
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2017
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  12. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    I just made a single LP in iTunes. Try it!
     
  13. mbrownp1

    mbrownp1 Forum Resident

    Meh...you can't go wrong with Dave Edmunds either.
     
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  14. CybrKhatru

    CybrKhatru Music is life.

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I first heard about it Top 40 radio and "Another Brick In The Wall Pt 2.", which I had bought and loved. What fourth grader wouldn't love that, right? :)

    Then, Kasey Casem (American Top 40) mentioned and played the "backwards message"... and I HAD to have that, so I saved up for the album.

    I was nine. I'd never heard anything like this in my life. It sounded amazing on headphones. I loved the story, even though I couldn't follow all of it completely. Completely fell in love with David Gilmour's guitar and singing.

    I played The Wall constantly through high school while I was doing term papers and such.

    Thing is... as I eventually started collecting Floyd (first with Dark Side, then Wish You Were Here, then Works, etc etc etc) and got heavily into them, The Wall started to lose its luster for me. I still love parts of it, and I love the way it SOUNDS, but it's not my go-to-Floyd.

    But yeah, initially it completely blew me away.
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2017
  15. Victor/Victrola

    Victor/Victrola Makng shure its write

    I was 18 (1979) and was a big PF fan. I got the album home and was pretty upset about what I was hearing. It didn't sound like a PF album at all - Roger had completely taken over the group. I could hear this even in 1979. It grew on me after a few repeated listens, but then I began to think it was overblown, not as brilliant as it wants you to believe it is, and a tad on the pretentious side. Nowadays, I can hardly tolerate it due to radio burnout.
     
  16. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Came out around my 14th birthday, a time when I thought the best rock records were those that made important statements - and this filled the bill very nicely. I always thought side 4 was pretty unmusical, bloated and a tough slog. But back then I always made the slog cause I was there for the message.

    I grew up, this album stayed aimed at 14 year olds looking for deep self important meaning in rock albums.

    It still has almost a single LP worth of tunes I enjoy musically. But I don't make it through all of side 4 more than once a decade or so.
     
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  17. tedhead

    tedhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Space City
    I wish I had heard the album before seeing the movie, but a new video store opened up called "Blockbuster Video", and they had it to rent, which I grabbed along with the animated Lord of the Rings by Ralph Bakshi. Although I wasn't really paying much attention to the band itself at the time, it was a couple of months before Momentary Lapse of Reason album and tour were kicking off. But there was so much mystique built around the album among the hip high school cliques, from metal heads, punks, neo-hippies who were hopping on the Grateful Dead bus (thanks in part to Touch of Gray), and a new clique of teens my age listening to "classic rock" radio. It was the 20th anniversary of the Summer of Love and Sgt. Pepper. Various rock documentaries, The Monkees TV show in syndication again, and Rolling Stone magazine were letting us know that the retro movement was kicking in full swing. I was going to buy Momentary Lapse, but my guitar teacher, who also worked at a record store, convinced me to get The Wall instead. Rolling Stone's list of "Greatest Concerts" had pics from the Wall Tour, and I was blown away by the staging.

    As for the movie, I loved the animation and the music, but I didn't know what to make of the dramatic scenes with the Boomtown Rats' lead singer. However I agreed with a David Gilmour interview on two counts: 1) it worked better as an album than a movie, and 2) I could get into it as fiction. The fascist imagery left me kind of confused, but I pretty much understood what was going on. The production was top notch, and the sound effects made for better imagery in my mind than the movie made (and I didn't even drink, let alone anything illegal). A great album for headphones as well as the big speakers on my dad's stereo. It also didn't sound as dated to me as most music of that time.

    By making a tape for a friend at school, I got a 90 minute cassette with Dark Side on one side, and Momentary Lapse on the other, and I was hooked on the band for good.
     
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  18. tim185

    tim185 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Australia
    So who is digging it out again now ? Ahhh these threads.
     
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  19. The part of the album I dislike is where Waters does his screaming, screatching singing. Dumping all of those would make it a much better listen for me. Before this album I loved his vocals. Since the Wall...no more.
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2017
  20. Thomas Casagranda

    Thomas Casagranda Forum Resident

    It's funny: I can listen to Wish You Were Here, Dark Side anytime of the year. The Wall, I only listen to in winter and autumn. It's a great album, but it's so blooming negative.
     
  21. tmoore

    tmoore Forum Resident

    Location:
    Olney, MD
    I still haven't listened to it yet. Not kidding. (I'm 50 --- do remember when this was a new release).

    I do happen to have a copy of it on my huge pile of things to listen to; so it'll happen at some point.
     
  22. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    38 years later and I've yet to see the film. I've seen clips, but none of them made me want to see it. For me The Wall began and ended with that double LP.
     
  23. Say It Right

    Say It Right Not for the Hearing Impaired

    Location:
    Niagara Falls
    This, right there. Let's assume that the thread starter is a grown adult. Seriously, there was no exposure to this album since the tail end of the 70's? #1 album with hot singles, the film, concert in Berlin, multiple reissues, live Floyd version released, Roger toured it in arenas TWICE.
     
  24. Chrome_Head

    Chrome_Head Planetary Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA.
    I don't think I've sat through the whole album again in many years. I'd reach for Piper, Dark Side or Animals first.

    I still find "Goodbye Blue Sky" to be an exquisite Floyd song, and "Mother" a brilliantly devastating one.
     
  25. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    From the video the OP posted in the Dark Side of the Moon thread featuring himself, he's a young man. I wouldn't hazard a guess as to his age, but he appeared to be a teenager. So its feasible he's only now discovering this music.
     
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