Very cool. http://hellaoccupyoakland.org/occupy-the-wall-how-pink-floyds-album-became-political-theater-in-2012/ ------------------------------snip “If at first you don’t succeed, call an airstrike.”
– projected text from Roger Waters: The Wall at AT&T Park, 5/11/12 Roger Waters, the stadium-rock showman and concept-album auteur who quit the band Pink Floyd nearly thirty years ago, has brought his epic, expensive production of that band’s 1979 album, The Wall, back for another round of performances. This time, however, the show has taken on a decidedly more political bent. For a generation of rock fans like myself, The Wall was a landmark album whose importance could not be overstated. Throughout the ’80s, while our hipper and less sheltered peers were digging into hip hop and metal, we suburban white guys tended to obsess over the more establishment-friendly arena rock of Pink Floyd and The Wall. We watched the movie starring Bob Geldof, we pored over its lyrics for symbolism and referentia, and our classic-rock radio stations made “Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two)” a hit. Its refrain, “We don’t need no education / We don’t need no thought control,” transformed into a mantra. It was an oft-cited and oft-misunderstood scream of anti-establishment fury and rebellion, played on the same establishment radio stations that were pumping REO Speedwagon, Foreigner and Bob Seger. For young rock listeners looking for deeper meaning, the lure of The Wall was strong. Themes recurred and morphed over the course of the four album sides, as characters appeared and returned. Like Tommy, Quadrophenia, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, and other Big Concept Albums that came from the UK, The Wall had resonance and significance where other albums were just collections of songs. The Summer of Love had Sgt. Pepper, while the summers of fear, greed and disillusionment (aka the Reagan-Bush era) had The Wall. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
