The Wall: Then and Now - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Mellotron Storm wrote:

Atavachron wrote:

Liked it then & now though not every passage is stellar, but it can't all be gold, right? Not sure if lack of audit frequency should disqualify it from greatness, there are many great albums I don't listen to very often anymore but probably should.

The sound of The Wall was what got me...and of course the drama of it all, taking musical theater production to a conceptual & acoustic peak. Not their finest release but still a masterpiece.

Really well said I mean the samples added for the most part really added to this like the fighter jet coming in hard, maybe the ultimate concept album. Saw the movie in a theatre at the time but as for someone like myself in my late teens this was pretty amazing.

Seeing the film in one's teens was a rite of passage in the early '80s. It was a depraved, depressing spectacle but somehow fit that high-strung & uneasy decade.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy

Liked it then and like it now. Just not an album that I listen to in its entirety anymore.

It was a lodestone for me over many years. I was 15 when it was released, and this and Animals defined my politics for many years.

Musically, it remains very powerful, but I recall Gilmour stating in an interview a few years back that he supported it fully at the time (he had no choice, because financially the band were at risk of liquidation), but, on reflection in later years, he felt it was "a bit of a whinge". I agree, although I would point out it didn't stop him or the others playing tracks from it live.

My issue with Waters is his rants over Israel in particular. I used to hear it every single bloody year attending civil service trade union annual conference. Waters says absolutely nothing new whatsoever, basically rehashing tropes the left in the UK have been saying for years without any understanding of the complexities, history, and nuances which exist in the Middle East, and Palestine in particular. The idea that "Israel bad, Palestine good", or, indeed, vice versa, is for immature minds.

The other issue I have is the rank hypocrisy he demonstrates in performing this piece in massive stadia, given that the whole concept was born from his opinion that such arenas separated band from music fans.

In short, I find him tiresome these days. I am not the same person as I was, because as people age and mature, they develop their opinions to fit the facts. Waters is, by contrast, regressing.

Laz rant over.

Edited by lazland - May 29 2023 at 07:55

Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org

I much prefer the earlier versions of Pink Floyd, the magic and experimentation went out when Roger imposed more of himself on the band.

Edited by Easy Money - May 29 2023 at 09:52

I ultimately voted "liked it then and like it now."

"Then" in my case is about 12 years ago when I first heard the album. I couldn't really get into it, even after repeated listens, so at some point I just had to admit to myself that I didn't like it that much. A lot of filler on this one, and Waters' whiny vocals are hard to tolerate for an entire double album. He clearly had enough story material for a double album, but not enough music, so whether or not he had a compelling story to tell is moot. Too bad the other members weren't there to mitigate that problem. Btw, you can probably tell how I feel about The Final Cut, then.

That said, it's been years since I've heard it in full, and I've been going through Pink Floyd chronologically, because there's been a couple albums that I never really played much. So I've been reappraising Saucerful and More lately, even the studio disc of Ummagumma (the live disc I've always found brilliant), and the same could happen to The Wall I suppose, whenever I get there. But I'm not getting my hopes up.

Liked it then, still like it now.

"PROG IS MY FERRARI".
Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

^ Yessir, very musical theater, I also hear an early Genesis influence in the record.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy

Easy Money wrote:

I much prefer the earlier versions of Pink Floyd, the magic and experimentation went out when Roger imposed more of himself on the band.

For me the sweet spot is Saucerful Of Secrets, Meddle and Dark Side Of The Moon but I also need Animals not Wish You Were Here to be content with my favourite FLOYD.

"The wind is slowly tearing her apart"

"Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN

Loved it like virtually no other music I had ever heard when I first discovered it in my parents record collection. Still like it - or rather I still love it, really. I can never stop loving it, and there's a lot of great songs on it that will never grow old. But I havent listened to the album in full once in the 2000's.

Poll Question: Has your appreciation of The Wall changed over time?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Liked it then, still like it now	32	[59.26%]
Liked it then, don't like it anymore	3	[5.56%]
Didn't like it then, but do like it now	0	[0.00%]
Didn't like it then, still don't like it now	7	[12.96%]
other, if possible... (please explain)	11	[20.37%]
I'm too young but want to say something about it	1	[1.85%]
You can not vote in this poll